Comments on: Link Roundup: Electronic Books http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/01/28/electronic-books/ A National Blog of Literature & Discussion Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:47:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jacob Silverman http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/01/28/electronic-books/#comment-2602 Jacob Silverman Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:21:25 +0000 http://www.vqronline.org/blog/?p=1162#comment-2602 Good piece, Matt. I especially appreciated the comparison to indie music labels' embracing new technology. Hopefully the big publishers will follow suit -- otherwise, they'll be as doomed and floundering (useless, even) as the big music labels are now. Good piece, Matt. I especially appreciated the comparison to indie music labels’ embracing new technology. Hopefully the big publishers will follow suit — otherwise, they’ll be as doomed and floundering (useless, even) as the big music labels are now.

]]> By: Matt Shaer http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/01/28/electronic-books/#comment-2601 Matt Shaer Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:47:25 +0000 http://www.vqronline.org/blog/?p=1162#comment-2601 Hey Michael, Waldo: Just finished up a story on e-publishing at the indie level – you may both find it interesting. I certainly learned a lot about the direction/speed of digitization. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0130/p13s01-algn.html Hey Michael, Waldo: Just finished up a story on e-publishing at the indie level – you may both find it interesting. I certainly learned a lot about the direction/speed of digitization.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0130/p13s01-algn.html

]]> By: Michael http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/01/28/electronic-books/#comment-2599 Michael Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:05:30 +0000 http://www.vqronline.org/blog/?p=1162#comment-2599 Yeah, what Waldo said. Yeah, what Waldo said.

]]> By: Waldo Jaquith http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/01/28/electronic-books/#comment-2598 Waldo Jaquith Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:59:39 +0000 http://www.vqronline.org/blog/?p=1162#comment-2598 I haven't tried out a Kindle yet, but I did used to own a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handspring_(company)#Visor_and_Visor_Deluxe" rel="nofollow">Handspring Visor</a> that I'd use that to read books from the <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/" rel="nofollow">Guttenberg Project</a> on long train rides and airplane flights. That's how I came to read several books in the Sherlock Holmes series, Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer. The screen size was so small relative to the font size that I had to flip pages every few paragraphs, which was frustrating. But I kept doing it, because it was really quite convenient. Having so much selection at my fingertips was great. But <em>buying</em> e-books has never appealed to me because every time I checked, the price was just stupid. Often they were <em>more</em> expensive than the paper edition. Amazon.com might be pushing hard Grisham or King's book, which might run for $15...and the electronic version is $17. That struck me as so asinine that I refused decided that I didn't want to even participate in this business model. As I compare prices on Amazon now, I'm still not impressed. I can buy "The Forever War" for $16.50 in hardcover, or $12 on the Kindle. At least if I buy the hardcover for $16.50 I can resell it for $5. If I buy it for the Kindle, that's a dead end, since I assume that's got a license that prohibits me from reselling it (and a DRM mechanism to prevent it, too). "The Cellist of Sarajevo" is $14.27 in hardcover and $12.84 for the Kindle. Really? $1.43 savings? Is that all that it costs to print, warehouse, and ship the hardcover? The good news is that the price of electronic editions seems now to be less than the print editions, often about a third less, but that's some pretty faint praise. iTMS has done so well in large part because it's cheaper than buying an album. I could spend $18 for a CD, or $1 for the one track that I really wanted. The obstacle with books is that it's relatively uncommon for somebody to just want one chapter of a book, or a handful of pages, and so that's not even a model that exists with e-books. When I can buy a Kindle-like device for $100, we'll talk. (Preferably something less hideous. :) At $360, not only is it <em>way</em> too expensive, but it's also totally useless to me; <a href="http://www.showmycoverage.com/mycoverage.jsp?id=A921ZON" rel="nofollow">there is no EVDO coverage</a> where I live, so I'd basically be buying a very expensive brick. :) I haven’t tried out a Kindle yet, but I did used to own a Handspring Visor that I’d use that to read books from the Guttenberg Project on long train rides and airplane flights. That’s how I came to read several books in the Sherlock Holmes series, Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer. The screen size was so small relative to the font size that I had to flip pages every few paragraphs, which was frustrating. But I kept doing it, because it was really quite convenient. Having so much selection at my fingertips was great.

But buying e-books has never appealed to me because every time I checked, the price was just stupid. Often they were more expensive than the paper edition. Amazon.com might be pushing hard Grisham or King’s book, which might run for $15…and the electronic version is $17. That struck me as so asinine that I refused decided that I didn’t want to even participate in this business model.

As I compare prices on Amazon now, I’m still not impressed. I can buy “The Forever War” for $16.50 in hardcover, or $12 on the Kindle. At least if I buy the hardcover for $16.50 I can resell it for $5. If I buy it for the Kindle, that’s a dead end, since I assume that’s got a license that prohibits me from reselling it (and a DRM mechanism to prevent it, too). “The Cellist of Sarajevo” is $14.27 in hardcover and $12.84 for the Kindle. Really? $1.43 savings? Is that all that it costs to print, warehouse, and ship the hardcover? The good news is that the price of electronic editions seems now to be less than the print editions, often about a third less, but that’s some pretty faint praise.

iTMS has done so well in large part because it’s cheaper than buying an album. I could spend $18 for a CD, or $1 for the one track that I really wanted. The obstacle with books is that it’s relatively uncommon for somebody to just want one chapter of a book, or a handful of pages, and so that’s not even a model that exists with e-books.

When I can buy a Kindle-like device for $100, we’ll talk. (Preferably something less hideous. :) At $360, not only is it way too expensive, but it’s also totally useless to me; there is no EVDO coverage where I live, so I’d basically be buying a very expensive brick. :)

]]> By: Brian J. Geiger http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/01/28/electronic-books/#comment-2597 Brian J. Geiger Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:23:02 +0000 http://www.vqronline.org/blog/?p=1162#comment-2597 The explanation is easy. Whether you accept it or not is not necessarily the case. Your comparison is not really accurate. The point of the Kindle and similar is not to make it easier to read a single paperback. It's to make it easier to read an entire bookstore or library of books. Also: searching. The explanation is easy. Whether you accept it or not is not necessarily the case. Your comparison is not really accurate. The point of the Kindle and similar is not to make it easier to read a single paperback. It’s to make it easier to read an entire bookstore or library of books.

Also: searching.

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