Price of Digital Books
I’m sure you’ve seen the stories about the Amazon and Macmilian e-book price wars from a few weeks back. DRM and some other issues have also come up in relation to it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108818/e-book-price-increase-may-stir-readers-passions
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/03/02/the-value-is-not-just-in-the-content/
Are you an e-book reader/buyer? How do you feel about e-book pricing – do you want a set standard or are you comfortable paying for a “hardback” version? What about DRM – are you vehemently against it, just kinda meh about it, or viciously for it?
I’ve seen arguments like this in the game industry (mostly it’s about DRM), but now that PassionFruit is straddling the line between romance novels and games I’m very interested to see what our players think about this controversy in the book publishing world.
6 Responses to “Price of Digital Books”
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I’m not an ebook reader or buyer for several reasons:
1. Even though paperback prices aren’t what they used to be (I can’t believe I’m saying that and I’m still in my 20s), they’re not that bad. Plus, after I buy it, I can sell it to a used bookstore and get more books – nice. That’s not possible with ebooks, which means I’d only ever buy something in ebook form if it were REALLY cheap. At least used book cheap.
2. You can read an ebook on your computer, but to comfortably read one anywhere, you need something smaller, and ebook readers are still hideously expensive as far as I’m concerned. When I buy a print book, I can read it anytime, anywhere, not batteries and equipment to worry about.
3. The DRM issue – that determines what you can read on what reader, right? It’s the same kind of thing that eventually weaned me off of console-gaming – I hated having to figure out which console it was best for me to buy based off of the kinds of games I was going to be able to get to go with it. I wouldn’t want to have to worry about what my ebook reader could and could not read – if I bought an ebook reader, I’d expect it to be able to read any ebook I decided to buy, end of story.
So I’m still a print book kind of girl. I find it disgusting that there are publishers who want to charge prices for ebook versions of books that are at least as high as the prices for the print versions because, to my mind, they’re not worth it. Print books may take up more space, and you may be able to get ebooks as fast as you can pay for and download them, but at least my print books are mine to do with as I please. Plus, my favorites will still be around a decade from now – can the same be said for a collection of ebooks? And, if someone said “yes”, could I really trust them? Bad stuff happens to technology all the time, stuff that’s not necessarily within the control of any human beings. I just don’t have that kind of trust.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing your opinion on the e-Book controversy. If the e-books came with some kind of interactivity or bonus would that make you willing to pay a little bit more for them (something similar to the price of a hardcover?) What kind of bonus would you be willing to pay extra for?
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/harlequin-books-now-on-nintendo-ds-in-japan/
The features mentioned for Harelquin ebooks in Japan in this blog post sound AWESOME. I don’t know how much more I’d be willing to pay for an ebook with stuff like this, but it’s definitely not “text on a screen” anymore.
That is definitely cool. I could see something like this prompting more people to buy a new electronic device like this. This seems like a brilliant way to get more people interested in the new DSi XL. Perhaps a new e-reader competitor is on the horizon?
I haven’t actually handled one of the DSi XLs, so I’m not sure if I would like to use it as a reading device or not. I think the regular DS/DSi would be too small for my liking. Have you tried it?
No, although I’d probably be willing to for ebooks like those, if they’re as awesome as they seem like they’d be. Another appeal is that I’d be able to use it for games when I wasn’t reading. :)
Sometimes I think it would be nice to try out various ebook readers – since I’m not totally sold on the idea of ebooks yet, why would I want to shell out a few hundred dollars for a device I haven’t been able to try out myself, right? True, there’s reviews, but it’s not the same as getting to use something yourself.
I would like the chance to test drive some of these e-readers, too. The best method I’ve found is hunting down someone who has one and harassing them until they let me play with it.
I’m also very interested in seeing how using a mobile phone works as an e-reader down the line. I’ve heard some people have been using their iPhones for this purpose. Having a gaming platform, e-reader, web-surfer, phone, text messaging, etc. all in one place really appeals to me. :) Especially if it has the functionality of the DS e-reader that you mentioned above.