e-book readers (Kindle, iPad, Nook etc), interesting article about the ebook price wars.

[TravelingGal]

Interesting article about the controversy surrounding the current pricing wars.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta

I love the Kindle, but new releases are being cut off (Penguin and the latest Sookie book comes to mind) and prices on many books are now exactly the same price as the mass market paperback.

So the question becomes, is buying a $269 device worth it when you don''t get a break on the pricing?? How do you think this is going to pan out?

 

[Dee*Jay]

I'm really interested in this whole Kindle discussion because (a) I just bought one, and (b) I'm working with an editor on a book of my own. There is an agent, Nathan Bransford, who blogs on a variety of topics, but lately the discussion has a large e-book component.


Here's a post on the Macmillan event from February: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/02/kindle-missile-crisis.html


This article (http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/22/im-not-kidding-do-it-now/) has a really interesting point:

It’s hard to feel sorry for a wildly successful author, but in the case of Michael Lewis I’ll make an exception. Just this once.

Lewis’ latest book – The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine – was published less than a week ago and has already reached the number one sales rank spot on Amazon. It’s an impressive feat, especially for a serious piece of non-fiction writing with nary a wizard, a vampire or an ancient code that’s – holy shit! – hidden in plain sight to boost its sales. But the feat is made all the more impressive by the fact that many of the book’s reviews are, without a word of exaggeration, so negative that they’d made a Nuremberg verdict look upbeat and generous.

At the time of writing there are 64 one star reviews – more than the total number of 2-5 star review combined – sending a clear message to potential purchasers: this book might be popular but it’s also a total sack of crap. Don’t waste your money.

There’s just one problem with that message: less than half of those one star reviews are actually reviewing the book.

Instead, most of the reviewers’ ire relates to the fact that publishers WW Norton have decided not to release a Kindle version of the book at the same time as its hardback release. Writes one (pretty representative) reviewer by the name of Ben Kaplan:

“I’d like to add my name to the list of people who are very disappointed that this book does not have a Kindle edition. No, I haven’t read the book, but I want to — on my Kindle! If all these one star reviews lead to fewer sales, I think that would be a great result and an excellent lesson for the author/publisher.”

This post talks about being able to print out a book that you've already paid to download. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/04/matter-of-ethics.html So you now *own* it and should be able to read it in any format you want... right... ???

There is a ton more on this topic on Nathan's blog. I didn't really care that much in the beginning, being a staunch "real" book lover, but I have been sucked in by the e-book and the trauma/drama in the publishing world!

 

[luckystar112]

Minor threadjack, since I don''t want to start a whole new thread about this....
Does anyone know if the first generation Kindle allows you to export your notes so that you can print them? I know the Kindle 2 does.
I''m thinking of getting one for grad school (I will be majoring in English and the reading list is INTENSE), but if I do I will most likely get the first generation to save money...unless I can''t print my notes. Any thoughts? E-readers are so expensive!