The Ebook Scam

[toptuan]

You sell books lol

You just lost all credibility dude.

Strange jump in logic there, Sherlock. Only sold one book in my entire life: a collector's volume (Greek Bible used as a prize in Mathematics in Dublin Ireland, 1843). Fetched a few hundred $. Hmm. Maybe should've pursued that line of work....

[YanTree]

You sell books lol

You just lost all credibility dude.

Strange jump in logic there, Sherlock. Only sold one book in my entire life: a collector's volume (Greek Bible used as a prize in Mathematics in Dublin Ireland, 1843). Fetched a few hundred $. Hmm. Maybe should've pursued that line of work....

Well I guess there are two ways to look at it. He sells books therefore he is well qualified to analyze this problem. Or he sells books and his biggest enemy is eBooks so he is extremely biased and when he starts a thread called 'the eBook scam' it strains credibility.

I believe the second to be true, you may believe the first. In any case, I do not think it is a 'strange jump in logic', for either of us.

[bkk_mike]

One thing I can't see is, when you get done reading a regular book, you can pass around amongst your friends. But from what I hear, the ebooks that you buy, they are DRMd so that you can only have them on your own personal ebook reader.

It's worse than that. You can only view them on the specific device you buy them for so, if you want to re-read them in a few years, you'd better have the same device handy. Think about it, how many of you are reading this on the same computer/laptop as you had even 5 years ago? Like all electronics, these things will break/go wrong/or you'll want the new "all singing, all dancing" version and that's that book (and the cost) gone. Buy 100 books, costing £1,000, change your £150 reader and the books are gone. That would suck big time.

That's not actually true.

If you have a Kindle, you can read your books using an iPhone or a PC as well as the Kindle itself. Although obviously computer or phone screens aren't as easy on the eyes, and don't work as well in sunlight as the Kindle's e-ink. (and iPhone compatibility should extend to the iPad too) Amazon even keeps track of the books you've bought so you can re-download them for free to your other devices.

And yes - I have a Kindle, Which gives me access to Amazon.com without having to wait for the books to be delivered. (The wireless connection works in Thailand, although they have disabled the web browser here.)

Since getting it, I haven't bought any books on paper. Mainly because Amazon's US prices are still generally less than the same book in paper form in Thailand. The other thing is, I get to buy the book I want, rather than just the book that's in stock. (so long as it's out as an e-book - Harry Potter is the obvious case where JKR has said she doesn't want it sold as an e-book). But it's safe to say that the choice of e-books on Amazon.com is better than the choice on dead tree format at Asia books, let alone what's available in the miniscule English language section in the local B2S.

I'm afraid I've already converted though. Now that I've browsed the Amazon store, and bought and downloaded a book and started reading it without having to even get up from my deckchair on the beach, trying to persuade me that dead tree format books are better is going to be a losing battle.