The ebook experience: one woman’s perspective

How should one interpret ebook sales figures? We're always hearing about growth, growth and growth. Devices are here, there and everywhere. No device? No problem! Here's the software for you, freely available. Go forth and prosper. Yes, we’ve known for years that anyone who has Adobe Reader can read an "ebook". There's also Adobe Digital Editions and in a galaxy not too far away there's Blio. Within ebook library portals you've got the reader that works best for that ebook vendor. Yada Yada. Basically there’s an ebook vendor, reader, system in every corner.

But let us take all of the technology out of the equation. And the library model too. You want to read an ebook. Good for you! You've worked out where you are going to source your titles from, how you're going to read them (yes, I’m speaking about devices not eyes for those of you being smarty pants), but did you ever think about how your buying behaviour was being analysed? Hmmm, ebook sales are growing but are we really surprised?

This blog documents my ebook experience from day one. Not the library portal, industry work I do everyday in my job, but personal reading experiences. Ah yes, I fondly remember loading Adobe Digital Editions and working out ways to download the Sony platform (tricky when it is programmed not to recognise Australia). But we worked it out. The Sony e-reader was sent from the US, other e-readers came my way to assess them for both professional and personal use. It seems like a lifetime ago but it’s only 15 months ago.

This whole blog was about me trying to understand the consumer experience of ebooks. Of course it developed over the time to ebooks in general and my professional experience, but let’s take ourselves back to the beginning of the blog when bestseller lists for ebooks spoke only of Stephenie Meyer. All I knew about her was bestseller, teenage fiction. Should be an easy read, I thought. So Twilight it was. Ah, my first ebook purchase. I remember it fondly. I read on a computer within a few days. It was cheap. It was easy. Click. Download. Read. Next book. Same thing. E-reader arrived. Two more books, click, click, tick, tick. Now, all opinions on my reading tastes aside, I was amazed at how easy it was to read the ebooks. I read both on the laptop and on a device.

I read several ebooks in quick succession. I was eager. I wanted more. I was like a newborn vampire. I needed to feed! So I found myself downloading from every possible site. I used publisher sites, library sites, Gutenberg, Sony. If I saw the words free e-book, I signed up. If I saw e-book bundles or $1.00 books, click click, purchase. I couldn’t help myself.

GOODNESS when I think of what I've done, I just shake my head. Did I ever think about how those purchases would track in figures? No, I just wanted lots of books on my device to read whenever I wanted! So I got to the point of having dozens of physical books in the "to read" pile and dozens more of e-books on the list. Over time I’ve deleted books from the platforms and the Sony e-reader itself but thought I’d take a close look at what’s currently in my Sony portal. Ah yes, my purchases. What have I acquired, predominantly at the US$9.99 or slightly higher price? More importantly what have I actually read?

It didn’t take long to tally up the figures. I read 50% of what I purchased.  Was I surprised? No, not really. I now realise the books I’m buying in ebook format are those I don’t wish to keep. They are to read and discard. The books I love I still purchase in print. I can read them in anywhere I go. There aren’t restrictions like the weather, water, aircraft nuances. I can share them with friends. Granted they are much heavier, but the authors or genres I know I’ll love, I read in print. The ones I'm a little more uncertain about, I purchase in “e”.  The other interesting point, books I love in print, I also acquired in “e”, usually free.  The classics like Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice.  That way I can take them with me everywhere.

But what have I actually read? Unfortunately only half of it.  It was too easy to acquire but unfortunately not to read.  Will I continue to purchase ebooks?  Darn right I will!  I'm just going to be more careful with the "buy now" button and watch those free ebook offers more closely... 

The rise and rise of Amazon: prepare for the battle

In the past few days several US publishers have announced they will be delaying the release of e-book versions of major releases. So what does Amazon do? Well, instead of selling for the already loss-leading price of US$9.99, let's take it even lower to $7.99!!! Let's show the publishers exactly who is in charge of this ebook market. Let's offer Under the Dome by Stephen King and Going Rogue by Sarah Palin for $7.99. The hardcover for the latter is listed on Amazon as US$28.99 slashed 50% to US$14.50. Slash it by half again if you want the ebook. Bestsellers are being slashed - Stephenie Meyer's first two Twilight books for US$4.25, Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire at US$7.99. Slash Slash and Slash again.

What happens next? Well surprise surprise, Barnes and Noble cut their ebook prices to match. I'm now waiting to see what Sony does. They've already admitted the US$9.99 price is NOT PROFITABLE. You can read the full article here. Yet I'm taking bets as to when they'll slash their prices! Any takers?

But back to the giant that is Amazon. I know some publishers are trying to wrestle control away from them so they can control their own ebook destinies. Can't everyone see these price points are DEVALUING the product and the whole reading experience? And what about profitability folks? It's already fragile in the bookselling and publishing industry.

It's no use discussing what percentage Amazon, Sony, Scribd etc take on ebook sales. We already know Amazon is using their pricing strategies to make the Kindle the ereader of choice, to build market share and customer loyalty. Sony has pretty much admited the same. They invest in the technology, they need people to buy it.

While publishers benefit from the lower ebook prices in the short term (through higher sales), according to Mike Shatzkin they "don't trust Amazon to keep things that way. From their perspective, Amazon is building a consumer expectation of an under-$10 price point while they are building up their audience of captive Kindle consumers. How long can it be, publishers figure, before Amazon says 'sorry, now you have to sell me these for under ten dollars?'" Mike also shared his thoughts on the possible war over the issue, including publishers not supplying or selling e-books through Amazon, Amazon suppressing the sale of their printed books, and more.

So when and where will the battle lines be drawn? It's a'comin, folks. Wait and see...

The fourth Twilight Book

I still can't quite believe I read 4 Stephenie Meyer e-books. In the end I read them all within a week, with Breaking Dawn finished late Thursday night the 4th June.

This was an interesting experiment with ebooks. I picked Twilight purely from the bestseller list. As far as I knew, it was a novel for teenage girls. There was very little chance I would read the bugger! Even when I started reading I thought the writing was poor, basic, unimaginative but I kept going. What "got me" was the Bella & Edward story. Yes hidden beneath this tough (cough cough) exterior is a soft mushy romantic. And of course let's pretend for a minute we aren't talking a vampire love story! I'm still trying to come to terms with all of this!! Somehow I just got sucked in (yes, couldn't resist the pun)....and really enjoyed it.

So to sum up my first ebook experience: Interesting choice. Resulted in 3 additional sales (4 if you count the Twilight DVD, 5 if you count the movie soundtrack, 6 if you count the piano score....). Yes, tragic isn't it. Consumerism gone mad.

But back to ebooks. The purchasing process was just like Apple's iTunes portal. You choose your ebook and purchase with a simple click or two. The site uses the credit card details stored from the previous purchase as per your profile. On completion of the sale, an email notification is sent but not an invoice like Apple's iTunes. I would have preferred the formal invoice but that's a personal choice.

Another downside is that you can't view before you purchase on the Sony ebook site. We are all used to sampling music tracks, why not sample ebooks in the same vein? Not having the preview functionality is a shame and I would have thought Sony had enough negotiating power with publishers - plus the technology - to do this effectively. Afterall Mobipocket's ebook site allows a demo to be viewed, stored, downloaded to your portable device - why hasn't Sony offered the same? Browsing is an important part of the ebook purchasing process and I trust they will add that to the portal in the near future.

STOP THE PRESS! I've just gone back into the Sony ebook portal and good news! They have "excerpts" as Coming Soon. They already have 20, 18, and 12 books featured for June, July and August respectively. At this stage they don't appear to be incorporated into the main functionality, but as a side bar. Hopefully the preview button will be part of the purchasing process in the coming months rather than having to navigate separately through the portal...

The last downside was reading on a computer. We spend all day on the blasted contraptions - email, websites, databases, spreadsheets, documents etc. Why on earth would we read a complete ebook as well? Well I have and I will again! I just have to position my body appropriately with better lighting. That may stop the headaches. I haven't had them since I stopped reading from the laptop, so I'm assuming the two are linked.

As to the handheld e-readers, I'm not liking the HanLin but will review that separately. The Sony ebook reader is enroute from our head office in the U.S. and I'm getting very excited about seeing it. (Particularly when my colleagues from the U.S. sent this email:

We have your Sony reader. If you ever want to see it again, place $10,000 in unmarked bills behind a certain convenience market in NW Portland ....!

I will post again once it's arrived and I've successfully downloaded the other ebooks I plan to read on the device. Stay tuned folks.

Two ebooks within 24 hours: is this a miracle?!

OK, is this due to Stephenie Meyer and me getting sucked in big time (gotta love the pun) or is it something else? I don't think I've ever read two books in one weekend before (not including holidays...) and yet here we are 48 hours into my ebook experiment, and I've read two friggin books ON THE COMPUTER (hello? what's happening to me???). Granted, not great works by a long shot, but I'm getting through them at a rate of knots. This is a strange experience and at this point I'm not sure what to make of it. Here I am READING..! I'm not watching television, I'm not playing games, wasting time on Facebook or my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachaelmc/ in case you're interested), I'm reading an ebook. Wonders will never cease.

My first ebook experience

OMG I don't believe it. I read a whole book on the computer. From start to finish. Started last night and finished up 24 hours later. What's more, that book was Twilight. So here I was thinking a) I'm not the demographic for the book and b) I'm not the demographic for ebooks read on screen. Think again Rachael! I'll be ordering the other Meyer ebooks tomorrow.

Ah somedays I surprise even myself... :)