Comments for EBOOK MAGAZINE

Comment on Are Kindle users buying many books? by Annette

Annette — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:17:20 +0000

I would be curious to know, of those that buy ‘only 1 book a month’, how many did they buy (print or ebook) before that, and whether this is perhaps reintroducing people to reading. I used to consume books voraciously, before Life got too busy and full of excuses.. I’m gearing up to getting ‘reKindled’, and back into it with ebooks…..

Comment on Are Kindle users buying many books? by Paula

Paula — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:25:40 +0000

I bought the Kindle touch recently. Out of curiosity and budget, I’ve been hunting for free books. But I’ve also bought some online games for kindle, so my kids could play them. If a book is below $3.99, my mind doesn’t have that hold-back fear because I put down that much for a cup of coffee sometimes. I already have a list of books I want to get as budget allows and the whole sharing thing has me intrigued. Now, I came into this thing later than many people, but if that’s how I feel (a 40 something, sahm, with little free time and a low budget) There are thousands, maybe millions of people with more money, time and energy than me who are buying.

Kindle is a strong product.

Comment on Are Kindle users buying many books? by Hey

Hey — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:05:03 +0000

When you click on an article headline like that, you expect at least a hint of an answer. Even better, there is really nothing of substance in the article. Lets ask a question that nobody knows in a non article, then agree that we cant know the answer. Smart…

There are way better blogs than this one, people. Find someone actually talking about things that matter. Your life is too short.

Comment on Are Kindle users buying many books? by Martin Hoscik

Martin Hoscik — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:53:12 +0000

Hi Eoin

I’d accept that someone going into, say, Waterstones every month and buying a book would be good. I’m less convinced someone who buys a device dedicated to reading only buying twelve books a year is so good, especially with the low costs of some ebooks.

Re the unused figure, if we were to be a bit casual with the figures and match the survey to Amazon’s ‘more than a million Kindles sold a week’ Christmas claim, that would give up something in the region of 900,000 Kindles which haven’t been switched on or whose owners have yet to buy any content.

Which would not be good.

Agree though that we can’t be sure either way, hence why i ended by asking questions rather than trying to squeeze an assertion or conclusion out of the two different sets of data.

Martin

Comment on WHSmith ebook customers see more changes by marie

marie — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:48:22 +0000

I just wanted to point out that as a Samsung E65 ereader owner, I have been told that the option to buy ebooks directly onto our E65 is no longer available….and since the E65 has no option to “point” it to another book store, it has now become a basic ereader and may as well not have wifi…the wifi only ever connected to whsmith ebook store, and they are not giving any help or advice about this, no apologies or any thing, just telling us that we have to purchase our ebooks via the pc and then upload them to the E65…all very well,but people buy a wifi reader to enable them to use the wifi…at £200 just over a year ago I am not very happy about this, I have emailed Kobo, and uncuver and got no help, and i have emailed samsung with no response as yet…..I cannot believe they are being allowed to get away with this.

Comment on Are Kindle users buying many books? by Eoin Purcell

Eoin Purcell — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:19:19 +0000

First off, I’m with you on the notion that caution is wise in the absence of information. That said I’d also caution against misreading the lack of information too. AMZ have an interest in sharing as little information about their device and ebook sales as possible.

On the usage after getting Kindle as a gift, I’d be happy enough about that 80% figure given the reluctance many print dedicated readers show to adopt digital formats. What’s more given the fact that Kindle is a dedicated device versus a multi-functional one like the ipad, I think it did okay on the usage front. In any case without other dedicated ereader numbers to compare you are comparing apples with oranges and don’t have a really relevant figure.

As for the other stats we don’t know a what % of the overall Kindle user base this segment represents so it’s dangerous to draw conclusions. on top of which 12 books a year makes someone a fairly moderate user putting them firmly OUT if the light or occasional reader group! In fact, by some counts they might even qualify as heavy reads at one book a month!

Eoin

Comment on What Apple’s iBooks Author terms actually mean by Jim

Jim — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:19:28 +0000

The problem is they claim this will be accessible for everyone to use, so someone like me not in the publishing business writes a 200 page script in iBook. Apple chooses not to publish it, all I’m allowed to take with me are the words, all styles such as line returns, indentations, and anything else will not be exported. It seems to me rather a waste of my time to use iBooks then and that it would make more sense to use something else. But at the same time iBook was supposed to revolutionize publication for everyone. Yet I still need to use other programs. For the legal details here’s a professionals take (not mine) http://m.zdnet.com/blog/bott/apples-mind-bogglingly-greedy-and-evil-license-agreement/4360

Comment on What Apple’s iBooks Author terms actually mean by AppleFUD

AppleFUD — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:18:35 +0000

So, I guess you would be OK with MS saying that anything you create when using Windows MUST be distributed ONLY via Microsoft’s Marketplace and they get a 30% cut of all sales?

That would be acceptable to you, right?
Same for any OS, right?
After all the “end product” can only be used on that OS.

They just have to give it away for free, right? I think MS would jump on that in a heartbeat. . . . and then we all work for MS! “Sorry, that refrigerator can’t be sold at Sears because the software to design it ran on Windows and therefore must be sold via Microsoft’s Marketplace.”

No software company can ever be allowed to claim any right whatsoever over any content/Work a person creates using said software. . . .

NEVER!

If we do then we are essentially becoming that companies serfs.

If you don’t get that then you have some serious mental deficiencies.

Comment on What Apple’s iBooks Author terms actually mean by Sophus Ambrosi

Sophus Ambrosi — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:51:53 +0000

As far as I know, you can decide the price to some extent. The book can however not cost more than 14,99 USD in iBookstore. Apple takes 30 percent.

Comment on What Apple’s iBooks Author terms actually mean by Drew

Drew — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:33:08 +0000

What are the sale terms that Apple has? Does the author decide the price of the book? How much of the selling price goes to the author and how much to Apple?