why you don't read ebooks

[charmian]

Has anyone bought ebooks from a small ebook only press? In other words, one of those presses where many of their books/novellas are only in ebook form. These seem to be gaining some popularity. I find the trend to ebooks very exciting, but currently both technology and publishing habits don't seem to be there yet.

I haven't because most of these presses focus on genres I'm not very interested in, and because no one whose taste I trust/know has really gone to bat for any of these books.

But maybe I'm wrong, and people whom I know (you reading this) do indeed read ebooks which are only published in ebook form. So are you out there? How have your experiences been?

Also, if you do not read ebook-only books, why do you not do so?

a) haven't heard of any that appeal to you
b) are only interested in reading books in hard-copy form
c) object to DRM (if the press uses it)
d) don't have a means of purchasing them online
e) feel they are overpriced


Basically a) is the strongest reason with me. I simply haven't heard people talking about ebooks or reading them, or strongly recommending them, even the people I know who read over twenty books a month. I don't really have that much of a problem reading on a screen, although since I don't have an e-ink reader, it is harder on the eyes. I dislike DRM, but it wouldn't keep me from buying an ebook, since I usually read a book only once. For e), I have heard some people saying it, but whether I felt a book was overpriced or not would have to depend on the actual book.

Comments

[torachan]

I have read one ebook, which was from Torquere, an "original slash" e-publisher (though I believe they do also offer hard copies through Amazon, but they started off as an e-publisher and I think that's probably the bulk of their sales). I bought it because it was someone on my flist whose fanfic I had enjoyed in the past and it sounded like an interesting premise, but I don't see myself buying anything else from Torquere unless it's a situation like that again. It's just not what I'm generally interested in reading. One plus for Torquere, though, is that the files weren't DRMed. I got a zip file with several different formats for like $5.

So yeah. I hear a lot about romance, erotica, original slash...maybe some SFF? All genres I'm not really interested in. I know some people on my flist who read a lot of those sorts of ebooks, though.

As for ebooks of traditionally published books, they're expensive if you're just going to read once. I prefer to get stuff through BookMooch and pass it on (or even if I do buy something myself, I pass it on through BM or Book Off). I don't mind reading on the computer, so even though I don't have an ereader, that's not a huge drawback, but I do like the freedom regular books afford.

[charmian]

Hmm, to avoid drama, feel free to ignore this part, but I'm curious what you meant by "it's just not what I'm generally interested in reading." Did you not enjoy the ebook you bought? How was it different from the person's fanfic? Or did you mean more generally Torquere's books? AFAIK, no one of my personal aquaintance has been professionally published by a mainly ebook press.

I haven't heard of SFF being widely published in ebook format except by Baen, and all of those are IIRC already published in hard-copy as well.

Yeah, they're the same or more than mass market paperback, so for me it makes no sense to buy them in ebook form.

[torachan]

I did enjoy the book and reviewed it here. But romance novels are not really my cup of tea. The stories I've liked by her had enough other interesting elements in her writing that they were enjoyable for me (she really does a lot of research and I like the level of detail and realism in her settings, for example). I thought this story that I bought was about as enjoyable as the fic I've read by her, but she's not a favorite author, nor is the type of fic she writes my favorite stuff. It was just something I bought on a whim and because the summary she posted made it sound like it would be a little more my thing (it wasn't quite enough my thing, though).

But the vast majority of romances, I wouldn't read for free, much less pay money for them. It's just not a genre I'm into, but it seems to be the biggest genre for ebooks.

[flourish]

I primarily read ebook-only romance novels because I am often OK with paying to read a book only once and I like the convenience of not having to go to the store and buy a romance novel when the mood strikes me. Actually, I don't think I'd read any genre but romance in ebook format, because other genres I am more likely to reread a book.

[charmian]

Huh, I didn't know that people were less likely sometimes to reread romance. I'm okay with paying to read a book once also... as long as it isn't as much as buying a hard-copy book.

[keelieinblack]

I've bought a couple of romance/erotica ebooks and have found the experience sort of blah as a whole. It's (usually) a fantastically convenient distribution method, and there are still times I'll read a review for a hard-copy book and think "Wow, I'd buy this right now if it were an ebook!", but most of the ones I've actually bought have been less than thrilling. I haven't read anything intriguing enough to evoke a "must! keep! reading!" response--which is kind of necessary, because I don't have an ebook reader and so have to either read it in one go or feel compelled to go back to it later--and at least one was written at the level I'd expect from mediocre fanfic.

Also, I'm still sort of annoyed with Samhain Publishing on an ease-of-buying level, because the one time I bought an ebook from them it took me twenty minutes and two computers to get the order to process.

[charmian]

Yeah, it IS such a great distro message. I live in a place where it takes awhile to get things by mail order, so the instant gratification and lack of shipping fees for ebooks would be great.

Ugh, yeah, that's why I like to rely on recs, so that I know beforehand that the quality level is that low.

[elena]

I haven't paid for any ebook, but that's because I tend to read either public domain texts or CC-licensed books, plus the odd pirated book that I may or may not have already in dead tree version but I read at the office on boring days. Also, I'm not into the romance genre.

I wouldn't buy an ebook in a format more exotic than a PDF, anyway.

[leperofevil]

I have a preference to hard-copy books, but I think it's really more a) in my case. I have started getting pickier about what new authors I delve into, unless we're talking random pickup at a used bookstore or the remaindered section at the big local bookstore, and there are only a few people who I really trust these days to rec new authors. And, so far, none of them are pointing me in the direction of ebooks. I think there's plenty in the ebook-only market to appeal to me, but without a trusted source to point and go 'Here, this is good and worth it', I'm not going to bother when I have hundreds of unread books sitting on my shelf.

[morineko]

My reason is probably a followup to c), let's call it c)1). I bought a few ebooks about 5-6 years ago to read on my PDA. These were e-copies of some sf novellas that had been originally paper-published as limited edition chapbooks. Unfortunately, the ebooks had really intrusive DRM. My PDA's memory got wiped because the battery died and the computer I had the backups on also went down. The company selling them went out of business, so I had no way of downloading them again. Luckily the authors got so ticked off by their ebook company folding that they did a run of those stories through POD. ;)

Baen does publish some e-only things, mostly reprints of out-of-print books and this shared-universe alternate history thingie. In any case, the only etexts I've purchased since the DRM disaster have either been from Baen or some DRM-free short stories I bought at Fictionwise.

I've bookmarked a whole bunch of ebooks that I'd like to buy, but I've learned from the rash of epubs going under that I need to read them right away and I don't have an ereader (and I hate reading onscreen.)

[charmian]

Yeah, no one wants to be all like "if our company goes down" so companies refuse to confront that aspect of DRM. Bleh, I hope they see the light soon.

I'm hoping the price of a reader goes down soon, actually, or they start creating laptops with e-ink mode.

[lennan]

I'd say that a majority of my reaction is b. While, I'll read manga on my computer (no e reader), I tend to get tired of reading on a screen. And prefer not to scroll either. I don't know, maybe it's the nostalgia or the perceived ease of turning pages in a book. I feel like it's easier to walk away from the book and read it wherever I like.

THat said, I would probably read ebooks if they were something I wasn't planning on re-reading (and not in a language that's already difficult for me to read in the first place).

[sub_divided]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/books/01book.html?ref=business

It's like something out of Neal Stephenson's Anathem.

I have to say, the e-ink readers are easy on the eyes. I might get one - AFTER finally I get a smart phone, and an mp3 player, and a digital camera...