I was supposed to do a post on series and what makes good ones, but I’m continuing my discussion from yesterday regarding eBook pricing. I’m pushing the series post to next Tuesday.<\/p>\n
~*~*~<\/span><\/p>\n EBook pricing.<\/strong><\/span> I’ve been thinking about this a lot more since yesterday’s post. And JenM<\/span><\/strong> mentioned something that needs to be on a post not just in the comment section. But before I get to that I want to get to the pros and cons of eBooks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Pros<\/strong><\/span> Cons<\/strong><\/span> Now, looking at my pro and con list, I see that just in sheer numbers, the pros edges out the cons, however in matter of importance, to me, cons outweigh the pros. And I’ll tell you why. Because the inflexibility issue is huge. I mean HUGE.<\/p>\n I started reading romances when I was in my teens. My mother used to read them and my sister and I loved to read. Once my sister exhausted all the Nancy Drew <\/strong> and Beverly Cleary<\/strong> books, she picked up one of my mother’s romance novels, which was a Harlequin Presents. She shared a ‘shocking’ passage with me. After she\u00a0 finished\u00a0 the book, she moved onto another one and I picked that one up and finished within the day. That incident created a lifetime romance reader out of me. I was hooked. Now I write them. And I’m certain many–or dare I say–most romance readers got their start reading romance in a similar fashion. I didn’t set out to be a romance reader, and I’m sure many of us don’t. I just loved to read and I was introduced to the world of romance books by someone else.<\/p>\n Now imagine if my mother had had an eReader back in the day and read ebooks. My sister would not have had access to her stacks of book, hence, she wouldn’t have been able to introduce me to them. I might very well have never ever read a romance to this very day.\u00a0 Another drawback with ebooks is that romance readers–maybe readers as a whole–won’t be born the way they are now; by passing along a much loved book to a friend and saying, “Hey, you should give this one a try.” <\/em>And lets face it, when it comes to romance books, many people have this preconceived idea of what they are, what the writing must be like, and only after they’ve tried one (because you know they sure as hell won’t purchase one right off the mark), can they experience and understand their appeal.<\/p>\n So to me, only print books have the ability to create–in this case–romance readers as they have done up to now. And for that reason, since it’s apparent to me that print books are currently the superior product, ebooks should be priced lower. It only makes sense. In addition, when you shop for your print books at places like, Walmart, Target and other stores where they are discounted anywhere from 25-35% off, it makes paying full retail price or more for an ebook really unfathomable.<\/p>\n In closing, my thought is this, if publishers are trying to inhibit the increase in ebook sales, then pricing them at full retail and above is a sure fire way to do it.<\/p>\n [poll id=”24″]<\/p>\n If you discovered romance books another way, please include it in the comment section.<\/p>\n\n I was supposed to do a post on series and what makes good ones, but I’m continuing my discussion from yesterday regarding eBook pricing. I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-3499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n1. Convenience<\/strong><\/span> – They are easy to purchase and you don’t have to leave your house.
\n2. Space <\/strong><\/span>– Readers can keep a library of book on one eReader or computer without taking up any physical space. This is very beneficial for travelling purposes too.
\n3. Trees<\/strong> <\/span>– We help to save trees. This benefits the environment.
\n4. Backlist<\/span> <\/strong>– As publishers are now making authors’ backlist available in electronic format, we now have ready access to them without having to visit every second hand book store or garage sale in town.
\n5. Anonymity<\/strong> <\/span>– We can read romances with racy covers in public with no one else the wiser. We can also buy them in the privacy of our home cutting out that trip to the cash register where the 17 year-old will be ringing it up. (For those readers who are still embarrassed when purchasing romance books)<\/p>\n
\n1. Inflexible<\/strong><\/span> – This takes us back to JenM’s <\/strong>comment. eBooks are inflexible.<\/strong> Yes, Barnes & Noble’s<\/strong><\/em> Nook eReader has a feature that allows you can lend your ebook to a friend for up to two weeks. While that’s something, it’s puts a limit on what you can do with your own book and for how long. I can lend my friend a print book for as long as I want. I can give my book away. I can trade my book in if I want. You can’t do any of this with an ebook. You can’t return it so once you buy it, it’s yours forever. I wish I could give away ebooks on this blog the way I giveaway print books. I can’t. I’m not sure why publishers and\/or retailers can’t put in a feature that allows you\u00a0 to enter the email address of the recipient, so the purchase is tied that email address just like the do with eGift Cards.
\n2. Skimmability<\/strong> <\/span>– Yes, I just made up that word but you get what I mean, right? You can’t really skim a book on an eReader or a computer. You can bookmark but you can’t skim. And I’m a big skimmer, which sometimes makes reading an ebook a very frustrating process.
\n3. Virtual TBR Pile<\/strong><\/span> – I don’t know about you, but I don’t do well with virtual TBR piles. I can’t ignore a physical stack of books in front of me. They taunt me every time I walk into my bedroom. I swear some of the books are screaming, “Read me next.” <\/em>eBooks can’t scream or taunt me. They just sit on my eReader and I only stumble upon them when I open my Adobe Digital Editions<\/strong> because only then do I view the covers altogether as they jostle for my attention. I sense the iPad will take care of this problem with its color screen and viewable bookshelf.
\n4. No Back cover copy<\/strong><\/span> – Why isn’t this part of the ebook? This has puzzled me for awhile.\u00a0 I buy a number of books. I have over 100 ebooks on my eReader, 85% of which I still have not read. Which means many times when I come across a book I bought several weeks to months ago, I can’t remember what it’s about. I literally have to now go on the internet to get that information. If the front cover of the books is featured, why isn’t the back? I’m still scratching my head about this.<\/p>\n