How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
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How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
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Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#2He read his parents books!
They had been licensed for the original purchasers use only - it's this sort of piracy that funds drug dealing and terrorism
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#3I feel somewhat the same way about bookshelves. When you walk into my parents' house, the first thing you see is three bookshelves covering a wall, stacked as high as you can reach without a ladder. I was looking forward to getting my own when I moved out permanently. Now, I don't see that happening. (On the plus side, I won't have to fight my dad over who gets to keep what.)
But I'm sure people felt the same about vinyl records. And now, if I want to check out a friend's music taste, I just look at their iTunes. I'm not old enough to know whether it's quite the same, but I'm not sentimental enough to think we haven't made massive improvements.
I suspect DVDs will be the next to go. (I don't have a DVD player of my own, but I like to have my fairly small collection where people can see it.)
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#4I was pretty negative on the Kindle over time. Mostly because of its abysmal typography and fonts. But I bought a Kindle 3 because "it's so cheap" and because I plan to release some books for it and wanted to test direct. And.. I'm won over. The typography still isn't great, but the form factor and the ease with which I can read the screen for longer periods is much welcomed.
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#5I feel somewhat the same way about bookshelves. When you walk into my parents' house, the first thing you see is three bookshelves covering a wall, stacked as high as you can reach without a ladder. I was looking forward to getting my own when I moved out permanently. Now, I don't see that happening. (On the plus side, I won't have to fight my dad over who gets to keep what.) But I'm sure people felt the same about v…
And now, if I want to check out a friend's music taste, I just look at their iTunes. I'm not old enough to know whether it's quite the same, but I'm not sentimental enough to think we haven't made massive improvements.
In some circumstances, you can even go a step further now. I stopped buying music about a year ago when I got a Spotify account and now 80-90% of my listening is through that.
I realized that most of my listening is to new/ephemeral stuff rather than stuff I want to listen to for years in which case, I'll just buy those albums if/when Spotify takes a dive.
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#6I feel somewhat the same way about bookshelves. When you walk into my parents' house, the first thing you see is three bookshelves covering a wall, stacked as high as you can reach without a ladder. I was looking forward to getting my own when I moved out permanently. Now, I don't see that happening. (On the plus side, I won't have to fight my dad over who gets to keep what.) But I'm sure people felt the same about v…
I've bought a Nook, and I'm using it for reading on long journeys, but I'm being careful not to let it displace my book-buying habits, precisely because I want to be one of those people with a houseful of awesome books when I get older.
Therefore, my rule is this: I only use the Nook to read things which are public domain. There's more than enough public domain stuff I want to read out there to keep me occupied. But if I'm going to pay for something, it's gonna be a proper printed physical book which I can keep for the rest of my life.
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#7I refuse to pay full price for a digital edition you don't own and can't resell or lend.
Most of my best books are in the hands of friends and family or given away to somebody who would use them. If the electronic version had a reduced price I wouldn't mind. Even if it was for a limited time, like renting the book. But full price? You got to be kidding.
Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#8I've got floppy disks and zip drives and old, dead hard drives full of stuff which I can't run or read.
And that's for files that I created on hardware I own.
Amazon as a company is only 15 years old - will it be around in 50 years? Any given Kindle will only last for a few years - will I always be able to afford to buy a new one? Will they always be available to buy?
It is a big issue for me that I can't buy an ebook and have a reasonable expectation that the ebook will be mine for the rest of my life, and can be given to my kids to read.
It makes me think of ebooks as disposable - I can't build up a library. It's more like borrowing someone else's books where they can demand the book back.
But, like this guy, I still use them for convenience...
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#9I refuse to pay full price for a digital edition you don't own and can't resell or lend. Most of my best books are in the hands of friends and family or given away to somebody who would use them. If the electronic version had a reduced price I wouldn't mind. Even if it was for a limited time, like renting the book. But full price? You got to be kidding. Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and o…
This is key: digital edition books are way overpriced compared to second-hand books. Personally, I slightly prefer second-hand fiction books to new books. There's something about the book being a bit worn, having some history in human hands, rather than being the product of mechanized industry and being shipped out of a factory into your hands.
And I delight in having a book that's perfect for lending (usually means gifting) to a friend or family member who I know will enjoy it.
Re: How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out
#10I refuse to pay full price for a digital edition you don't own and can't resell or lend. Most of my best books are in the hands of friends and family or given away to somebody who would use them. If the electronic version had a reduced price I wouldn't mind. Even if it was for a limited time, like renting the book. But full price? You got to be kidding. Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and o…
Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.
My partner is an author with a mainstream publisher and actually, Kindle offers a lot of opportunity for writers to publish independently and make more $$$.
An indie publisher can take take 75% of the profits from their Kindle sales. If Kindle as a format takes off then it removes the power of the publisher who is suddenly doing less and less (no need to print paper or deal with distribution contracts).
With lower overheads she can afford to sell her books at a lower price point (to your point on reduced e-pricing) and still make more than her traditional sales.
She agonizes over the DRM however, which I think is still hurting this area. She also sells PDF's but the issue then is the lack of distribution as you can't sell PDFs on Amazon obviously. It will get better over time, however - like iTunes went mp3 in the end.