I still love the brick-and-mortar stores, especially in the Bay Area, where we’re blessed with amazing independents. Personal preference aside, however, I do believe that, in the next couple of years, e-books will take over a huge share of the market.
One thing paperbacks currently have going for them in the book vs. Kindle debate is price point. The price set by publishers for e-books tends to be the lowest price at which the physical copy of the book is available. For the moment, this may be keeping brick-and-mortar doomsday at bay. If you can have a physical trade paperback for the same price as the e-book, I imagine many readers would prefer to have the physical book on their shelf.
Where I can see e-books easily gaining the lion’s share of the market is in the mass market format. For example, because THE YEAR OF FOG was published both in trade paperback ($12.00) and mass market paperback ($5.99), the lowest price point for the physical book, and therefore the base price of the e-book, is $5.99. On Amazon, that comes out to $4.79 for the Kindle version. While a mass market paperback is far less pleasing in the hand than a trade paperback, thus ensuring the trade paperback success of many books that are also available in the smaller, cheaper format, the e-book may make this distinction null and void. In fact, the heft of the Kindle, and the adjustable text size, may make an e-book preferable to a mass market version of the same book.
Defenders of the Kindle and Nook attempt to assuage the fears of luddites, publishers, and authors, by saying that e-book readers actually purchase three times more books than readers of physical books. While the evidence isn’t quite in yet on this assertion, if e-book pricing were to come down to the level of mass market pricing, I do think you would see e-book readers purchasing larger quantities of books than their more traditional counterparts. A book that you didn’t quite feel like investing in for $12.00 might be an easy impulse buy at $5.99.
Totally unscientific poll: Have you purchased an e-reader? If so, do you find yourself buying more books than before? If you do buy more books, do you think this habit will continue after the hot-new-thing quality of your Kindle/Nook has worn off?
Non e-readers: If e-book pricing were comparable to mass market pricing, would you be more likely to invest in a Kindle or Nook?
I have not purchased an e-reader yet, but will probably do so in the next year (I’m waiting to see what Apple comes out with). I have read two Kindle versions using the free app for my iPod Touch — and one of those was THE YEAR OF FOG. I enjoyed being able to read in bed with the lights off using my iPod, and also the ease of carrying it around with me in my purse. Michelle, I loved that book and blogged about it as one of my earliest posts at my blog “In This Light.”
Proud nook owner here. And I did purchase the e-book version of The Year of Fog for $5.99 on the nook. 🙂
I’ve been a long time e-book reader, but the nook is my first dedicated e-book reader. E-books have allowed me to read more, since I can always have my library with me and will read on my phone (which my work requires me to keep tethered to myself at all times) whenever I have a free moment.
I have a Kindle, and yes, I buy more books than ever. I still prefer reading print books, but there are definitely places I want the Kindle.
I’m willing to try books on the Kindle that I won’t buy in print (at least partly because my shelf space was gone years ago). And if I’m in the middle of a print book and have to travel, I think nothing of buying a Kindle copy to save the weight in my luggage. I’ve also bought Kindle copies of books I was reading in print so I could read them in the car on my iPhone while my husband drives — because the iPhone is backlit, the light doesn’t bother him as much as a light shone on a page (or even the Kindle itself) would. And when I read a book on Kindle that I love, I then purchase a hard-copy for my permanent library.
I think it’s the convenience factor. I buy far more music now that I can impulsively buy it on iTunes the moment I think about it. Kindle gives me the same ability with books.
So, yes, I buy more books now that I have the Kindle, even though I prefer to read them in print.
I should add, btw, that I still buy the bulk of my books at my local, independently owned, brick-and-mortar bookstore. I LOVE my bookstore, and no electronic toy is going to win me away from them.
both my brother and my mother have a kindle now, but i just can’t do it. i have nothing against it, and more power to the people who love it. For some reason I don’t have as much of an attention span when reading text on a screen versus turning the pages. I also like to look at my books on the shelf. I am not entirely sure why, but I do. And I oh so love used books. Not just because they are cheap, but because of what you can find in them. Inscriptions, notes, old receipts, stickers… So no e-reader for me as of now, but I did download some of the Sherlock Holmes books onto my cell phone…we’ll see how that goes. BTW, I just started a new writing blog, and have added yours as a link,
sarah
I am an avid reader, only 34, and am against e-readers with a passion. I could go into a long sermon on how they are sociologically and culturally bad news, but I will refrain. Suffice it to say I have not and will not ever by an e-reader.