Kindle books: Why so expensive?

[FireDancer]

Are text books available on Kindle yet? I remember hearing talk about that a while back...the convenience of it. I've got two DDs in college, and one spent something like $200 on ONE book last year. And they've got tons of books to carry around.

There are some available but they are not widespread yet. One of the reasons for rolling out the Kindle DX's form factor was for text books. The availability of books is behind the device at the moment. The DX will handle PDFs natively if you can find the eBook in PDF. Keep in mind though that PDF is a page layout specification and depending on how it is parsed can be inconvenient on the Kindle. Mobi and txt files are parsed by the Kindle so they usually appear better. Once more books are converted to PDFs specifically for readers they will figure out the page layout issues, most notably single columns.

 

[rcraw45425]

Another Kindle lover here. I am a voracious reader, and actually read more now that I have it. As I have moved into my 40s my eyesight has changed, I wear contacts but sometimes need reading glasses for reading, lol. I am able to adjust my font to read comfortably now without having the nausea that the reading glasses sometimes cause. As someone mentioned earlier, I was at the beach this weekend and finished a novel on my Kindle. When I started the next one I realized that it was, in a way, a continuation of another book. I was able to quickly download a book that helped me get a better feel for the main characters without having to leave my beach chair! As others mentioned, not all books are $9.99. I have found a lot that are on the $3-$6 range, especially as they are released in paperback. The Harlequin type ones are frequently in the $3-$5 range. THis trip I had 12 unread books loaded on my Kindle, I could hear my DH now if I took 12 harbacks with me, since he does the luggage! I do still utilize my local library when I find a book that is not available on Kindle or if I don't feel that it is worth keeping to re read.

 

[Lanshark]

I love, Love, LOVE reading eBooks. My library has a huge eBook collection of 17,000 eBooks which I can download at 2am for FREE! I can download an eBook in the middle of a winter storm here and stay nice & warm. I think most of their collection is the current bestsellers or the most popularly read books, not just the public domain snoozers.

For non-fiction, research type books, I can download, skim for the needed info and delete at will. I can go through several books this way without leaving home or having to lug several books home for only 2 chapters worth of necessary info in each book.

For fiction books, I've read a lot of new authors & genres I never would have looked into before. Since I don't have a car, I really have to think over carefully each book I am going to walk home. I hadn't realized how much that limited the choices of books I was willing to risk taking home. Each book had to seem like a sure bet.

I can't tell you how long ago it was that I stepped into my actual library. I still have a $10 library fine to pay off. I returned the books a week late but didn't haven the money pay it off at the time. Since I used to take out about 5 books at once, if I can't make it back to the library on the due date, I wind up paying 25 cents per book for each day overdue, times five. Ouch!

With library eBooks, the book file automatically doesn't open past the due date and I simply delete the file. No more library fines.

The biggest feature I love about eBooks is the ability to change font size. My eyes have gotten worse as I age. Switching to the largest font size has been a god send for me. Also, since I don't have to flip actual pages, I'm reading much faster.

I don't have a Kindle or any other eReading device yet. I download everything to my portable laptop, set up a few pillows and can read in bed or on the couch. I can even read and eat messy foods at the same time.

Pardon my ignorance but can ebooks be downloaded to a PC free and do these same books cost $ to download to a Kindle?

 

[rcraw45425]

Imzadi is the guru of free books. If I understand this correctly, you can download free books to your computer on the ebooks site and read them. I knopw with the kindle site I have the option to read on my computer, whether it's a free book or not, but you may actually have to be a Kindle owner to do this. I know you can also download the kindle app for free if you have an iPhone or iPod touch and read the books on there, free if it's a free book or for the fee if it's a purchased book. The apple devices also sync with the Kindle so that you can switch back and forth without having to find your last page read.

 

[FireDancer]

Pardon my ignorance but can ebooks be downloaded to a PC free and do these same books cost $ to download to a Kindle?

If you have a Kindle DX you can send the PDF right on over. If you have a K1 or K2 you can use a free converter to convert the PDFs to a Mobi file. If you want to send the file to the Kindle through whispernet it costs about ten cents. You can connect the K1 or K2 to the computer and send it over for free also, but you lose the wireless convenience.

 

[RitaE]

I don't have a list here but I have bought literally hundreds of eBooks from Independent Authors for under $3. There have been a few that are much better than the formulaic standard fare that is all that is being published into hardback fiction right now. It is REALLY hard to get published unless you are one of a handful of established star names in the publishing industry.

In fact, whenever I see a book for 80cents or a couple of bucks, I frequently buy it even if I have absolutely no interest in the book - just to support a struggling writer. Some of them have been crappy, but there have been some that I really enjoy also.

As for the $9.99 New York Times bestsellers, from what I understand Amazon actually takes a loss on those since the Publishing houses aren't discounting eBook pricing from actual physical copies yet.

And I agree.....publishers and authors who don't jump in on the eBook phenomenon will quickly find themselves headed down the road of failure similar to what happened with the music industry.

 

[JohnMarshall12]

I think people have given some good pros and cons on the Kindle and its book prices. I think everyone pretty much agrees they like the idea of this type of reading device with the sole concern being the high cost of their books.

My guess is we are very likely to see some competition at some point that will help drive down the cost of these downloadable books. Otherwise, this gift will continue to be one only used by business travelers and those with larger disposable incomes. However, at some point, some businessman will see the value you in sending this to the masses.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

There are some available but they are not widespread yet. One of the reasons for rolling out the Kindle DX's form factor was for text books. The availability of books is behind the device at the moment. The DX will handle PDFs natively if you can find the eBook in PDF. Keep in mind though that PDF is a page layout specification and depending on how it is parsed can be inconvenient on the Kindle. Mobi and txt files are parsed by the Kindle so they usually appear better. Once more books are converted to PDFs specifically for readers they will figure out the page layout issues, most notably single columns.

Thank you. Everything after the highlighted part kind of made my head but I appreciate your taking the time to answer.

 

[NotUrsula]

Right now the usual popular e-book platforms subscribed to by public libraries are NOT compatible with the Kindle. At this point, most of them don't plan to be; Amazon currently has no plans to accept outside content from them. The Digital Rights Management software used by those platforms isn't Kindle compatible, and Amazon is very OK with that, because they really prefer that your only source for Kindle content be Amazon.

Right now, most public and and academic libraries that let patrons use Kindles do so by buying the Kindles themselves, loading them up with quite a lot of titles (usually of a common genre, for ease of lending), and then lending the Kindle itself. Really risky thing to do, given how much it costs -- I've got a captive audience in my corporate library, but I know for a fact that if I did it the Kindles would walk anyway.

As to the issue of why electronic content would be more expensive than paper content -- the answer is security, and all who must exist to serve it. It was a shock to the publishing industry, too, I assure you. Most of them thought that they were going to start making money hand over fist if they could just eliminate the cost of the printing/shipping process, but they found out VERY quickly that the cost of hiring and keeping good people and licensing good software that is complex enough to prevent piracy is actually more expensive than printing a book or journal. They have had to hire enormous numbers of people and invest in a lot of hardware and software to protect their intellectual property interests.
Hackers target them constantly.

 

[Imzadi]

Pardon my ignorance but can ebooks be downloaded to a PC free and do these same books cost $ to download to a Kindle?

Here's a DIS thread I created a while back for various links to download free eBooks to a PC or laptop:

Free eBooks to download to PCs! (For the Kindle-less readers)

For downloading to a PC for free, many eBooks are in the PDF file format. (It's what my library the most ebooks in.) Since most of us have the Adobe reader software already installed in our PCs to read pdf files. All you need to do is download the PDF eBooks right to your PC and start reading them.

Go to this link and download a free Harlequin eBook in PDF and you will see what I mean. You do not have to register for anything. It's just a simple click straight from the publisher and it's yours to keep - book doesn't expire like library eBooks. Even if you don't read Harlequins, it will give you an example of how easy this eBook technology is, and what an eBook is like, how you can change the font size, and scroll all the way to the end of the book. Then you can delete it any time you want.

http://www.harlequincelebrates.com/


There are other different eBook formats, similar to MP3s or WMAs in music, or the old beta versus VHS. There is currently a format war going on for eBooks as there was with the Beta vs. VHS war. Kindle uses a different format than other eReading devices. Sony recently partnered with Google to make their own different eBook format (ePub), and they now have the largest number of eBooks available. They are hoping to make the ePub format the industry standard. Only time will tell which format will win. And you'd better hope you bought the right eReading device or you spent a lot of bucks and have to switch over to the other eReader.

There are other eBook formats. IPods & Blackberrys now have apps so people can read eBooks off of them. Scroll down at the bottom of this link, you can see the other types of eReading devices out besides Kindle.
www.feedbooks.com

Kindle's format is MobiPocket. Mobipocket has a free "Mobipocket Desktop eBook Reader" software download so the Kindle format eBooks can read right off a desktop or laptop. haven't done this but if it works, this means I can take advantage of some of Amazon's free Kindle eBooks as well as their lower prices on eBooks, and read right off my laptop. Their PC eReader software can be downloaded here:
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsReader.asp

From what DVCLiz said a while ago, (as well as someone else,) the MobiPocket eBooks downloaded from libraries may not work with Kindles yet. So don't buy a Kindle yet expecting you can download library eBooks to read them on your Kindle. It has to do with the current Digital Rights Management (DRM) licensing issues with Kindle. That would be a personal deal breaker for me, as I can get so many free eBooks from my library.

 

[Imzadi]

Imzadi is the guru of free books.

Thanks.


(...umm, I'll PayPal you your payment later. )

 

[Galahad]

My wife rarely pays more than 2 or 3 dollars for the books she reads on her Kindle. She can store the books on the Kindle or on her Amazon account online. Takes a lot less space. If you are doing any sort of research you can cut/paste email excerpts etc. The newer models are better a PDFs and such - with the DX I can use it for sheet music as well as books. There are "cheaper" ways to get your reading material (the library for example) but that's not really the point, IMO. And even if it is, if you would normally buy a best seller or recent book, the savings is significant enough that you would make "pay for it" pretty quickly.

ETA: there are sites other than Amazon where you can get free- or low cost books that you can read with your Kindle.

 

[Lanshark]

Here's a DIS thread I created a while back for various links to download free eBooks to a PC or laptop:

Free eBooks to download to PCs! (For the Kindle-less readers)

For downloading to a PC for free, many eBooks are in the PDF file format. (It's what my library the most ebooks in.) Since most of us have the Adobe reader software already installed in our PCs to read pdf files. All you need to do is download the PDF eBooks right to your PC and start reading them.

Go to this link and download a free Harlequin eBook in PDF and you will see what I mean. You do not have to register for anything. It's just a simple click straight from the publisher and it's yours to keep - book doesn't expire like library eBooks. Even if you don't read Harlequins, it will give you an example of how easy this eBook technology is, and what an eBook is like, how you can change the font size, and scroll all the way to the end of the book. Then you can delete it any time you want.

http://www.harlequincelebrates.com/


There are other different eBook formats, similar to MP3s or WMAs in music, or the old beta versus VHS. There is currently a format war going on for eBooks as there was with the Beta vs. VHS war. Kindle uses a different format than other eReading devices. Sony recently partnered with Google to make their own different eBook format (ePub), and they now have the largest number of eBooks available. They are hoping to make the ePub format the industry standard. Only time will tell which format will win. And you'd better hope you bought the right eReading device or you spent a lot of bucks and have to switch over to the other eReader.

There are other eBook formats. IPods & Blackberrys now have apps so people can read eBooks off of them. Scroll down at the bottom of this link, you can see the other types of eReading devices out besides Kindle.
www.feedbooks.com

Kindle's format is MobiPocket. Mobipocket has a free "Mobipocket Desktop eBook Reader" software download so the Kindle format eBooks can read right off a desktop or laptop. haven't done this but if it works, this means I can take advantage of some of Amazon's free Kindle eBooks as well as their lower prices on eBooks, and read right off my laptop. Their PC eReader software can be downloaded here:
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsReader.asp

From what DVCLiz said a while ago, (as well as someone else,) the MobiPocket eBooks downloaded from libraries may not work with Kindles yet. So don't buy a Kindle yet expecting you can download library eBooks to read them on your Kindle. It has to do with the current Digital Rights Management (DRM) licensing issues with Kindle. That would be a personal deal breaker for me, as I can get so many free eBooks from my library.

Thank you

 

[Tinkerdreams]

Are text books available on Kindle yet? I remember hearing talk about that a while back...the convenience of it. I've got two DDs in college, and one spent something like $200 on ONE book last year. And they've got tons of books to carry around.

I hear ya. My daughter's books cost a total of $1100 last year and my son joins the college ranks this year. I heard that there are half a dozen colleges that are testing out the Kindle DX with their textbooks.

It would be fantastic if next year all colleges made it a option. If the textbooks cost $25 each, that would be a great assist for all the parents and students that are paying the bill for these.

I'm paying very close attention.

 

[bumbershoot]

Why are Kindle books so expensive?

IMO, because authors, agents, publishers, editors, etc need to be paid.

I just don't understand the pricing at all and personally think the Kindle is a waste of money. (If someone can explain to me why it's not, I'd love to hear it.)

Get ahold of one. Spend about an hour with it. I was a pretty big "whatever" person about it...hubby applied for two Kindle positions, and is starting with one in 2 weeks at amazon (his third time around with amazon), he's a big proponent but I wasn't...then my SIL won one at at a trademark law event...I finally held one and read a chapter or two of a Stephen King novel (partially about a Kindle!) ONLY released for the Kindle...I'm a convert.

Are text books available on Kindle yet?

Can't hurt to look up the books the kids need on amazon every so often!

I would LOVE a Kindle. Can you also check email for free on them? Meaning, does the cost of the device include all future wireless use?

Well, per hubby, it's a web browser so you should be able to...but he doesn't have one (yet) so he's not 100% on it.

 

[DVCLiz]

The Kindle has a basic web browser and it is free - no monthly contract like you pay for your cell phone. It lets you do basic web searching, allows you to check some types of email (I don't use it so I am not sure; it may be that a Gmail account or something similar is the best way to go on the Kindle) and you can do a Wikipedia search as well.

Library Ebooks will NOT work on the Kindle - it's a completely different type of delivery. You can download a library ebook on your PC and read it from there - so you can read on your laptop in bed.

The primary difference for ME is the reading experience. I could never read a whole book on a backlit device - it would cause too much strain on my vision. I can read a chapter or two on the Kindle app on my Iphone but that's about it - my vision is fuzzy and takes a while to clear. It would be difficult to read a whole novel that way. The Kindle experience is completely different, though. There is no backlight - the Kindle screen is opaque so light cannot shine through it - and that makes the difference for me. Having the ability to change the level of light in the room is all I need - that, and the ability to enlarge the font size as I choose. If I am reading in a room with sunlight and it gets later in the day, I can enlarge the type or get up and turn on a lamp.

For me, the reading experience on the Kindle is as close to a book as exists currently. But, the Kindle gives me so much more value than paper books. And, finally, there is no law that says I can't buy something in paper format if I choose!!! I still have a small selection of paper books (Harry Potter!) but I am not buying any hardback book if it is available in Kindle form, and I haven't for the past yerar.

 

[DVCLiz]

Are text books available on Kindle yet? I remember hearing talk about that a while back...the convenience of it. I've got two DDs in college, and one spent something like $200 on ONE book last year. And they've got tons of books to carry around.

MaryAnn, with the introduction of the Kindle DX, three of the major textbook publishers have "come on board" and will allow Kindle versions of their textbooks to be available. That represents about 60% of the textbook market. (Don't be impressed that I know this - I just read it off the Kindle discussion boards when the DX came out!)

But, that leaves the other 40% out for now, so it's going to be hit or miss, depending on what your daughter needs. Mine, who is a rising senior in college, is an English major, so most of the standard novels are in Kindle form - and for free!!! But, some of the "weird" stuff - she has a class in "Early Women Writers" so there are all sorts of things from the 18th century, etc - won't be available.

But, I expect DD15 to be able to download most of her textbooks by the time she gets to college in 3 years.

 

[bigtinkfun]

New books are expensive on Kindle because publishers don't want to undercut their hardback sales. There's some talk in the publishing industry of not releasing e-book versions at the same time that hardbacks and audiobooks are released, but rather waiting a few months or maybe releasing them at the same time as the paperback editions.

Meanwhile, there are lots of good books that are out there for free. Lots of books are also selling for 99 cents. I would have listed my book for free on Kindle, but Amazon requires that you list for at least 99 cents, so that's what I'm selling mine for.

 

[FireDancer]

Thank you. Everything after the highlighted part kind of made my head but I appreciate your taking the time to answer.

You're welcome and sorry about that. In I.T. we love our techno babel almost as much as we like our acronyms.

 

[Galahad]

I could never read a whole book on a backlit device - it would cause too much strain on my vision.

But I think that's one of the things that makes the Kindle different. It's not a backlit device. The only "pixels" that are "lit" is the text. You need a light to read it in the dark, for example. It's claim to fame, if you will, is its ability not to cause eye strain.