Comments | x_bluerose_x: Public e-book poll

x_bluerose_x

Public e-book poll

Feb 23, 2007 14:25

Poll Ebooks

Edit: If you have never before purchased an ebook and you had the option of buying one, what would make you decide to do so? Please comment and let me know. :)

reading, books, writing

Comments 25

mamarose February 23 2007, 19:41:10 UTC

I knew the author, and one of the characters was roughly based on me, so it was a no brainer for me to buy it in whatever format it came out in. The problem was that I had to either read 150 pages on the screen (not easy on the eyes) or print up 150 pages on my printer (not easy on the ink/paper supply ( ... )

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 19:47:37 UTC

My publisher does both (http://www.aphroditesapples.com) but e-book to start. They're pretty new. :)

I am extremely Internet savvy and have the blessings of Hermes. If I really didn't care about who knew that I wrote this book, I could put it up in particular communities and get a serious amount of people knowing about the book and probably purchasing it, if nothing else out of curiousity. It IS about a devotee of Apollo (which would increase the appeal in Pagan communities I'm sure) so odds are likely I can market this thing, no problem.

What I am wondering is if there are places online where these normally are marketed, sold, et cetera. It's a pretty new medium but it's starting to become pretty popular and I know that I've bought my share of e-books. I'm also a geek. ;) I figure the more avenues I know of in order to advertise this, the better.

My book is due out in the spring and I'm nearly done with the manuscript.

mamarose February 23 2007, 19:53:08 UTC

I am WAY behind in following along with your book progress (I simply haven't been around on the internet). I think your book will be much more successful than my friend's was. For a lot of reason -better written, more interesting, much deeper into the internet age so this isn't so new of an idea in general.

Regardless, if I have the money, I'll be purchasing it ASAP. I cannot wait to read it!

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 19:58:14 UTC

I'm pretty close to completion. The week after next week I have off, so any additional writing/editing I need to do before I hand it off to my editor will take place then. So VERY glad to have that week off, I tell you. This is like having two jobs.

I hope that you'll like it! My beta readers have been extremely forthright in their opinions and not afraid to piss me off or state what they think and they've been pretty positive about it so far. It's definitely an unusually put together cross-genre piece but I think it'll appeal to a wide variety of people depending on how it's marketed.

Really, my dream is to nab as many former fans of Laurell K. Hamilton's works and then I have it made. :)

Thread 6

alcinoe February 23 2007, 19:54:32 UTC

I know about ebooks, but I couldn't tell you how I found out. I know of a free library of them, but nothing else.

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 19:59:38 UTC

I wouldn't be giving mine away for free--but I will be having contests and what-not in which I'll be giving some of these away once it's been published.

alcinoe February 23 2007, 20:03:47 UTC

I figured you would be selling them :) I just never persued it because reading books in that format hurts my eyes. I tried reading one on my palm and it killed my eyes, and I have trouble focusing on my papers for school when I try to edit it on the computer.

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 20:11:26 UTC

Yeah, I figure this will be good for people with laptops and desktops. I have very good eyes and read on my palm all the time--at this current assignment it's a necessity or I'd have no email access during work.

brontosproximo February 23 2007, 19:56:30 UTC

I have read literally hundreds of electronic texts in .txt format from Project Gutenberg. The convenience of loading a dozen books into my palmtop is wonderful. It's really the only reason I still have a palmtop.

But I've never bought an e-book.

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 20:00:28 UTC

I have. But as a programmer I spend a stupid amount of time on the computer. Then there's the ability to carry these things on a single cell phone versus chugging them along on a plane with me and I do a LOT of traveling these days.

brontosproximo February 23 2007, 20:10:25 UTC

If there are no illustrations, even a lengthy novel is less than a meg. That's small enough for a cell phone!

That's why I prefer .txt generally.

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 20:11:52 UTC

My book is almost a meg with no illustrations.

Thread 6

cktraveler February 23 2007, 20:24:09 UTC

A lot of RPG books are out of print but still available through "ebook malls" -- RPGNow, Warehouse e23, and DriveThru RPG. I can find books there that I can't find anywhere else, and in the first two cases they're far cheaper.

I've never purchased fiction this way, though, only gaming books. I have a handful of ebooks from the Baen Free Library, but I do most of my reading on public transit, which doesn't do me any good until I can afford a laptop.

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 20:31:38 UTC

I've purchased out of print and hard to come by books in this manner too--that's how I was able to obtain them. Sometimes I see them sold on ebay for a reasonable price and I'll happily buy.

brontosproximo February 23 2007, 20:31:47 UTC

You can pick up a cheap palmOS or windows CE machine for <$100 now. If all you're doing is reading e-texts it's plenty powerful.

x_bluerose_x February 23 2007, 20:39:51 UTC

Heck I have an old Palm or two I don't use, somewhere....

Thread 5

firefly124 February 23 2007, 21:17:51 UTC

There's giant posters around the library at school advertising ebooks via the college bookstore's website.

What would make me decide to buy an ebook is probably if that were the only format in which I could get it. I imagine I'll be less resistant to buying them when I have something smaller than a desktop to read them on, someday.