DISQUS

Kirk Yuhnke · 7 months ago

I agree, books HAVE to be cheaper in the digital form. Afterall, the distribution cost is SO much smaller. Seems like highway robbery when they charge the same even though there is nothing to print and no paper to buy. None the less, I think devices like the Kindle are the future of newspapers and magazines. If not, they're going to disappear! Books won't go away anytime soon but I do see people taking advantage of having 20 books in their backpack. My wife has a Kindle and loves it! She bought Alice in Wonderland for 25 cents the other day! Can't beat that!

Thom Allen · 7 months ago

Hey Kirk,

Yeah, I'm one of those that have several books and mags in their bag at any one time. But it's so heavy. Like to offload them to a digital device.

John Wang · 7 months ago

I do have a Kindle, I can do understand the problem you're having. It's basically an issue of spending money and not getting something physical back. It probably doesn't bother me so much when I pay for iPhone Apps and other downloadable software anyways.

But back to books. I completely see you point on the whole reselling part. I think it's actually an even bigger issue that Amazon needs to address for Textbooks that they're pushing on college students with the new Kindle DX. A large part of the way I got through school was by reselling used textbooks to buy the following year's textbooks. So that's definitely something they'll need to figure out. I can't see many students needing to keep years of textbooks that they're not going to use.

Another thing that I see being valuable, would be to borrow/rent books for a much lower cost than buying. Kind of the same model Apple has for renting movies on the iTunes store. I think Amazon should implement something similar for books. Either that, or find a way to partner up with some Libraries. You can always opt to go borrow a book from the public library for free instead. It's definitely an option.

What I do like about the Kindle, is the page saving, notes i can type in and also highlight then later go to Amazon.com to download them. That's very useful for reference. Not so useful for just casual book reading.

Thom Allen · 7 months ago

John, I never thought about College books, but you are correct. I'm an advocate of using digital text in the classroom. It's cheaper and no student would go without. It's crazy that in 2009, my student has to share a text book. Publishers are way over pricing their books. As for college students, being able to sell back used books to partially finanance the next semesters lot is hindered with a digital copy.

However, if a student only had to pay $1 for a digital copy of a text that expired at the end of the semester, now that's a model. I think there is a lot of room for improvements. The old establishment of book publishers and printers will have to face the music like newspapers are doing.

John Wang · 7 months ago

I see more of a problem to be what you can and cannot do with the book once you're done reading it. With a physical book, you can swap/trade, resell, donate, lend to someone else. With the Kindle version, it's basically, you're done, you're stuck with it. That's it. I can't totally complain about it, because it's the same as buying music on the iTunes store. You buy it, listen to it and that's it. Whereas a CD you can lend to someone else, resell it or trade it. Can't really do that with Digital music. Well, you can, but I'm saying legally. That's what I see becoming the biggest issue right now. And the iTunes store has taken off pretty well. So maybe Amazon just needs some time for people to get into the same habit.

rolandksmith · 7 months ago

I've been toying with getting a Kindle for a while. The new larger size is good. The lack of color is still a show-stopper for me, though. I'd like to get some, if not all, of my magazines in Kindle form and color is important. Most of the magazines I get end up in the recycle bin and not having to throw them away would be goodness. I strongly feel that the digital version of the book should be at least 20% less than the dead-tree version (same with magazines), and that should not impact the author's take (I fear the publishers would pass the whole cost reduction on to the creator). I do have the Kindle software on my iPhone and find it's just "OK". The screen needs to be a bit larger for these 64-year-old eyes. (For some reason, Disqus isn't responding to me, so I'm having to comment as guest)

Karen Ahlstrom · 7 months ago

Orson Scott Card has talked a lot about this issue from the Author's point of view -- and he essentially thinks the way you do -- that the digital book should be less expensive. He also thinks that the author should get a larger percentage of that lower price so that selling books digitally isn't taking money away from the author. http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2...

Thom Allen · 7 months ago

Agreed. I think the authors should get more because the expense of production is considerably less for the publisher. I'm glad Orson Scott Card see it that way too. I'd love to have more of his books in digital format.

Alan · 7 months ago

My books are selling better on Kindle than anywhere else. On Amazon.com my books are around US$15 in print or $4 on Kindle. I couldn't imagine charging the same. And Kindle sales are still sales that are building up my readership, which is what I'm after.

Webshoptimizer - Matt · 6 months ago

I don't think Kindle will be permanent. I mean, it's great to bring a pile of books with you this way on a vacation. But I prefer to read the news and articles everyday on all those other devices e.g. phone, PC, TV, paper...