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View Full Version : E-book market may be *really* small


surur
09-14-2003, 08:13 PM
Just spotted an article over at pocketpcaddict, referring to this story http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3440353

the part I found most interesting/disappointing was this part
"(On Wednesday) we sold 2,000 e-books. It was the largest retail day at Palm Digital Media in 2003, and we are having the largest month ever," Ryan WuerchMost, chief executive of privately held Web retailer PalmGear, said last week. PalmGear recently bought Palm Inc.'s digital publishing unit.


Only 2000 books per day! and 20 000 000 potential readers at least out there. PDM must definitely not have been making money, and the audience must be quite small. From here it seemed a much more attractive market, but I'm sure that kind of turnover is only equivalent to a large bookshop in a mall. Worrying really.

Any opinions? Am I reading this wrong?

Surur

hardcoredummy
09-15-2003, 01:58 AM
It's really small because of the price of the ebooks. You would think since you're cutting out actual production costs, distribution costs, middleman, and the overhead cost of an actual physical store, that ebooks would be dirt cheap.

disconnected
09-15-2003, 02:56 AM
I saw that article on Yahoo, and I thought the most disappointing number was the 500,000 ebooks sold in all of 2002. If that's true, we (PPCThoughts posters) must be a measurable segment of the market.

surur
09-15-2003, 01:38 PM
Thats the way I feel. If Im only one of, say, 2-300 regular customers of Peanut press I kind of feel I should be getting more personal attention :)

Surur

disconnected
09-15-2003, 04:47 PM
Exactly. I occasionally send emails to Peanut Press, authors, and publishing companies, requesting particular titles and authors. It hasn't been working too well so far, although Peanut Press and a couple of the authors have responded. Actually, the two authors who wrote back to me both said it was the publisher's decision whether or not to release ebooks; I think most authors are just grateful to be published at all now.

I have a mental picture of a meeting at a publishing house, where they're trying to decide which of their new books to release as ebooks, and someone is holding up a copy of my letter and saying that here is a devoted customer requesting a particular book and perhaps they ought to consider it. Probably not. :)

One of the authors I wrote to was Elizabeth George. I didn't get an answer, but her latest book was released as an ebook, so of course I wonder if she got a lot of requests, and whether it made a difference.

Janak Parekh
09-15-2003, 07:11 PM
On the other hand, let's not write it off yet. I get the feeling that 2002 was the first year people started actually sitting up and buying ebooks, and if my purchasing habits are any indication, we'll see a healthy jump this year. Everything has to start somewhere. ;)

--janak

bjornkeizers
09-17-2003, 08:43 AM
The market isn't small; it's just that the price is too high and the perceived value of the books is too low.

If I buy a book in a bookstore, I can lend it, borrow other books from other people, and when I'm done with it, I can sell it, donate it, or recycle it. I can't do that with Ebooks, but they cost the same!

I publish e-books as a hobby. Just looking at 8 books I published at Palmgear for the Palm, I get over 40.000 downloads on those books alone. Why? Because they're all freeware!

People love to read; and would love to read Ebooks on their devices.. but the price needs to be just right. If someone asks me: "what are the benefits of E-books?" I'd be hard pressed to name a few other then: you don't have to carry a big book around with you.

If they ask me about the down side; I tell them what we all know to be true: they're expensive, you can't resell them, you can't borrow books from others or lend them... so why would you pay the same for an Ebook? I can't think of a good reason..

If Ebooks would cost half as much as paperbacks, sales would skyrocket.

surur
09-17-2003, 10:45 PM
The market isn't small; it's just that the price is too high and the perceived value of the books is too low.


Actually I find e-books to be among the cheapest content on the internet, at usually less than 10 dollar for immediate gratification AND, depending on your reading speed, many days of entertainment. I find its well worth the money (if the book is good enough, that is...)

If I buy a book in a bookstore, I can lend it, borrow other books from other people, and when I'm done with it, I can sell it, donate it, or recycle it. I can't do that with Ebooks, but they cost the same!

Actually I never do any of those things with books. It may just be that my friends and family dont share my tastes, but all the printed matter I buy just end up accumulating dust and taking up space, of no use to anyone in any case.

I publish e-books as a hobby. Just looking at 8 books I published at Palmgear for the Palm, I get over 40.000 downloads on those books alone. Why? Because they're all freeware!

Thats nice, what genre do you write? I have downloaded a number of free e-books, but most Ive never gotten around to reading. I've read all the e-books Ive purchased. Often price is an indication of quality, or even saleability. If something is free it's use doesn't really tell you much.

People love to read; and would love to read Ebooks on their devices.. but the price needs to be just right. If someone asks me: "what are the benefits of E-books?" I'd be hard pressed to name a few other then: you don't have to carry a big book around with you.

If they ask me about the down side; I tell them what we all know to be true: they're expensive, you can't resell them, you can't borrow books from others or lend them... so why would you pay the same for an Ebook? I can't think of a good reason..


I dont think most people buy books with the intention to share them. Ebooks are much much more convenient that paper books. Its not the price of the books that are too high, its the price of the reader. If some-one released a subsidised reader for say, $20, tied in to a book distributor, I think it would sky rocket. Imagine a granny at a bus stop reading from her cheap slate. Or all the people in the bank queue

If Ebooks would cost half as much as paperbacks, sales would skyrocket.

Only if all the books in the world were free. People were able to make this calculation with MP3 players, where the player was $100-200, but the music was "free" and more convenient that CD's. If we preclude massive piracy of books, the only way to get that much growth is to make the reader alot cheaper.

I have a vision of Amazon doing for ebooks what apple did for music with the ipod and itunes. They have the clout to get all the publishers together, agree on a standard, and create a $100 reader (like a palm, slow processor, MMC card reader, big battery, color screen, cradle) which can be subsidised by the savings they make in stock control, shipping and distribution. If they sell it to avid readers it could pay itself back in a few months. I hope some-one does it some day.

Anyways, my 2c

Surur

hardcoredummy
09-18-2003, 04:37 AM
I have a vision of Amazon doing for ebooks what apple did for music with the ipod and itunes. They have the clout to get all the publishers together, agree on a standard, and create a $100 reader (like a palm, slow processor, MMC card reader, big battery, color screen, cradle) which can be subsidised by the savings they make in stock control, shipping and distribution. If they sell it to avid readers it could pay itself back in a few months. I hope some-one does it some day.


Why would anybody ever buy a dedicated reader when they can get a normal PDA that can do more than read? Heck, you can get an old Palm for $50 or less that can read all formats (if you install the proper software) AND do more.

No, i think the #1 reason why people don't buy ebooks is the price. When you don't have a phsyical object, it's psychologically harder to believe you're really purchasing something. I would agree with you, entertainment to value wise, ebooks are still cheap... when compared to such things as movies and time spent at the arcade. 2 hrs at the threatre is the same price as a book that you enjoy a full day.

And i don't know where you're getting the ebooks from, or your normal books from... but i've rarely seen deals like what you're mentioning. Average price of an ebook i've seen and bought is about $6 or so, almost exactly the same price as a softcover book.

surur
09-18-2003, 09:20 AM
Hardcoredummy, do you have an MP3 player, and how much did it cost. Can it play *all* the formats available. Does it do anything else at all?

If alot of people are willing to splash out $100 or more on such a limited device, they will be willing to pay for a dedicated reader. I'm not suggesting $100 through, but rather $20 or $50, subsidised. For alot of people the increased functionality of a dedicated PDA is actually a liability, due to decreased battery life and poorer reliability, increased price and more complexity. I dont see many grannies using PDA's do you? Alot of them read regularly though, going by what I see in my local library.

I did say most e-books are less than $10, six sounds about right, and that is very cheap. MY local cinema charges at least $10, and the movie is usually disappointing.

Surur

PetiteFlower
09-18-2003, 01:44 PM
My cousin's grandfather uses a PDA to read ebooks. It's a monochrome Palm thingie :)

bjornkeizers
09-18-2003, 09:18 PM
Actually I never do any of those things with books. It may just be that my friends and family dont share my tastes, but all the printed matter I buy just end up accumulating dust and taking up space, of no use to anyone in any case.


Neither do I, but there are plenty of people who do. Besides, you can't sell your old Ebooks.


Thats nice, what genre do you write?


Not much apart from the occasional pocket pc thoughts message :D I don't *write* the books, I *publish* them. I take free texts, for instance, Arthur Conan Doyle's excellent Sherlock Holmes storys, and convert these to Palm or Pocket PC compatible formats. For instance, I converted several Sherlock Holmes storys to MS reader format. I chopped the texts in chapters / storys, added the covers, illustrations, index, compile, proofread and upload. It takes a while to do it properly with all the trimmings, but it's definitely worth it. I used to publish exclusively for Palm, but MS reader is far more capable then most palm readers. Unfortunately, most of the books I made aren't on any site. These days, I mostly make books by special request.


I dont think most people buy books with the intention to share them. Ebooks are much much more convenient that paper books. Its not the price of the books that are too high, its the price of the reader. If some-one released a subsidised reader for say, $20, tied in to a book distributor, I think it would sky rocket. Imagine a granny at a bus stop reading from her cheap slate. Or all the people in the bank queue


Yes, the big problem today is indeed the cost of the reader. A pocket pc will cost at least $200 so it's hard to convince people to buy one for reading.

If they made a paperback-sized tablet device available for $50 with the ability to store say... 25 mb of files, and it could read your average DRM'ed .lit as well as .txt, .html and .pdb/.prc, then it would sell millions.

surur
09-18-2003, 09:38 PM
I dont think most people buy books with the intention to share them. Ebooks are much much more convenient that paper books. Its not the price of the books that are too high, its the price of the reader. If some-one released a subsidised reader for say, $20, tied in to a book distributor, I think it would sky rocket. Imagine a granny at a bus stop reading from her cheap slate. Or all the people in the bank queue


Yes, the big problem today is indeed the cost of the reader. A pocket pc will cost at least $200 so it's hard to convince people to buy one for reading.

If they made a paperback-sized tablet device available for $50 with the ability to store say... 25 mb of files, and it could read your average DRM'ed .lit as well as .txt, .html and .pdb/.prc, then it would sell millions.

I'm glad I've got some-one who agree with me on this. For us with PDA's already, its obviously a sunk cost, and therefore free, but I would never pay £400 just for a colour ebook reader with a small screen and poor battery life. This is also why I think some-one should offer a ebook reader for smart phones. Thats by the by though..


Actually I never do any of those things with books. It may just be that my friends and family dont share my tastes, but all the printed matter I buy just end up accumulating dust and taking up space, of no use to anyone in any case.


Neither do I, but there are plenty of people who do. Besides, you can't sell your old Ebooks.


I wonder how many people do share regularly, and make buying decisions because of this. Maybe some-one should do a poll about this?

Surur

davidspalding
09-19-2003, 07:20 PM
some publishers are greedy. i've written to fictionwise on titles that were about $19, even though the title was out in paperback or $6-11, right there on amazon.com. there was little that fictionwise could do but pass my complaint to the customer.

so these publishers have no call to blame consumers for the slow growth of eBooks.