Know Better eBook Survey

[Tycho Morgan]

<a href="http://knowbetter.com/survey.asp">http://knowbetter.com/survey.asp</a> <br /><br />You probably know that Pocket PC thoughts isn't the only project that occupies my copious (ha!) free time. Among other things, I do work editing, and publishing ebooks, and its for that reason that eBooks are one of my focuses for Pocket PC thoughts. I got a message today from Kelly Ford of <a href="http://knowbetter.com/">KnowBeter.com</a>, informing me of a survey that Know Better is conducting on the needs of the eBook market. <br /><br />It's been our general impression that there are two problems with eBooks as they are now. The first is that technology simply isn't as ubiquitous as it needs to be for eBooks to become viable in a wide market. The second problem is that the marketing, the pricing, and the copy protection that eBook publishers have been using until this point present readers with no clear advantage and several disadvantages. Its for this reason that I think this survey is worthwhile: the eBook publishers need to know what readers want in order to tailor their product properly. The next step is getting the publishers to pay attention to the results of the survey, which won't be an easy task.<br /><br />"No product or concept can be successful if it ignores the needs of its users, and ebooks are no exception. In fact, some would argue that the lukewarm reception by consumers in general toward the ebook concept is proof that the industry has so far failed to address the needs of its market."<br /><br />"However, there is no generally available data on those needs are. So far, there has been a noticeable lack of real information about how ebooks are used and who is using them. So, KnowBetter.com has established a survey of ebook users in an effort to help readers, the media, publishers, and manufacturers better understand the needs of this market."<br /><br />"We plan to publish the results of the survey and we're hoping to get as large a response pool as possible... Whether you're an industry "insider" or not, as long as you're an ebook user/reader, we'd like to hear from you."

[disconnected]

Well, ebook prices do seem high, and DRM is definitely a pain, but the only thing that really keeps me from buying lots more ebooks is just that there aren't more of them available. When an author I really like writes a new book, the only reason I wait for the paperback version is that the hardcover is too big to carry around. If it's available as an ebook, I buy it.

[burmashave]

Take a look at Peanut Press: http://www.peanutpress.com/

They have thousands of titles, and their offering is constantly growing. The fact that their offering is growing tells me that consumers and publishers are pretty happy with their DRM. A good percentage of their new ebooks are new print releases.

I think their DRM system is elegant. After you download the ebook file, you "unlock" it by entering your name and credit card number. You only need to do this once, after that the ebook is permanently unlocked on that machine. You can install each book on as many machines as you like; however, you have to share your credit card number to do so. There is no central tracking authority, and none of the aggravation associated with registering with MS.

As to price, I would not expect that first run books are going to be available cheaply even in electronic format. For the most part Peanut Press books are a bit cheaper, but they are not sold at bargain basement prices.

I don't know the economics of publishing; however, I would guess that printing makes up a small percentage of the price of a first run book. Plus, publishers are going to charge a premium until they are assured that electronic publishing is not going to cost them in terms of illegal copying. As eBooks become more popular, I would expect prices to come down some.

Peanut Press is a Palm operation; however, their book reader is available for Pocket PC, and I think it is much better than MS Reader.

I have purchased several of their books. Some are references -- a style guide and some coding references, but most are current fiction and nonfiction. They may not be that much cheaper than print; however, they are cheaper, and I find that reading an eBooks is more convenient (backlight and portability) than reading print.

-Will

[Pegasus9]

Forgive me while I vent my frustration about ebooks....

For eBooks that use Microsoft Reader: There needs to be a better way to deal with the activation issue. Right now I can read nothing on my PocketPC becuase I am out of quotas (You only get 4). These quotas were eaten up by a couple of hard resets and a PocketPC I no longer own. :x

Even if I wanted to I could not deactivate anything to get another quota. There is no facility to do so.

So until eBooks figure a way to handle this mess (I requested an additional quota three days ago with no reponse yet) I for one am not buying anymore.

I have never had a paperback tell me I couldn't read it due to lack of activation.

[JMountford]

I am not at all a big E Book fan for a few Major Reasons.
1. Hardware-- There are no decent Cheap E Book readers out there.
Here is what I want.... at least a 4 by 6 color screen. It does not need to be high (62,000 +) colors but it would be nice. It would need to have a CF Slot for book storage. The OS doesn't matter sence it is just a reader, but it should support most major E formats. It should have back lighting or side lighting of some sort for reading in bed. The light should be adjustable with a jog dial for ease of use. It should use removable recharagable batteries and run off of an AC Adaptor. It should be able to sync to a computer but would not be neccessary if it came with a cheap CF card reader for the computer.
The thing certainly needs to stay under 200.00 US

2. Books-- There needs to be a much higher number of best sellers and other literature.

Some kind of Library format needs to be set up for "Checking Out" books. Most people only read a book once or twice and having to pay rediculous prices for something you will read once is insane. I go to the Library when I want to read a book. If it is a new book they don't have yet I just request that they buy it. Nine times out of ten they do.


I would love to see magazine subscriptions for E books.

3. Security-- DRM makes using books a PITA some times and certainly detracts from the enjoyment of a book.

Summary.. My biggest thing is trying to read a book on a 2x3 1/2 screen.

[disconnected]

PeanutPress is great (DRM not bad at all, and the software is faster and less cumbersome than Microsoft Reader....opens to most recent page/book even if app has been closed), but they can only sell what the publishers publish, and there aren't nearly enough books. Current mysteries (not horror/thriller) are my light reading of choice (to be honest, most of my reading, period), and even on PeanutPress, after you weed out the romance, sci-fi, business, and pop-psychology, there is not enough left.

The last time I was in a Barnes and Noble store (I'm there very frequently) I saw at least six new hardcover mysteries that I wanted. It wasn't the price that stopped me, because I'm pretty extravagant where books are concerned, but the fact that hardcovers are just not portable enough. If they had been available as ebooks, I would have bought them all immediately.

As far as hardware, while PocketPC screens are a little small for some textbooks, etc. (my husband is trying to read a java book, and code examples are not optimized for a small screen so they spill over several pages), for text they seem fine to me. At first I was very conscious of the relatively small amount of text per page, but after a few minutes I pretty much forgot about it, and now I hardly notice.

I guess it's mostly publishers that are dragging their feet, but I wonder if writing to authors to suggest that they publish their books as ebooks would do any good. I don't know anything about the economics of book publishing, but it sure seems like it wouldn't be very expensive to make more books available on demand as ebooks, large-print books, etc.

[mtskibum]

I bought my HP Jornada 548 last year at this time. One of the reasons why I bought it was to read ebooks. However, within the last 6 months I have been blown off by Microsoft. When I go to Barnes and Noble or Amazon to buy an ebook in Microsoft Reader format, it only works with the Pocket PC 2002. They have a small selection that work with my "old" Pocket PC, but not the new books I want. So, because of Microsoft and their upgrades, I have to buy a new Pocket PC.

Fortunately, I found out about Peanut Press from you guys and downloaded the Palm Reader for Pocket PC. It works great and they have the newer titles that I am looking at buying right now at Peanut Press.

Ebooks are a wonderful invention, but we as consumers need to let our voices heard. How hard is it really to come up with one standard or even two that all ebooks are published in and can be read by machines that are only a year old as well as new machines? It just doesn't make sense.

Thank you to Pocket PC Thoughts for helping me find a way around the Microsoft fiasco.