From Nathan Bransford:
I first launched this poll in 2007, when Amazon’s first Kindle had just been released and iPads didn’t even exist yet. Now we have gadgets and gizmos aplenty, though paper has held on strong. It’s been interesting through the years to get the pulse of e-book optimism and pessimism.
My usual caveats to pre-empt the comments:
- Yes, I know this isn’t a scientific poll.
- Yes, I am aware it’s even less scientific to compare very different audiences and sample sizes through time.
- Yes, I know that you want more poll options because one of these doesn’t precisely capture all of the nuances of your e-book and print book tendencies. Choose the one that’s closest!
Link to the rest at Nathan Bransford
Here is Nathan’s sole polling question:
Will you ever buy mostly ebooks?
Will you ever buy mostly ebooks? Do you already?
You can pry my paper books out of my cold dead hands
I welcome our coming e-book overlords
Maybe. If it’s affordable and the technology looks cool.
I still have no idea
Click on the link above if you wish to participate.
While PG is not a big fan of overlords, he thinks the e-book overlords are much better than the printed book overlords.
What am I using the book for? Research and repeated referencing? Print unless it is so horribly expensive that renting it and taking notes by hand while reading on my e-reader are justified. Fiction? Probably e-book. Fun, inexpensive non-fiction? Probably e-book. Classroom reference? Print, print, print.
I’ve been reading mostly ebooks since 1999. In the last few years, I’ve come to resent being forced to read a print edition.
This year I simply refused to read a book if it wasn’t available as an ebook…and if the ebook was in Kindle Unlimited, I also refused.
I just don’t have time to read in the way that someone else is dictating. I just move on to the next book.
(So, as an author, I try very hard to provide books in as many formats, locations and means of access as possible.)
I am furiously scratching my head, trying to figure out your reasoning for not touching a book that is in KU.
You are still perfectly able to purchase any book that is in the KU library. (I have many such, that I read first through KU, and decided that they are good enough that I want a copy to read any time I wish, without returning anything. Win-win for me and the author – I wasted no money on a book that I did not like – they received income from my page reads, and from my purchase.)
Now, a book that is in KU is Amazon exclusive, which exclusivity might explain your attitude – but the fact that a book is not in KU does not mean that it is not Amazon exclusive. There are many, many books on Amazon that are exclusive to that site, but are not in Kindle Unlimited. It’s a business choice for authors/publishers – deciding that being in the KU library is not in their best financial interests – but that being Amazon exclusive for the higher royalty rate is a smart financial move.
It computes: it’s most likely not exclusivity but rather that ebooks in KU are 99.99% indie titles.
Visualize 2000 book boxes in storage, and a small 1812 cabin that’s hard to find pathways to walk through.
Unless it’s collectible, illustrated, or useless for lookup in ebook form (e.g., dictionaries), it’s entering the household as an ebook if an ebook edition exists.
I don’t have my husband’s data, but for the past decade at least, my ebook acquisition is circa 400/year, and his is at least as bad — call it a joint 1000/year..
Yes, yes, I’m sure there’s an appropriate medical term for this activity… 🙂