EBooks for EReaders

There are millions of eBooks available for you to read on PC, laptop, or your new eBook reader, more commonly called an eReader. Your local bookseller may have many of the books you want to buy in digital format at prices above or below the suggested retail price of a traditionally printed book. In this second part in the series reviewing eBooks and eReaders you are offered a different perspective on the current state of the eBook market and those who serve it.

A computer or other digital display device with internet or wifi access is needed to access most of this vast digital library, and you must have an eReader that will display the file format of the book you want to read. All of the tested eReaders will display more than just the seller's proprietary file formats, but, with the exception of the Apple Ipad, none will display the formats of major competition. As an example, the tested Sony eReader would not display Barnes and Nobles format and the Nook would not display the Sony format. Neither of the eReaders would display the Amazon Kindle format. A true "catch 22".

The majority of the eBooks available are books that have entered the public domain after their copyrights have expired. These books were written before 1923, so there aren't as many best sellers and other new titles as might be expected. On the plus side there are many great classics available at astonishingly low prices, and in some cases absolutely free.

As mentioned earlier, the promoters of the most advertised eReaders use proprietary file formats which places limits on who can read them. This may be a great way to induce readers to not only buy the high priced eReaders, but it keeps the price of eBooks artificially high as well. It's doubtful if charging more than a fair price for a book that doesn't really exist is good for consumers or businesses in the long run.

Not all books are available from all sources. As an example, a search was conducted for David Poyer's 2004 novel The Command. At amazon.com the 2004 edition paperback costs $6.99 and the same edition for the Kindle is $6.99. At Barnes & Noble a 2005 edition paper back with the same title is $6.29 and their Nook book 2007 edition is higher at $6.99. The Command is not found at Apple's iBook store, at Sony's online book store, and was not available at three other online eBook stores, eBooks.com, free-ebooks.net, or diesel-ebooks.com. Although there are over 63 million hits from an internet search for eBook stores, it appears the pickin's are truly slim.

As noted above, price levels for eBooks, and the methods used to set those prices are quite diverse. At some sites you have to subscribe for the chance to buy a book, and at others price levels are set based on the file format purchased so you may be faced with several prices for the same book. If you want to buy a best seller or other popular title you will find the price will probably be somewhere between the price of the hard cover and paperback editions.

Methods of pricing eBooks are almost as diverse as there are places to buy digital publications. There are specific costs associated with publishing traditionally bound books, but sometimes the costs to publish an eBook aren't completely clear. It is doubtful digital publishing costs are near those of traditional book publishing because, as yet, there is not one industry standard and this helps keep retail prices high.

Best sellers, other popular titles and many educational texts available as eBooks are available only from retailers of traditional books such as Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Even Apple's pairing with Google's eBook project hasn't produced much more than another listing of "classics". Publishers and eBook sellers also seem to be enjoying an unfair advantage over their customers by limiting what can be done with an eBook. Not a top money maker when you consider that frequently the traditionally bound book costs less than the digital version.

Pricing the eBook between the hardcover and paperback editions is a unique way for publishers to increase their profit margin. The cost to publish and sell a traditional bound book is much more than paper, ink, and labor. The publisher must consider royalties to the author, warehousing, transportation, marketing, overhead, and a fair profit for owners or any investors.

The concrete costs such as printing, transportation, warehousing, etc. are 10 to 15 percent of total costs to publish a book, and because there are none of these costs associated with an eBook you'd expect the digital copy to be priced lower than the lowest priced print edition, but it just isn't so. For the most part, consumer price points have been set artificially high at levels between hardcover and paperback editions.

Another pricing option exercised by Amazon.com is to base the retail price on the age of the edition. Amazon creates their own modern editions of books that are in the public domain by just stating in the ad and in the digital copy that it is the Kindle 2009 (or other year) edition then charge what appears to be a super low price. What's the problem with this, you ask? No a real problem, but it is very disingenuous of them, perhaps even misleading when you consider the book is in the public domain and the same title by the same author is free from other sources. To Amazon's credit, however, they do offer many classics for free download.

What do you do with an eBook after you've read the last paragraph, and wiped away the last tear over the happy ending? Unlike a traditionally printed book it just goes back on the digital shelf until you want to read it again. What? You didn't think it was good enough to read a second time? Well, too bad because you can't trade it in, can't sell it at a yard sale or even give it away to a friend or charity. In some instances the books can be loaned to someone who has the identical eReader or computer software, but look out for the end of the loan period - your book disappears from your friend's hands as if by magic. Sony and Barnes & Noble both have introduced a feature that permits borrowing from your public library, but you are still faced with finding the book you want in a digital format and in a format your eReader will display.

So, what's the score?

eBooks can be read from dedicated eReaders, PCs, laptops, netbooks and tablets, but because there are more than a dozen formats for eBook publishing you must own software for each format you want to read which creates quite a clutter no matter how large your hard drive.

All in all, prices for best sellers and other popular books appear inflated when compared to their traditionally bound relatives because many of the costs to print a book don't exist for their digital cousins. Most eBooks available is in the public domain and were first published well before 1923. Publishers and those who sell their books are slow to enter the digital age and the methods they are using are more about higher margins than about providing their books to the widest possible audience. Gutenberg may be rolling over in his grave.