Do you often pay for your ebooks and Audiobooks or do you try to find free versions/deals? I have no problem paying full price for an actual book, but when it comes to the digital versions I find it very hard to not just pay full price, but pay at all. Even not counting with free pirated versions, it seems like there are always so many deals going online that if you wait just a bit it will come up for about half the price.
Yeah, you can definitely find a lot of deals on e-books, even the more popular or new ones. I'm all right paying for them, although I tend to forget that I even own them unless I'm constantly accessing them. I'm not much of a reader, but I do prefer physical books and feel they're more valuable for the price you pay.
Deals or no deals, there are numerous free books which one can download [legally on the net]. I hardly ever read newer books because I have this mindset that new writers are not great writers. They just recycle old stories. Since I go straight to the source [old books] most of which can be downloaded free, I hardly ever pay for any of my ebooks. If I heard that a new ebook was really good though, then quite naturally I'd try to find the best deal. I don't mind buying a book if it's new [and good].
If the book is not available for free (legally), I pay. But even then I do a thorough online search to find the best deals. Still, I'm not a big fan of ebooks - I like reading hardcover books and then, once I finish, putting them on my library shelves. I also find that many ebooks, if not written by a well known author, tend to be garbage. Because all of us can write an ebook, but not all of us can print a book.
I rarely pay for ebooks. There are so many classics that are available for free that are such good stories I am not really interested in spending money on a newer story when I don't even know if it is a good one yet. I like to let other people read books first and then find out which ones were good and endured. Very selfish of me I guess, but oh well. Ebooks don't seem to have all that much value to me I guess. Since there is nothing there substance wise, it just feels like it might disappear into thin air at any time and be gone. It's kind of weird, but that's how I feel about just about anything digital, like it's only kind of real.
My local library has an amazing selection of ebooks available. You check them out like a regular library book via the website, and in a minute or two it's right there on your e-reader! I love this program because I never forget to return a book, which means no late fees or holds on my account. It's great! I don't know how common this is at libraries, but I really love having this option available to me and I hope it becomes a more widespread thing.
I have a nook and I enjoy using it. I can carry hundreds (I do have hundreds of books on my Nook) in my purchase and can access any one of them at any time. I have bought a few e-books, but mostly ones that were on sale. I prefer to read free e-books. Most of the classics are free, as no one holds the copyright for them, and many new authors offer up their materials for free, as they are just trying to get their name out there. There are some quality free e-books available. I do have a problem paying full price for an e-book, however. An e-book should not cost the same as a hardcopy (or more in some cases), in my opinion. Yes, the people involved and labor costs were the same. However, you should be able to take some money off of an e-book because there are no printing and bindings costs involved with an e-book.
E-books are often already discounted of the original print price, so I've never really hassled with paying the price on the e-books. As you said, you can look around for the cheap deals or pirate them, but I've never really bothered with doing so. Books aren't like music either where you could easily find 10 bands and 100 songs that you really like and absolutely can't afford to spend $100 by paying for it. I consider myself a pretty avid reader and I end up spending about $20-$25 on books a month, which is an expense I can live with.
I prefer to pay a few dollars for an e-book or free. The maximum I have paid is $2.99 and most are either free or $0.99. Many sites offer them discounted for a period of time or free in exchange for a review. It's not the same as having the book in your hand, even though you have all the content. I look at e-books as an additional or spare copy of something, but I haven't found a book that I would rather have as an e-book, though if it was a law book, then I would because the price would be considerably cheaper and the version would be up to date. That's the good thing with e-books, you can get the updated version much faster.
I don't mind paying for e-books but I prefer spending money on an actual book to expand my collection. As you said, there are many deals online that will help you get the most bang for your buck. And oh guys, don't go for pirated versions.
Supposing you were searching for a certain and there's one site [not a torrent or file-sharing site] where you can download it free, would you opt to find the e-book elsewhere, say on Amazon, because you don't know if the pdf is a pirated copy of the e-book? When I find such books, I normally download them without asking questions.
I never paid for an ebook, but I will buy a physical book if I can't find a pdf version of it, so that means I really want that book to the point that I would buy it. I think it would just be stupid not to avail of the free stuff that's being offered online, so I just download free ebooks from torrent sites.
I have never bought an eBook online, I had a Kindle that came with 500 free coins, and can you believe that the coins expired before I could use them? that is to show you the extent at which I do not buying anything in the app store. Quick question guys, what happens when you buy an eBook, but accidentally delete it-can you get it back?
If you buy an eBook from Amazon, it stays in the cloud and you can re-download it at any time. After spending 8 hours moving my 2 floor to ceiling (some double shelved) bookcases worth of books, I want to replace them all with Kindle versions asap. Unfortunately some of them are older and don't have Kindle versions. Authors often give away the Kindle versions of their books, at least for a weekend, I've gotten quite a few I really wanted that way. I will spend a small amount on an ebook I really want.
I'm huge fan of eBooks for all the reasons that sthrngypsy mentioned above. My wife prefers real books and has bookcases all over the house crammed with books that we eventually give away to the hospital auxiliary or Salvation Army thrift store. I much prefer eBooks because I have them forever, neatly stored in the Cloud and accessible whenever I want to read them again. The other reason I prefer eBooks is that I prefer larger size type and my readers or tablet can provide the larger type size that I prefer. Another handy feature is eReader sizes, it's easy to slip my 7" Kobo or my 5" Sony into a shirt pocket when I'm waiting in a Doctor's office or the Hospital lab. They are thin and lightweight, conveniently portable.
No, I pay for everything, music and books. I hate how the technological advances has turned everyone into a bunch of entitled thieves. It sickens me. Those people deserve to be compensated for their work. If it's good enough for you to want to read, watch and listen to, then it should be good enough for you to pay for it.
I hear you sthrngypsy. I have moved every year for the past four years. I am so tired of lugging books around. The only e-reader I have is a first-generation Nook. It was an amazing gift when I first got it, but e-readers have come so far, it's kind of a dinosaur now. I have either sold or donated all of the books I could stand to part with for emotional reasons. I used to have several bookshelves worth. The best way to move books, I have found, is in those reusable shopping bags. The handles make them easy to carry and they will save you money on boxes if you ever have to move again.
There are a lot of free kindle books on the app store to keep someone busy. I generally buy ebooks around two dollars or less. I do not like buying audiobooks but there is an app called Librivox which has a some selected titles that you can hear for free. I prefer to read out of my ebook when I am traveling, so my choice of entertainment is not very limited. I have a large selection in my tablet that I look forward to enjoying. I will never buy an electronic textbook because it is way overpriced.
I think you misunderstand . Legitimate sites like Smashwords are outlets for new authors. The authors choose what their book will sell for. It's common practice for new authors to offer their first book FREE or even several books FREE to gain a fan base. The do request that readers critically review their books and often SELL sequels to the original book. No one is stealing their work or cheating them. Other eBook sellers offer books of long-dead authors for FREE.
I don't really mind if I need to pay for an ebook especially if the book is something that I really want to have. However, because there are so many free versions, deals, and even pirated downloadables online, I sometimes have second thoughts on shelling out money. I would rather spend money on actual books even if they are just from thrift stores. I feel that they are worth the money compared to ebooks.
