Will we ever see an online ibooks/kindle library?

[glocke12]

I think ibooks and the kindle are great. The biggest plus for me is that I dont have to have a physical copy of a book taking up space.

The drawbacks for me are:

1) I think the e-versions of books are crazy expensive. Charging the same price for an ebook that a physical book costs is highway robbery.

2) I generally only read a book once, there are exceptions, but these are few and far between.

It seems to me that an online elibrary is the best of both worlds. Charge a fee to sign up, than charge one to bucks to rent or borrow a book.

 

[Streethawk]

I think ibooks and the kindle are great. The biggest plus for me is that I dont have to have a physical copy of a book taking up space.

The drawbacks for me are:

1) I think the e-versions of books are crazy expensive. Charging the same price for an ebook that a physical book costs is highway robbery.

2) I generally only read a book once, there are exceptions, but these are few and far between.

It seems to me that an online elibrary is the best of both worlds. Charge a fee to sign up, than charge one to bucks to rent or borrow a book.

Publishers just dont seem to get this. They seem to think they can have significantly lower costs, provide us with no physical copy, and yet charge the same. IMO this is the biggest barrier to eBooks currently, rather than reader technology.

 

[glocke12]

I agree. I think more books would be sold if they were half the price they are now...

Publishers just dont seem to get this. They seem to think they can have significantly lower costs, provide us with no physical copy, and yet charge the same. IMO this is the biggest barrier to eBooks currently, rather than reader technology.

 

[wingsabr]

good to know I'm not the only one. I would love to rent books like we do every other consumable media.

 

[3lionsbecks]

Interesting. Not a terrible idea.

They do it with movies so why not books?

My only question would be the rental period and how to determine the best amount of time.

I'm sure people will need different amounts of time to rent and it isn't just like a library because you don't always have to return it on time if you aren't done yet.

 

[tekchic]

My local library lends ebooks. The selection isn't the best, but I've found books I want to read on occasion. The problem though, is that they're Adobe DRM epubs, so I can't read them on anything but my old Sony Reader (which collects dust). I wish they'd get with the times and provide a lendable version for iPad/iPhone.

 

[Night Spring]

Wonderful idea. I'd love to rent books for $1~2 a book. I'd suggest no time limit on the rentals, but maybe something like if you hit the very last page, you can't go back.

 

[glocke12]

My only question would be the rental period and how to determine the best amount of time.

2 weeks seems reasonable i think...if you need more time rent another two week block of time..

 

[Michael CM1]

Publishers just dont seem to get this. They seem to think they can have significantly lower costs, provide us with no physical copy, and yet charge the same. IMO this is the biggest barrier to eBooks currently, rather than reader technology.

Tru dat. The reason digital music took off was it was cheaper by a longshot for people who didn't want to buy every song on an album. Most albums on iTunes are still $9.99, whereas you're lucky to find any CDs less than $14.

TV and movie studios still think we're stupid. We mostly just have the movie on iTunes available for purchase. Almost every crap movie has added special features on a DVD, but the iTunes ones are mostly sans that. Same goes with BD vs. the HD rentals, although that's even more insulting because of the quality difference.

And yes, ebooks are no different. Save maybe $2 even though you don't have to spend countless bucks on printing, shipping, shelving? We already have to pay upfront for a reader, which should mean we get more savings on the other end. Just don't buy as many of the more expensive ebooks and the publishers will learn.

 

[kenmarable]

Publishers just dont seem to get this. They seem to think they can have significantly lower costs, provide us with no physical copy, and yet charge the same. IMO this is the biggest barrier to eBooks currently, rather than reader technology.

I agree that cheaper ebook prices are needed (and rentals would be GREAT), I also know that the costs of physically printing books is a much smaller slice of the cost than most people estimate.

So, ebooks should be much cheaper because it's an emerging format, not because it is massively cheaper to produce ebooks than print books. The biggest way to lower the costs of books is to distribute themselves. Amazon and other bookstores are by far the largest piece of the pie.

Hopefully, ebooks will eventually increase sales enough that prices can stay down, but simply using electrons rather than paper still leaves the majority of the costs unchanged (i.e. writing, editing, typesetting, covert art, marketing/advertising, not to mention all of the home office overhead that has to be spread over the books).

 

[bella92108]

Publishers just dont seem to get this. They seem to think they can have significantly lower costs, provide us with no physical copy, and yet charge the same.

You need to take a class on Intellectual Property, and you'll understand. There is very very little cost in the printing of media, be it CD, DVD, or Book. You're buying the rights to the intellectual property. So say they were to discount it, it'd be like when you buy groceries and they give a 2 cent grocery bag discount if you bring your own. They could do that, but then how do they pay for the cost involved with the digital creation, etc. It's not free to have someone modify the book into digital format.

You have to think of it as buying someone's ideas, then it becomes more sensible to not get a discount when not getting something physical. If you are the kind of person who likes to keep a shelf of books, not getting a discount shouldn't alter your motive, you really should just buy the physical book.