Ooh, baby, baby it's a wild world / It's hard to get by, just upon a [single format of book in this new digital age]

Aw, e-books again? Alison is boring!

Sorry to beat this topic to death, but I came across an article that really got me thinking (via my following of Wil Wheaton [*swoon*] on Twitter).

The blog post deals with incentivizing bibliophiles to read on a Kindle. The author has, in my opinion, a great idea:

Allow Kindle owners to download (for free, ideally), every title that they've already bought in physical book form from amazon. Essentially, this idea is akin to when you first bought your iPod, and you spent the better part of a day ripping all of your cds into iTunes and then loading it all into the device.

After the initial back-library download, the idea would be that for every physical book you bought from amazon, you'd also get a downloadable Kindle version. Maybe it would be two or three dollars more, an add-on option at the checkout stage.

What do you think of that idea? I think it's pretty genius. It offers the immediate gratification of buying a story and being able to start reading it immediately, and it also then backs up your digital purchase with a good, old-fashioned, page-turnin' book, which you can put on your shelf and gaze at lovingly. You can read in either format, depending upon your mood and surroundings.

Kinda awesome, right?

So I got to thinking: How might Bleak House run with an idea like this? We don't have our own brand of e-reader, so we couldn't offer the same deal ... but what if we offered the deal backwards?

For every hard copy Bleak House title purchased at, say, and independent book store, the customer would receive not only the physical book, but a fancy card with a download code, good for a one-time visit to a website where you could grab an e-reader version of the same title.

Obviously, there are some details which we'd need to figure out: How, exactly, do we provide a one-time download code, and ensure that the downloaded file can't be passed along? Or, do we really care? Do we trust our readers not to pirate titles -- or, if they do share files, do we trust that the sharer will inspire the sharee to purchase and read more Bleak House books in the future? What about our authors? How do we figure out the royalty shares for the physical book and the e-book file, if we're giving one away with the purchase of the other? Should the price of the physical book be upped by a dollar or two, if the e-book file is included? Should it be an optional upgrade? Should this offer only be good with the purchase of a hardcover book, or should a trade paperback qualify, too? Should this offer only be good on books purchased at indie bookstores, as I've suggested above, or all purchases everywhere? Or only through the Bleak House website?

What do you think, Dead Guy readers? Would you be interested in this kind of program? What elements would be important to you? What details would deter you from participating?

(p.s. Related to my [very short, I'm sorry] blog post last week, I came across another person positing the benefits of Pixar movies to novel writing.)

Comments

[Maria]

Maria is boring. She is going to comment on ebooks again!

Having never had such an offer presented...I don't know if it interests me. It doesn't disgust me and I'm intrigued. :>)

Of course, being a frugal buyer I'm thinking immediately that I'd rather spend 3 to 6 bucks on fictionwise? (or other downloadable site) to download the e-book with an option to pay 5? or 10? bucks more within a week? to get the print copy (prices subject to...er, pricing.)

This is sort of the try a book to see if you like it. (BTW one of the reasons I will NOT read excerpts is because if I like the book, I then have to wait for it to arrive. I will only read excerpts for downloadable books!)

I also like the idea of "Buy this book in print copy" and for 5? bucks more get a download code for any one of these OTHER three titles. Yeah. Now THAT I really like. Sort of a buy AND try, throw another book into the cart so long as I'm already shopping. Maybe there's one book that I'm on the fence about. So I buy one...and I get the other immediately downloadable. Hey, immediate? Maybe I'll get the one I originally couldn't live without and have the second one send to me print!

Hmm.

But even as stated--it's not a bad idea at all because if I had a kindle? I'd definitely be interested. Even without a kindle, if I could download the book and start reading, it'd be okay if I got the print copy later!

P.S. I'm not entirely sure, but...all my current books might not FIT on a kindle...just how big is that hard drive anyway?

[Maria]

P.S. Please don't limit it to indie bookstores. At least make it available from your own website. I don't shop at indie bookstores often (the nearest is 45 minutes away, bad traffic, little parking). I don't order online from them because of taxes/shipping.

PS again. For me, the offer would have to be trade or other paperback. I don't buy hard cover anymore (I never bought very many). I simply buy too many books to buy hardcover. If the largest buyer of hardcover is libraries, selling an ebook copy with the hardcover may not be the right audience...

[LKC]

I think Penguin was considering doing something like this about six months ago and I know I commented on it then...

This seems backward to me. Here's how I buy books:

If I already know I am going to want to buy and keep a book (because of the author, recommendation from a trusted source, etc), I buy the print copy. I like print better. It's not as practical or as inexpensive, but I *like* it.

If I am iffy on a book, I download a sample from Amazon, or from the author's website, or from anywhere I can get my hands on it, and try it out. Then depending on how I feel about it, I will either buy it in print or ebook format.

If I can't find an excerpt, or it's a debut author, or someone I've never read and don't know how I will feel about, I buy the ebook version. It's less expensive, so I don't feel horrid if I don't love the book. (Of course if I really hate it, I can't throw it against the wall, but I can live with that.)

I also buy ebooks if I want to read a book that's only out in hardcover. I read fast. I frequently find myself without paperbacks available that I haven't already read and I don't like to re-read (with very few exceptions), so sometimes I will buy an e copy of a book that's out in hardcover that under normal circumstances I'd wait for in paperback. (And then there are the authors I'll buy in ebook AND hardcover just because HCs are hard to carry around and I collect the authors, but I am down to three authors in that category.)

Anyway, all that is to say that, like Maria, I'd rather get a coupon for $$ off the print version if I buy the ebook. Because if I really like the ebook, I am going to want the print version, but if I like the print version I don't really need the ebook (except in those very rare cases where the HC is really for a collection and not for reading).

[Patricia Abbott]

Since I have yet to figure out how to download onto my MP3 player, I am skittish about buying anymore electronic stuff.

[Juanita Rose Violini]

I don't know if I'll ever like ebooks although many people do. To me it's just adding a middleman and I can live without that. If I want to read something fast I'll get it out of the library and then if I like it, I buy it. To be dependant on a device to read a book is ridiculous to me.

That said, when my book comes out in October, if it will sell more as an ebook, or better yet, an iphone application, I hope the publishers make it available that way.