Quote:
Originally posted by
Incendiaire
Ebooks annoy me; you have a document, you either send it to a printer to have it emblazoned onto sheets of paper, or you let the consumer download it directly, yet somehow the physical copy is cheaper? It's ridiculous.
OK, it's late, I haven't slept & I have a migraine, so I am sorry if the following comment is rambling & disjointed!
I know when I first was looking at e-books, the promise was that they would be cheaper. But, what also drew me was the supposed customization options, such as font and size selections. Well, the selection of fonts is rarely available and as far as I can tell, is dependent on the file you download, not your reader, what the heck?! And changing the size of the print is problematic because the whole formatting gets messed up and the entire spacing gets thrown off! For example, if I increase the size just a little, instead of seeing the correct paragraph structure, I get everything broken up into two line chunks regardless of sentences at all! It's especially difficult when reading conversation and you can't tell who is speaking. (It's hard to describe unless you know what I am talking about, sorry. Oh, I have a Nook.)
If I wanted to read on my damn computer, then I would, so NO, I don't want a tablet or anything other than a reader as my reader. What I want is to have a lightweight, portable reader that can deliver on the promises of different fonts and assorted visual options. I was dragged kicking & screaming into the e-Reader market and still see little benefit to me, as a consumer, to justify the cost of having one!
At least with everything else you buy, you have the right to re-sell it, such as CD's, books, clothes, DVDs, etc. But with e-books, as I've already said in my previous comments, you don't even own it, you only have a license to read it!
So why did I finally get an e-Reader and buy e-books? Well, I used to buy new & used books, but then my allergies got bad enough that I couldn't get used anymore. All the small bookstore were driven out of business & then the big stores all closed. And finally, a lot of what I read now is on smaller publishers, so even the print books are really expensive, so they do have cheaper e-book prices compared to their printed ones. But, I wait until they have promotions such as 50% off all their titles, plus a free e-book for every few you buy, stuff like that. The place I buy from always has a buy some, get one free deal, as well as running the publishing house deals every month.
And not only that, have you noticed the editing has gone to Hell? I am
not just talking about e-books here, though they have some of the most egregious examples (and not just the self-published, either). But, even regular paper books by major publishing houses for big time authors are riddled with errors! It seems to me that in the last couple of years there have been more printing errors, flimsier book bindings, and poorer editing/spell checking/proof reading. Publishers have given up on original cover art in favor of digital manipulations. And editors have given up entirely. I find grammar and continuity errors in so many new books I read. It makes me sad.
