I just had an irritating experience with buying a technical ebook (computer
graphics text) from Amazon which illustrates the exorbitant pricing problem
and more:
I needed a specific algorithm for a programming project, and after much
searching on Amazon, I found a book that had just what I wanted. I was
impatient so I also bought the online electronic edition which cost $10
after buying the print book at regular price. (First unbelievable
annoyance: ebooks on Amazon are only available to buyers of the print book!)
I was able to find and read the algorithm I needed in the ebook but their
ebooks are online on their site so are subject to internet slownesses PLUS
their heavily-used server's slowness.
Then, I was annoyed to discover that one has to print the pages in the
e-book one at a time rather than by specifying a range of pages. The ad
about the online book said it was printable, and it never occurred to me
that the printing would be so difficult and slow.
Finally, the publisher has a limit on how many pages you are allowed to
print (not specified either, so I guess it will just stop printing when I
reach the limit).
Aaagh.
On the positive side, the ebook did solve my programming problem just as I
had hoped, and much more easily than I would have been able to solve it by
myself or with any book I already own. So despite extortionate pricing and
poor usability, I am not genuinely sorry I did this. Which of course is
what Amazon is counting on...
Millie Niss
[log in to unmask]
http://www.sporkworld.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Guthrie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: [WDL] E-book pricing
Sony's current strategy (Wade Roush of MIT's Technology Review joining in
yesterday) makes the 'e-book' pricing look like the perfect antidote to wide
adoption or the trade e-book ever going mass.
see: www.luminog.wordpress.com
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