Along with Kassia Krozser and Angela James from Sam Hain, I’ll be presenting at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in February at a session entiteld Smart Women Read eBooks.
In anticipation of our session, Kassia has asked if anyone who reads this here site would be interested in completing a survey online that examines:
to get a sense of how women read ebooks, what they like about digital text, what they don’t like, and what they really, really want from ebook publishers. Remember: the publishers who attend this conference range from big New York houses to small independents.
I just took the survey - I needed about 10-15 minutes total to think through and type in my responses. If you’d like to participate, then thank you in advance for your time!
I just took it. My #1 annoyance right now: ebooks that continue to carry the hardback price tag even after the mass market book comes out. WTF is up with that?
I wanted to buy Balogh’s Simply Perfect. The Kindle edition is now priced at $6-something, but on Fictionwise it’s still $20-something. *grumble*
I want to buy an e-book reader. I have decided to. I think I’m going to get the Sony, but haven’t done it yet. I have Christmas money. :) Alas, I think that it won’t reach me soon enough to take the survey. Especially if I forget to order it again as many times as I have forgotten to call to get an appointment for a haircut. I’m getting really shaggy. Deadlines will do that to one…
I agree with Kalen Hughes on the hardback price. I also object to paying what seems like paying an excessive amount for a 25 - 50 page story. It’s hard to determine how many pages a story will be until after you buy it and then it’s too late. I know I wouldn’t pay $3 - $5 in a store for a story that short.
I also added a “please no DRM” comment to my survey.
heuristic discussions of man-titty
This was the best thing I read all day.
I’m planning to buy an e-reader, but I get all indecisive and timid over purchases more expensive than about $100. Because I was poor for way too long, and now I’m cheap.
But I’ll still do the survey.
I did it and waxed long in the comment spaces.
Oh darn, I’ve hit submit already and now you remind me about the whole not dropping to paperback price thing. Too late I guess, but that really drives me nuts too.
Man I want to go to this TOC thing but I’m in the middle of buying a house and planning a Bahamian vacay. Mrawh :(
I filled it out, of course :) Hope it helps!
I did my part! Would love to go see you and the other women talk :D
Took the survey. Lisa J, that is my biggest complaint. But what’s DRM?
I took the survey , my biggest complaint is the high cost of portable e-readers! I want in on the game, it’s a pain in the ass to sit at a desktop and read an ebook.
I got a Sony reader for Christmas (thanks mom) and I love it. Have to say my biggest peeves are price and selection. The Sony/Borders store charge pretty much the same for ebooks as they do for print and they don’t offer that big of a selection of romance. Can download from Ellora’s Cave but recently they seems to be “printing” the same two type of stories 1. Gay/Lesbian and 2. Whole lot of Menage. Have no problem with Menage in small doses but 15 books dedicated to the same thing it is begining to be like you read one you’ve read them all.
Took the survey. I had a whole lot of “I wish"es in the two comments fields (i.e. “I wish that ereaders were more affordable…,” “I wish that epubs’ websites were better organized…,” “I wish that if I get a chapter or two in and I hate it, I could return it…”). I currently don’t own an ereader and read only PDF versions on my laptop.
Love your blog! I’m a lurker, but I wanted to chime in. I took the survey since I love ebooks but have a bunch of complaints about price, availability, editing, etc. I think other readers will have a lot of similar comments in the survey. I was wondering if you would be posting a summary of the survey results? They’d be interesting to see.
Also, I can’t wait for a wrap up on your panel. I’d love to know what the publishers’ reaction and comments will be.
Gail- if you can get the Sony 505 instead of the new one, I reccommend it. The light on the new 700 is a battery hog. I have found that hubby has to charge his 505 much less than I do my 700 and I don’t even use the light. I got him the book cover that has a light with seperate batteries on it and it actually works better than the 700’s backlight.
On top of which, the TSA confiscated the stylist that came with my 700 and now I am trying to replace it.
Thank you, Sarah, for posting this. And thank you all for helping us by taking this survey. I appreciate it—and I’m anticipating a terrific panel. If any of you have additional thoughts, comments, things you’d like to say to me, you can also email be directly at booksquare at booksquare dot com—I’m really hoping to get the reader experience across to this publishing group.
FYI, GalleyCat had an interesting blurb re.
WTf happened with this blog? I try to read the comments but they get cut off in the middle of Claudia’s and the sidebar stuff is below the comments section.
Claudia- since I can read your comment in the email, I have a question. What are Link+ libraries? My local ones lend ebooks, although I have had problems finding things I like. And could someone explain to me how ebooks can 1) expire and be returned (especiall when they are marked as ok to burn to cd) and 2) can only be lent to one person at a time?
this whole thing goes back to (for me) making the software requirements easier to understand by the publishers and in this case, the libraries. List it by ereader, not by software. Mine has Adobe, Adobe digital and something else. some I can transfer to my ereader, others I can’t, but it won’t let me download the older version of the one I can transfer to my ereader. Argh.
A website that reviews romance novels from a couple of smart bitches who will always give it to you straight.
We'll text you when we have the location info, along with the password to enter The Digital Speakeasy.
I’ve never read the black dagger brotherhood but I think Hugh Jackman could play most any romance novel hero. also, that was a great video, it makes me really want to read the books and the characters have distinctive enough…
Just wore “THE” T shirt to the cinema…cue lots of smirks, & many tweenage sniffs (OK I took the spawn to see Ice Age 3. ....It’s fab BTW!)
But there can be only ONE vampire, and…
I don’t think any of those guys were big enough to qualify as one of the Brothers but my mind easily dismissed the whole premise and proceeded to enjoy the clip anyway.
Ohhh, pretty.
i have ALWAYS thought a young pre-strung out peter steele was a ringer for wrath…again…PRE-strungout.. he even did a layout for playgirl waaaaay back ....in his prime
I could say something relatively erudite and profound about the subjective nature of reading and how each reader interacts with the material in a closed system of engagement that is highly dependent on their idiosyncrasies, psychological landscape and cultural environs. …
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01.12.09 at 02:07 PM