Crime fiction readers are voracious e-book consumers

Last month in my post e-books holding steady I commented that about 75% of readers of my blog read e-books in one form or another (on an e-reader, their iPad, or computer). This figure has been pretty consistent for the last 12 months.

The poll I have been conducting for the past few weeks mines a bit deeper and has a few more respondents.

Again the significant statistic is around 75%.
24% of the respondents have bought no e-books, so presumably most of them have either not purchased an e-reader or have abandoned using it.

But a whopping 64% have purchased more than 5 e-books in the last 6 months, with some commenting that they were surprised the poll hadn't "tested" more than 5.  (the post connected to the poll is here)

I read about 1 e-book in every 2 books.
Others confessed

• "I am totally hooked to my Kindle. While it was a slow conversion (about 4 years) I just recently have read solely off my Kindle."
• "I probably purchased more than five each month. I am an e-book-aholic. In fact, I don't buy any paper books anymore."
• "I may have already told you that I read my ebooks only at bedtime for ease of holding." (although this person says she still buys more paper books than e-books)
• "I was surprised that your survey only went up to five. I would say I have read 30-50 ebooks in the last six months"
• " I try not to buy any paper book if it's available in electronic format."
• "I generally alternate, a print book then an ebook, its just the way my schedule works."

So why are we (crime fiction readers) so hooked on e-books?

Let's start with Joe Barone's list (see comments in the poll here)

• (1) Availability. I can download them in two minutes or so; 
• (2) The opportunity to enlarge the type. I have regular old people's eyes with growing cataracts which don't yet need surgery. Easily making the type larger is a real blessing; and 
• (3) Affordability. I buy few ebooks that cost more than $9.99.

then he contributed

• They make books available which might not otherwise be available.

Nan contributed on the weight issue

• I read my ebooks only at bedtime for ease of holding

So here are some of mine (some of them may be just applicable to the Kindle)

• ease of instant purchase: I buy my e-book online and I have it on my Kindle only minutes later.
• if I want to re-read a book, my Amazon library is always available. (although I think taking an occasional backup of the files on your Kindle may be a good idea)
• when travelling I can take my library of several hundred books with me.
• but I don't have to be travelling: my Kindle fits beautifully into my shoulder bag for use in the doctor's surgery etc.
• or I can read on the app on my mobile phone (although it does drain the battery big-time, nor would it be my preferred method of reading)
• people who want me to review a book can send me a Kindle file as an e-mail attachment. That's much much cheaper than postage to Australia.
• Like many of my friends who have e-readers I am convinced that I read e-books faster, probably because, like Joe, I am appreciative of the option to re-size the text.
• I often mark text that I wish to remember for any review I write. On the Kindle I can download those highlighted bits to my computer as a text file.
• I can put the books on my Kindle into categories and it helps me choose what to read next)
• I can synchronise my e-reading across my Kindle, phone app, and husband's iPad, and move "seamlessly" from one to the other, picking up the book on one device where I left it on the other device.
• I can listen to my e-book if I want to - most Kindle books have text to audio. Admittedly it is a computerised voice, but I can also attach it to a speaker system so I can listen while ironing etc.

So what have I left out?
Oh yes, I'm hooked.

e-book poll has closed: interesting & significant results

I've been watching the poll about e-books I've had running for the last 2 weeks with great interest.
It has just finished and here are the results.

The progress of e-reading in the crime fiction reading community is of great interest to me and something I have been watching for about 20 months. Now, with 4 surveys completed, it is very obvious that many of the visitors to my blog in particular are reading e-books.

There has been steady adoption trend, and the tendency amongst the adopters is to use a "dedicated" e-reading device (i.e. something like a Kindle or a Sony e-book reader)

See full results of earlier polls.

Getting started with e-books

I came across this great graphic today - check it out in full size if you can

 

These links to e-books posts might also be of interest:

• European e-book best sellers
• Stephen Leather: I sold 44,334 books on Kindle UK
• Neil Gaiman on e-books
• Indie eBook Hall of Fame
• Can the Book Survive?

Your ebook style: hoarder or reader?

I've "borrowed" this title from an article on TeleRead in which Joanna tells the story of how her parents are behaving with their Kobo e-readers.

Joanna's father "seems content to download one or two books at a time and read them in full before heading back to Manybooks.net for more obscure boyhood favourites"
Her mother on the other hand loves to collect e-books in a way that reminds you of the squirrel collecting nuts in case winter strikes. She is well on the way to becoming a hoarder.

Joanna's mother and I have a lot in common. I already have very large TBR-on-Kindle, without counting review books etc which I am now store in separate categories. Oh dear... when will I get them all read? Many were "bargains" at "once-only" prices, but not too many were free. I can see I need to give myself a severe talking to as well as practicing my speed reading.

What about you? What is your e-book style?

BTW have you done the poll in the top right corner? If you haven't yet succumbed to an e-reader, you can still take the poll.

Who reads e-books? Take a poll

I'm going to quote quite a bit of a post I located today, simply because it is so interesting.

In a report released 4 days ago Forrester Research says eBook Buying is about to Spiral Upward.

James McQuivey says

2010 will end with $966 million in eBooks sold to consumers. By 2015, the industry will have nearly tripled to almost $3 billion, a point at which the industry will be forever altered.

.. the success of the devices(eReaders, beginning with the Kindle in 2007) has been fueled by the convenient availability of the most popular books in digital form, often priced significantly below their physical counterparts. This fact has drawn consumers in more rapidly than we have seen in any other media.

He claims that research shows that most readers today either get their books from a library or borrow from a friend. Currently only 7% of online adults who read books read e-books, but he says

that 7% happens to be a very attractive bunch: they read the most books and spend the most money on books. And here’s the kicker – the average eBook reader already consumes 41% of books in digital form. Oh, and that includes the people who don’t have an eReader yet, which is nearly half of them. For those that have a Kindle or other eReader, they read 66% of their books digitally.

He goes on to say this has huge implications for the publishing industry. How does it feel to be part of a revolution?

I've run the poll over on the right twice already this year, but now I'm curious to see what the results are this time.

Are you reading e-books?

Earlier this year I ran this poll - see the post behind the poll

I'm interested to see whether the balance has changed (although I have slightly changed the focus of the poll too).
Amazon has been saying for example that sales of e-books have been outdoing hardbacks - not surprising in my opinion because I so rarely buy hardbacks, but I'm wondering whether readers of my blog have ventured more definitely into the e-book world.

So you might be reading e-books on any one of a number of devices these days: a Kindle, a Kobo, an iPad, on your computer etc.

Take the poll in the right hand column and then leave a comment about your e-book reading experience.
Has it reduced the number of paper books you are buying, or your library borrowings?
How are you finding availability of books? Are you reading books you might not have read before you acquired your reader?

If you answered No - how close are you to acquiring an e-reader? Do you have questions I can help you with?

To read an e-book or not?

I thought those of you interested in the e-book debate might enjoy these two posts on Read Write Web

First of all 5 ways that ebooks are better than paper books
These aren't all reasons I would have chosen
The writer chose

1. Social Highlighting
2. Notes
3. Look-up of Words
4. Ability to Tweet & Facebook quotes
5. Search

Like many of the commenters on the blog post I would have chosen

• the ability to carry many books with you, in fact a whole library, in one small device
• the ability to buy a book virtually as soon as the idea hits me
• that I can choose a font size that suits my aging eyes
• the fact that the books are generally cheaper

In a follow up post, 5 ways that paper books are better than ebooks, the writer, Richard MacManus cited

1. Feel
2. Packaging
3. Sharing
4. Keeping
5. Second Hand Books

His last word:
In the final analysis though, the real value of any book - whether read via paper or electronically - is in the words.

Do you have an e-book reader?

Please see the poll in the right hand column.

If you are a reader of my blog you will know that I bought a 6" Kindle towards the end of last year.

Since then I've read 6 books on the Kindle which I suppose is not so many, but I am really looking forward to taking it with me when I have some long plane journeys at the end of February.

There's been quite a bit written this week about the release of promotional stuff about the Apple iPod which I think is designed to rival the Kindle DX released on January 19.

And then today there has been quite a bit of discussion on one of the mystery lists I belong to of  the implications of this headline in the New York Times.
Amazon Pulls Macmillan Books Over E-Book Price Disagreement
The disagreement appears to be over Amazon's desire to set the price of an e-book at considerably lower than that of the paper version.

I must admit I was taken aback yesterday when I looked at buying a particular an e-Book, and found the price was the same as a paper copy. I've since found the Amazon version is much cheaper

So what about you - are you reading e-books?
If you are, what have you chosen?
If not, will you ever buy an e-book reader do you think?

Here are some of my e-book and Kindle posts

• Review: BLOOD OF THE WICKED, Leighton Gage
• Review: UR by Stephen King 
• Review: THE SERPENT POOL, Martin Edwards 
• Review: THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, Stieg Larsson
• When Kindle finds BookSeat
• Reading Digitally or Kindly 
• Review: LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER, Mike Befeler
• Review: EXECUTIVE LUNCH, Maria Schneider

e-book readers - do you, would you, will you?

Over on Petrona, Maxine has raised a story she's heard about Amazon's Kindle self-combusting. Seems it might be a marketing ploy.

In case you haven't caught up with it, Kindle is a wireless reading device marketed through Amazon, which sold out prior to actually being release, and is not available outside the US anyway. In case you think you could get around that, the documentation on the Amazon site clearly states
"Kindles cannot currently be sold or shipped to customers living outside of the U.S."
If you go to the website there's a 6 minute video about Kindle so you can see what it does.

Now e-book readers are not new. When I was lucky enough to visit Microsoft in 2000, they had an e-book reader they were promoting. It was a bit clunkier and heavier than the Kindle appears to be. What seems to have happened is that the Microsoft e-book reader became a bit of software rather than a bit of hardware.
The library of the newly opened Steel Canyon High School that we visited was going to have minimal real books and students would be able to download text books to an e-book reader.

So presumably what has happened is that e-book readers have been loaded onto pocket PCs, tablets etc. rather than a dedicated e-book reader. But I could be wrong.

So do you read e-books? How? Where?
As I said over on Maxine's blog, there are things I find attractive about an e-book reader, but I'd like mine also to have the option of being a "voice-book" so if my eyes were tired I could listen rather than read. So why don't I just listen on a CD player or mp3 player?
A couple reasons
* believe it or not, when you listed you are listening to someone else's interpretation of text
* for me , listening is usually slower than reading the text for myself.

So do you, would you, or will you?
Tell me about e-books and e-book readers