Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: anijen21 on February 14, 2010, 12:55:21 AM
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I'm really only doing this since it's an RAF party and I like my karma points. I don't want anyone to feel like I'm stealing someone else's job, but the topic was brought up and a thread hadn't been made yet, and besides the karma points I think it's an interesting topic! And free market research (of however limited and self-selecting a sample) for Scholastic, so everyone wins!
If this thread is on another board that I am just too dumb to find, please feel free to delete this thread and shun me appropriately.
Now, we have a question which you can repost in some better location: Digital publishing makes the monthly series possible again. (Bookstores hate them, but in digital we don't have bookstores.) Would you -- or your younger incarnations -- buy and read digital books released on a monthly basis? And when you think about it, what price seems fair?
This is a new area and we're trying to get a handle on it.
So: What are your thoughts?
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i much prefer actual books to e-books.
you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop ::))
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I don't really know what digital books are. The ebooks? How do you buy an ebook?
I guess if it's easier for the readers and writers, then I don't see a problem. It would use less paper, though it would use more electricity. whether or not they cancel each other out I don't know.
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read, yes. buy, no. I don't have the money to. if I had the money, I'd buy just for collections sake. Reading on my music player would be nice too...
i much prefer actual books to e-books.
you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop ::))
exactly. right now I'm curled up in bed reading an ebook on my laptop that's on a bedside table....
I don't really know what digital books are. The ebooks? How do you buy an ebook?
something like paypal? I don't know. I've never bought anything online, but it's supposed to be possible.
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Here's the Kindle site (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=4421533945&ref=pd_sl_19calxq4k4_e) if you guys are interested.
I don't think they have the pricing down for e-books yet. Look at any book they sell on there and you can get it cheaper used, or on half.com. I'm sort of confused how the whole price structure works for publishing anyway--how much of it is marketing, how much of it is for creative/copyright stuff, and how much actually goes into the physical manufacturing process of making a book? I heard somewhere that hardcover books are actually just as cheap to print as softcover, and the only reason they do that is for price discrimination, which I feel is kind of a tenet of the publishing industry.
I don't know. I have a lot of thoughts about this. I agree with the whole "curling up with a book" thing--reading is even a more sensual experience than digital music or TV. I mean, you'll have some purists go on about how 45s have a richer sound than CDs, but I feel like an mp3 has the same basic quality as any other recording of a song. But a book? You lose something in the process from print media to digital media. It has no weight, no substance, which I feel like is a very big part of the allure of reading. And besides, if everything is pdfs and digital files, how do you show off to your friends how well-read you are without a huge bookcase stuffed with books?
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You have a pointabout the bookcase. That's kind of a symbol of who you are. Someone can come to your house and look at what books interest you. I used to have a special shelf for al my Animorph books.
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i much prefer actual books to e-books.
you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop ::))
I agree with you; about prefering actual books to ebooks. On the other hand I have been reading ebooks on my phone in bed (with accompanying Audiobook) and it's a great experience.
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lol me too. But now they're hidden in a box under my desk :(
What do you guys think as far as pricing goes? To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be willing to pay more for a serial book the size of an Animorphs book than I would be to pay for an episode of an hour-long TV drama, and those are $2.99 on iTunes right now. They might be cheaper on the Amazon digital store, I'm not sure. I really wish I understood how this pricing scheme worked, the economics of it...all this intrigue makes me want to go to business or accounting school, how boring.
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And besides, if everything is pdfs and digital files, how do you show off to your friends how well-read you are without a huge bookcase stuffed with books?
plus, pirating.
its a lot easier for people to secretly steal books in virtual format.
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i much prefer actual books to e-books.
you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop ::))
seconded- although i see more people now on our subway system, reading from kindles, etc.
but i go with ax on this- books > computers. there's something to be said for the efficiency of flipping a page over tediously scrolling- esp. with laptops. pain the butt, imho.
anyway. if i were to buy the series electronically, i could be sold for as much as $8/pop, but that's lifelong obsession speaking, not supply and demand. $3.99 -as suggested- might be about right.... but could go as low as $2.99, depending on the series' reception. any lower, and i'd have serious issues with potentially pirated ebooks.
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Animorphs is the one series that I want to physically own, so I'd much rather have real books when they are re-released. The only ebook reader I own at the moment is through my iPod Touch. I have downloaded several books on it, and have read none of them. It's just something that I can't get comfortable enough to use on a regular basis. Reading something on screen always feels lifeless to me, and looking at a screen for such long periods of time also hurts my eyes. So when I'm given a choice between a real book and an ebook, I will always, always pick a real book. Something I can touch, feel, and smell in my hands. There is just no comparison.
Also, until the Kindle or iPad go down to a more affordable price, I'll be sticking with real books. However, once I do finally buy an ebook reader, yes, I would most definitely like to have the Animorphs series on there (legally :P). But I still don't see myself reading full length novels on there anytime soon. I can only see the practicality behind owning one, so that I can carry any book along with me, but nothing that I'd want to have for the actual enjoyment of reading. I just can't read massive amounts of text for such a long time on a screen as opposed to a real book (I suppose I'm just too old and set in my ways.)
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tbth I think the iPad is going to bomb.
And itw, why do you think things that are more expensive are less likely to get pirated? The more work goes into something, like software, the more anti-piracy security is put in place, but if anything, a higher price will give more incentive to people to steal it.
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tbth I think the iPad is going to bomb.
And itw, why do you think things that are more expensive are less likely to get pirated? The more work goes into something, like software, the more anti-piracy security is put in place, but if anything, a higher price will give more incentive to people to steal it.
confusingly worded, that's not necessarily what i implied. sort of, but not entirely.
there are a few factors involved- price, popularity, security... security will be a big issue. stealing the books is, for now, TOO possible. i believe that means that those who want to spend money on the books will spend money on the books (a few dollars more or less will not make a difference to these people); those who don't, won't. those who are borderline i automatically include with the pirates because ebooks are so, so easy to come by- it may even be less hassle to pirate than buy. iow, i don't see price as being an issue from the buyer's perspective.... but rather from scholastic's perspective.
money spent on the books will be coming from fans showing gratitude or people who follow rules, so it's in scholastic's best interests, imho, to keep prices a tad higher. ...say, the $2.99- $3.99 range v. $.99- $2.99 range. the dollar difference won't lose many customers (if any at all). but if the prices are very low... i don't believe many more customers will be interested and people who i believe deserve monetary recognition won't be getting it... and from a bigger picture standpoint, the dollar difference over 1000 or 10000 or 1mill readers is a lot of money lost. so, if the prices are low, pirated ebooks MUST be gotten rid of- force the people not paying to pay to make up for the money lost on lower prices.
egad, that was too much thinking for too little sleep.
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it all seems to depend on the elasticity of demand, which I think is going to be pretty high. I agree that the hardcore fans, like us, are going to buy the books no matter what they cost, but I think the real market for the reprints is going to be kids that were our age when we started reading them. That actually brings up another issue, I mean, when I bought my Animorphs books I took my $5, went to the bookstore, and boom had my new book. How are little kids going to buy ebooks? With their credit cards and pay pal accounts? idk maybe things have changed from when I was a kid and buying things online even if you're 10 years old isn't even an issue anymore.
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tbth I think the iPad is going to bomb.
slightly off topic, but..
i just watched the ipad video. (i'd never heard of it before).
it looks terrible and awkward. i'd never use something like that. :-\
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I know right
And it can't multitask, doesn't have a camera, and won't run anything with flash. It's like a big awkward iPhone with slightly more memory.
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@anijen- absolutely. ease of use will be, i believe, an even bigger factor than price.
it's kinda... like itunes. sort of. as long as the platform for book purchase and download is simple- i mean, how many 10-year-olds can purchase itunes?- no problem there. it is, as i briefly mentioned earlier, the "hassle" factor that the borderline buy/don't buy people are riding on. ^^ so we're on the same page, i think.
@goom- DITTO. what sort of freakish transition-vista-esque technology IS this? the reason i question its utility is centered around my experience with the ipod nano i bought last week- already, it has orientation recognition issues. :-\ and my sister's touch screen phone has more bugs surrounding touchscreen related issues than anything else. i anticipate epic fail on the order of "blue screen of doom" from apple this time.
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I'm a huge supporter of technological advances, especially in regards to the digital age. I think that a switch to ebooks is inevitable and people will, eventually, just have to accept it. Many people felt the same way about owning vinyl as people do about owning a book. They wanted to actually be able to hold it, smell it, own it. I can certainly sympathize...nothin g compares to spending hours perusing the shelves of a bookstore or curled up with your tattered favorites. I don't think that we will ever completely lose print books.
However (there's always a however, eh?).
It is a known and widely accepted fact that we live in an age where people want information now. They want it cheap (or free) and they want as much of it as possible. They want interactivity, and they want to control the experience. I think that in this vein digital books are inevitable. Kindles, Nooks and eReaders are already widely used and as the technology is improved will continue to be popular. Almost all smartphones have the ability to download ebooks as well. From a purely economical standpoint, the place to invest is in digital books, not print books. It will take awhile to make the switch, but it is going to happen.
Case in point, the school that I teach at was talking about using our stimulus money to buy a class set of Kindles instead of books. Why not, when you get all of the classics for free and many books at discounted prices?
I think the pricing system needs work, and the devices themselves need to be improved upon, but eventually it will happen. It's just a matter of who is going to be on board and who is going to sit back and whine about it. Personally, I find my eReader hugely useful. I tend to travel a lot, and I always hated having to pack four, five, six books in my carry-on. Now, I need only pack one. Of course, I also make it a point to own a hard copy of every book I buy a digital copy of....so there you go.
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@terenia- true, that. like BIM (my personal peeve, haha). but until the technology improves, i'm not buying it for myself. sure, encourage the public sector to invest, but i want them to deal with buggy ebooks- not me. xD
i'm waiting for direct downloads to my brain.
yes, matrix-style.
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I don't know. "People whining about it" has definitely killed some other technological advancements--betamax, HD DVDs. I honestly think that eReaders themselves are going to fail, but some synthesized technology along the lines of the iPad but better is going to finally convince everyone. And to be frank, from an economic standpoint right now, they're not successful. Unless you're a compulsive reader, it's not cheaper to spend $250 on a Kindle so you can buy the cheaper ebooks. And not only that, but not all publishers are on board! A publisher would much rather have you spend $20 on a hardcover they printed for $5 than $9.99 for an ebook that had no printing cost. Case in point--Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games, is not available on the Kindle yet. Add to that all the drama with...MacMillan, I think it is, pulling all of its books off the Kindle and selling them to the iBookstore (or whatever dumb name Apple calls it) for less restrictive pricing guidelines?
My point is, I think that publishers still WANT us to buy books, not ebooks. On an industry scale, the fate of eReaders is uncertain.
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i much prefer actual books to e-books.
you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop ::))
I completely agree. I'd buy them in physical form, no doubt.
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so what? I'm the only one who prefers an ebook to physical book?
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Well, I think I have to answer too.
As a pirate, I don't like to pay, of course, but I do when I really like. Of course I like to pay for something special, not something I can have for free. For example, music is the same if you download it or buy it. So if I pay for music, it's because I want to reward the artists. Now, I know that, on a price of an album, only a very little part actually goes to the artist and it makes me sick. For the movies, it's different. I'll buy my favorite movies in DVD because I want the various languages, the subtitles (even if fansubs are sometimes better >_<), the bonus, a good video with a good sound etc. Buy for downloading them?! Are you crazy?! What for?! lol
About books/ebooks now: As Richard, Goom, SS and so many other people, I prefer actual books. My eyes are sick, I can't look at a screen too long, I need glasses to read and concentrate... well, I wear them when I'm on the computer or playing video games, and during exams only. And I stay so long in front of my computer, it isn't really good for my eyes, maybe I'll be blind later lol. So reading ebooks (so concentrate AND looking a screen) isn't good at all for me. Anyway, I read all the Twilight books like that. So I can do it sometimes, but it isn't my favorite way to read. And same: I can't take my laptop in my bed (some of my friends do ;)). Another thing that wouldn't make me buy ebooks: as for music, a pirated ebook is the same as a paid ebook. So why I would pay for it?! I would pay the actual book!
But I also am in favor of ebooks for some reasons: When the price for Kindle book will be low enough to let us buy one, I probably will. When I was in Japan, I had to ask my parents to send me books, and I returned them after I read them... How much money for sending so many books! So I also read ebooks, 'coz it didn't cost anything to send them or receive them. And in holidays, when you travel a lot, and also read a lot, you can have all your ebooks with you, in your laptop or your Kindle book. That's really great! Something else: I said I've read the ebooks of Twilight. I did because my real books were in France (and I was in Japan), but also because I bought them in English (less expensive than if I bought them in French/France O_o even with the shippings, it was way less expensive!) and wanted to read them in French at first. So here another reason: You can buy the book in a language and have as ebook the other language, not paying twice for the same book. I also like that with the Animorphs and Everworld ebooks, 'coz I have most of them in French and sometimes the translation isn't perfect, they even delete full passage (or volumes, or characters >_<) and I wanted to have them in the original version. That's why I'm so into the Ebook RAFproject! (PS: We still need help to finish the Everworld ebooks; and I won't give up >_<)
That was the (long) story of a French :pirate:.
[spoiler]Die, Sarkozy, Hadopi &Co! Die! >:D
(Excuse my French ;))[/spoiler]
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Dameg, one of the advantages to the ebook readers such as Kindle is that they use what is called 'liquid paper', which simulates the visual effect of reading from a page on a book. It is way less harsh on the eyes than reading from a laptop screen. My eyes are sensitive as well, from so many years on the computer and extreme nearsightedness, but I have no problem reading my eReader for hours. My ipod, however, gives me a headache.
AniJen, I think you're right that people are whining, but I don't think it'll hurt the industry as much. The convenience really overrides everything else. I mean, I know people who carry their kindle to class instead of their textbooks. Can you imagine going through college without having to lug a single textbook around? I still have nightmares about 20-block walks with five huge books.
I do agree that the readers need a LOT of work. Mine is an older edition and it's slow, doesn't have wireless and really has limited capabilities. I want an e-reader that can donwload immediately, have color if I choose, and ESPECIALLY allow me to highlight and annotate.
That said, I really do like the project that Michael Grant and his son, Jake, are working on (if you haven't seen it, go here (http://getfre.com/0/). You get a preview of LIES!). I like the idea of readers getting a lot of 'behind the scenes' information as they read. I think it will make the entire experience more interactive. Additionally, we live in a time where sadly many young readers do not have the ability to visualize what they read (it's a constant problem in the school systems), and by using video/music/background information it will certainly help those struggling readers get a more accurate visualization of setting/characters/etc.
Ebooks have a long way to go, but I think they're here to stay. :D
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I took a look of Michael Grant's Frebook. And it's really cool! When I said bonus for DVDs, so what they're making could be the bonus for bought Ebooks! It's a very good idea ^^ If you can have in Ebooks something you won't have in a actual book or in pirated ebooks, so people will buy them ^^
Oh, and I didn't know about Kindle's screen. It's cool ^^ Still, I don't have the money to buy one yet, but later... later... ;)
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I honestly don't plan to buy the reprints. I do admit I never finished reading the series (I lost my place around number 37, and never picked it back up) but since there are free ebooks online already I think I'll use that to try and finish the series.
But if animorphs 2.0 happens, I might go the ebook route. I don't mind at all reading from my laptop. Sure I'd prefer to have something like the ipad, but I don't do enough reading to make buying something like that worth it. Ive literally never read books, only art books, which isn't really the same.
I know this might sound weird, but I don't really like the feel of paper. I find turning pages to be a bit of an annoyance more than anything. I'd rather just hit a button or something.
There is something to be said about actual books though, and if I hadnt already sold many of my animorphs books, I'd jump on getting the ones I haven't bought already in book form, just to complete my collection. But thats just not going to happen at this point, so e-books for me.
Though if there were a new special book like the andalite chronicles though in hard cover I'd probably buy that.
But as I mentioned, I don't plan to buy any of the re released books, I don't see the point. I don't re read anything, reading isn't something I enjoy, which I guess is a testament to how much I liked animorphs. They were good enough to get a non reader like me to get sucked in.
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You have a pointabout the bookcase. That's kind of a symbol of who you are. Someone can come to your house and look at what books interest you. I used to have a special shelf for al my Animorph books.
lol I have a box for mine. Have you seen the new graphical interface for e-books on the Ipad though? When you look at your list of books it has a shelf (Like the ones you see at stores) showing miniature versions of all your books on it.
I really want somebody to copy that program and make a freeware version of it so I don't have to have an Ipad for it.
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There is nothing like sitting in an armchair, cracking open a book, and settling in for a read.
There is also nothing like carrying several thousand books wherever you go.
With the Kindle, eyestrain is a non-issue. And with companies like PixelQi coming out, you don't have to choose between full-color, backlit, fast responding lcd, and easy on the eyes, battery-saving e-ink.
I love ebooks for their price and convenience, and seeing as I'm a little short on cash right now, ebooks sound very nice.
But don't go just ebooks, physical books are still awesome for other things. Plus, a box set of ebooks looks dumb.
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Dameg, one of the advantages to the ebook readers such as Kindle is that they use what is called 'liquid paper', which simulates the visual effect of reading from a page on a book. It is way less harsh on the eyes than reading from a laptop screen. My eyes are sensitive as well, from so many years on the computer and extreme nearsightedness, but I have no problem reading my eReader for hours. My ipod, however, gives me a headache.
AniJen, I think you're right that people are whining, but I don't think it'll hurt the industry as much. The convenience really overrides everything else. I mean, I know people who carry their kindle to class instead of their textbooks. Can you imagine going through college without having to lug a single textbook around? I still have nightmares about 20-block walks with five huge books.
I do agree that the readers need a LOT of work. Mine is an older edition and it's slow, doesn't have wireless and really has limited capabilities. I want an e-reader that can donwload immediately, have color if I choose, and ESPECIALLY allow me to highlight and annotate.
That said, I really do like the project that Michael Grant and his son, Jake, are working on (if you haven't seen it, go here (http://getfre.com/0/). You get a preview of LIES!). I like the idea of readers getting a lot of 'behind the scenes' information as they read. I think it will make the entire experience more interactive. Additionally, we live in a time where sadly many young readers do not have the ability to visualize what they read (it's a constant problem in the school systems), and by using video/music/background information it will certainly help those struggling readers get a more accurate visualization of setting/characters/etc.
Ebooks have a long way to go, but I think they're here to stay. :D
I always get my textbooks as e-books if at all possible. only having to carry around my laptop, and using the Ctrl+f combo for searching through it makes my work much easier.
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No one's said this yet:
I would buy the Animorph reprints in book form if there was no updating.
I would NOT buy the ebook reprints if there was no updating. What would the point be? I'd like new copies, covers etc. even if it was the same story but there'd be no point in me spending cash on the ebook if I wasn't getting anything new.
2.99 seems priced right.
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Oh, I also forgot about the price. Yeah, it sounds good. Would be around 2 euros, that's cool.
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I just realized that it was actually the authors who asked about digital publishing. Anyways I would probably buy them if they had new covers and other updates. However without the updates (new covers or not) I would probably only buy the ones that are currently in bad condition. Book 18 comes to my mind because it is my favorite and currently is just one long text document. Despite being in PDF it doesn't have anything that resembles pages nor does it even use < > when any thought speech happens.
Although if I was assured Animorphs 2.0 would happen if sales were good I could definitely be persuaded into buying them all over again. ;)
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Although if I was assured Animorphs 2.0 would happen if sales were good I could definitely be persuaded into buying them all over again. ;)
i must second this on principle: it is truth.
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I do a lot of upper networking books, so I end up paying $80-$150 per book, and with these books comes a digital copy with a licence number.
I would prefer buying the reprint in hardback (Yes, I love hardbacks over paperbacks), or in paper back ... but to have a digital version of the book on micro-CD included within the book. CDs are extremely cheap to make, and it could tag on an extra $2-$3 on the book, therefore extra profit. CD's cost about 15 cents to make. So it would help on the pay for the paper and ink.
I don't necessarily think this is a smart option, unless you're talking big textbooks. CD's in general are on their way out and if we're talking long-term investment I don't think they'll last. I can see selling a CD that maybe contains the entire series, but not per 124 page book. That seems like a bit of a waste, no matter how cheap they are to produce.
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it would probably be more like a download code or password or something that lets you download the ebook directly from the scholastic site
or something. like they include in DVDs now.
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I do a lot of upper networking books, so I end up paying $80-$150 per book, and with these books comes a digital copy with a licence number.
I would prefer buying the reprint in hardback (Yes, I love hardbacks over paperbacks), or in paper back ... but to have a digital version of the book on micro-CD included within the book. CDs are extremely cheap to make, and it could tag on an extra $2-$3 on the book, therefore extra profit. CD's cost about 15 cents to make. So it would help on the pay for the paper and ink.
I don't necessarily think this is a smart option, unless you're talking big textbooks. CD's in general are on their way out and if we're talking long-term investment I don't think they'll last. I can see selling a CD that maybe contains the entire series, but not per 124 page book. That seems like a bit of a waste, no matter how cheap they are to produce.
from my experience when you get an e-book on CD you can always copy if from the CD and keep it on your hard drive. I don't know if the CD's being a waste of space was your worry, but if it was you can be at ease on that one, I do agree however that a single CD for little over a hundred pages wouldn't be worth it though.
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CDs? Where (and when!) do you live? DVDs and external hard-disks are the future ;)
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Well, the main reason I'd buy the reprint is to throw at passing children.
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I don't know whether the re-release is going to be word for word but the only reason I would really buy them is as collectibles, I probably wouldn't even open them. (I own 2-3 copies of all the originals so I'd still have something to read lol)
But if I were getting them for the first time...I don't know the ebook could be cool. Especially since kids today love technology waaay more than even my generation does
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Well, for all of us the re-release is like a collectors thing, and an opportunity for people who never finished the collection to fill it out. But the whole point of the re-read is to gather new readers, so I think its a good idea to have them available digitally. Like Duff said, the younger generation of readers are obsessed with technology.
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agreeing with terenia-
i'll admit that i'd forgotten that "ebook v. book" was even a question; i naturally assumed from the get-go that ebooks would be made available.
*head tilt* although i believe that ebook readers are an impermanent technology (although i could see a certain shift in how different machines network that would make them more practical), the concept of books available as electronic data is kinda here to stay... for a while, at least. it's all a matter of time, and whether the 'animorphs 2.0' (oh, lmao @this) is made available electronically now or in five years is up to scholastic's better trend analysts. lqtm.
still. just to reiterate for my own sake, and although i might sound like i'm "that age" already, i'm going to stick with books for at least a little while longer.
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Yeah, I don't think it's a smart move at this point to release a series or a single book ONLY in digital form. There's still a huge market for the physical artifact, and there are tons of people who do not have access to the technology. I have plenty of students who do not own a computer, and if the books were ONLY available digitally, they would not be able to access them.
Still, seeing as it costs next to nothing to produce an ebook (in fact, it probably costs literally nothing) there's no reason NOT to make it available.
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I like being able to show off books that I love, so I'd prefer to buy the physical copies.
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making ebooks add up to the electricity bill from running your computer ;D
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Yeah, advertising is definitely an issue. Then again, to have the experience of going to a bookstore and finding a book and going 'oh that's cool', you have to enter the bookstore to begin with. You can have the same experience going to amazon.com or borders.com.
However, more widespread advertising would definitely be necessary in the long run for it to be successful. I guess companies are waiting until they have a better handle of the technology before they spend a bunch of money on advertising? I know that Sony has a program much like itunes that has a bookstore that operates off the same premise, but obviously that can be improved upon.
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for a half-second, i was convinced advertising might be an issue, myself.
.....but you know, it was word of mouth and the monthly scholastic papermag they'd hand out in class that hooked me, originally. both of those work for physical and electronic books. outside of that, i don't see children's books advertised anywhere. it'll be limited to ads/banners on children-focused websites.
in any case, i'll beg ignorance on this one. i'm not a marketing major. i see more ads for kindles than any specific book, but that's all i can say. either way, if scholastic does, in fact, invest in advertising, they must be expecting a nice return for their efforts.
but, really... i just don't see it! i tried to get both of my siblings into the series, but neither of them really.... GOT it. i don't know what it was, to be honest, but if it's a generational priorities/interests gap... (but it's only arrogance to assume that something like that exists in the first place...) D:
WELL. i guess i must care about the success of this reprint. silly me. =___='' /ramble
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i'm both unwilling and unable to jump to the conclusion that the up-and-coming don't read books. perhaps it's the culture of where i live or the circles through which i travel, but i know quite a few people younger than i who are enthusiastic readers. and then, 14 years ago, my peers played plenty of video games but ALSO read their brains out.
i hope that anyone who would like to generalize today's preteens knows- on a personal level- a LOT of them him-/herself or can reference research done by (the hundreds of) those who make a living of stereotyping generations.
my apologies if that sounded heavy-handed; i was just reminded strongly of my grandmother... and not of one of her better sides.
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Being a media person, and knowing people whose job it is to deal with mass communications and to study the trends... I really don't see regular books disappearing any time soon. The sales don't show the sort of dramatic change that has been happening in newspapers and things like that.
That being said... I wouldn't buy the reprints as e-books. I would buy them as regular paperbacks. (Though God only knows where I'll put them...)
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i would only ever purchase book versions
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You know, I think one way to help market ebooks would be to include digital comics. Both as regular static images, and maybe even motion comics. you know, comics with cheap animation and voice acting. while I'm not a fan of motion comics, I would like to see how an official animorphs comic would look like. that's not an area that's been explored yet has it? to push this idea even further, with the ipad especially, would be to release an "animorph yourself" app for the ipad and iphone where you take a picture of yourface, and animal of your choice to see yourself morph into it.
all these are things they could look into as cheap ways to sell the re release to current generation of kids. the comics and apps could suck them in, and they'll naturally read the books to find out what happens. maybe they'll start with the paper versions, then move on to ebook exclusive ones. (since it doesnt sound like a reprint of the whole series is an option)
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you can't curl up with an ebook in bed. (well, maybe with a laptop ::))
Which I have done before :P
If the new books come out once every month than you can expect me to buy one every month ;D
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I don't really think that e-books are going to replace regular books anytime soon. I love physical books and as someone noted, they are easier to curl up with in bed than a laptop.
That being said, I wouldn't mind paying a little bit extra (a dollar or two might be reasonable) to have a digital copy of a book that I already own the physical copy of, much like some companies have been doing with DVD's and digital copies of movies. It makes more sense to read off of a laptop or phone you're already bringing on a long trip than to try and jam some extra books in your already overflowing bag.
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making ebooks add up to the electricity bill from running your computer ;D
yes, but they cut down on logging (And Cassie hates logging) and gasoline usage
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ok (assuming your right about the amount of sheets per tree) about the math adds up to about 4621 tree's using an average of 124 pages per book. However if we are just talking about all books and not just the Animorphs let's get a little perspective by looking at how many trees Harry Potter #5 sold 210 million copies which adds up to about 2,269,565 trees (although that number is thrown off a bit because it uses less paper in the UK for some reason). Considering that is just one book out of who knows how many it's safe to say that there would be considerable more tree's in the world if we decided to switch to e-books.
I just googled how many sheets of paper are made per tree and wikianswers says it's actually 9000 sheets per tree. So that means the animorphs as a whole took up 413,333 tree's and Harry Potter #5 alone took up 20,300,000. I hope your math is the one that is right with numbers like that.
Now all of that doesn't factor in the amount of gasoline it takes to drive the books around from store to store nor store to home or even flying from country to country. Also I don't know the math for for how much coal is being used on e-books or electricity in general, but with recently renewed interest in nuclear power I'd say the world (or at least the states) will be using much cleaner energy within the next few years.
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look I gave you the math using your numbers and the numbers I found at the two sites below (they are close in number and I went with the first one). You said let's do the math and I did because you didn't. It's like when somebody tries to sell you their idea without taking a look at everything first and instead they just say to you, "Look at this and this, now come on how can that be bad?"
Instead of just going with it I ran the numbers and it's really quite a large amount. I also didn't say that you are currently wrong about the amount of coal we would use on e-books because frankly I don't know the math for that so I left it alone.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_sheets_of_paper_are_made_from_a_tree
http://www.cafescribe.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=210&Itemid=127
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I dont think eco-friendly is a good enough reason for ebooks. Honestly nothing is better then a real book, its not like we dont waste trees on crap thats worth abosuletly nothing.
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I personally think a bowl of noodles is better than a real book...
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I would personally buy e-books just because I can put it onto any portable media player (smartphones, book readers, laptops, netbooks, etc)
Now, pricing-wise, I would pay around $2 for each book max. Books are already so cheap (around $5 for a paperback), so I think that if it were any more expensive than $2, most people wouldn't purchase it.
Also, I think that there should be some sort of trial period for reading a book (a few hours, maybe for browsing through the entire book) before you're required to purchase it.
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i would bye a book from the store.
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Haha... this thread makes me feel so old. I'm in the same generation as lots of people who like real books because of the "feel" or whatever. The world is moving towards digital, and no amount of comfort or familiarity is going to change that. Newspapers are dying. Magazines are dying. Books will die. They'll have a market for decades to come, simply because those of us who prefer reading books will still be around, but once the digital generation starts to have widespread access to ebooks, you know sales of those archaic paper monstrosities are going to drop as well. It would benefit authors and publishers alike to take advantage of this, rather than fighting it.
Now, for monthly series released on ebooks (any series, since I'm fairly certain Katherine and Michael were not asking about Animorphs specifically)... I'd buy them, but I think at least a small amount of advertising would be necessary. I can't buy something if I don't know it exists, and I won't if I'm not intrigued. I probably wouldn't pay more than a couple of dollars apiece for a series of short books similar to Animorphs or whatever... maybe $3? Monthly series hold the advantage, however, of being able to sell subscriptions- you could even keep the same price per book and just throw in extras for monthly subscribers. It might actually be advantageous to stretch the wait time between volumes- it almost seems like a bi-monthly series would feel more substantial. Of course, then you risk your audience losing interest or growing out of the series... Haha, okay, forget I said anything. For one-off novels in ebook form... I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than like... $7? Give or take? Depending on how interested I was, of course. Set the prices too high and you risk losing more customers to piracy. And I know I still much prefer reading on paper, so until simulated paper technology becomes more widespread, I think the prices for ebooks have to be kept nice and low.
I totally agree with delta that there should be some sort of trial period... or (in a cruel but probably very effective plot) maybe the first few chapters could be made available for free. Something similar to the way you can cruise a few pages of books in the bookstore before purchasing. For a monthly series... I'm not sure I'd release it alongside paperbacks, honestly. Exclusively ebook series make much more sense than paperback monthly series in today's world. Shorter series and standalone novels need to start being released in electronic incarnations alongside their physical versions in order to propagate the ebook trend.
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Well there is the factor that the ebooks will easily be pirated, why not print real ones? That prevents theft on a huge scale like that.
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So are you saying books should never move to online format? That literature is destined to become little more than a nostalgic remnant of the past?
I fully agree that online books result in much greater potential for piracy, but I don't believe the solution is for books to stay out of the online environment. No risk, no reward. Besides, I see the eventual widespread use of online books as pretty inevitable, so the publishers that stay out of the ebook thing on the grounds that "they might be pirated" will be the ones left in the dust, whereas those that dive into the information age headfirst will be successful.
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Well I dont think books should be included in the electronic revolution because the whole point of a book when I was growing up was to get away from TV and computers. I don't want my children glued to screens even worse then I, I think real books are much better for the eyes and such. Not to mention a book is something you can hold and become attached to, i dont think that can be applied to files on a computer or little ebookreader thingy.
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Monthly series hold the advantage, however, of being able to sell subscriptions- you could even keep the same price per book and just throw in extras for monthly subscribers. It might actually be advantageous to stretch the wait time between volumes- it almost seems like a bi-monthly series would feel more substantial. Of course, then you risk your audience losing interest or growing out of the series... Haha, okay, forget I said anything. For one-off novels in ebook form... I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than like... $7? Give or take? Depending on how interested I was, of course. Set the prices too high and you risk losing more customers to piracy. And I know I still much prefer reading on paper, so until simulated paper technology becomes more widespread, I think the prices for ebooks have to be kept nice and low.
I totally agree with delta that there should be some sort of trial period... or (in a cruel but probably very effective plot) maybe the first few chapters could be made available for free. Something similar to the way you can cruise a few pages of books in the bookstore before purchasing. For a monthly series... I'm not sure I'd release it alongside paperbacks, honestly. Exclusively ebook series make much more sense than paperback monthly series in today's world. Shorter series and standalone novels need to start being released in electronic incarnations alongside their physical versions in order to propagate the ebook trend.
That subscription thing is a really good point, I didn't even think about that. It would provide an incentive for people to buy the books in bulk, then, too--like how on iTunes you can get the season pass for a TV season for slightly cheaper than just buying each individual episode.
I'm still basically on the side that RIGHT NOW, ebooks aren't there yet. Publishers aren't on board, and despite a few technophile bibliophiles, I don't think the consumer base is on board with the e-readers, either. I think you're right, eventually it's going to get to the point, like with any new technology, that it's cheaper to buy the ebooks than real books, but I think it's going to take a while to get there yet.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but the only thing I'm thinking about with this whole thing is price. And I'm still cheap enough to buy most of my books used. I really don't think there's a difference between a brand new copy of a book and an edition from 20 years ago, as long as it's held up over the years. Maybe most people don't feel that way. And maybe once the economy kicks up again, people will start to feel more comfortable moving from used books to new books. I know right now, when I grab a new hardcover, I groan at the various ways the publisher artificially raises the price--those stupid rough-torn page edges, raised lettering on the cover, colored ink inside. Like, who gives a damn?
Okay that was sort of a tangent, but I think for ebooks to finally catch on there's going to have to be some innovations. Like the subscription thing is genius, but what if you could use your ereader to directly access a community of fans of the book? What if you could click on the book, and there was a link that said "see what critics say! See what others say! See a message from the author!" It's like DVDs--besides market saturation, I think a very big reason DVD supplanted VHS as the home video format was that they could do more. You didn't have to rewind them, and they included all of that extra stuff--making of featurettes, director and actor commentary, production stills. There is a very large market of people who buy special edition DVDs just for all of that extra stuff. Why couldn't that work for publishing too? Then, you could still price discriminate--offer just the text for a lower price, and for a slightly inflated price, provide access to all of that extra information.
lol I basically just pounced on your idea, Aluminator. But you've finally convinced me that ebooks could work.
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Well, I don't know, but I think that after 5 pages, we came to the "conclusion" that both ebooks and actual books are good. Some people will buy ebooks.
KAA&MG asked that to know if it was interesting for some people to have ebooks. So I think they wanted to know if it was better to make ebooks and actual books, or only actual books, but never thought about making only ebooks ^^'
Actual books are far from disappearance...
Now, if we want they really have all the answers they need, it would be nice if some of you asked your younger sisters/brothers/cousins... because they'll mostly be the public that Scholastic will look for. Do they prefer ebooks? Would they buy ebooks?
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Okay that was sort of a tangent, but I think for ebooks to finally catch on there's going to have to be some innovations. Like the subscription thing is genius, but what if you could use your ereader to directly access a community of fans of the book? What if you could click on the book, and there was a link that said "see what critics say! See what others say! See a message from the author!" It's like DVDs--besides market saturation, I think a very big reason DVD supplanted VHS as the home video format was that they could do more. You didn't have to rewind them, and they included all of that extra stuff--making of featurettes, director and actor commentary, production stills. There is a very large market of people who buy special edition DVDs just for all of that extra stuff. Why couldn't that work for publishing too? Then, you could still price discriminate--offer just the text for a lower price, and for a slightly inflated price, provide access to all of that extra information.
lol I basically just pounced on your idea, Aluminator. But you've finally convinced me that ebooks could work.
This is one pouncing I'm more than okay with- you're looking deeper into that than I was. Now I'm excited too :) I feel like ebooks would become a heck of a lot more viable with some extras thrown in by the publishers. Ohhh, that would be awesome. Somebody should get some publishing execs down here and convince them, too!
Yeah, it's an interesting question- I'll definitely ask around to my friends and family and see what they say and what their thoughts are. I'm especially curious as to what the really young-uns will say.
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In all of my interaction with children, I have no reason to believe that they'd buy ebooks. It would mostly be for the older readers, which (let's face it) are such a small portion of the children's book market. From my experience, PTA moms also HATE stuff that will keep kids on a computer longer.
Here's the kind of writing that works online: free serialized stories. That's been tested by children's companies (ie. LEGO) and works as a promotional tool. I also have a limited amount of experience with current events ebooks, and those seem to sell pretty alright.
Obviously people aren't willing to pay as much for a digital version of something they could get in an analog form. People say that we're moving to a paperless society -- that may be true, but the children's market will experience a delay (think about VHS to DVD -- the children's genre had, by far, the biggest delay). 1.99-2.99 is the only working selling price I could fathom. Even then, I think that profits would be minimal.
People also have a preference to different formats, so formatting is everything in the ebook world when you don't have a page to flip. I think that everyone here seems to be forgetting that this is a children's series, which changes everything in the world of marketing (as I'm sure the authors know, which is why they're debating it, in the first place).
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^^ i like your point. and i am very biased toward incoming technologies.
and i have a notion that the people on this forum are a little older than "children" (as defined by the intended audience of the original series), yet they're not quite parents of children of that age, either. i could be wrong; i've only been here a week. in any case, i'll guess and say that i don't believe that we're qualified to speak either for the parents of the audience or for the children in the audience. how many of us are PTA parents? ^^;; if this is market research for how a children's book series will be received by parents or their children, then it's coming from us in a secondhand way: based on our observations and not our personal experience. ^^;
you make me wonder why the authors posed the question to us in the first place.
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About RAFians' ages:
http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,318.0.html (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,318.0.html)
It may have changed a little, because nobody answer anymore for about 6 months, and everybody grew up ^^ But you can see that the majority of us are between 15 and 24 years old, so you're right, Itw.
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oh, wow. although i was guessing, we're still younger than i thought we were. thanks, dameg~
well, this just means that we have some pretty intelligent young people. D: or it means that i'm getting to THAT AGE, and i'm starting to think that kids on the whole are stupid.
darnit. that means i'm getting stupid.
(i added my vote to the poll. :P)
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Another thought. Parents usually pay for their children's books, right? (Granted, the fabulous thing about marketing is that advertising to children is super-effective in getting their parents to buy stuff for them.)
Those little ebook devices aren't exactly child-friendly, and they aren't selling to the parents. The ebook market has yet to be "broken in", so to speak. I'm of the opinion that it will be a while before it does.
When it finally is "broken in", I believe that it will be an interactive multimedia experience (video clips, pictures, music, and so forth). We're already starting to see some of those, but much as I indicated earlier, those tend to work best as promotions. While some companies are beginning to try marketing these kind of multimedia ebooks, they haven't sold very well. However, they're VERY effective when used as promotional materials to sell other products (toys, books, games and the likes).
LEGO tested this out with their "Bionicle" franchise, and because it worked so effectively, they're producing these kind of promotional materials for ALL their toy lines.
Even if the ebook market WAS "broken in", it still has to make the transition to children. I think we're a long ways off from Scholastic or other children's publishers considering that sort of a thing.
Unlike more recent technology (film reels -> vhs -> dvds) books have literally been around for thousands of years. I like what Ax says in his first book narrative (or was it his next book-narrative?). It was something to the effect of books being superior to computers because of how efficient and easy they are to use. One just has to turn a page.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that we are in the middle of transitioning to a "paperless age", but I think the extent of it will be limited. There's something to be said of an "analog" (tangible) item that's been around for thousands of years. I could be wrong, though. ;)
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lol. i, too, mentioned that bit in my first response to this thread: Ax's calling computers backwards, compared to books. ^^; kinda funny that we remember that parallel.
i think anijen (and aluminator, in a way) also mentioned this interactive, multimedia approach to ebooks. someone else - or two someone elses- suggested animated comic things.
scholastic already has some multimedia websites, though, don't they? even back in the day, i thought they had something for animorphs. if they found enough support, i could see an easy transition to "games, animated shorts, interviews, forums, and previewing/purchasing ebooks!" it'd be a lot like the nickelodeon webpage, or something similar.
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No one's said this yet:
I would buy the Animorph reprints in book form if there was no updating.
I agree, and I'm another person that's pro-book/anti-e-book haha. I might be old fashioned, but turning pages and having not one but TWO pages open at once is something I'm accustomed to and enjoy. Plus it just fits so much easier into a hand than a flat, too-big kindle that I see people carrying around on airplanes now.
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Yeah, see, that's one of those technological Catch-22's. If the technology becomes more widespread, it can be made easier to use and read, and smaller and nicer to handle and so on, but unless the technology improves more, it's less likely to become widespread.
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I have all but 2 or 3 of the Animorphs series in the original prints, so I really have no reason to buy the reprints in paper or ebook versions. But for ebooks generally, I buy quite a few of them because they tend to be a few bucks cheaper than the print versions (costs of production are lower), and I have no problem reading them on my computer. The ebooks I buy tend to run $2-$7, depending on the length. For something monthly, I'd point to http://www.webscription.net/p-1283-grantville-gazette-bundle-volumes-29-to-34-currently-29.aspx as an example. Bundle of 6 books for $27, which is slightly cheaper than buying each issue individually.
HOWEVER, I despise ebooks that are platform-specific and DRMed and refuse to buy them. Yes, it's easier to pirate pdf, but real fans are willing to support their favorite authors, and lack of mobility will turn off fans.
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Regular book for me.
I'm definitely a techie, but I don't like what I'm seeing in e-books and e-music. There's essentially a war going on between publishers and pirates, and we users are caught in the crossfire. Pirates steal the books, so publishers make it harder to get the books. Eventually, normal users pirate because getting the books legally is a massive pain in the backside.
The real issue here is that many publishers seem to enjoy causing trouble. For example, last year, Amazon forcibly removed two books from users' Kindles (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10289983-56.html). To me, that's unacceptable.
I know K.A. and M.G. almost certainly won't do that, but I don't want even anyone to even have the ability to do that. Paper books fit the bill just fine.
Besides, paper books don't break easily (well, pages can be torn, but at least dropping a book won't break it) and they don't require a battery, which means they don't just "wear out" (generally just when you need the book for something, per Murphy's Law). Sure, e-books may be the way of the future, but I don't like it one little bit. I'll be using paper books, thank you.
As for a price... I think somewhere between $5 and $10 is reasonable, and I'd be happy to pay up to $12 if it would bring 2.0.
Just my 2ยข.