riffjim4069 said:
Then good for you if you can get the books you want for$4 or $5.
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Is the $79 Kindle e-reader a revolutionary moment for the publishing world?
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Then good for you if you can get the books you want for$4 or $5.
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Sorry...I meant to say $4-5 bucks less (discounted) for a 600-700 page book. Something got lost in the translation while watching two shows and trying to type while eating corn on the cob.
riffjim4069 said:Sorry...I meant to say $4-5 bucks less (discounted) for a 600-700 page book. Something got lost in the translation while watching two shows and trying to type while eating corn on the cob.
Ok,that makes more sense.
Not nearly much of a discount.
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My son started University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee this fall in engineering. When we went to buy books, I found these typical prices for engineering, math and science books
New $175
Used $110
e-book $80
However, there was a BIG but. The $80 was for a 120 day lease on the book. The book would become unavailable after the semester was over. Buying used and selling back at the end of the semester meant the used book only cost around $60, or less than the ebook.
The most extreme example was the calculus book. The kids use the same book for the three semester calculus series. No used books were available, so we paid $175 for the book. The ebook would have cost around $250 for the three semesters. And yes, I specifically asked if that was the case.
New $175
Used $110
e-book $80
However, there was a BIG but. The $80 was for a 120 day lease on the book. The book would become unavailable after the semester was over. Buying used and selling back at the end of the semester meant the used book only cost around $60, or less than the ebook.
The most extreme example was the calculus book. The kids use the same book for the three semester calculus series. No used books were available, so we paid $175 for the book. The ebook would have cost around $250 for the three semesters. And yes, I specifically asked if that was the case.
Agreed. My Knuth algorithm books, digital filter design, compiler thoery and a half dozen others still get used forty years later.
As a college professor I have a keen interest in this whole rental market. The plus side is it saves kids money on books that are disgustingly over-priced. For example, my criminal procedure text in the new 8th edition is going for $180. In the two year old 7th edition, it is $120. Students can rent it for about $90, but as said, the rental ends, and six months later, they don't have the resource.
I still have every book from my undergrad classes; students today rarely keep books. Now, on the one side, that points to a much bigger problem -- they don't READ them either. BUT for a discipline like engineering, or chemistry, or any field where knowledge gained through an undergraduate program is truly cumulative, and builds from course to course, the rental approach is bad news. If you are a 3rd year chem student, that Organic Chemistry text from freshman year is still going to be very valuable.
Its a no-win situation.
It did, but who said lower costs = lower prices.
Most of the cost in a textbook is royalties to the prof who wrote it to make up for the low volumes printed.
jayn_j said:
LOL -as an academic author I can attest that that is so not true. Most royalties are 12-15 percent. Twenty would be very very high. And that its split among co authors.
I suspect the sales are registered in the tens of thousands at best. So you aren't getting rich off of it
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John Kotches said:I suspect the sales are registered in the tens of thousands at best. So you aren't getting rich off of it
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Yup. Unless you write THE book for a big course like US Government or the like...
No, you pay $79. They are not advertising it as being discounted. The point is you go to amazon's website and BAM! Kindle starting at $79. THAT is the point. Yeah, it has ads. AND you can PAY MORE for an ad-free version. But I doubt many people will care. They don't show up when you are reading. AND its not going to stop people from going out and buying people $79 kindles for Christmas.
LOL -- I have probably sold 20,000 copies of my text, but I didn't get rich; two co-authors; 5% royalties apiece. AND the authors are responsible for all permissions (photo permissions on the first and second edition set me back $2-3 grand in royalties). AND of course a book might get adopted 3 times by a professor, and after the first semester, the majority of books being sold are used. Royalty on used books = $0.
$79 is a great price point! It will help bring Kindle to masses (and will speed up the death of the printing industry).
However, make sure you understand the limitations of this entry-level Kindle, before you buy one.
It's not just the ads, but also, the twice smaller memory size, the twice shorter battery life (compared to other new Kindle models), the absence of the keyboard (physical or touch-screen), no 3G option, no audio support at all, not even an audio jack! And keep in mind the cost of the accessories: there is no power supply included, and the case is rather expensive - those things can almost double the price of the unit, if you need them.
It's a good basic e-reader, but the slightly higher priced new Kindle Touch might actually be a better deal overall!
).However, make sure you understand the limitations of this entry-level Kindle, before you buy one.
It's not just the ads, but also, the twice smaller memory size, the twice shorter battery life (compared to other new Kindle models), the absence of the keyboard (physical or touch-screen), no 3G option, no audio support at all, not even an audio jack! And keep in mind the cost of the accessories: there is no power supply included, and the case is rather expensive - those things can almost double the price of the unit, if you need them.
It's a good basic e-reader, but the slightly higher priced new Kindle Touch might actually be a better deal overall!
$79 is a great price point! It will help bring Kindle to masses (and will speed up the death of the printing industry
However, make sure you understand the limitations of this entry-level Kindle, before you buy one.
It's not just the ads, but also, the twice smaller memory size, the twice shorter battery life (compared to other new Kindle models), the absence of the keyboard (physical or touch-screen), no 3G option, no audio support at all, not even an audio jack! And keep in mind the cost of the accessories: there is no power supply included, and the case is rather expensive - those things can almost double the price of the unit, if you need them.
It's a good basic e-reader, but the slightly higher priced new Kindle Touch might actually be a better deal overall!
If I only wanted a Kindle for reading I'd agree with you, but as a kindle that plays movies, And stores some data in the cloud (minimizing the need for external/massive amount of internal memory) and access to the thousands of android apps on the amazon market it's a pretty nice package.
Pretty sure there's an audio jack on the bottom next to the power/standby button... They're promoting access to Amazon's video library.
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