Rory Sutherland on Kindle vs book

[THX1138]

You mean an Amazon account?

No problem! Yes, an Amazon account. See, I don't know where the thing comes from! That's how little know about it.

 

[THX1138]

Paper- or e-books, they both have their pros and cons. As with most things in life, one needs to be flexible.

Very true.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Yes, an Amazon account.

That's the main con I have against e-readers, it only works with accounts and own formats. It's why I have 2 e-readers, a Kobo and a Kindle.

 

[Phyrebrat]

You can export your wip as an Epub file in Scrivener which means it will have chapters and all that formatting so it’s easier to navigate than a pdf or word file.

 

[Foxbat]

Thinking further on this, I think perhaps the guy in the video has completely missed the point when he talks of a plateau. After all, we don’t buy kindles etc just for the hell of it. We buy them and then fill them up with books. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are seen as something of a ‘loss leader’. So, with that in mind a plateau of the product becomes fairly irrelevant if the real earning power is in the books we buy for them rather than the devices themselves. I have only 3 kindles but I’ve got around a couple of hundred books installed on them. Some plateau

 

[Overread]

Yeah its only 40 odd seconds of a clip so the plateaux could mean anything. It could mean sales of the machines itself; aggregate sales of machines and ebooks or just the ebooks themselves. Even then we have to remember that marketing and economists love the constantly increasing line. So a plateau is often framed as a negative thing (or at least not a positive) even if those constant steady sales are generating millions a year in pure profit.

I do agree I think Kindles are loss-leaders which might well explain why they have quite simple interfaces and features. The real money is then being able ot sell you lots of books. Heck more than once I've finished a book and seconds later instantly bought the sequel. That's really easy money for Amazon to turn 1 book into 3 or more purchases or a loss-leader free first book into multiples.
The Sample function is also great and gives you that library/bookshop moment of testing out a publication before purchase

 

[Phyrebrat]

I used to manage around six books a year when I used physical copies. Last year my Goodreads report stunned me with how many I had read. This was a direct result of my folks getting me a kindle.

But I’m kinda twisted on the subject inasmuch as I wish there were only physical books which I have romanticised

 

[Foxbat]

But I’m kinda twisted on the subject inasmuch as I wish there were only physical books which I have romanticised

I’m inclined to agree but, as my eyesight gets worse, I find the kindle easier to read than some of the very small print in many books. Deluxe paperbacks are a good alternative but they also exacerbate the storage problem. I’ve also noticed that, as a book gets older, the paper gets darker. This reduces the contrast between print and paper and also increases the difficulty for us with fading eyesight.

 

[Parson]

I read a 100+ books a year. I buy maybe 1 hard copy a year. If I had to buy all my books, (Libraries carry very little of what I like to read.) I would likely read something more like 20 books a year. I think that Kindle is the very best idea that has come along in publishing ever.

 

[Ursa major]

email a properly formatted Word doc (e.g. using styles for paragraph indents rather than tabs) to your Kindle's email address

That's what I do.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Hi all. I adore my kindle. I do find the speed when coming in and out of multiple books a bit of a drag as it can be very slow on some. I have Dickens’ entire catalogue and when I try to open it it often feels like it’s crashed.

I love the immediacy. As a neuro-div on the spectrum, when I need to read a book I MUST READ IT NOWWWWW. kindle allows me that.

Harebrain also makes a good point about reading WIPS on it. And sending them. I find errors reading my WIPS on my kindle that are invisible in Scrivener.

I find it hard to read on a screen like a phone MacBook or iPad but I can still read paper books. I just prefer Kindle. I read a lot in bed and having the option to make the screen dim or black is perfect.

Lastly, the battery lasts forever!



Interesting. In what way? Are people reading their books on TikTok or do you mean they’re repping physical books? I follow some and like the way they kind of fetishise the experience of having an actual book.

They rep physical books, especially pretty editions with sprayed edges etc. that’s what kindle can’t replicate - the sheer prettiness - and publishers are all over that (which brings its own challenges for independent bookstores as supply is highly controlled)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

On the reading - I read 0 on kindle. I do get a lot of free arcs etc and obv am surrounded by books, but even before having the shop I hated kindle. Can’t get into a book, can’t feel like I’m reading one. I need the tactile book in my hands. For me reading is for pleasure and the kindle isn’t any pleasure

 

[Phyrebrat]

They rep physical books, especially pretty editions with sprayed edges etc. that’s what kindle can’t replicate - the sheer prettiness - and publishers are all over that (which brings its own challenges for independent bookstores as supply is highly controlled)

I was hoping you meant that.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I was hoping you meant that.

I have 2 lovely customers who didn’t read anything until 6 months ago and now are romping through the TikTok section - it’s lovely to see!

 

[Foxbat]

You can use PDF, but I find best results are to email a properly formatted Word doc (e.g. using styles for paragraph indents rather than tabs) to your Kindle's email address (which you can find from your Amazon account). There has to be no message text, and just "convert" as the subject line. Amazon will then convert the file and the Kindle will download it like a purchased book.

I had no idea you could do this (or that my kindle has an email account).
I should stick this in the ‘today I learned’ thread

They rep physical books, especially pretty editions with sprayed edges etc. that’s what kindle can’t replicate - the sheer prettiness -

This is why I went for the kindle fire HD. I read a lot of history and many have colour plates, photos etc. The fire HD is excellent for these detailed graphics. It’s a bit pricey but when you consider that, in sales, I can buy books that would normally cost between £30 and £50 for a fiver, it soon pays for itself. And, just to be clear, nobody loses out here because I wouldn’t think about buying these books at all at their normal retail price (some of them are extremely niche..like British Cruisers Of The Victorian Era).

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I had no idea you could do this (or that my kindle has an email account).
I should stick this in the ‘today I learned’ thread


This is why I went for the kindle fire HD. I read a lot of history and many have colour plates, photos etc. The fire HD is excellent for these detailed graphics. It’s a bit pricey but when you consider that, in sales, I can buy books that would normally cost between £30 and £50 for a fiver, it soon pays for itself. And, just to be clear, nobody loses out here because I wouldn’t think about buying these books at all at their normal retail price (some of them are extremely niche..like British Cruisers Of The Victorian Era).

That is different though - in the sprayed edge market the product is collectible because of its unique features, as well as being pretty to look at. I don’t see how kindle could ever offer the same collectibility

 

[Foxbat]

I definitely agree that a kindle is not a medium for a collectible but it may serve a related purpose. I don't consider myself a collector of anything but, given the number of books I have accumulated, I may have a hoarding tendency in this area. This, despite the fact that I have regular purges, disposing of any book I know I will not read again (usually to a zero waste place or similar book receiver). It is, however, always difficult parting with a book even if I am resolved to do so.

The kindle offers an alternative to the inordinate amount of space that books take up so, in a sense, you could say that the digital medium of the kindle (drawing an analogy) acts as a kind of nicotene patch to my tendency towards reluctance when it comes to disposing of books, because if I have any doubt about disposal, I can always replace it with a digital version as an alternative. Of course, this doesn't actually solve any hoarding instinct but it does move it to a virtual level and helps free up real world space.

It also means that I don't have to buy a bigger house

 

[Pyan]

, just to be clear, nobody loses out here because I wouldn’t think about buying these books at all at their normal retail price (some of them are extremely niche..like British Cruisers Of The Victorian Era).

I find a mix is best for me - I read a lot of non-illustrated books (SF/F, historical novels, classic crime and detection stories, etc) on my Kindle because they're free or cost very little and don't take up valuable space on my already overcrowded bookshelves.
Technical and highly illustrated stuff, like my collection of plant and gardening books, my books about climbing and mountaineering, and especially my books on the Navy from 1880 to 1918 stay in the dead tree category, because it's just too small and difficult to see details of ships, especially, on the Kindle screen. Plus I can afford to buy larger and more expensive volumes, like my vintage copies of Jane's Fighting Ships, if I don't have to decide between yet another account of the Great Dreadnought Race and the latest Mick Herron or John Scalzi.

 

[Foxbat]

I find a mix is best for me - I read a lot of non-illustrated books (SF/F, historical novels, classic crime and detection stories, etc) on my Kindle because they're free or cost very little and don't take up valuable space on my already overcrowded bookshelves.
Technical and highly illustrated stuff, like my collection of plant and gardening books, my books about climbing and mountaineering, and especially my books on the Navy from 1880 to 1918 stay in the dead tree category, because it's just too small and difficult to see details of ships, especially, on the Kindle screen. Plus I can afford to buy larger and more expensive volumes, like my vintage copies of Jane's Fighting Ships, if I don't have to decide between yet another account of the Great Dreadnought Race and the latest Mick Herron or John Scalzi.

For any highly detailed stuff on kindle, I just use the kindle on PC with my normal monitor. I also bought some old comic collections for kindle but only use the PC to read them.

 

[Juliana]

Nice thing is, for those with newer model Kindles here in the US, you can also read library e-books on them via apps like Libby or Hoopla. (Not my Kindle because it's an old 2nd gen with the physical keyboard so I have to read library books on my phone app...)

When I got my Kindle I was still living in Brazil with no access to good libraries and limited bookstore imports of stuff I wanted to read (apart from not really having a budget for buying lots of new books!). The Kindle was 100% responsible for getting me back into reading SFF. I still love a physical book though, and I have the perfect job for it, too - I work in a library! (Only 'problem' with working in a library is I'm always taking too many books home.)