I prefer eBooks - but the prices are just silly

Mastering VMware Vsphere 5.5: Amazon.co.uk: Scott Lowe, Nick Marshall, Forbes Guthrie, Matt Liebowitz, Josh Atwell: Books

How can the eBook be almost twice as much as the hard copy ?!

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Bokeh

Same thing in the US store
Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5: Scott Lowe, Nick Marshall, Forbes Guthrie, Matt Liebowitz, Josh Atwell: 9781118661147: Amazon.com: Books

BGraves

Perhaps Amazon is discounting the paperback version before it's released and then it will go back up to regular price? Either way, that's too much!

petedude

jibbajabba wrote: »

How can the eBook be almost twice as much as the hard copy ?!

It irritates me, too.

These companies have nearly zero overhead on the electronic versions, but seem to be trying to gouge the market to make extra dough. This is what prompts cheapies like me to buy used paper books. I tried to go completely electronic for newly purchased reading materials about a year or so ago, and it just got ridiculous quick.

WafflesAndRootbeer

This is a recent thing with Amazon. I noticed it because I buy a lot of books - non tech stuff - for my Kindle and the prices for everything not on sale are now a few dollars more for the Kindle version over physical books. I don't know why it is that way but it won't change any time soon.

Snow.bros

I don't know how you guys are really coping with these e-books but it doesn't seem to cut it for me, the only time i prefer e-books is when you are not reading at home, i mean you can't really make notes on a screen, i like to make notes when i read a guide just to aid in understanding. An e-book just makes me lazy to read.

But any way it's only my own opinion.

DoubleNNs

I like pdf ebooks because I don't like to carry around an entire tome at once. I print the text out and study chapter-by-chapter - highlighting the hell out of each page and riddling it w/ notes.

Some hard copy books give you a discount code for 70% off the ebook price, which you can download in epub, mobi, and pdf formats. That's the route I've been taking lately. Otherwise, I agree that the ebook prices are ridiculous.

SteveLord

I've mentioned this before and some here didn't believe me. Novels also seem to run the risk of typos and even entire pages missing. To be fair, it doesn't apply to all of their books.

N2IT

I love reading off of paper. I am old school like that, I hate reading for long times from a digital medium. (just saying)

Zartanasaurus

Most any book I've looked at on Amazon, the Kindle version was cheaper. But this just makes the Safari Books subscription more appealing.

JustFred

Cisco Press is guilty as well. Even with their so called discounts and promotions, their e-books are priced at very unreasonable rates. You'd think by opting to save trees, that would make these e-books cheaper.

veritas_libertas

@Zart: Especially if you have an ACM membership...

ptilsen

This is not new. Ebook prices have been erratic from the onset. Some will be cheaper; some will be the same; some will be much, much more expensive. I wouldn't want to guess on the business and economic factors that lead to them being so much more expensive. I just buy what's cheapest. E-books can be convenient, but they don't really have a major advantage over paper, in my opinion. Paper is easier to read and doesn't take power. The ability to read in the dark or store on a tablet you might be carrying otherwise is nice, but that's about it. I still buy most of my books in paperback.

tpatt100

I checked the US version and the Kindle edition is more expensive but not double. To "me" the ebook offers more value though because I can read/access it anywhere. The publishers have different profit margins on their products so they are probably offering the physical book at a much lower profit margin to help move inventory before the book comes out and help keep inventory low by producing based on pre orders I guess.

Manufacturing costs which are almost nothing for ebooks doesn't have to reflect in the price, the publisher controls the price based on demand. I do buy a lot of self published stuff on Amazon at lower prices based on peer reviews and that is pretty much the future of publishing in general.

jibbajabba

Some eBooks, expensive eBooks, are sometimes so bad in quality that you wonder how that ever got released without someone getting shot.

tpatt100

Yeah I have gotten a couple that I demanded a refund for since they were terrible.

SteveLord

eBooks is where Amazon makes their money, since they take a loss on every Kindle. Just like the video game industry.

cknapp78

I didn't check to see if they have it, but have you checked safaribooksonline.com? I have a monthly subscription where I can get 10 ebooks a month for 12 dollars. Just trying to help...

Corey

Shdwmage

I prefer the paper books. I can write notes in them, keep a massive library and refer back to them easily. I absolutely hate reading on the screen on top of reading on the computer. Part of the reason I read books is so I'm not always staring at an electronic screen all the time.

pert

Shdwmage wrote: »

I prefer the paper books. I can write notes in them, keep a massive library and refer back to them easily. I absolutely hate reading on the screen on top of reading on the computer. Part of the reason I read books is so I'm not always staring at an electronic screen all the time.

Oh please, this part is absolutely worse in everyway than electronic, even if you are a paper fanboy. Electronic trumps physical in everyway when it comes to ease of having a library and referring back to it at need. You can't ctrl-f in paper and scan a 1400 page in 3 seconds. Let's stay rational.

veritas_libertas

@Pert: Good grief. Sounds like you took it personally. I also happen to prefer dead trees over digital screens. It's not a competition, it's a preference...

LarryDaMan

Eh, I can see the merits of both. For pleasure, I love my Kindle. For studying, I see some value in paper books. Sooner or later though, walking around with a paper book might be the equivalent to listening to a Sony Disc-man while going to return some VHS tapes.

EngRob

cknapp78 wrote: »

I didn't check to see if they have it, but have you checked safaribooksonline.com? I have a monthly subscription where I can get 10 ebooks a month for 12 dollars. Just trying to help...

Corey

10 books a month for $12? The site says $19.99 per month after the free 1-month trial then $27.99/mo after first 6 Months.

coffeeluvr

@LarryDAMan....LMFAO & almost spit my coffee on my laptop screen when I read this..."Sooner or later though, walking around with a paper book might be the equivalent to listening to a Sony Disc-man while going to return some VHS tapes"

fredrikjj

The rampant piracy of ebooks probably makes them focus on the costumers that aren't price conscious. In other words, they probably don't sell 4x as many books at $10 compared to $40, and the pirates will still download it for free even then. Another factor is that there's typically 1 or 2 books that are highly recommended for each certification and you are pretty much forced to buy those regardless of the price. It's not like with fiction where you could always read something else if you don't want to pay $50 for an author's work.

DevilWAH

At work I love electronic, especially on a computer screen, I have yet to find a good mobile device ipad/kindle or other that is good for holding a library of reference books and easy to pick up and search. I have hundreds of PDF's and webpages that I refer to and just don't work on mobile devices.

for study I like real books, the fact I can easily flip back and forth, yes you can put bookmarks in electronic books, but there nothing like being able to Flip back 3 pages to a digram to jog your memory, some electronic formats are getting better but its still not a nice. Also at home I study with my laptop and I like to have GNS3 open and hate having to flip back and forth between it and a document. Rather have the Lab manual or study book on the desk so its easy to refer to.

As for personal reading I use my Kindle when I am out and about, but at home I like a real book. Probable have about 300 - 400 books on shelf's around the house, fiction and non fiction and I like to think it reflects mine and my wife's interests. I am the kind of person who will buy a book for my kindle, and if I like it will buy the hard copy to put on the shelf as well

pert

veritas_libertas wrote: »

@Pert: Good grief. Sounds like you took it personally. I also happen to prefer dead trees over digital screens. It's not a competition, it's a preference...

I'm fine with the preference part, really, I am. Someone says they like paper more or digital more, cool. It's when they start spouting claims that are completely baseless where I flip out. You're allowed to love whatever you want, but if you tell me your paper copy of CCNA OCG vacuums your house for you while youre at work I'm going to call bs. =p

DevilWAH

pert wrote: »

I'm fine with the preference part, really, I am. Someone says they like paper more or digital more, cool. It's when they start spouting claims that are completely baseless where I flip out. You're allowed to love whatever you want, but if you tell me your paper copy of CCNA OCG vacuums your house for you while youre at work I'm going to call bs. =p

not vacuum, but it works as a great book end to the rest of my library. but the statement made was physical books are easy to make notes in and refer back to. Which they are.

Another thing I find about electronic books is all the different formats. I buy it for my kindle, but then I can look at it on my PC unless I install the kindle viewer, Or I down load the PDF but when I send it to my kindle it looses all the book marks and high lights.

however one magazine i read "BBC Focus" really shows how electronic books should be done. Unlike every one else who takes the physical book and jsut scans it in. the BBC have added loads of stuff like videos, sound clips and animations, scrolling time lines and other nice touches.

When the publishers start to embrace the advantages you get from electronic then I will seriously consider geting in to them more.