As the Sony Reader is reaching out to Europe, the Kindle is selling in the U.S., and other e-book readers and e-book-capable devices (like PDAs and cellphones) are selling well worldwide, I'm curious how this forum's members consider e-books these days?

I'm asking how many of you read e-books, and how do you see them as compared to printed books? Also, any comments regarding reading hardware or software.

I am always trying to gauge my market, examining all the distribution systems, and delivering only the best product to my customers. Information like this really helps me to grasp a better idea of how to approach the market.

It's a competitive and saturated market. That being said, do not let this stop you.

There are two ways to bring in income from an ebook in my opinion:

• The content of the ebook will drive potential customers to your website.
  
• The purchase price of the ebook as a source of income.

Either way, I think the only way to make money from an ebook is to build an affiliate program that encourages other people to sell your ebook as well, and drive traffic to higher margin offers.

If your revenue stream is from option #1, then you should price the ebook very low or just give it out for free.

If your revenue comes from option #2, then you should price the book appropriately to market demands.

Selling ebooks is great,

However a poorly constructed book will fail.

When selling ebooks be sure to write plenty of detail and make it an interesting read and make sure you have written it yourself.

You also need a sales page, this site will be your saleman so make sure he performs well, if you view other ebooks you can view some great salepages that you can ideas from, remember to include testamonials and a video always boosts sales by as much as 40%.

You can advertise your ebook directly by placing banners on other sites, doing seo on your home page, google adwords, Clickbank is also great once uploaded to the clickbank site you will find other people will advertise your ebook for you and once sold they will get commission, you can decide on the commision they get, but remember higher commission means more affiliates and potentialy more sales.

Good luck.

I personally won't listen to an e-book unless I'm on a long road trip. I would rather pick up a book and read it any day over listening to one on tape. I'm liking the kindle's though, you can have many books at your fingertips, but I would read those as well.

I think the OP is referring to creating a readable ebook, not an audio book. Although yes, there are many books that are available on audible format (audible.com) and also called ebooks.

Does the kindle have text to speech recognition?

I think the Kindle either does have text to speech or they were going to have it in a version not too far away. I think E-books are way overpriced though. They are only that expensive because they don't want people to completely stop buying regular books. Production costs are way less and profits are way higher. I think they should simply cost less. Also, reading lengthy e-books on a computer is NOT fun. I would only buy e-books if I owned an E-book reader. Also, in my opinion, Kindle looks way better than Sony Reader.

I don't cope well with e-books. I don't like the format, I cannot read them well and in fact I find it very uncomfortable to attempt to do so. My own personal experiences have put me off the thought of ever trying to sell or be otherwise involved in them.

Originally Posted by EyeBuy

ever trying to sell or be otherwise involved in them.

I respect your opinion, and I agree with your point about the issues relating to reading from screen. However I also think that ebooks are today a much bigger opportunity than they used to be.

The main reason is that book reader screens are increasingly resembling paper. As a result, more and more people will be experiencing less issues with reading from screen, and the market will broaden.

Secondly, years ago ebooks were very successful because the Internet was new, and everyone was suddenly information hungry. Today everyone is even more hungry for information, but also savvier in finding the information on their own, without necessarily buying an ebook.

What this means in my opinion is that, as long as your product is good value for money and saves the reader time, it can be very successful. In fact, I also predict that ebooks will take a completely new dimension, with video content and 3D (holographic) content incorporated within books and ebooks alike.

With the kindle and the ipad making waves, we cannot ignore clear signs that people demand new ways of enjoying digital content. Call it ebook or digital book or interactive book, the electronic book is on the rise.

I have the iPhone and can tell you that the screen itself isn't that good for reading-the iPad has the same screen technology. It's better than a flat panel though. I do realise that my issues are just that-mine, in that I have some eyesight problems. It has just turned off my interest to this avenue because if I cannot personally use it to test products, then I don't feel that I can effectively market that product.

Is the Kindle really that much better? If so then yes I can see the potential for a huge advance here and the added content does make it more exciting. It might just be one technology that leaves me behind!

Originally Posted by EyeBuy

iPad has the same screen technology

That's a good point, with all the hype with the iPad challenging the Kindle I didn't make that consideration.

However the Kindle's screen is definitely a screen designed for screen reading and to resemble reading from paper as much as currently possible. There is an interesting article at The future of e-paper: The Kindle is only the beginning - Computerworld