eBooks about Everything has opened with 70,000 titles in Adobe PDF, Microsoft .LIT and eReader formats.
The angle is that you can quickly find e-books on various subjects as listed in the right-hand column of the home page.
Alas, the EBAE store at this point strikes me as just another search-engine optimization exercise. I’m far more upbeat about a second store I’ll mention here, BooksForABuck.com, where the selection is much smaller but the books are far more affordable and the proprietor seems genuinely interested in his wares.
EBAE’s me-too problem isn’t the only shortcoming. The listing for an Art Buchwald book—played up high on the home page when I first saw the site—exemplifies the good and bad of this e-store.
The Buchwald reincarnation and the commodity mentality
The store’s promotional copy for Too Soon to Say Goodbye reads: “Buchwald has three grown children and lives on Martha’s Vineyard.” Huh? Buchwald died Jan. 17, 2007. In the end, sadly, it wasn’t “Too Soon” for the farewells.
To EBAE’s credit, the site does let readers comment on books, and perhaps Buchwald fans will provide the update that the store didn’t, assuming they think EBAE is worth the trouble.
Significantly, the gaffe isn’t just EBAE’s fault. Zombie-like, it’s picked up information from the hardcover edition, apparently via the e-distributors at Lightning Source. Other bookstores have similarly sinned in treating e-books like p-books—rather than doing the updates that many Net-hip readers would expect, at least in a featured listing for a famous writer like Buchwald. This is just one example of the commodity mentality that afflicts e-bookdom even more than the p-book world.
The price angle
Buchwald himself was the antithesis of a commodity. He’ll be much missed—far more than the price of EBAE’s e-book edition of his last book would be: an outrageous $17.95, compared to $12.21 and shipping for a p-book from Amazon.
EBAE awards discount points, but e-book buyers might fare better on the Buchwald title at Fictionwise ($14.36 with a micropay rebate). Along the way, Fictionwise provides more information about the Buchwald book than EBAE does.
DigitalPulp connection
Behind EBAE is the Coté family, the same people owning DigitalPulp Publishing, which offers a store and technical services for publishers. I myself think that that Fictionwise, eBooks.com and others have a deeper understanding of both the Web and the book business. The Alexa rating of the DPP store is pathetic, and I’m not surprised.
The Cotés would do well to stick to CD-ROM gear and software, or whatever they’re up to these days, based on David Cotés’s past activities. They potentially could make wonderful contributions in commodity areas such as e-book hardware. I wish them the very best of luck at playing to their strengths, as opposed to squandering time and money on a me-too project like EBAE. Look, we already have Fictionwise and the rest.
BooksForABuck: EBAE NOT, thankfully
By contrast, I like what TeleBlog commenter Rob Preece at BooksForABuck.com (prices “$1 to $3.99”) is aiming to do with actual content, at least some of which, by the way, the real Fictionwise is selling.
Rob’s BooksForABuck Web site is far, far less slick than EBAE’s and does not include a huge inventory with big best-sellers, picked up in one swoop from Lightning Source. But, as illustrated by Tornado Bait, which I mentioned in the TeleBlog several years ago in another writeup of Rob’s store, his covers show flair. And Rob’s publishing and retail operations seem driven by a sincere love of genre fiction and appreciation of writers, as opposed to making just another stab at e-commerce.
Not surprisingly, Rob’s Alexa count dwarfs that of the Cotés’ DPP store. His specialties are mystery/thrillers, romances, science fiction and fantasy, and his royalties for writers would appear to be on the generous side. I’d welcome comments from authors he’s published.
Rob constantly blogs about new titles developed in-house—and writes compellingly in a personal, heartfelt way—rather than just pumping out boring news releases as DigitalPulp does.
I don’t know Rob beyond reading his comments in the TeleBlog and perhaps exchanging an e-mail or two in the past if I recall correctly; and I have not meaningfully evaluated the quality of his titles. But from afar, based on very quick tours, I can appreciate what he’s trying to do. Check out his BooksForABuck and share your reactions. No, he isn’t Knopf, as I see it, not if you go by his homegrown site, but his heart is in the right place and I see a lot more potential here than from the DPP crowd—may the right investor help out Rob with money for copy editors, programmers, layout artists and the rest, if that’s what he wants!
A BooksForABuck blog that makes me want to know more
Those are not the only positives compared to the EBAE site focused on DRMed offerings. While Rob worries about piracy and can understand why some publishers use DRM, he himself isn’t doing so. Also, he is going the multiformat route with nonencrypted HTML, Microsoft Reader and Adobe. I realize that the DPP Store offers some nonDRMed books from small publishers and one of David’s children even has her own blog, but to borrow a favorite word from the world of romance, I just don’t see the same passion about the wares, the same loving write-ups of authors and their books and the actual editing process. Rob’s blog makes me want to know more. It’s better done than the prose on his store site.
So if you’re a genre fan, why not check out BooksForABuck, regardless of whether or not it’s Knopf? Meanwhile here is a sampling of titles there, beyond Tornado Bait:
OOLONG TEA AT 10:30 by Alice Reed. When the body at her ex-lover’s funeral turns out to belong to someone else, Marty Brighton sets out to discover what happened to the missing body—or man. What she doesn’t realize is that someone doesn’t want her investigating—and will take whatever steps necessary to stop her. Only $1 until February 13, 2007…
DEADLY AGE: A DEACON BISHOP MYSTERY by Michael Paulson… Private Eye Deacon Bishop may finally have a chance to take down the Portello crime family—but staying alive long enough to gather the clues is going to be a trick. Only $3.99.
A MATTER OF TIME: THE DOODA Vol. 2 by Michael Faris. An epic journey by airship as a small band of adventurers attempts to save their world. Charming fantasy. Only $3.99…
KORINNA by Kristina O’Donnelly… Set in the dying days of the Roman Republic, a woman fights for her independence as the world falls into violence and ruin. A towering historical novel. [$3.99]
Bottom line? If it’s polished best-sellers you want, just go ahead and shop for price among the usual suspects. And if this TeleBlog post sends people to EBEA’s 70,000 books, then great since my intent is to give my honest opinion, not hurt the Cotés. Just be aware of this me-too site’s shortcomings and check out prices elsewhere—and also consider off-the-beaten-path alternatives such as BooksForABuck.
Related: Art Buchwald, 1925-2007 and Art Buchwald’s Moveable Feast in the Washington Post and An e-book Thanksgiving in the TeleBlog. Also see earlier TeleBlog mention of BooksForABuck.
Hi David,
I really do appreciate the plug. I built the pricing model around what I think is reasonable to pay for eBooks. Although a case can certainly be made that eBooks offer MORE value than paper books, this isn’t the way people think. Most consumers seem to think that if the publisher is going to save however much on not buying a bunch of wood-pulp, mashing it with presses, filling warehouses with paper, shipping big pallets of books to other warehouses, paying bookshelves to store the books on their shelves, and waiting for however many months to find out if the books will be bought, then they should be able to get some of these savings in lower prices.
I agree.
And while some argue that printing pulp books doesn’t really cost that much, am I the only one who notices that the paper publishers use increases in paper prices to justify their higher book prices so often?
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Hi, David–
Thanks for the great post about BooksforaBuck.com. I’m one of Rob’s authors–I’ve two books published with his company, Reverse Angle and Shadowed Memories. It’s been a real pleasure to know Rob and work with his e-book venture. As a publisher, he’s supportive and he follows through–something I haven’t always found to be true in other publishing arenas. I’ve read a good number of books by authors on his site, and I’ve found the books takes on are quality work–definitely worth the minimal cost! I’d encourage anyone looking for something different to stop by BooksforaBuck.com and see what’s available–then take a chance…spend the $1 or even a little more!