What would you pay for an e-book?

Oh I like this question...because to be honest there is no way I would pay almost 10 dollars for an e-book. There is no cost in transport or storage (physical...I know, web space isn't cheap) or printing. I know, the authors must be paid and the publisher and retailer must make a profit, but like extended service contracts....I am not going to buy something that is excessively over priced.

Meanwhile, according to a posting on SF Signal, new genre publisher Angry Robot Books will be producing eBook versions of every title they publish. They are trying to determine a fair price. To that end, they have posted a survey.

So if you're interested in e-books and want to have a say, possibly, on the cost of future e-books, take a jaunt over to the questionnaire at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Y4iB2688Jzn_2bZiJ69a3AIQ_3d_3d

Tor to resume free E-book program!

In the latest Tor newsletter:

• More details next week--but yes, we plan to resume giving away selected e-books on Tor.com, at least one title per month. To download them you’ll need to not just visit Tor.com but register as a user; the downloads won’t be accessible until you do. Registering on the site takes maybe thirty seconds if you type particularly slowly...so Act Now, Act Without Thinking, get over to Tor.com and create yourself a user account today.

Tor's Newest free e-book FLASH by L.E. Modesitt

As I have been saying now for weeks, Tor has a new site in the works. The site will contain original fiction from authors, galleries of images from the field’s best artists plus news and commentary. Topical coverage of major events, weblog posts and guest appearances by some of the most interesting personalities and thinkers around. Tor has put a completion date for start up of this endeavor - July 20, 2008. With this announcement came the newest free e-book: Flash by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. which is available in HTML, MobiPocket, and PDF versions.

if you haven't signed up yet, head over to Tor.com to be added to the mailing list for notification of the newest e-book available.

Orphans of Chaos by John Wright - Tor books newest free E-book

Tor's current free e-book is Orphans of Chaos by John Wright.

I got a nice bit from Roses are Read page where they listed the dust jacket blurb for the book. It reads:

From DJ: "What if your teachers taught you everything - except who you really are? For Amelia and her friends, the strict English boarding school they live in is all they have ever known. The sprawling estate, bordered by unknown territory on all four sides, is both orphanage, academy, and prison. The school has a large staff, but only five students, none of whom know their real names or even how old they are. Precocious and rebellious, all five teenagers are more than just prodigies. Amelia can see in four dimensions. Victor can control the molecular arrangement of matter. Vanity can find secret passageways where none existed before. Colin is a psychic. Quentin is a warlock. And, as time goes by, they're starting to suspect that none of them are entirely human .... John C. Wright's previous fantasy novels, the epic Chronicles of Everness, were lavishly praised by both readers and reviewers. Now he embarks on an ambitious new saga that explores the overlapping boundaries of science, mythology, and the imagination."

If you haven't signed up yet, go to Tor.com and sign to receive your notice of free e-books!

Adventure Books offering free e-books!

Bob over at Adventure Books, publishers extrodinaire (publishers of Escape Velocity Magazine) was telling me that Tor isn't the only one stepppin up offering quality e-books for free. So I asked for details and he sent me the information I crave..

Free Book Links:

There are no forms, questions, or baloney. We just decided to do the Cory Doctorow thing.

'Robinson Crusoe - Special Redux Edition' - The classic tale by Daniel Defoe, re-edited for modern readers. We did not 'modernize' the book, but only made it flow more smoothly with normal editing. Dialogue is now attributed, and some of the longer sections about God and Salvation were edited. Illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, from Defoe's First Edition of 1719.

Link to RC book: http://www.lulu.com/content/2016582

'Say Goodbye to the Sun' - Sci-fi high adventure, originally written between 1978-82. It was lost for more than twenty years until a previously unknown copy turned up in the attic of a house in Seattle. Published in 2003 after a re-edit by Geoff Nelder of Great Britain. Some of the inventions and situations in the book have become reality. It's the story of a first manned mission to a planet beyond our solar system. Good and evil story, basically. Fully illustrated.

Link to 'Say Goodbye': http://www.lulu.com/content/2046861

Thanks Bob, and you can click the links in the descriptions or click the pic or the article title to go to the Adventure Books site for more information.

Scalzi's Old Man's War as a free download

Tor has made John Scalzi's Old Man's War e-book available for download for free as a promotion to introduce readers to Tor's new ebook site that will be starting up soon. Once your signed up you will receive a newsletter with a link to download the newest book available. The first book released was Mistborn, the first in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy.

Old Man's War is part of a series that was followed by The Last Colony that I review last February(read review here)

So click on the link or the book cover and go sign up. We can all use free books right?

or if your jonesing for the hard copy click here

TOR giving away E-Books!

I was just reading on Slashdot that TOR books is launching a new e-book site.

"Tor Books is launching a new site and running a campaign in which they are giving away e-books until the site goes live. To get in on the deal, fill out the form at their site, and each week you will receive a newsletter containing links to download a new book. The first two books are Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson followed by Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

Can't beat free! I am already signed up!

Are Books Passe? Web Giants Envision the Next Chapter

Nelson sent me an article in the New York Times that reports on Amazon's newest e-book device. One that connects directly to an e-book seller (Amazon mayhaps? hummm.....?) The writer wonders if this might might be the start of a trend that would ultimately end the printed book's dominance. *here is a link to the article*

Here are my thoughts on E-books as a replacement for printed material in general.


hummm, electronic books are nothing new. Even the question itself is disingenuous. Look at the sales of just the Potter books to make my point. People take books for granted. You get a small faction that will tout that it saves trees. But books save trees. Think about it. Once you have a book, you never need that book again. You always have it. But every time you want to read an electronic page you must use energy. Some where there is something burning or turning to make that possible. Not so with the book. The book is not the lowest rung on the technology ladder, it is the peak of multimedia efficiency. Think of the book and the information analog of the bike. The bike is tech that is every bit as old as the book but shows no sign of being replaced any time soon. Augmented yes, replaced no. Why? Because its such a wonderfully efficient machine. It allows a person to move with very little energy, rivaling any animal in existence. The book is in the same class. It imparts information on several different levels and does it in a wildly efficient manner. Plus there has to be something to the pure tactile enjoyment of reading a book. Like a bike, a book is so much more than the sum of its parts. Until something comes along to make that moot, I don't see books going anywhere. Plus with a starting price of around $300 U.S. I am not rushing out to purchase one, no matter how much of a geek I am. 300 dollars to me is still at least 12 books on my worst days book buying. Nope, I don't see myself as a standard bearer of an antiquated tech either. For now and for the foreseeable future, I feel that I am getting the best bang for my buck and being pretty damn efficient at it as well.