Are eBooks the future of books?

Opinions are mixed. Read eBook readers turning page on paper formats at SpringfieldNewsSun.com. This article believes that e-books are a big part of the future.

Excerpts:

"Amazon sold out of its initial inventory in five and a half hours, said Kindle's spokesman Drew Herdener. ... 'Kindle is for readers, and readers read books,' so Kindle and bookstores have the same customer base, he said. 'The physical book is not going away overnight. These two will coexist for quite a while,' he added, and bookstore owners and employees seem to agree with him."

"'"Borders is embracing the eBook format.' ... Borders partnered with Sony to sell Sony's eBook reader and is selling more than 25,000 eBooks, allowing the store to prepare for the future, she said."

Says the owner of a Christian bookstore that is closing soon: "'This is the future of reading and bookselling,' he said, when the devices are reasonably priced, which might take some time."

Unique opportunities for book buyers online as people unload books they *didn't* want for Christmas

Read about it in these two December 27 articles:

Post holiday re-sales find a niche online - Ottawa Citizen

Christmas booty offloaded online - The Age (Australia)

Free online book exchange/swap: Paperbackswap.com

I just read about a website called paperbackswap.com in an article at dothaneagle.com. (Read the article here.)

Paperbackswap.com averages 35,000 swaps a week, and features 1.7 million books.

"All you need is an e-mail address, a mailing address and at least 10 books you’re willing to list on the Web site and swap with other users. The only cost is postage and a few extra services a user may choose to use. Each new user gets two credits in order to select their first two books."

"Users receive an e-mail when someone wants a book they have listed on the Web site. With every book mailed, a user receives another credit to select books."

"Paperback Swap lists hardcover books and audio books. It also has discussion forums and chat rooms for members. There are separate sites for CD and DVD swapping."

"Laura Martin of Dothan has used the service for 18 months. An admitted book hoarder, Martin said she uses the service to fill out her collections of favorite authors. She’ll list and swap books that she doesn’t like enough to keep and re-read."

Because of the Internet, oldschool bookstores struggle to survive

Read the article "Bookstore owner hangs on in digital world" at STLtoday.com here.

Relevant quotes for online book buyers:

"Between Amazon, eBay and the rise of Borders and Barnes & Noble, the last 10 years have not been kind to the people who run small, independent bookstores. Hundreds, thousands, have shut their doors."

"And with reading habits in a slump and e-books on the horizon, the next 10 years may not be kind, either."

"We got the Internet. We got Wal-Mart. We got video games. And everything hit all at once. … The business of selling books changed from the way it had been done for over 200 years. … We were there and we saw it, it's just that everything happened really fast. All the technology hit at once, and you could suddenly search through everybody's books at the same time. … All of our suppliers who we used to buy from, all the garage sales and estate sales, are now putting them up directly. So now we're competing with these people who have a first-edition Hemingway, and they're going to sell it for a dollar because it's just an old book."

eBay is in a lot of doghouses

According to Ina Steiner at AuctionBytes Blog, eBay customers are angry, fraud is rife on eBay, and a high-ranking eBay executive is trashing the company. Read more at Ina's blog here.

Speaking of eBay, there is a lot of talk surrounding the idea that Amazon should buy eBay, such as at BloggingStocks.com.

86.6% of Amazon customers are "Very Satisfied"...

...according to Nielsen Online and this article at infoworld.com.

Just for fun: First-edition (1926) "Winnie the Pooh" sold for $5,500 on ABEbooks.com

ABEbooks.com released a list on December 17th of the 10 most expensive books sold on ABEbooks.com this holiday season.

The list includes:

$3,600: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling - one of the 1,700 copies signed at J.K. Rowling's launch at midnight in July

$5,500: "Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne - A first edition from 1926.

$7,031: "Two Stories" by Salman Rushdie - the most expensive book.

See the whole list on ABEbooks' blog (Dec 17) or at the New York Times' blog Paper Cuts.

Book buyers love Amazon

Read all about it in this article by CNNMoney.com.

Summary for online book buyers: Book buyers love Amazon.It is by far the biggest book site and is growing rapidly. If you buy a lot of books from Amazon, consider joining Amazon Prime (free shipping on all orders for an annual fee of $79).

From this article, relevant points for book buyers:

"The popular online retailer is expected to have a huge fourth quarter - analysts expect the company's earnings to more than double and sales to increase 34.5 percent over last year."

"Amazon.com is "arguably stronger than any other company on the Internet other than Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt."

"Amazon Prime, which gives customers shipping discounts for a yearly fee, gives customers more incentive to shop online instead of going to the store, wrote Jeffrey Lindsay of Bernstein Research in a report."

"To that end, even though net shipping costs rose 39 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, Amazon's revenue in the quarter increased by 41 percent."

"The company still is known primarily as a site to buy books, music and DVDs. Sales of media products accounted for nearly two-thirds of Amazon's sales in the first nine months of this year."

"Amazon.com has a lot going for it. But Wall Street already knows that. The stock is trading at 52 times earnings estimates for 2008. Top Internet auction site eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500), by way of comparison, trades at about 20 times next year's earnings estimates."

[Image source: Thomson Baseline & CNN Money.]

Blog Vision: unbiased, frequent tips & news for online book buyers

This is a blog about buying books online: where to buy them, how to buy them; what to do, what not to do - basically, how to get the books you want for the lowest price in good time and in the condition advertised.

You may ask, Why would a bookseller (i.e., us: Bookling.com) be willing to send people elsewhere? Answer: because we believe this blog will also raise awareness about us; and if we happen to sell the book you want, and we're the best deal, you'll buy from us. We also sell on all of the big marketplaces (Amazon, Alibris, eBay, etc) so we're not afraid to send you there if that's best for you.

Are we qualified to write this blog? Yes, we buy plenty of books online ourselves. For example, we bought books from other sellers on Amazon marketplace for Christmas gifts this year. Also, because as an online bookseller we keep abreast of the online book world, we know a lot already and are always learning - and can pass our knowledge on to you.

Plus, we haven't found a good source out there for online book-buying best practices--maybe because it hasn't, until now, made sense for anyone to put the time and effort into actually doing it--so we believe we're meeting a need that can help a lot of regular people.

Our commitment is to provide the best information we can to help you buy books online wisely. We believe that when we do this we show ourselves to be credible and that much more trustworthy as a bookseller.

So... stay tuned for tips that will help you buy books online wisely; and for news about the online book world that will impact you as a book buyer.

It is fitting to end this post with a tip, so: Have you tried www.addall.com? It's a great site to find the lowest price for the book you're looking for.