Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: darthTurambar on August 16, 2010, 04:10:46 AM
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Does anyone know if Way of Kings will be released as an eBook on Aug. 31st, along with the hardcover and CD audiobook? I've noticed Barnes & Noble has a listing for Terry Brooks' new book, where you can pre-order the eBook (at a ridiculous price, I might add), but there is no such treatment for Way of Kings. I just got a Nook, and would like to be able to buy WoK in electronic form.... but I'm also not willing to wait past release date, or all my Sanderson-convert-friends will be laughing at me as they finish their print copies...
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Yes, it will be released on the same day. I don't know why B&N doesn't have a listing yet.
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Any indication on what the price of the eBook will be? Hopefully it doesn't follow the upcoming "Bearers of the Black Staff", which is priced such that I could get the hardcover cheaper in the store.... if I knew the author was getting the increased profits, I'd be fine with it, but I'm quite certain that is not the case.
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It's $14.99. Cheaper than the hardcover (which, actually, at $27.99 is probably priced $2 too cheap for a thousand-page hardcover, and the sequels will likely be $29.99, same price as a Wheel of Time book). But Brandon does get more royalties for the hardcover.
The ebook price will go down when the paperback comes out. But Tor (or rather, their parent company Macmillan) decides all this stuff and Brandon doesn't have a say in it.
I don't know how nice all the art will look on an ereader screen. I'm guessing not as nice as it will look in the hardcover. And there are 29 total pages of art if you count the endpapers (which may not be in the ebook at all; I don't know). Plus the headers at the top of every chapter, which are more involved than the ones you see in a WoT book.
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Thanks for all the info! I'm torn... Since most major releases can be bought at 40% off (for members), the hardcover would be just under $17. So the ebook savings is only $2, and my favorite author makes less. While I love the convenience of the ebook, that's not a fun decision to make. Especially since its laughable to think the overhead on a hardcover is anywhere in the same ballpark as an ebook. Again, if Brandon saw higher royalties from the ebook, I'd gladly buy that to support him (selfishly, since I want more books!), but that's not the case. Feels like a scam to me. Is convenience worth that much? I guess I'll see on Aug. 31st, when I have to decide one way or the other....
Thanks again for the info!
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Thanks for all the info! I'm torn... Since most major releases can be bought at 40% off (for members), the hardcover would be just under $17. So the ebook savings is only $2, and my favorite author makes less. While I love the convenience of the ebook, that's not a fun decision to make. Especially since its laughable to think the overhead on a hardcover is anywhere in the same ballpark as an ebook. Again, if Brandon saw higher royalties from the ebook, I'd gladly buy that to support him (selfishly, since I want more books!), but that's not the case. Feels like a scam to me. Is convenience worth that much? I guess I'll see on Aug. 31st, when I have to decide one way or the other....
Thanks again for the info!
It may not be the most economical way but I will be purchasing both. I love the look and feel of hardcovers, I have a bookshelf almost entirely full of nothing but hardcovers. I'm planning on buying a Kindle 3 in september so I will be buying the eBook as well because like a lot of people on this forum, I love theorycrafting. But carrying the hardcover everywhere is difficult. The eBook will make it a lot easier to organize my notes and theories (especially on the kindle 3 with all the note features, mmm). So that will be... $16.79 (amazon's current cost for it) + $14.99 for the eBook = $31.78. only $3.79 above in store retail for the hardcover. Not bad.
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So, I will definitely be purchasing the ebook version of this, since these days a lot of my reading is done with a sleeping newborn in my arms, and pushing a button is a lot easier than wielding a meaty tome and turning the pages.
Anyway, I saw that Brandon is going to be coming in for a signing at my local bookstore, and suddenly a big flaw in ebooks presented itself to me: What will I have him sign?! My receipt for the ebook? Maybe I'll just have him sign the back of my nook.
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Brandon has signed Kindles and other ereaders before.
Though I heard a story about someone who had a Kindle signed by a bunch of authors, and it needed to be repaired, and when he got it back they had washed off all the signatures...
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Ultra-mega-DOH!
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Brandon has signed Kindles and other ereaders before.
Though I heard a story about someone who had a Kindle signed by a bunch of authors, and it needed to be repaired, and when he got it back they had washed off all the signatures...
This is why you get a nook and have 2 back panels, one for reading, one for authors to sign!
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After posting I saw this thread, so can someone from Not-Europe click onto the link in the quote,
Is there a Kindle Edition?
And if yes, is it (or will it be) available in Europe?
In the Kindle-shop (http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-of-Kings-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1282740043&sr=8-2-catcorr) I get following message.
This title is not available for customers from your location in:
Europe
Reads to me, yes there is an Kindle edition, but not for Europe ??? :'(
Hope that status changes until next week.
and tell me if its available?
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After posting I saw this thread, so can someone from Not-Europe click onto the link in the quote,
Is there a Kindle Edition?
And if yes, is it (or will it be) available in Europe?
In the Kindle-shop (http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-of-Kings-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1282740043&sr=8-2-catcorr) I get following message.
This title is not available for customers from your location in:
Europe
Reads to me, yes there is an Kindle edition, but not for Europe ??? :'(
Hope that status changes until next week.
and tell me if its available?
It's showing up as available in the US for $14.99. There's a pre-ordering button that says it will be mystically delivered to your Kindle on 8/31 (US release date).
I'm sure there's some fancy publishing/business reason for releasing in different English-speaking countries at different times, but we'd all probably roll our eyes and gag ourselves if we knew. Camp is unfair :(
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Well, I'm not in an English speaking country.
But I was lucky with Changes from Jim Butcher, I could buy it when American's couldnt...
so maybe its a sort of Karma balance?
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I'm sure there's some fancy publishing/business reason for releasing in different English-speaking countries at different times, but we'd all probably roll our eyes and gag ourselves if we knew. Camp is unfair :(
I think it's actually quite rare for books to be released at the same time in other countries, even if they speak the same language. I think it has to do with publisher schedules, business agreements, and things such as that.
Plus, different countries might need different publishers. For example, I think Tor only publishes books in the US, so in other countries, it's handled by a different publisher, but I could be wrong about that.
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I don't know how nice all the art will look on an ereader screen. I'm guessing not as nice as it will look in the hardcover. And there are 29 total pages of art if you count the endpapers (which may not be in the ebook at all; I don't know). Plus the headers at the top of every chapter, which are more involved than the ones you see in a WoT book.
I just discovered this forum looking for an answer to this very question.
Has anyone had a chance to compare the kindle version to the hardcover?
Here in Europe the kindle version would be faster and cheaper for me to get my hands on,
but I would be a bit sad to lose the artwork.
(I'm also a bit reluctant to build a collection of hardcovers - I've been thinking that I might
expand my ebook collection specifically to cut down on bookshelf use. I might be happy to
come back and re-read it before the next installment, and it just seems like that might be
easier in the electronic version.)
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I've heard a couple reports that some of the text in the art is hard to read in ebook versions. But I don't know if that's only on the small screens or if the resolution in the file is just too small.
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I purchased the ebook version for now since I am currently out of the country-- I have a US credit card though!
The text in the art is hard to read. I read a good chunk of it on my iphone. I don't think it's the iphone's problem, though, since you can zoom in on the picture. It's kind of sad, because the artwork is rather awesome. Of course, I AM planning on getting a hardcover still, so I can enjoy the artwork later.
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Ah - very interesting. So, you zoom in, and it's still fuzzy?
Disappointing. I guess it will be a while before the industry pays
as much attention to the quality of the ebook version as they do to
the quality of the print or audio versions.
Does it look like most or all of the art at least made it in to the ebook version?
And there are 29 total pages of art if you count the endpapers (which may not be in the ebook at all; I don't know). Plus the headers at the top of every chapter, which are more involved than the ones you see in a WoT book.
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interestingly the kindle version seems to be outselling the hardcover version according to amazon rankings. This is surprising since the hardcover is only about a $1 more. I believe shipping is free at amazon if you spend $25. I have been reading that ebooks are starting to take off this year.
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I think it's because of convenience. My bet is that people want the book NOW and don't want to have to go to the book store or order it and wait. That's why the kindle with wireless took off so fast. Also, I ordered my hardback from Amazon (wanted it to credit in first week sales, even though I already have an ARC) and it was on sale for LESS than $25, so shipping wasn't free. Plus with shelf space and size (1000 pages is huge for a hard back), it's a lot easier to hold the kindle and carry it around.
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I think it's because of convenience. My bet is that people want the book NOW and don't want to have to go to the book store or order it and wait. That's why the kindle with wireless took off so fast. Also, I ordered my hardback from Amazon (wanted it to credit in first week sales, even though I already have an ARC) and it was on sale for LESS than $25, so shipping wasn't free. Plus with shelf space and size (1000 pages is huge for a hard back), it's a lot easier to hold the kindle and carry it around.
I'm a Sony fan here but I agree, I bought it as soon as I found it on Sony's eBook page. Even while I did this I plan to go down to a bookstore possibly this weekend and buy the hardback.
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interestingly the kindle version seems to be outselling the hardcover version according to amazon rankings.
Fascinating. I don't know exactly how their rankings work. But, if we look at Epic Fantasy right now
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/16197/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_4_last
we have:
1)Towers of Midnight pre-order (hardcover)
2)Way of Kings (kindle)
3)Way of Kings (hardcover)
4)The latest Shannara (kindle)
5)The latest Shannara (hardcover)
6-8)More kindle
9)Gathering Storm (hardcover)
10)Kindle
11)Something else
12)Knife of Dreams (kindle)
13)Eye of the World (!) (kindle)
14)Something else
15-16)Kindle
17)Great Hunt (!) (kindle)
18)Mistborn (kindle)
That's a lot of Brandon Sanderson, and a lot of Kindle!
(Of course, since the kindle versions are _only_ available on Amazon,
it's going to distort the picture.)
The kindle versions of these old epics seem to be in the $6-8 range.
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@calvin: as recently as 6 months ago, alot of author blogs talked about how small the sales volume was for ebooks. Looks like it really changed.
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Yeah...it was about 4-5 months ago, if I remember right, that e-book reader prices dropped significantly. I think it's finally come into its own. I wasn't thinking about buying a reader until then myself. I'm also waiting for technology to become a little more stable (like the whole VHS vs. Betamax thing...I want to buy the one that will be around for decades).
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I hope e-books only becomes a second option for people, and never the dominant or primary method. I guess I am old fashioned, bu I will always prefer a good harcover or paperback to an electonic screen.
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I agree. But as long as there are power outages, corrupt files, the potential to drop the kindle, etc., I'm sure that hard-bound books will exist. Newspapers, however, may go out of style.
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ebooks outsell hardcovers on Amazon. But Amazon sells a LARGE percentage of the ebooks in the world, and a small percentage of the hardcovers in the world. Overally, ebooks won't overtake hardcovers for years yet.
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I hope ebooks never overtake hardcovers. Like I said in my prior post, I hope ebooks never becomes a primary or dominant method. Only a second option, but used less overall than buying hardcovers.