.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
.TITLE eBookstore roundup: finding the best deals
.AUTHOR Heather Wardell
.SUMMARY This great article compares several eBook providers and gives their price for Stephen King’s novel Cell and Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles for comparison purposes. This will help you get a feel for how the prices of eBooks from top authors vary and where to get the best deals. One thing that surprised us: some stores offered the identical book for almost 60% less money than some of the other stores.
.OTHER
Electronic books (eBooks) have a number of advantages over the paper versions. If you already take a handheld or smartphone with you, your eBooks can be with you wherever you go, and they don’t weigh any more whether you’re carrying one or five books at once. When I first began reading eBooks, the selection was limited, but now a huge variety of books can be found electronically.
.CALLOUT Some stores offered the identical book for almost 60% less money than other stores.
But where to find them? This article compares several eBook providers and gives their price for Stephen King’s novel Cell and Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles for comparison purposes (prices accurate as of June 20, 2007). This will help you get a feel for how the prices of eBooks from top authors vary and where to get the best deals.
One thing that surprised us: some stores offered the identical book for almost 60% less money than some of the other stores.
.TEASER Which eBook stores offer the best deals? Tap here to read Heather’s analysis.
.BEGIN_KEEP
.H1 www.eReader.com
The first eBook site I bought from and still the first one I check when I’m looking for a new book, [[http://www.ereader.com|eReader.com]] has a catalog of more than seventeen thousand titles. Unfortunately, the search function isn’t outstanding; it’s slow and sometimes gives odd results, so it can be difficult to be sure that a particular book is not in their list.
All books are available in eReader format, and the eReader software (in both a free and paid version) is available for nearly all handhelds and smart phones, as well as for Windows and Macintosh desktop computers. The eReader software, also known as Palm Reader, is used by other sites as well.
Here’s a bit of historical trivia: eReader.com was once Palm Digital Media, the electronic publishing arm of Palm, Inc. Back in 2002, it was first transfered to PalmSource (the former subsidiary of Palm, Inc. that used to make the Palm OS). It was then sold to PalmGear back in 2003. In 2004, PalmGear was sold to Power By Hand, which then changed its name to Motricity. So eReader.com has been run by Palm, Inc., PalmSource, Palm Digital Media, PalmGear, Power By Hand, and Motricity. This is one site that gets around!
Prices at eReader.com tend to be higher than at the publishers’ own sites, although subscribing to eReader’s weekly newsletter gives you a ten percent discount on most books. What is nice about eReader.com is that nearly all books have an excerpt posted on the site.
At eReader.com, Cell is $8.99, The Diana Chronicles is $17.95. As for ratings, eReader loses a point due to its wonky search.
.RATING 3
.END_KEEP
.H1 www.fictionwise.com
My other most frequently used ebook site, [[http://www.fictionwise.com|Fictionwise]] provides a vast array of short stories as well as longer works of fiction and non-fiction. The site began as a way to bring previously published short stories, mostly science fiction, back to the public, and its selection in this area is top-notch.
Most titles are available in Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, eReader, and PDF. The site has been in business since 2000 and new material is added constantly.
At Fictionwise, Cell is $16.99, The Diana Chronicles is $17.95.
.RATING 4
.H1 www.BooksOnBoard.com
I discovered [[http://www.BooksOnBoard.com|BooksOnBoard]] in researching this article, and I wish I’d found it earlier. Nearly two hundred thousand ebooks!
They carry books from a variety of publishing companies, and the prices are often cheaper than the publisher’s list price. For some books, they provide a downloadable excerpt. Their books are available in Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, eReader, and PDF. This is one of only two sites I found where the prices are different for the different formats. The difference is often only a few cents, but in some cases, as for Cell, it is significant.
At BooksOnBoard, Cell is $7.01 for PDF/Microsoft Reader/eReader and $13.42 for Mobipocket Reader, The Diana Chronicles is $14.00 for all formats.
.RATING 4
.H1 www.eBooks.com
Another site that’s new to me, [[http://www.ebooks.com|eBooks.com]] has eighty thousand titles available. Only a few titles have excerpts available, but the site does offer a 10% discount on New York Times Bestseller List books. Most titles are available in Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, and PDF formats.
At eBooks.com, Cell is $8.99, The Diana Chronicles is $17.99.
.RATING 4
.H1 www.mobipocket.com
The Mobipocket reader is of course available at [[http://www.mobipocket.com|Mobipocket]], as are approximately forty thousand titles. These books are available only in Mobipocket reader format, and prices are fairly high.
At Mobipocket, Cell is $16.99, The Diana Chronicles is $17.95.
.RATING 3
.H1 Ebooks.Palm.com
[[http://www.ebooks.palm.com|Palm’s eBook catalog]] is "powered by eReader" (which makes sense, given that eReader is a former Palm property) and appears to have the same prices and list of books as eReader provides, right down to the same slightly strange search results. I haven’t been able to find a book on this site that is not also on eReader.
At Palm’s eBook catalog, Cell is also $8.99, The Diana Chronicles is also $17.95.
.RATING 3
.h1 eBookMall.com
The [[http://www.eBookMall.com|eBookMall]] site isn’t the easiest to navigate, but with 150,000 titles available it is worth checking out.
This is the only site that accepts books directly from authors (at a cost) instead of only from publishing companies, so a good number of the titles are self-published, particularly those available in the non-secure Microsoft Word format. Overall, prices tend to be higher here than at other sites.
At eBookMall, Cell is $16.99 for PDF/Microsoft Reader/eReader and $14.99 for Mobipocket, The Diana Chronicles is not available.
.RATING 3
.H1 Etext Center at the University of Virginia
[[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/|The University of Virginia’s Etext Center]] has two thousand ebooks, all free, in Microsoft Reader and eReader format, and thousands more available only in HTML format. These books are nearly all literary classics, so if you’re looking for the latest novel you won’t find it here. Still, there are some wonderful old books here, and the formatting, while not fancy, is clean and readable.
Neither Cell nor The Diana Chronicles was available here, but a ton of great free stuff was.
.RATING 4
.H1 Final shootout
So which of these online stores had the best deal. Let’s look at them all side-by-side in Table A:
.BEGIN_TAB_TABLE A eBook store price comparison
.TAB_TABLE_WIDTH 150 300 80 80
.TAB_TABLE_ALIGN LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT
.TAB_TABLE_HEADER Store Format Cell Diana
.TAB_TABLE_ROW eReader.com eReader $8.99 $17.95
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Fictionwise Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, eReader, and PDF $16.99 $17.95
.TAB_TABLE_ROW BooksOnBoard Microsoft Reader, eReader, and PDF $7.01 $14.00
.TAB_TABLE_ROW BooksOnBoard Mobipocket $13.42 $14.00
.TAB_TABLE_ROW eBooks.com Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, and PDF $8.99 $17.99
.TAB_TABLE_ROW MobiPocket Mobipocket $16.99 $17.95
.TAB_TABLE_ROW ebooks.Palm.com eReader $8.99 $17.95
.TAB_TABLE_ROW eBookMall Microsoft Reader, eReader, and PDF $16.99 N/A
.TAB_TABLE_ROW eBookMall Mobipocket $14.99 N/A
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Etext Center Microsoft Reader, eReader, HTML N/A N/A
.END_TAB_TABLE
As you can see, the price for Cell varies widely, where there’s somewhat less fluctuation for The Diana Chronicles. BooksOnBoard had the lowest price for Cell, at $7.01, compared to the highest price of $16.99 at a variety of stores.
Clearly, if you’re looking for the best price, it pays to shop around. We recommend visiting BooksOnBoard and eBooks.com for what will likely be the best price. The other shops are also fine, but you’re likely to spend more.
Why not choose an eBook or two and give it a try?
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Visit [[http://www.ereader.com|eReader.com]].
Visit [[http://www.fictionwise.com|Fictionwise]].
Visit [[http://www.BooksOnBoard.com|BooksOnBoard]].
Visit [[http://www.ebooks.com|eBooks.com]].
Visit [[http://www.mobipocket.com|Mobipocket]].
Visit [[http://www.ebooks.palm.com|Palm’s eBook catalog]].
Visit [[http://www.eBookMall.com|eBookMall]].
Visit [[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/|The University of Virginia’s Etext Center]].
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
