Old Favorites in ebooks

[pwalker8]

One of my goals is to replace my library of dead tree books with ebooks. Every so often, I grab my list of old favorite books that I don't have ebook copies of and do a search on amazon and the sony ebook store to see if any have shown up. (it sure would be nice if there was a service that would do this for me.) I hit the jack pot today!

Most of Brain Daley's books, including his excellent "Doomfarers of Coramonde" series is now in ebooks. The only one of his that I really want and wasn't able to find is the some what obscure, but most excellent "A Tapestry of Magic". Naturally, I immediately purchased the five ebooks of his that I didn't have (I already had his Han Solo trilogy).

I also picked up Susan Dexter's Ring of Allaire series (more of a youth series, but fun to read) and Doyle & MacDonald's Mage World series (except the 2nd book of the series which isn't yet available. Why the heck, would you make books 1,3,4 and 5 available, but not 2? Crazy.)

Right now, given that Rowley's Harry Potter books will come out in ebook sometime in the near future, Roger Zelazny is the major author who I really, really wish was available in ebooks (me and everyone else). I'm also on the look out for Tom Deitz's David Sullivan series and C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine cycle.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I also picked up Susan Dexter's Ring of Allaire series (more of a youth series, but fun to read)

Fictionwise also has Dexter's Moonlight, a kind of prequel to the Allaire series which is not listed in the Amazon catalogue (from a Canadian perspective, at least), which becomes a very good deal with their weekend discount coupons. Plus it's MultiFormat and DRM-free.

I liked it enough when I read it that I'd be willing to try Dexter's other books, but at $6.99 each and DRM-ed for 80s paperback backlist, unfortunately I am no longer quite so tempted as I was before I went to have a look at Amazon and B&N.

[pwalker8]

DRM isn't that big of a deal to me since it's easy enough to remove. In general, I always format shift ebooks that I purchase. I understand that some might balk at the cost, but I look at it this way, an author has to eat, also. If they don't get a living wage from their books, then they stop writing. It's hard to make a living wage at writing.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I understand that some might balk at the cost, but I look at it this way, an author has to eat, also. If they don't get a living wage from their books, then they stop writing. It's hard to make a living wage at writing.

It's also hard to attract the sales which help provide a living wage if the cost of entry seems too high for someone not already very familiar with the work.

I did buy and moderately like the one book of Dexter's on sale at Fictionwise, but I've otherwise never read anything else by or even heard of the author before that.

I might pay that much to subsidize a favourite author whom I've enjoyed for years, but at $7+ per (depending on the exchange rate), the works of a promising stranger generally aren't worth it to me when there are plenty of similarly promising strangers available for just a few dollars less (which allows me to buy up more of what they've got available, which I often do), not to mention familiar old friends also at a similar value-for-money cost.

In any case, I hope things work out for the author, and if she's been around awhile, maybe she does have enough old fans with new e-readers to make for sustainable e-version sales at her chosen price point.