I took a short, informal poll on twitter this morning regarding the cost of e-books, and the responses I got were interesting. You see, I was looking to buy a book (666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce) when I realized that the Kindle e-book was a dollar and a half more expensive than the paperback. While part of the reason to have gotten a Kindle was to slow the build-up of books around my already helplessly overcrowded little house, I have a problem paying more for an e-book than for a paperback. There's nothing physical to drive up the cost, so a physical book should always be more expensive, in my opinion, than an e-book which is formated and transmitted electronically. I understand that a great deal of work went into producing the book, and I wouldn't have had a problem if they were the same price, or if the e-book was only slightly cheaper. I just don't want to pay more for pixels than for paperbacks.



So what did my twitter pals say?

Well, the responses were mixed.

While some said they would never pay more for an e-book than for paperbacks, others said they didn't count cost in the benefits/drawbacks of the e-reader. I even got one response that said it's situational and depended upon how much she needed the book. The more urgently she needed the book, the more likely she would be to pay more for an e-book.  One pal, who I've known for quite some time, had no opinion but to agree that the book I was looking at sounded amazing and that he would have to read it!

So what about you? Would you pay more for an e-book than for a paperback? Does cost factor into your decision to buy an e-book? Do you think e-books are the devil's spawn sent as the harbinger of the destruction of all of book-kind? Drop me a comment and let me know what you think, I'm really interested, especially since my little twitter poll yielded such mixed results.

Image via TNW

Ever since I was a little girl, I've been conscious of my impact on the environment -- I even sent McDonald's a letter, when I was 8 years old, asking them to stop using Styrofoam. While I'm not one of those people who believe that humans are the cause of global warming, or that we're destroying the planet, I do believe that we should all make an attempt to keep our planet clean. We live here, we use the earth's resources, and we should try to be as careful with those resources as possible. That's where I come in on the environment, so when I bought my Kindle earlier this month (well, actually it was in mid-January), a consideration for me was certainly the environmental impact of an e-reader over traditional print media.

By way of full disclosure, I should tell you, I love books. This isn't a secret. Anyone who knows me knows that I love everything about books, the scent, the feel; I love books so much that I use to be an avid opponent of e-publishing in all forms. Naïvely, I believed that e-books were destroying the tactile experiences I associated with my beloved books. I've since come to my senses and have very strong opinions about the future of publishing and how e-publishing comes into that future. I have friends who self-publish, or publish with small press, in e-book format for all e-readers, including the Amazon Kindle. All that said, I'm keenly aware that books, that tactile experience I love so much, is made of paper and that paper is trees. Paper means that somewhere, trees were cut down, and there're few things I dislike more than the wanton destruction of nature for my personal enjoyment. Of course, paper's not the only problem, but also the fact that for every book I held in my hand, transportation burned fuel to get it to me. Buying books online, something we're all guilty of, is no better. The mail brings us those books at a price to the environment. So we didn't drive to Barnes & Noble, or Hastings, to get that book, someone had to drive it to us or we wouldn't have it.

When we think, then, about our carbon footprint, we usually take into account the things we do in our direct, everyday lives that consume resources. What we fail to consider, in most cases, are the things others do on our behalf that likewise consumes resources. Books, though we may love them, increase our carbon footprint. Of this, I'm aware. So, when I realized I could buy books with one click, that they would arrive at my Kindle in a matter of seconds, and that I could read them without the expenditure of natural resources, I really liked that idea. Not to mention, I tend toward terrible impatience.  I want books when I buy them, not in two or three days, but now.  I know, patience is a virtue, but one I've never managed to master.

Now before I sound more like a raving tree hugger (not that there's anything wrong with raving tree huggers), I should say that the environment is not the only reason I bought the Kindle.  It is a reason, but not the reason. Still, the environment is a big thing for me and my awareness of it where books are concerned is not to be understated.  I'm also aware that environmental resources are consumed in the creation and distribution of the Kindle and other e-readers, they're not without their own environmental impact, but I would argue that it's much smaller than that of traditional print media.

Interestingly, recent studies show that e-readers might not be more efficient than books, but there's a catch.  According to EcoLibris, the New York Times published a story in December 2009 that suggests that e-readers are only more ecologically friendly if you read more than 40 books per year.  Not everyone reads at a rate that's high enough to make any sort of dent in the environment by reading traditional print media.  To that, I would argue that those books are being published anyway, whether an individual consumer reads 10 books or 100 books per year, they'll sell to someone, so the impact is made.  In other words, the focus should be on the publishing industry, not the individual.  If, however, more people began to read via e-reader, then less books would be published and distributed, decreasing consumption considerably.

Of course, I don't believe books should be put out of print. Far from it, after all, I love books. I just feel like more awareness should be brought not only to the environmental ramifications of traditional print practices, but also to the changes occurring in the publishing industry. Oh, and did I mention that e-books are cheaper than print books?  So much so, in fact, that thousands of classics are completely free. I'm all about saving green while saving green!!

Since getting my Kindle a few weeks ago, I've ordered upwards of a dozen books and downloaded another dozen or so free books. I read well over 40 books a year (when time permits), so it's more then economical for me to have bought it, especially since the Kindle wins the eco-friendly e-book reading race, with Sony close behind, for their immense battery life. I love my Kindle and the fact that it makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing by the environment is an added bonus that helps that 8 year old girl in me, the one who sent a letter to a franchise to protest their packaging, sleep better at night.

EcoLibris: http://www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp

I wrote yesterday about my love of books, bookstores, and the tactile experience of reading.  The theme was concern with what electronic media is doing to books and bookstores, but there're two sides to every story.   This isn't a fairytale where electronic publishing is the villain, locking books away in the tower.  This is war, an epic battle traditional print media and new and upcoming authors.  Unfortunately, the battle between authors and publishing big-wigs is laying to waste books, bookstores, and publishing houses at every turn -- HarperStudios, a HarperCollins Imprint, is closing its doors this summer.  The saddest part is, if traditional publishers could just let go their outdated superiority and lend a helping hand to new authors, if they could open themselves up to authorial success, rather than rejecting them out of turn, the casualties could be reduced.

Honestly, I don't object entirely to electronic media.   I only feel a sadness at the perceived loss of something I love, print books.  The fact of the matter is, e-publishing is making it easier for new voices in the industry to bring their work to wider audiences, without running the mind-boggling, hair pulling, gauntlet of disappointment that comes with trying to navigate traditional print publishers who, set in their ways, often reject new voices out of hand.  Does this mean I want to lose books?  Absolutely not, but e-publishing is making short stories and poetry collections more accessible to wider audiences at reasonable prices, something I can absolutely get behind.  It's allowing new authors to take control of their careers, to sell and promote their own work, and to rise (or fall) by their own efforts.  Who wouldn't support that?

My friend, Jennifer Hudock of The Inner Bean, published a great article on traditional print media and e-publishing that you have to read.  As someone who's out there, trying to sell her work (which is excellent by the way), she's found her way to e-publishing for e-readers through both Amazon and Smashwords.  So, hop over take a peek at her perspective and while you're there, check out her work.  And when you're done, see if you don't agree that sometimes we have to put aside our fear of losing something we love, like I'm trying to do with print books, and embrace something new.  Sometimes, e-publishing is, in fact, a good thing!

While in Waco recently, my husband and I managed to make time to go to Barnes and Noble.  You see, we live in a small town, where we have no real bookstores to speak of, so going to Barnes and Noble is a novelty we don't often indulge.  I spent time weaving up and down the long aisles of books, looking for historical fiction when I realized, of a sudden, that there was no historical fiction section.  If I was going to find a book, I was going to have to search through hundreds of books in the "Fiction" section.  What a pain!  Yet, I found the experience exhilirating!

As I searched down the aisles, caressing the spines of every book on the third shelf up from the floor, I found something great!  I found The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox, a historical fiction, and when I pulled it from the shelf I felt as though I'd found a buried treasure.  I read the back cover, showed it to my husband, who was at this point following me around like a puppy, and when we agreed that it sounded like something I'd be interested in reading, I went back to searching around.  Unfortunately, by that time it was time to go.  We had plans with friends, plans for which we were already late because I was taking too long.  I did manage to squeeze in a little extra time, he didn't give me too much trouble as I searched around in the bargain books section for anything that might strike my fancy -- I did fine one, The Gemstone Handbook, which I now wish I'd gotten as I feel like it could be a fantastic resource.

Anyway, as we were walking out the door, I found the book I'd been looking for sitting on a table with other new releases.  When I pointed it out to my husband, he offered to get it for me, but I rejected it in a huff of annoyance that he was dragging me out of my beloved Barnes and Noble.  Next time, I'm going to try to get to Books A Million.  But, being in a bookstore at all, rather than just Hastings, which is all we have here, has gotten me to thinking about how we as a society buy books.  Given that we do live in a small town, I buy a lot of books online, usually from Amazon.  I research books by their ratings and on GoodReads and see what others thing before I put out the $15 for a new book, but this isn't how it's always been.  What happened to the days when we just went to Barnes and Noble and picked up books off the shelf?  What happened to picking the books we buy by what sounds interesting and giving it an honest shot, regardless of what other people think?

We're losing the tactile experience of literature.  Slowly, we're losing the physicality related with books, the sensual experience of satin pages beneath our fingers, the inviting scent of a new book, the crispness of a spine that resists giving beneath the grasp of an exuberant reader.  I love everything about books, and yet it's all being lost.  The e-book is replacing actual books, e-readers are replacing bookshelves, and online book clearinghouses, like Amazon, are slowly draining the life out of brick and mortar bookstores.  And we can argue that e-books are better for the environment, or that they're more convenient, but they're stealing away the experience of the book and it makes me a little sad.  There are future generations, people 100 years from now, who may only be able to find books in used bookstores and antique shops.

Still, for people in rural areas, websites like Amazon make literature accessible and for that I can't complain, especially since I'm one of those people a lot of the time.   Just today I had to make myself go into town to Hastings to look for a book I've been wanting, rather than ordering it on Amazon, which was my first inclination.  For now, people continue to buy books, despite such inventions as the Kindle and the Nook (which I checked out at Barnes and Noble and was not impressed with) and it seems that book lovers and academics are winning out, despite ridiculous claims that books are an outdated technology.

So tell me, how do you buy your books?