It’s interesting to review changes in my buying behavior as my familiarity with reading on the Kindle grows. In the last two weeks two topics caught my interest -
- Website Design and Programming .
- Evolutionary Psychology.
Since a vacation looms on the horizon bought some books. Here’s what type of books I chose for each -
- Website Design/ Programming -
7 Kindle Edition Books for a total of $74.
1 physical book for $18. Got this from Indigo Canada and ended up buying 2 journals (for writing) for a further $28. - Evolutionary Psychology -
A lot of these were not available in Kindle Editions (no Matt Ridley, no Geoffrey Miller).
1 Kindle Edition for $10.
3 Paper Books for $43. From Amazon CA.
Reasons for Preferring Paper Books
- Covers, the physicalness, being able to put it on my bookshelf.
- Lack of availability on the Kindle.
- Strangely, would prefer to take a couple paper books with me for the vacation as losing my kindle 2 would mean having to get a kindle up from the states.
It seems as if for the top 10-20% of books, it makes sense to get a physical book
- So you can keep it on your bookshelf.
- To pass it on to a friend because it really moved you and you want to share that feeling.
- You don’t mind losing it.
Reasons for Preferring Kindle Editions
Its amazing how convenient it is – that was the main theme. The path of least resistance beats all the other criteria.
- Get it immediately. For the solitary programming book , the choosing the free shipping option means a one week wait. There’s a real cost to having to wait for that book (The stores didn’t carry the book so shipping was the only option).
- Zero effort – Its literally one click away. It just seems a lot easier to order Kindle Editions.
- Lower Price – this has the additional element of convenience as you don’t have to think much. It’s $9.99 – cool.
- Passed on a few $14 kindle edition books. Bought a couple $18 books whose physical versions were $26. Not optimal.
The Big Picture
Leaving out the journals as they’re for writing.
- 8 Kindle Edition books for an average of $10.50 each.
- 4 paper books for an average of $15.25 each.
- Percentage share of unit sales – 66% for Kindle.
- Percentage share of revenue - 58% for Kindle.
There are perhaps 2 of those 4 paper books I would have gotten Kindle Editions of, if they had been available.
What about you?
Filed under: books Tagged: | kindle buying pattern, kindle vs paper
Great post! I was thinking along the same lines this past week since I have found myself cruising through books on my Kindle2. I do see the value in wanting to own a hard copy for my library, of which I have a fairly good one. But what I have found myself doing is getting a used copy of the book (or waiting for one) and purchasing that at a fairly discounted price. I then add the used copy to my library.
thats a good tip. idea stolen
I’m banking on the Kindle. This is my third book and Publish and Market is giving me paper, Kindle, multi-media ebook and .pdf. I’ve got all my bases covered. It’s the spontaneous gratification that Amazon provides that will be the Kindle’s edge.