Do people read and buy ebooks in Ireland?

jaxxony

We are planning to launch a self-help e-book for the Ireland market and I have the following questions that would help me in the launch.

Do we have many people downloading e-book in Ireland?
Where can I place my books for sale online?
With this economic crisis are people likely to buy e-books on self-help topics?

Any information touching on these will be highly be appreciated.

Kind Regards

DublinBookClub

I buy quite a lot of e-books and there are definitely not enough sites to get them. Also they can be quite expensive. I think there are more and more people who are using Sony Readers and Amazon Kindles - I have seen them on the dart!
I think that self-help e-books are a good idea. There have already been stats to show the number of people enrolling in college courses has increased so this shows that people are taking this time to self-improve/retrain etc.

Good Luck with it!

3rdDegree

I didn't think you could use the Kindle in Ireland. Also, the only site I can find for the Sony Reader is the Waterstones site (www.waterstones.com), and the selection there is poor. Is there anywhere else we in Ireland can get books from?
If I had a Kindle, could I download from the amazon.com site? Or do you need to be in the States to do that?

many thanks

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Thornography

Do we have many people downloading e-book in Ireland? No, Because there isn't a decent site out there that offers this service, and if there was, no one knows about it.

Where can I place my books for sale online? No idea, Cause its probably hidden under a rock in Ennis.

With this economic crisis are people likely to buy e-books on self-help topics? This is the same as asking would people buy a pack of polo mints in this current climate. Yes and no. depends wither you are maxol on the cork road who charge 79c or tesco 24/7 petrol station who charge 35c the recession didnt make me think twice about which pack i bought, i bought both cause thats what i went to the shop for. If i wanted a book I would have gone to your site instead


Oh ps, the MP3 books are a massive hit! Think of the amount of commuters and especially gym goers who you could tap.

Body builders and weight loss candidates always need that whisper in their ear to keep them going, and twice as hard ergo the self help books.

fenris

Price it right!

I would not pay the same for an ebook as for a paper book as the restrictions on an ebook diminish its usefulness and longevity. I regularly read ebooks on my iphone and think that there is a place for ebooks and often get ebook versions of books that I have/would read in paper. If I really like the ebook then I generally get the paper version as well, sometimes even reading both together (page numbers are important in ebooks!) reading the paper version by choice and the ebook version when I have time or am waiting somewhere.

If the book is crippled by DRM then it is practically worthless as you lose the portability of a physical book and are tied to a device that may fail and a DRM system that may fail if the supporting organisation goes bust or just doesn't want to pay to maintain the validation system after the initial revenue take of the book launch. The recent problems with ebooks being remotely locked/ deleted in the US reinforces this point for me.

ncmc

I received a Sony Reader in May and haven't bought a paper book since then. It was getting to the stage where I was running out of space for books in my small house so the Ereader is a Godsend. Also, I love having all my books in one convenient place. Would I buy a self help book for my Ereader? Well, no, but that's because I don't read self help books! I buy any book I am interested in in Ebook format, and in fact, bought a travel guide in PDF format before going on my hols.

Don't know where you would try and sell your book, the sites I buy from are www.whsmith.co.uk, www.booksonboard.com and www.ebooks.com but don't think that will be much help to you as the last two are based in America.

zinzan

ncmc wrote: »

I received a Sony Reader in May and haven't bought a paper book since then. It was getting to the stage where I was running out of space for books in my small house so the Ereader is a Godsend. Also, I love having all my books in one convenient place. Would I buy a self help book for my Ereader? Well, no, but that's because I don't read self help books! I buy any book I am interested in in Ebook format, and in fact, bought a travel guide in PDF format before going on my hols.

Don't know where you would try and sell your book, the sites I buy from are www.whsmith.co.uk, www.booksonboard.com and www.ebooks.com but don't think that will be much help to you as the last two are based in America.

Hi ncmc,

Just a quick question - how do you get around the territorial restrictions on those sites? WHsmith and Ebooks.com won't let me buy from there due to 'Copyright' restrcitions. The only site i've successfully purchased off using an irish based credit card is Waterstones - an they are expensive, have a limited range and the site is rubbish for searching ebooks.
I've also tried other sites (fictionwise etc.) but all restrict their distribution to their own areas, meaning people in Ireland who actually want to buy ebooks can't.

It's a pathetic situation and as a result I have no qualms whatsoever sourcing my ebooks for free.

ncmc

zinzan wrote: »

Hi ncmc,

Just a quick question - how do you get around the territorial restrictions on those sites? WHsmith and Ebooks.com won't let me buy from there due to 'Copyright' restrcitions. The only site i've successfully purchased off using an irish based credit card is Waterstones - an they are expensive, have a limited range and the site is rubbish for searching ebooks.
I've also tried other sites (fictionwise etc.) but all restrict their distribution to their own areas, meaning people in Ireland who actually want to buy ebooks can't.

It's a pathetic situation and as a result I have no qualms whatsoever sourcing my ebooks for free.

Hi zinzan, I haven't had any problems buying off the WH Smith UK site, I have bought several books from them and find them very reasonable/ I just put in my normal Irish address and 'ROI' for the postcode and have had no problems.

With the US sites, I have been able to buy some books, but then sometimes I will get through right to the end of the sale only to be told I can't buy it. I think it depends on the publisher. The only site I have had real problems with is the Sony Ereaders own site, I haven't managed to buy any books from then, but I know some people on here have got around the geographical restrictions.

I also use www.booksonboard.com they have quite a good selection, but some books I haven't been able to buy, like I said, think it is down to the publisher. They aren't massively cheap, but selection is better than most.

Have to agree about Waterstones, terrible site!

the_syco

eVo|tempest wrote: »

Oh ps, the MP3 books are a massive hit! Think of the amount of commuters and especially gym goers who you could tap.

The sister has gotten a load of audiobooks online, free, from Kildare County Concil Library. They do ebooks and audiobooks @ http://digitallibrary.kildare.ie/B9C87479-3552-4AC9-959A-01155CDBC419/10/433/en/Default.htm Not sure about how many they do, though.

Thornography

the_syco wrote: »

The sister has gotten a load of audiobooks online, free, from Kildare County Concil Library. They do ebooks and audiobooks @ http://digitallibrary.kildare.ie/B9C87479-3552-4AC9-959A-01155CDBC419/10/433/en/Default.htm Not sure about how many they do, though.

Deadly! About to head to the gym now so this is well worth checking out, cheers.

Eoin

ncmc wrote: »

I received a Sony Reader in May and haven't bought a paper book since then. It was getting to the stage where I was running out of space for books in my small house so the Ereader is a Godsend. Also, I love having all my books in one convenient place. Would I buy a self help book for my Ereader? Well, no, but that's because I don't read self help books! I buy any book I am interested in in Ebook format, and in fact, bought a travel guide in PDF format before going on my hols.

I'm exactly the same. I did a big book cull over the weekend as I've just no room for any more (or the ones I currently have), but now I know I can just buy an electronic version of the ones I miss.

zinzan wrote: »

Hi ncmc,
Just a quick question - how do you get around the territorial restrictions on those sites? WHsmith and Ebooks.com won't let me buy from there due to 'Copyright' restrcitions. The only site i've successfully purchased off using an irish based credit card is Waterstones - an they are expensive, have a limited range and the site is rubbish for searching ebooks.
I've also tried other sites (fictionwise etc.) but all restrict their distribution to their own areas, meaning people in Ireland who actually want to buy ebooks can't.

I signed up to google checkout and gave an American address as my billing address, which they did not verify. I was then able to use www.booksonboard.com with my google checkout account to download books at a reasonable price.

Thornography

Jaxx are you finding any of this info usefull?

You havent posted since the OP

time42play

Books on Board have a UK site that will sell to Ireland, I use them a lot lately. (Their euro conversion is completely wrong though). I've lost a number of ebooks over the years to nasty DRM issues, but they are still my favored method of reading.

GiftofGab

Sorry to burst your bubble but there is people are downloading ebooks for free (illegally). Personally I dont like ebooks and would never purchase one. I prefer reading the real thing.

DirectEbooks

Regarding your original question, it can be difficult to get your eBook on the larger eBook sites.
You could sell it through your own site, but you would have no protection (drm) so someone could email it to a friend or resell it themselves.
To sell it on a wider scale, you need to contact an existing eBook retailer or wholesaler and ask them to list it for you. They will protect the eBook and offer it for sale to a much wider audience. Some Digital Publishing companies offer the same services, You can expect top receive 50-55% of the srp which you set.

Either way, the promotion and marketing of the book is really up to you, so blogging, twitter, facebook etc are all essentials.