I've been looking at ebooks lately, at different sites such as Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, small publishers.
What I like most about Smashwords is their "download a sample" feature, available in many formats. If I'm browsing on the computer I can even view it as html. And Amazon has their "look inside" feature for a few of their titles.
To me, this is similar to browsing in a physical bookstore. See something that looks promising, read the first page, leaf through it some, then decide yea or nay. Buy or put it back.
I'm wondering why so many ebooks don't have that feature. I was looking at a small pub site just now and none of them have it, apparently. The price of the book I was looking at is $5.99. There's a short blurb about the plot but no indication of the writing style.
Another well-established (5 years, many offerings) epub offers a short sample of a $5.99 novel, but just 12 little paragraphs, all dialogue. Nothing to show narrative style.
Am I tempted to buy either of those? Nope. Can't imagine most people would be, either, unless they had previous experience with the author. And there's no notes on the author, either - what else she'd written etc.
Is it expensive or technologically difficult to offer "read several pages here?"
What I like most about Smashwords is their "download a sample" feature, available in many formats. If I'm browsing on the computer I can even view it as html. And Amazon has their "look inside" feature for a few of their titles.
To me, this is similar to browsing in a physical bookstore. See something that looks promising, read the first page, leaf through it some, then decide yea or nay. Buy or put it back.
I'm wondering why so many ebooks don't have that feature. I was looking at a small pub site just now and none of them have it, apparently. The price of the book I was looking at is $5.99. There's a short blurb about the plot but no indication of the writing style.
Another well-established (5 years, many offerings) epub offers a short sample of a $5.99 novel, but just 12 little paragraphs, all dialogue. Nothing to show narrative style.
Am I tempted to buy either of those? Nope. Can't imagine most people would be, either, unless they had previous experience with the author. And there's no notes on the author, either - what else she'd written etc.
Is it expensive or technologically difficult to offer "read several pages here?"