Every week the ebook market seems to grow more confusing, so I thought it might be a good idea to provide the most basic of introductions to the Kindle — the sort of stuff that Kindle vets take for granted but that newcomers would like to know, like how it all works and what you need to get started.
I’ve collected it all under a new section called Kindle 101, but I’m also carving it into four easy-to-read chunks this week for greater access.
Tomorrow and the day after I’ll talk about how to get started with the Kindle, but today I want to focus on why you should, or if you should at all.
Part 1 of 4: Pros and cons of the Kindle
Here are three things you might want to consider before trying out any ebook system, not just the Amazon Kindle.
CON – “They’re not real books!”
PRO – The convenience outweighs the lack of a printed copy for a lot of titles.
A lot of readers love the look, feel, and smell of an old book, and it’s true that you lose all of that with an ebook. You can’t put an ebook on your shelf at home, or be interrupted by a stranger in a coffee shop who wants to ask you about what you’re reading. You can’t write in the margins.
If you read a lot, though, you might quickly discover two benefits of ebooks:
- They tend to cost less than new printed books.
- When you get absorbed into a book, the thing you’re reading it from tends to disappear.
At the very least, you can save money by going “e” for those books you want to read but don’t want to keep forever–you know, those massmarket paperbacks you take on the train, or to the pool or beach.
CON – “I don’t own the ebook outright!”
PRO – Uhh… it’s complicated?
This is a weird issue because everyone is still trying to figure it all out. Here’s the short answer, and if you want to know more you can open the long answer below.
The Short Answer: It’s true, you don’t. What you own is a perpetual license to read the book, which is what every major ebook retailer (Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple) offers. The license is enforced with something called DRM, which locks that particular copy to your account.
As far as backups, Amazon lets you download copies of the ebook whenever and as often as you want. It also keeps a copy for you on its servers, which is how it syncs your bookmarks across devices (more on that below). And as far as worrying about Amazon honoring the agreement, it all depends on how much you trust a large company.
Copyright is a weird thing. Even when you buy a hardback, what you own is the physical object that the story is printed in, not the story itself. With ebooks, there aren’t any physical objects to own outright, so all you’re left with is the story. Which you don’t own.
What does that mean for consumers? First, that you’re buying a license to read the book. Amazon says that the license is irrevocable, but you should know that Amazon holds all the cards and it reserves the right to change terms at any time without warning. That’s how every large corporation treats customers these days when it comes to selling content like books, music or movies, so while I don’t like it, I can’t honestly say it’s unusual.
To enforce this way of doing business, all big retailers use copy protection, commonly called DRM (for “digital rights management”). Publishers think everyone will copy and distribute their books without paying if they don’t lock them down. So that’s what they do using DRM, and that’s why you can’t read a Kindle book on a Sony Reader and vice versa.
DRM is one of the biggest problems with ebooks right now in general, not just with Amazon or the Kindle, and frankly I think it’s one of the best reasons to not switch entirely to an ebook lifestyle.
Really savvy tech geeks can sometimes figure out how to strip out the copy protection, which means they can keep an ebook they buy and read it on anything they like in the future. (If you know how use Python scripts and don’t mind a little trial and error, you can probably figure out how with a Saturday afternoon and a few Google searches.) For regular consumers, this isn’t an option; if you buy a Kindle ebook you’ll have to read it on Amazon-approved devices.
This happened with the music industry over the last decade, you might recall. Every retailer sold music locked down by DRM out of fears of piracy. Eventually the tide turned, and now major music retailers like Apple and Amazon offer DRM-free mp3 tracks that you can do anything you like to. Hopefully we can say the same thing about ebooks before ten years have passed.
CON – “It’s cheaper to go to used book stores and the library.”
PRO – For public domain books, going digital can be both cheaper and more convenient.
First the bad news. Prices have jumped up for new releases and lots of older titles thanks to new pricing agreements that publishers forced through earlier this year. The “(almost) everything is $9.99!” era of the Kindle store is over.
Now the good news. You can find lots of classics and indie-published work for free or for just a few dollars. In addition, lots of publishers like to make certain titles temporarily free for short periods for marketing purposes. Some recent examples of completely free ebooks on the Amazon Kindle store: a Sookie Stackhouse novel, a Twilight novel, the first in Charlie Huston’s vampire detective series, and 10 of the 13 Lemony Snicket books.
Whether the Kindle system will save you money depends a lot on your current reading and purchasing habits. If you use the library or used book store for newer releases, and use the Kindle for older works or promotional offers, you might find it actually extends your book budget.
Hey! Be sure to check out the complete Kindle 101 page for the most current version of this guide.
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