Most of the Kindle books I'd be interested in are still more expensive than mass market paperbacks, though cheaper than trade paperbacks or hard cover.
Your post does broach the question that's been in my mind about the Kindle, which is "who does Amazon think its target audience is?" Judging from the price structure of Kindle offerings, it seems to me that Amazon is targeting two main groups: 1) people who read a lot of NYT bestsellers and hard cover or trade paperback fiction, and 2) people who are reading a lot of e-books (from Gutenberg.org or other places) anyway and could use a more convenient way to do so.
I don't fall into either camp. I don't read a lot of Baen's fiction--much of it is SF military fiction or other hard SF in which I'm not very interested. Nor do I read a lot of fiction that comes out primarily in hardcover or trade paperback. Yes, I read some, and I'd likely read more if I *had* a Kindle, but I don't read enough of it to justify my purchase *of* a Kindle.
The other type of book I read a lot of is non-fiction history. Many of these books are books about costume, costume-related archaeological finds, or non-costume archaeological finds, for which photographs, and photograph quality, are essential. The Kindle isn't good for that (yet, at least) and most such books aren't being released for the Kindle anyway.
And, sadly, the out-of-print ones aren't showing up yet on Gutenberg.org either. :-(
I agree it would be nice to have large quantities of book in a light, convenient package for when I travel, but the books I want aren't on the Kindle yet, and some may never be.
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cathyr19355.livejournal.com at 06:16am on 15/02/2009![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Your post does broach the question that's been in my mind about the Kindle, which is "who does Amazon think its target audience is?" Judging from the price structure of Kindle offerings, it seems to me that Amazon is targeting two main groups: 1) people who read a lot of NYT bestsellers and hard cover or trade paperback fiction, and 2) people who are reading a lot of e-books (from Gutenberg.org or other places) anyway and could use a more convenient way to do so.
I don't fall into either camp. I don't read a lot of Baen's fiction--much of it is SF military fiction or other hard SF in which I'm not very interested. Nor do I read a lot of fiction that comes out primarily in hardcover or trade paperback. Yes, I read some, and I'd likely read more if I *had* a Kindle, but I don't read enough of it to justify my purchase *of* a Kindle.
The other type of book I read a lot of is non-fiction history. Many of these books are books about costume, costume-related archaeological finds, or non-costume archaeological finds, for which photographs, and photograph quality, are essential. The Kindle isn't good for that (yet, at least) and most such books aren't being released for the Kindle anyway.
And, sadly, the out-of-print ones aren't showing up yet on Gutenberg.org either. :-(
I agree it would be nice to have large quantities of book in a light, convenient package for when I travel, but the books I want aren't on the Kindle yet, and some may never be.