Gems among "Crap"

In yesterday's post, J.A. Konrath talks about the myth of the "Tsunami of Crap" that is supposedly released by indie or self-publishers, and among which readers may have troubles finding valuable books, not only worth their money, but even much more important, worth their time.

While I indeed have been faced with "Crap", I must say that the recent months have given me much more good books than bad ones. Here are my "finds" among the so-called tsunami :

As you'll see, my tastes lead me to action, Fantasy and Science-Fiction, much more than Romance or Literature. As you'll also see, I'm no Great reviewer, and won't give much more than a few lines about each one.

In no particular order in each category, I distinguish 2 categories : Great and Good.

Great: (4-5 stars on my scale)
Riyria Revelations (Michael Sullivan) (bought direct through Ridan) 5$ at Smashwords
A  Fantasy series (5 going to 6 books), with two main characters progressively developed. Adventure, Magic... Fantasy!

Quarter Share (Nathan Lowell) 5$ at Smashwords
Not sure if Nathan Lowell is creating Extraordinary Adventures for Ordinary people or the reverse, but I must say that I find this "Space merchant" series really great. Only the three first volumes are available as ebooks, the rest are available as podcasts.

The Hidden Institute  (Brand Gamblin) 5$ at Smashwords
A YA novel in a Steampunk setting, The Hidden Institute features a young man learning a way to rise above his "Position" in a mystery Institute. The Hidden Institute is written with a light of humor, and a possesses a neat cast of characters,

Flee (J.A. Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson) 3$ at Smashwords
Action, Action, Action ... This book possesses it, and even more. While I have tried and found one or two other Konrath not to my taste, this one got me all. Chases, Spies, Treason ... Would be a great action movie.

Turing Evolved (David Kitson) (Free @Smashwords)
Cyberpunky, in theme if not in necessarily in style, this book mixes action, romance, and some reflection regarding machines and sentience. The current version is full of typos and errors, but is undergoing a large editing pass. If you're easily bothered by bad editing, wait for the next version. If not, go for it now !

The Unfinished Song  (Tara Maya) (Free @Smashwords)
A "Tribal fantasy", The Unfinished Song mixes discovery of a mix of faeric and tribes. At the same time light and dark, mature, and naïve, this book has a really refreshing view of Fantasy.

My Sparkling Misfortune  (Laura Lond) (2$ at Smashwords)
How a "bad guy" wanna-be  is countered by a kind of "djinn", this medieval tale is addressed to Young Adults, but it's cheery humor gave me a great reading time.

A Modern Witch (Deborah Geary) 4$ Smashwords
While I'm not that much into romance and/or chick lit, this book is quite fresh and tender without getting too cheesy/sentimental for me. I'll definitely buy the following books in the series.

The Walk (Lee Goldberg) 3$ @Amazon (available for 3 @ Smashwords)
A man against a natural disaster. A man determined to get home against all odds...
Other books by Lee are now on my reading list for the holidays ...


Good : (equivalent 3-4 stars)
Courtesan (D.A. Boulter) 3$ at Smashwords
Light Sci-Fi Romance. Maybe not enough hurdles for the protagonists to bypass, but still good enough for me.

Peace Warrior ( Steven L. Hawk) 3$ at Smashwords
A military Sci-Fi novel. When a War veteran is revived in an otherwise peaceful civilisation, it means troubles for the  alien slavers.

Switched (Amanda Hocking) 1$ at Smashwords + 3$ for the next episodes
I had to try an Hocking book. Good YA books, although I'm not really in the target readership. This time, I felt a little too old to be really  concerned by the feelings of the hero. Still a good inventive book, which led me to buy the follow-ups. Will probably end my Hocking collection there though.

Dead Dwarves Don't Dance (Derek J. Canyon) 1$ at Smashwords
A Cyberpunky/Fantasy world, quite close to the Shadowrun RPG universe. Action, Treason, Politics... I'm now waiting for Noose's following adventures.

Donovan Creed (John Locke) 1$ at Smashwords
Humor, action, an improbable hit-man, sexy foxy girls... Light read, although I was at some time uncomfortable with the hero's actions. While I enjoyed the first books enough to buy them all, I wouldn't have if they were priced any higher. John Locke's strategy payed big time for me...

Kismet's Kiss (Cate Rowan) 4$ at Smashwords
An "Oriental" romance, Kismet's Kiss seems a reinterpretation of Anna and the King. Smartly written, not too cheesy. I quite enjoyed reading it.

Lovers and Beloveds  (MeiLin Miranda) 5$ at Smashwords
Sexy Medieval Fantasy, Lovers and Beloved features a prince growing into manhood, mixing religion and magic. While many themes and situations approach Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series, the writing style is slightly lower, which let's me wanting. An otherwise good book.


Hard Day's Knight (John Hartness) 1$ at Smashwords
An urban fantasy where two vampires private detectives are pitted against better than themselves. Humor, Witty characters, if you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this book is for you!

What about EBooks revenues repartition ?

In the previous post, I concluded that "readership" would greatly grow with the "advent" of ebooks. But how could that translate into authors revenue ?
First thing, the presentations : On my left side, we have readers, wanting to spend time, and money on books for reading. On right side, we have sellers : publishers(indie or traditional), authors and distributors wanting to make money from it. First of course, publishers choose at which price they set the books, and readers choose to buy or not. If the books are priced too high, readers will be reluctant to spend the money, and hence will limit their spendings. If on the other side the books are priced too low, readers will not be limited by the financial aspect, but by their time constraints hence lost money for the sellers.
So sellers have to price wisely their books, as to reach the best revenue. And yes, the "best price" for different books may be vastly different, while it also may fluctuate in time ...

As "readership" augments, it is clear that total "money" on the table will also augment, but what about the author's cut of that pie ?
First thing, authors are finding out that -- under old style contracts -- traditional publishers get a percentage for work they don't need to do anymore for ebooks. At the same time, they discover that they now have the choice of self-publishing, new works, as well as back-listed books. It seems the "final reseller's" percentage (the last 30%) are mostly there to stay, be it through Amazon, Kobo, or Smashwords.But yes, these companies meet a demand of presentation, distribution, customer's service, reviews and ratings sharing etc. While direct sells from authors website are possible, they are far from the majority, so I think that for a majority, this "part" won't change. However, the rest is devided between the publisher and the authors (for self-publishers that's the same person). By allowing authors to "short cut" the traditional publishers, ebook give more power to authors who will be able to rebalance the "standard" royalties rate from 15% to a much higher value. Of course, self-publishers will stay at 35%-70%, but my take is that for new traditionally published contracts 35% will be reached in a near future.
That means at least twice as much money for the authors (as a group).

As for individual writers, that's an other matter. For now, indie authors are having great days, as Traditional Publishers leave a big part of the field open, by trying to limit the DTB's erosion and pricing their books too high, but they may start to understand the new rules, and compete truly with self-publishers. However, I don't think they'll be able to regain control of the market as before, and that as customers become more and more conscious of the alternatives, (through authors re-publishing their backlist, or jumping ship allready), they will find their "power" dissolve, and finally limit itself to that of providing "a la carte" services regarding editing, covers, marketing etc...

Do ebooks increase readership ?

In a topic on Kindleboard's Writer's Cafe, people wonder (and I do with them), about the "are ebook sales forever ?" question. One element for answering this question if whether "readership" will augment or fall down with ebooks advent. For the purpose of the discussion, I'll consider "readership" as a combination of "reading time per reader", with "number of readers". A simple equation Readership = Time * Number can easily show that if both Time and Number augment, so will readership (and for you math lovers at a quadratic rate !).
I postulate that ebooks will lead to increase of both parts of that equation.

Reading time per reader will increase :
Ebooks make reading easier and more comfortable, hence more incentive to read, hence more time read. I remark that most people who read ebooks have increased their reading time.
One new device family can increase reading time : ereaders. How do they do ? First by doing at least as well for general comfort : ereaders have (when done right) the same general reading properties as paper. By beeing non light emissive, it doesn't induce eyestrain the way LCDs do, page turning attains at least the same rate as with paper, ereaders are in the same "encumbrance/weight" class as their fellow Dead Tree Books.
While sharing this, they have a few discerning points : some people are uneasy to take their ereaders with them in some places (the beach, transports etc...) while they may be happy to take paper books. However this is counterbalanced by ereaders features : text size that can be varied (hence people with reading difficulties who can read the same books as others, without having to wait for a special edition. Ereaders also  caters for impulse, and online buying. An other feature is "No Cover" : While when buying or choosing a book to read, you can look at it's cover, people don't see it when you're reading. Hence readers don't need to fear to show what they're reading. While that may seem to be only to impact "erotic fiction" readers, I know that some people may be less than thrilled to be seen reading "romance", "science-fiction", or other "lesser genres" books.
But ereaders are not the only device that can be used to read ebooks : there are also tablets, smartphones, PCs ... So people can easily extend their reading time by taking their ebooks with them wherever they have their phone. More portability --> more read.

Number of readers will increase :
Just the same way reading time will increase, people will find out that reading is becoming more "accessible" and easy. Since the gatekeeping barrier is way openned, some otherwise neglected categories will be better "served", and people will be able to sample, and buy "specialty" books without having to go to a bookstore (which may have incomplete shelves...). Of course, you all will think that the "category" above relates to "erotica", and it's partly true, but you can easily replace it with your/your SO's Hobby, which he/she most probably considers neglected ...
So would-be readers who can't find DTB they like but don't find will become readers of ebooks they like and find... hence an increase of readers.

So if number of readers increases, and reading time increases, readership increases, and everyone is happy, right ? Well, depending on how it translates in author's revenue is an other question, that I'll try and address in an other post ...

Gallimard toujours à la pointe du combat pour la culture !

J'applaudis à la clairvoyance de Monsieur Gallimard !
Grace à son lobbying, nous pouvons tous garder la tête dans le sable, le gouvernement protège nos intérêts ! Les pirates ne passeront pas à travers notre ligne Maginopi !
Digne successeur du Minitel dans les innovations technologiques, la loi du Prisunic fera rayonner l'aura de la France dans le monde entier !
Quand à ces pirates qui osent partager gratuitement ce qui leur appartient, je leur demande : qui a compensé le manque à gagner des boulangers quand Jésus à nourri 4000 personnes avec 7 pains ? Des Voleurs, tous !
Et puis qu'est-ce qu'ils ont ces consommateurs lecteurs à préférer acheter des iTrucs, des DVDs, des fringues, de l'essence, de la nourriture ? Après tout, un peu de lecture et ils oublieront qu'ils ont sacrifié le goûter des mômes pour ... quelques bons livres ...
De toute façon, la Culture, ça n'a pas de prix (si ce n'est celui que nous fixons bien sûr) !
Qu'est ce qu'il vont s'imaginer aussi les autres là... les auteurs. Ce n'est pas parce que certains coûts, risques  et intermédiaires disparaissent avec le format numérique qu'il ne faut pas que ce ce soient les éditeurs qui remportent la mise ! Encore un peu et ils vont se mettre à revendiquer un droit à être rémunéré équitablement ! N'importe quoi !

Is Amazon a new Gatekeeper ?

I'm no writer, but I 'd like for a change to write a tale.

Part 1
Once apon a time, in ancient Persia, people would go the the nearest market to buy and sell their goods. For each good it's specific market, enclosed by a wall. By decree, customers would enter the market for free, but sellers would have to pay for entry in that closed place. The clay tablet market was small in area but ancient and renowned and had high and strong walls. A few gatekeepers were able to restrict access to it. Customers knew they had to pay high prices for the goods, since sellers had to pay the Gatekeepers for the place in the market who in turn had to pay dearly for the masons who strained to keep the high walls from falling, the painters who kept it clean, and the guards who filtered access to seller's goods. Since the price for passing the gates were high, only a limited number of merchants were able to open their stall, limiting further the place needed inside of the walls.

Now that law regarding an enclosed market was appliable only inside of cities, because there space was scarce, and a market disturbed the neighbourhood, hence the walls. Previous attempts to sell clay tablets outside of the city had failed, due to both sellers and customers not wanting to travel far with the heavy fragile goods, thus -despite the high prices- customers kept on buying clay tablets at the market.

One day, an adventurer came back from his journey in the far Egypt with a new way to transmit written words : Papyrus and Scrolls. He created a market in one big zone just outside of the city, where he introduced his Scrolls. A few peope where interested and bought Papyrus and Scrolls, however the market didn't really take, as most people prefereded the touch, smell and feel of the clay tablets.

Then a daring (and mighty) merchant named "Amar Zone" started to direct its many clay market customers to his new Papyrus and Scroll stand. He even created a transports service led by his friend "Kahin Deul" which would take customers from the old market to the papyrus one, and that even would deliver papyrus at their home. At the papyrus market, he would buy the products from producers for a fair price (leaving them time to return to their papyrus productions) and resell them at a lesser price than a comparable clay tablet... This led a few independant clay tablet producers to switch to the simpler work of creating papyrus.

Following that daring merchant, others -such as "Bar Zand Hoble", "Samah Shword"  and "App Heul"- started to propose comparable service, even furthering the affluence to the papyrus market which began to be renown in turn, despite the other clay tablet merchants and gatekeepers numerous attempts against it.

They even went to the fair Calife, asking him to augment papyrus taxes, to limit its commerce to Gatekeepers or to, outright outlaw it, but that's an other story.

Part 2
A few months later, Amar Zone died, leaving the direction to his son, "Amar Son". As soon as he inherited, Amar Son decided to depart from his father's strategy, took councel with App Heul -who had demonstrated he knew a few dirty tricks- and decided to disminish payments to the papyrus producers. He counted on his big stall, Kahin Deul, and great renown to be able to augment its wealth.
At first the Papyrus producers were unhappy but kept on selling their goods through Amar Son, thinking that customers came to the papyrus market for his stand. However a few decided to create their stand : without the walls that surounded the market, anyone could open it's own stand. Some simple stands could be created in a matter of days. While some producers started their stand on their own, others would create a new one in common, paying someone for tending it while they would work.
In truth, what customers really were interested in was NOT Amar Son or Kind Heul, but Papyrus, and with no GateKeeper to pay, the new stands allowed them to feed well the producers and their family.

As they no longer provided Amar Son with their papyrus, his stand in the market started to pale compared with the myriad of new ones, and one day he cursed deaply his father for letting the Genie outside of the bottle.

Epilogue
While the story might end here, we all know that a good tale ends with an happyly ever after...

The Calife's daughter who happened to pass by, hearing the powerfull curse, turned her head and saw Amar Son. She fell deeply in love with him and he with her. After their marriage, she convinced him to return to his father's way and pay correctly the papyrus producers, and while his stand never recovered fully, Amar Son found out that living a happy life with his wife was way more pleasant than managing his stand.. They had a great many children, who read and produced papyrus, and lived happyly ever after.

Comments:
As you've understood, Clay tablets beeing replaced by Papyrus is a (bad) analogy of physical books being replaced by ebooks. Part 2 's starting base is entirely fictive, but represents a fear that I see reflected in a great number of (potential) self-publishers's posts.

In it, I make short work of the difficulty for producers to create their own stands, but in fact it REALLY is easy for a new author to create his own selling website, the difficulty then beeing to get known. This difficulty exists, with or without Amazon. If Amazon were to change its conditions, the other webstores would  enhance their market share by receiving greater attentions from authors, and if they in turn started to follow Amazon's way, new webstore would appear, following the previous path.

Just yesterday, I had a look at options for creating a commercial website, and found out a few open-source (free) packages, that can "take care" of an author's ebooks selling. They even can be used to take care of an small number of author. My take is if Amazon tried to play dirty, authors would turn to other resellers, and it's Amazon who would stand helpless in the end.

What can be done to entice Amazon to not change it's term ? Propose the ebooks to other resellers, making sure that it knows that it's NOT alone in the game. 

L'Imprimé est éternel

Cette fois-ci, c'est dans l'autre sens que je vais traduire. Un peu de lecture pour les francophones pour changer.


Traduction de Print is Eternal écrit par JA Konrath ( Samedi 17 avril 2010)

L'Imprimé est éternel

Animateur : Bienvenue aux Obsolètes Anonymes ! Je nous ai tous rassemblés aujourd'hui pour accueillir notre nouveau membre : l'industrie de l'impression !

Industrie de l'Imprimé: Bonjour à tous. Mais il y a une erreur. Je n'ai rien à faire ici.

(ricanements dans la salle)

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Sérieusement. Je ne suis pas obsolète. Je suis d'actualité. Les livres imprimés sont là depuis des centaines d'années. Ils ne seront jamais remplacés.

Cassette Vidéo : Ouais, c'est ce qu'on a tous pensé.

Disque Vinyle : Ça s'appelle le déni. C'est difficile à gérer au début.

Cassette Vidéo : Facile à dire pour toi Vinyle. Tu as encore un petit marché de niche avec les collectionneurs. Ils ne peuvent même plus me refourguer sur EBay.

Antiquaire : On pourrait éviter de parler d'Ebay s'il vous plaît ? Avant j'avais des boutiques partout. Mais de plus en plus ferment à cause de ce site de rien du tout.

CDs: Au moins il te reste quelques magasins. Les boutiques spécialisées qui me vendent sont presque éteintes. Il ne me reste plus que quelques îlots chez Best-Buy et Wal-Mart *.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Écoutez, tous le monde. Je comprends que vous pensez tous que les livres électroniques vont me virer. Mais cela n'arrivera pas.

PTT ** : On commence tous par dénier. Je me souviens quand on ne pouvais pas faire 20 pas dans une ville sans voir une cabine téléphonique. Et puis ces foutus téléphones portables sont arrivés. Vous avez qu'il y a même des gens qui n'ont plus de ligne fixe? Avant il y avais une ligne fixe dans chaque maison...

(PTT fond en larmes. Bottin se joint à lui, ainsi que modem. Encyclopédie Universelle, portant un T-Shirt "Je Hais Wikipedia" s'envoie quelques prozacs. Ils se serrent dans les bras les uns des autres.)

Vidéo-club : Ce que PTT essaie de t'expliquer, c'est que lorsqu'une technologie arrive qui est plus rapide, facile et meilleur marché, la vieille technologie (et toutes les sociétés qui les portaient) tendent à s'atténuer.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Mais qu'est-ce que tu fais là, Vidéo-club ? Il y a encore des VidéoFutur plein partout.

CDs : Il y avait des marchands de disques plein partout, autrefois...

Cassettes : Oh Ouais ! Ils vendaient des cassettes aussi ! Allez, tapez m'en cinq !

(personne n'en tape cinq à Cassette)

Vidéo-club : Les chose étaient pas mal pendant un moment. J'ai eu quoi, vingt ans, tranquille. Puis j'e m'en suis pris par tous les côtés. *** Netflix, avec ses envois par courrier. la VOD, Tivo, Youtube. Et puis le coup fatal est arrivé il y a deux ans. Hula. Roku, qui autorise les abonnés Netflix à streamer la vidéo instantanément. iTunes et Amazon qui proposent  le téléchargement de films. Red Box, qui loue des DVD pour 99 cents et ne prends pas plus de place qu'un distributeur de canettes?

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Mais les livres ne sont qu'une faible portion du marché. Les gens lisent sur papier depuis Gutenberg. Ils ne s'adapteront pas si facilement.

Kodak : C'est vrai. Ça prends quelques années aux gens pour adopter une nouvelle technologie. Certains ne s'adaptent pas. Polaroid ne m'a jamais remplacé.

Polaroid : Tais toi, Kodak. On s'est fait tous les deux étaler par Numérique. C'est quand la dernière fois que t'as vendu une pellicule ?

Antenne TV : Moi je suis encore bien implantée dans quelques pays du tiers monde!

Machine à écrire : Le truc c'est : Quand la technologie s'améliore, elle se répand. Papier Carbone et moi on avait un bon plan. Je faisais les mots et lui les copies. Puis Photocopie est arrivée, mais elle n'est plus très bien non plus.

Photocopie : Enc..és d'ordinateurs.

Disquette : Tu l'as dit !

Imprimante Matricielle : Enc..és de laser et de jet d'encre. Ça manque à personne de détacher les trous sur le bord du papier ? Ça leur manque pas cette sensation, et cette odeur ?

Cartes Routières : C'est vrai ! C'était pas rigolo d'ouvrir une grande carte en conduisant, pour essayer de trouver ou vous étiez ? Ça ne vous manque pas, le bon vieux temps ou les voitures n'avaient pas de GPS, et ou personne n'utilisait Mappy **** ?

CDs : Enc..é d'internet. C'est ça le problème. Accès instantané à l'information et aux loisirs pour le monde entier. Vous voulez qu'on parle de piratage et de téléchargements illégaux ?

("Non! " collectif)

Animateur : Nous avons tous lu sur le blog de JA Konrath que le moyen de combattre le piratage c'est la facilité et le coût. Industrie de l'Imprimé, est-ce que tu baisses tes prix et facilite le téléchargement de tes livres aux clients ?

Industrie de l'Imprimé : En fait, nous venons d'augmenter les prix des ebooks.

(soupir collectif et signe de négations)

Animateur : Bon, tu n'apprendras jamais de tes erreurs. Est-ce que tu le rends plus facile au moins ?

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Ben, on a commencé à décaler les ebooks, en les mettant en vente des mois après la sortie des grands formats.

(tout le monde se tape le front)

Industrie Musicale : As tu au moins essayé de vendre sur ton propre site ? Si seulement je l'avais fait. Et puis Apple est arrivé.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Euh... non. Nous n'avons pas essayé çà. En fait, certains livres (prenons JA Konrath comme exemple puisqu'on l'a déjà mentionné) ne sont même pas disponible sur toutes les plate-formes ou à l'international.

Animateur : Qu'est ce que tu racontes ? Ses livres sont disponible partout.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Ceux là c'est ceux qu'il publie lui-même. Il manque certain marchés clefs, et depuis des années, à ses livres que nous vendons. Mais tout va bien. On lui paye des royalties bien inférieures et on augmente les prix pour faire encore du profit. Et puis, le livre électronique c'est encore une niche. Les appareil de lecture électroniques sont dédiés et chers.

Bornes d'Arcades : J'étais une industrie florissante. Les enfants dépensaient des millions dans mes milliers de points d’implantation. Mais alors Nintendo, Sony et Microsoft ont créé des machine d'arcades domestiques, et maintenant les gens jouent à leurs jeux vidéo sur des machines spécialisées. C'est un business multimillionnaire maintenant *****et je ne peux rester concurrentiel qu'en vendant de la pizza et en donnant des jouets en plastiques aux gamins avec le plus de cartes de foot. Si les gens veulent le média, ils achètent l'appareil le plus cher. Point.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Mais aucun de vous ne m'écoute. L'imprimé sera toujours là.

Industrie des Journaux : Ouais, comme il dit !

Industrie de l'Imprimé : On ne va pas commencer à se comparer, d'accord Industrie des journaux ? Sans vouloir t'offenser.

Industrie des Journaux : Pas de problème. Eh, peut-être qu'on pourrait s'entraider. Je vend de l'espace publicitaire presque gratos ces jours ci et …

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Non merci. Plus personne ne te lis. Les gens prennent les nouvelles ailleurs.

Animateur : Alors pourquoi les gens n’achèteraient pas leurs livres ailleurs également ?

(Industrie de l'Imprimé se lève, en pointant son doigt tout autour de la salle)

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Écoutez, ce n'est pas moi. Vous tous, là, vous êtes passés de mode. La technologie a avancé, et vous ne l'avez pas suivi. Mais ça NE M'ARRIVERA PAS. Il y aura toujours des librairies et des livres papiers. Nous continuerons à vendre des livres grands formats à des prix de luxe et à payer les artistes entre 6 et 15 % de royalties au prix que NOUS trouverons approprié. Et les masses achèteront nos livres PARCE QU'ON L'A DECIDE ! NOUS NE DEVIENDRONS JAMAIS OBSOLETE !!!

Marchands de chandelles : Amen mon gars, C'est ce que j’essaie de leur expliquer depuis des lustres !

Cds : (chuchotant à Vinyles) Je lui donne 6 ans, maximum.

Reading and books buying habits, Lots of Changes...

So, I've got my ereader for more than 5 months now, and I find out that it changed my reading and book buying habits quite a lot.

First, regarding reading, I found out than even if I used to consider myself a "big reader" (1-2 book per week at least), I DO read much more now than I did previously (2-3 books per week). I used to take my books everywhere with me, and when close to finishing one, taking an other with me so as not to miss reading time. Now, I still read at every opportunity, but with my nook it's way easier. I find it almost handier to read with it than with a hardcover book, which made me feel guilty because of possible stains, abuses etc.
I read under (really) small rain, whereas I wouldn't with pbooks. Some (Jane Fancher among others) even read in the bath with their ereader. Depending on ambient light luminosity, and eye strain, I also sometimes change the text's size (wich I definitely could not on pbook)... and you know what ? While a year ago I would have told you that I loved the paper's touch, in no way do I miss pbooks.

I borrowed a few paper books ( Scalzi's Lost Colony and Zoe's Tale ) at the library, and even if I liked them quite a lot, I found them (they're hardover sized) clumsy and uneasy to take with me.

Regarding buying, I bought in the last months :

• 1 book @ amazon, 
• 5 @ B&N
• 8 @ webscriptions
• 4 @ Closed Circle
• 10 @ Smashwords
• 2 @ my local book store (paper books, no ebook available).

I also downloaded a few fo free. In addition to the "free" ones, I have a downloaded a great many from Baen, "given away" with some ebooks in the "promotional CD".

I didn't read them all, but they are all on my ereader, ready to be chosen when I finish one.

Oh, and I didn't have to find out space in the basement to store all these books. Just some work with Calibre, a little bit of dropbox to synchronize and save...

And you ? did your ereader change parts of your life ?