What’s with the combos?
I’m an avid reader, mostly of ebooks, so I’m wondering, what’s with the combos? Ebooks are combined with audiobooks, and print book/ebook or audiobook pairings are common now. Can some reader of this blog tell me why a reader would ever want to buy such combos?
I can imagine audiobooks being useful for a commuter or jogger who can “multitask.” Whether such people are actually “reading” anything complex that way is questionable. Maybe they need the ebook or print version to go back and understand what they heard-read?
The ebook/print combos are even more a mystery. If the author signed the print version and the reader wants him to die early and increase the value of the investment, maybe it makes sense—the reader can read the ebook immediately and keep the print version pristine! But one major positive for ebooks for me is that they only take up room on my Kindle and not my sagging bookshelves. (Print books produced that nefarious effect long before ebooks and audiobooks—have you ever seen how thick Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler’s Gravitation is?). I only read print books now when someone gives me one. They kill forests!
My mongrel paranoia (as an author who is both traditionally and self-published) makes me think the print/ebook combos are just a Big Five conspiracy to get ebook readers to buy print, both of which are super-expensive compared to books not published by Big Five publishing conglomerates. To support that paranoid thought, I’ve often also seen Big Five offerings of an accompanying ebook version that’s more competitively priced than the separate ebook, which is often priced nearly as high as the print version when sold alone to protect the latter, where they make the most money.
I just don’t see how these combos are attractive to consumers. I ignore them. Now ebook bundles, those are usually bargains! Consider my ebook bundle, The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection. While each novel can stand alone (and originally did!), the reader can have all three lengthy sci-fi novels in one ebook bundle for about half the cost of a Big Five ebook! I’m all for that! I won’t ever go beyond a trilogy (maybe the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” or the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” is next?); all seven Chen and Castilblanco books would be unwieldy together in one ebook bundle, as would many long series (can you imagine Grafton’s entire alphabet series in one ebook?).
How do you prefer to “read”? Do you consider an audiobook even reading material? Do you have a use for combos? Let me know. I might adjust my formats accordingly. Forget audiobooks, though. They’re just too expensive to produce, even for my small press publishers, primarily because a good narrator is required. (I wouldn’t mind having sound effects, though. That would avoid the pfft! I use to indicate a shot from a gun with a silencer!)
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Comments are always welcome.
The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection. Survivors of the Chaos takes the reader from a dystopian Earth dominated by mega-corporations and controlled by their mercenaries, to the 82 Eridani star system. Sing a Zamba Galactica starts with first contact with friendly ETs and the invasion of Earth by unfriendly ones, and ends with Humans saving that collective intelligence known as Swarm. In Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!, Humans and ETs combat a psycho-industrialist who dreams of being the absolute ruler of Near Earth space. Exciting sci-fi that’s bundled in a three-novel package for your enjoyment. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Thomas, Gardners, etc.).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
