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Hello fellow readers. I read an interesting blog post today that I thought I’d share with you…not because I agree with it, but because I disagree with it. It made me wonder where you stand and whether I am odd in my ebook purchasing behavior. Perhaps more people do buy ebooks the way that the blog post suggests than the way I buy.
The post How book stores foster ebook sales | 52 Tiger by Dave Caolo on January 8th in the 52 Tiger Blog suggests that perhaps Barnes and Noble are being short-sighted in closing brick and mortar stores.
In the post he says ”Ebook sales likely had a significant role in B&N’s decision to close those locations, which is interesting as brick-and-mortar book stores foster ebook sales.
The practice of “showrooming” — seeing a thing before buying it — affects buying behavior. Specifically, customers are more likely to buy an ebook after seeing its physical counterpart in a store.”
I suppose this is true for me in regard to some genres. For example, I might be more inclined to buy a quilt book after seeing a physical copy, but then, I’m not likely to buy an ebook version of a quilt book. The same is true of cookbooks. I might be more inclined to buy a cookbook after seeing a physical copy. But I wouldn’t be likely to buy an ebook version anyway.
With fiction seeing a physical copy does nothing to spur me to buy a book. I don’t go to physical bookstores to find fiction as I prefer reading on my Kindle Fire and I can much more easily drill down to what I am looking for searching via Amazon than I can going to a brick and mortar store which will have fewer offerings and it will be harder to find what I’m looking for because I can’t search in the physical store using keywords or tags as I can at Amazon. At Amazon the single thing that spurs more purchases than anything else is their list of books that others who bought what I am looking at also bought. I find a lot of books that I wouldn’t know about that way.
What about you? Do you see paper books and then go buy ebook versions? Does seeing the paper version inspire you to buy the ebook version? Does this happen / or not happen with some types of books and not others or across the board? Please weigh in, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
I’m worried that I may be outside the mainstream of book buying behavior. Please do your part to put my mind at ease or confirm my worst fears by leaving your comments below. 
Actually it is the other way around for me. I tend to keep paper books and when I truly love an ebook I will buy it in papaerback /hardbound to keep.
I often go to Barnes & Noble to look at books. When I find something interesting, I write the name down and then order it for Kindle. There are rarely any fiction books I buy in paper form today, even from authors I once collected.
I do buy nonfiction books in paper form.
No, I’d rather read the paper book. I do like Ebooks also, but they are the ones I do not see in print.
I’m the opposite Wilma. I prefer ebooks to paper anytime…with the exception of quilt books…cookbooks…and dummies books for the computer and that sort of thing.
For fiction I much prefer ebooks…primarily because I can adjust the font up or down to suit my mood or the tiredness factor of my eyes.
I’ve never bought an ebook because I saw a print book…though that may happen as I divest the print books. The problem is so many older print books are not available in ebook – yet…though I expect that to change. More authors are taking advantage of returned rights on backlist titles and are self-publishing them as ebooks…which is nice for those of us who prefer ebooks.
I love book stores & my town still has at least three. If a tree book catches my eye, I will buy it. It does not translate into me wanting to buy it as an e-book.
People browse the Internet for e-books, not book stores. This has not been my experience anyway.
That people browse the internet for ebooks rather than the book store has been my experience too. I was a bit…surprised by the blog post I quoted above…which is why I shared it here.