ebooks | Survey saaaaays....

A poll! Because we all need more polls! Or rather, because I looked at the membership list and said, mygods, who ARE all these people, and also, I bet they'd like more ... posts about ... something ebookish.. In order to figure out what kinds of posts those should be, I bring you ... TICKY BOXES! Confirm your ebookish identity, knowledge, and DRM skills!

Poll #5653 Who are you people?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 86

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What kind of ebook person are you?

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I read ebooks
67 (77.9%)

I buy and read ebooks
58 (67.4%)

I write ebooks
6 (7.0%)

I write and sell ebooks
1 (1.2%)

I convert/reformat ebooks
49 (57.0%)

I don't write or read ebooks (yet?), but I'm interested in them
6 (7.0%)

Your ticky boxes cannot contain my ebookery
20 (23.3%)

Ticky box, ticky boox, e-tickery abounds
30 (34.9%)

If you read ebooks, what do you read them on?

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I don't read ebooks.
2 (2.4%)

Desktop computer
26 (30.6%)

Laptop or netbook.
40 (47.1%)

E-ink dedicated reader.
56 (65.9%)

LCD screen dedicated reader
1 (1.2%)

Phone or PDA
25 (29.4%)

Tablet computer
6 (7.1%)

Something else, which you have failed to describe
3 (3.5%)

TICKY OF DOOM!
21 (24.7%)

Do you have a device/ereader preference? (Or: what do you think you'd prefer, if you don't have one yet.)

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I don't read ebooks.
2 (2.3%)

I don't have a preference.
1 (1.2%)

I prefer to read on a computer
0 (0.0%)

I prefer to read on a dedicated ebook reader.
49 (57.0%)

I prefer a multifunction device (iPad, phone, etc.)
17 (19.8%)

I have different preferences in different circumstances.
16 (18.6%)

I prefer something else.
1 (1.2%)

What do you know about ebook formats?

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Ebook for mats? No, ebooks for bed, chairs, couches ...
5 (5.8%)

There's a lot of them. They're a confusing mess.
32 (37.2%)

One is better than the rest, and it's my preference.
14 (16.3%)

One is better than the rest, and I prefer something else anyway.
1 (1.2%)

They all have different pros & cons; I don't think any is best.
25 (29.1%)

I know which ones work on my ereader.
61 (70.9%)

I know which ones work on most ereaders.
36 (41.9%)

My knowledge of ebook formats exceeds your ticky-talents.
8 (9.3%)

What do you know about DRM?

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What does Dating Republican Men have to do with ebooks?
4 (4.7%)

It's evil.
42 (49.4%)

It's a way for authors to avoid getting ripped off.
12 (14.1%)

I know what kind works on my ereader.
25 (29.4%)

I know what kinds work on most ereaders.
14 (16.5%)

I know how to remove it from ebooks I buy.
14 (16.5%)

I could figure out how to remove it if I wanted/needed to.
43 (50.6%)

I have many thinky thoughts about DRM and can expound on them at length.
22 (25.9%)

It's a damned nuisance. I dunno about "evil," though.
42 (49.4%)

Tickety-tickety-tick tick tick.
29 (34.1%)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think my opinions on ebook reading have been deeply affected by the fact that the first ebooks I read were Baen books in lovely old fashioned HTML. I like it. I might change my mind if I suddenly had a commute and needed a mobile device, but I like the control that I have over how the text looks simply and easily in my browser. I also really like that I can one click kill images on ebooks with my zap images bookmarklet when they're in HTML in a browser.

I got a free sample novelette from one publisher who uses PDF. No font control, no colour control, no zapping the soft core porn cover art, no easy scrolling, no getting rid of those damn paragraph indents or having the margins and font size how I like it. Just like with DRM, the format is trying to control my experience. That makes me cranky. I would never buy ebooks in such a rigid format, just like I won't buy DRM books unless forced to.

I confess I really don't get the point of trying to mimic a physical book with the ebook structure. I seems like throwing away all the benefits of digital technology without really having the paper experience either.

But, then, I typed this comment with 2 spaces after every period, so obviously I tend to stick with what I like.

PDF is used by a lot of publishers because it's what they send to the printers so they don't have to do anything extra to release the ebook. (For freebie promos, they tend to leave in the hideous production metadata and sometimes even have the printer's crop marks.)

My first experiences with ebooks were mostly Fictionwise multiformats, and for most of the time I've dealt with ebooks, I've had Acrobat Pro with a cluster of shiny plugins, so I can convert & reformat PDFs.

I've tried a tiny handful of ebooks with DRM, fixed formats that I couldn't adjust the layouts or fonts, and I would've given up entirely if that was my first exposure to them.

PDF started life as a way for multiple platforms (Mac, Windows, *nix) to be able to view the same file in exactly the way the publisher intended- It's been extended and mutated a lot over the decades.

It's actually PostScript with a funny tasting shell wrapped around it, which Adobe invented for printers and typography to get around the same problem. (allowing multiple platforms to send data to a printer and have consistent results regardless of who sent the data to the printer.)

As an E-book format, it kind of blows- Most of my technical manuals are in PDF format, and they are a pain in the butt to read on anything but a proper computer or notebook. (THis includes smartphones- I'm still reeling from looking at a PDF on my shiny new 'droid.)

I like PDFs only because I can take them apart & rebuild them. I regularly make PDFs for my ebook reader (3.46"x4.57" pages with .02" margins; 10 pt Georgia font with 1.15 line spacing) because I know how to get them formatted the way I want, and I can't do that with ePub (because I am lazy and haven't figured out how). And I've got custom PDF settings for Feedbooks, because that way I can download several at once & combine them into one. But all commercially produced PDFs range from "mediocre" to "sucks rocks" on portable readers.

PDF is terrific for its original purpose: print-ready across multiple platforms from any machine. The bells and whistles on top of that are sometimes useful, sometimes a distraction; I can certainly understand the people who insist that PDF is "not an ebook format."

But, then, I typed this comment with 2 spaces after every period, so obviously I tend to stick with what I like.

You know, I had that trained into me when I was learning to touch-type. That was about eighteen years ago. It's totally not worth changing eighteen years of muscle memory to reduce the number of spaces I put after a period.

Try three decades!

But then I don't like changing just cause some dude say so anyway.

Survey saaaaays....

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PDF kinda sucks.

Re: PDF kinda sucks.

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