That’s the title of an article in the Ebook Magazine today.
One of the biggest annoyances with ebooks is gaps in series, what’s even worse is when gaps appear in a series AFTER you’ve started buying one.
[Discussing the disappearance of ebook versions of some of Le Carre’s George Smiley series the writer says]
But as this is the third time I’ve had issues with availability of titles within a series I’m now wondering if I’ll ever again set out to buy a collection as ebooks.
According to reports, Le Carre’s back catalogue is moving publishers and I’m speculating that’s the cause of these availability issues.
If I’m right, hopefully the new publishers (Penguin) are aware that the delisting of the previous edition has disrupted potential customers and ensure the books are back on the market as speedily as possible.
But whatever the cause, disappointing consumers by retailers being forced to drop books mid series isn’t going to help push sales of ebooks.
I generally buy books as one at a time–when I’m half way through one book, I buy another. No long lists of un-read books for me.
My exception is series. If I see all the books in a series are available, I buy them NOW to make sure I have them when I need them. Right now I’m half way through the Malazon series. All ten books set me back just under $100, but the piece of mind was worth it. And since the books are l-o-o-o-o-ong and complicated, I figure I’m set for reading material for about 6 weeks.
Missing books in a series is a real deal breaker for me. If I can’t get them all, then I move on to something else. I don’t want to own two books of a trilogy in digital form and one in physical form, or 8 e-books and 2 p-books in a long series. It makes no sense to me when publishers digitize part of a series and ignore another part. If I’m reading your series, better make sure they’re all available for me Kindle or you won’t be getting my $$.
I should have also said that, if a book comes out and is being sold as the first of a new multiple book story, I put that book on my Wish List and wait–sometimes years–for the whole thing to be finished.
Sick, I know, but I like to read straight through something. I hate waiting a year or two and then having to re-read the previous book because I can’t remember the characters or the plot.
Generally, this isn’t as bad as it seems because I have a tendency to zone in on books that come out with ads like “the exciting finale of P.Bookwriter’s 52 book fantasy epic!”; so the waiting part is already over. 🙂
The Silver Chair. Anyone ? ANYONE ?
Monster of Florence / Magdalen Nabb — Kindle format please.
I also hate when it is available and I can’t buy it because of geo-restrictions. Do I hate that indeed.
Which Silver Chair? Obviously not this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001I45UES
The reason this is a common problem, I think, is that while new (recent) books in a series now come out in paper and ebook as standard, earlier books were paper only and need to be digitised and re-issued as an ebook. Sometimes the publisher just hasn’t got around to that particular book in its large backlog of books to be reissued as ebooks. Sometimes the publisher may not have ebook rights to the earlier books.
It’s all very frustrating for readers, but hopefully it will be a short-lived problem, and in a few years the publishers will have converted all of their large backlists to ebook formats.
Yes, *that* Silver Chair – the only title in the Narnia series that is *not* currently available to Canadian Kindle customers. Gimme a break! !!