Consumer research has shown that when looking at an ereader store, or ebook reader store, the features that are most highly valued by visitors are convenience, choice, and content. If the ereader store is operated by someone who markets an ebook reader device, then the quality of the ereader itself is a major factor.
Here is one very important fact. Unless your reading matter is somewhat esoteric or specialised – e.g. medical, technical, legal etc. – then the probability is that it will be available on any of the major eBook stores. So whether you read General Fiction or Classic Literature, Biographies, Mysteries and Thrillers , Romance, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy or Childrens’ books, you should not be disappointed at any of our featured bookstores.
And that leads me to my first major recommendation, which is to first choose your favourite ereader, and then check the ebook stores to confirm that your desired content, be it books, magazines, journals, is available for your ereader.
If you have not examined the various ereaders, you might visit the Ereader Comparison site for a thorough review of all the most popular models.
There are 6 major eBook stores at the moment. The best known one is probably the Amazon Kindle ebook Store, followed by the Barnes and Noble bookstore. Then there is the Sony ebook store, the Kobo ebook store, the Apple iBookstore and the Google ebook store.
However, choosing which ereader store you prefer isn’t simply a matter of which store has the biggest selection, because we come up against the issue of ebook file formats. By design, each ereader has its own default format.
ePub is an open source book format used by a range of readers such as Nook and Kobo, and favoured by public libraries and institutions. AZW format (or Mobi) is used by the Kindle. The BbeB/LRF format is used by the Sony Reader.
These formats are not chosen by the ereader manufacturers on a whim – quite the contrary. Amazon have their unique format so that their Kindle ebook downloads cannot simply be duplicated and pirated and uploaded onto any ereader, in order to protect their publishers from copyright infractions. And Sony has similar justification for adopting the BbeB/LRF format.
Ereader Store – The Choice
Let’s have a quick look at the major bookstores available.
Amazon Kindle Book Store
The Amazon Kindle Book store is designed for the easy downloading of ebooks directly to the Amazon Kindle ereaders, including the new low-priced range of Kindle ereaders, so if you are not a Kindle owner you are not likely to shop at their ebook store.
The Kindle store at Amazon.com claims to offer over 1 million books, newspapers, and magazines, including the latest bestsellers, Kindle exclusives, and many free public domain works. The majority of the ebooks are available for $9.99 or less.
Barnes & Noble Bookstore
B&N’s online bookstore has been around for quite some time now, but it only started offering ebook versions of commercially published books recently. It claims the title of the world’s largest bookstore, with 2.5 million titles, but the majority of these are not in digital format. Barnes & Noble promote their own ereader – the Nook – and although they claim over 1 million books available for their Nook ereader, the vast majority of these are public domain books available through Google Books.
They do have probably around 30000 genuine commercial digital works available, and any owner of a Nook reader should have no difficulty in finding any popular work in the bookstore.
Sony eBook Store
Sony promote their own ereader, the Sony Reader, which is a very popular reader, and the Sony bookstore facilitates the downloading of digital content onto their own Reader. If you do not own a Sony Reader, then free Reader apps are available for popular desktop and mobile device platforms.
The bookstore claims around 1.2 million titles, but of these only around 60000 are commercial works, including new releases, bestsellers, mysteries and thrillers, romance novels, literary fiction, newspapers and magazines - the remaining titles are free public domain works available through Google’s Book Service.
Kobo Books
Kobo are another publisher who claim title to the world’s largest bookstore, with over 2.2 million books, newspapers and magazines available, including around 1 million free titles. They produce the Kobo Reader, which has proven quite popular, but whereas Amazon and Sony have their own proprietary file format, Kobo use the popular ePub format, so as to maximise the accessability of their digital content.
In line with their open philosophy, Kobo offers free apps for Mac and PC computers, and for Apple®, Android™ and BlackBerry® smartphones and tablets. They also ensure tha most Kobo eReaders and Kobo apps are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.
Google Ebook Store
The Google Ebook Store is one of the largest ebook collections in the world, with around 3 million titles available – including all the latest bestsellers from the NY Times as well as the timeless classics.
With 3 million books to choose from, covering every category, Google eBooks makes it easy to find what you want to read. Check out the current best sellers list, discover up-and-coming authors, or browse among all the free classics and public domain works.
One of the beauties of Google eBooks is that it stores your library content in the digital “cloud”, so you can read all of your favorite books using just about any device that features an Internet connection. Google eBooks is compatible with Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, web browsers and many popular eReaders. So you could start reading a book on your desktop or laptop, and carry on reading on your smartphone or tablet.
Apple iBookstore
Apple claims that tens of thousands of book titles are available on their iBookstore. Research shows that the figure is probably around 25000, but it is quite difficult to verify. Whatever the number, it is likely to grow rapidly.
Apple iBooks supports the popular ePub format, as do their popular iPhones and iPads, so even if you only want free content, you can download any of the public domain books from Google Books and read them on your iPad or iPhone.
Ereader Stores – The Experience
It is obvious that any ebook or ereader store should be optimised to make visiting the store a pleasant experience. Book lovers simply love to browse, so the store should be easy to navigate and search for titles, authors and genres. Likewise, the site should feature prominently and visually current popular titles and authors, to avoid all unnecessary menus and searches.
A good comparison test is to choose any popular title or author, and to see how long it takes you to find the book and to get to the checkout on the various ereader stores.
Many visitors will simply be searching for their favourite classic novels in the public domain, since these should be free to download, so this experience should be straightforward. Remember that many such visitors looking for freebies may well also be tempted to purchase any of the popular titles if these are offered in an attractive way.
Most ebooks will be available on any of the ereader stores at around the $9.99 mark. Some new titles and bestsellers could cost about the same as their real paper versions on the High Street, but equally there will be thousands available at almost giveaway prices. If you are looking for bargains, a good tip is to select your genre – say crime, or science fiction, and then, if the site offers a “sort by” option, choose price, order the results from low to high, and you will be able to take your pick from all the low-priced offerings.
I do hope that my ereader store information has been useful to you. If you wish to do more research, be sure to visit some of the resources mentioned above.
