How can you determine when you know you got value out of an eBook? I have purchased an eBook for $10 dollars and there was only 25 pages, and on each page there was less than half of it used for actually works. The last 10 pages were literally list of links to other sources that had nothing to do with the eBook. I also purchased an eBook for $5 dollars and it had over 40 pages filled with content. How do you determine whether it was worth it or not?
I know. It is really hard to determine whether it is worth it or not. That is why going to the library is such a good thing. It is free, free, free. And I have only read 2 books. I found that I miss feeling a real book in my hand.
It's difficult to determine as value is subjective but I guess the best defense for this is to just do as much research prior to purchase. Looking up comments of previous purchasers you will usually get a good enough grasp of whether or not spending the money on a digital product is worth it because chances are if it is a rip off then there's bound to be someone out there who has bought it and has gotten angry about it, enough to leave a negative review somewhere online but you just have to look it up and find it so you can get a better picture of what you are getting yourself into.
It's hard to determine the value of an ebook but as DRipley points out you can determine the value of an ebook from reviews posted all over the net. If you can't find the ebook being recommended on numerous sites then that book probably isn't that good and you shouldn't spend more than $5 on it. That said you can also do some research to find out more about the writer of the book. Most "experts" will have a blog or website you could take a look at first before you buy their books. If the writer merely claims to be an "expert" and has no way to prove it then you shouldn't buy their book.
Sure, its quite tricky to determine the value of an ebook. Whether you go by the price tag or by the number of pages, you could still be doomed. I have read about how people have been disappointed after buying an ebook that never lived up to its title. It either ended up as self-marketing or content not worthy their money. While you can peruse through a book before buying at an offline bookstore, you can not do so so with most ebooks. The best thing you can do to determine its value before buying is to search for reviews. A good book will always have lots of both negative and positive reviews, then you can be the judge.
I think it would depend on the quality of the book and not how many pages there are in it. If the information contained in it was worth your time to read and gave you more knowledge than you had before reading it then that would be a good indication of whether the book was a good value. Reading comments about the book is helpful and researching the writer can help you determine if you would find the ebook useful. The ebooks that I download are free ones so I do not feel that I can go wrong with them and if I do not like them then I am only out the time I spent reading it.
When it comes to buying ebooks (or physical books for that matter), you won’t be able to know the value of the ebook until you have finished reading it. The number of pages that an ebook contains doesn’t determine the value of the book. In essence, buying books is like gambling. Either you are going to enjoy the book or not.
When buying a physical book you can just walk into any library, pick it up from the shelter and check the number of pages, the size of the font and in general how much content you are getting for the price. Sadly we can't do that from e-books, so it's almost always a gambe. The best method to know exactly what you are buying is to make an accurate Google search before getting the e-book, so at least you should have a general idea of what to expect from the e-book. A lot of blogs review e-books and you may find all the informations you need. However if you want to buy a newly released e-book you won't probably find a lot of informations, so maybe it's worth to wait a little or just download the cheap or free ones.
You aren't paying for the number of pages or words, but the information and the price goes up with a well known author. You can always check how many pages there are before buying and usually read the contents so you can see how long each chapter is. Some books are over priced IMHO, but that's why you can preview them to see them first.
Yes, I agree that it's not easy to determine the price versus the value of an eBook, or a even physical book, it really depends on the content. Though I also take a look at the number of pages before I really purchase a book, and it would also be better for me to preview a few pages, so I know if it is a book I think is worth to buy. To me, if the content is useful or interest to me, I might still buy it, especially books or homeschool resources for my children.
