The Cheapskate

Buy any New York Times bestsellers in e-book format, get the full purchase price refunded to your Micropay account.

(Credit: Fictionwise)

Like e-books, but hate paying those exorbitant prices? E-bookseller Fictionwise (which was recently acquired by Barnes & Noble) is offering a deal that's pretty sweet: a 100% rebate on all New York Times bestsellers.

Let me clarify: You get a 100% Micropay rebate. What's Micropay? One way to buy e-books from Fictionwise is to set up a Micropay account, which is basically just a debit account (not unlike Microsoft's Points system for Xbox and Zune).

Basically, you add funds to it (in $5 increments via check, credit card, or PayPal), then draw on those funds each time you buy a book.

The bestsellers deal works like this: When you buy one or more books on the list, using your credit card or PayPal, Fictionwise credits the full purchase price back to your Micropay account. So it's kind of like getting the books for free.

Now, I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no: Purchases made via Micropay don't qualify for Micropay rebates. Otherwise you'd be getting rebates in perpetuity and, well, Fictionwise ain't that dumb.

The reality, then, is that when you buy one or more books on the bestsellers list, you get full credit back in Micropay, which you can then use to get additional other books. More of a buy-one-get-one-free kind of deal.

Make sense? These are real-deal NYT bestsellers, by the way, with titles like "The Kite Runner," "The Girl Who Played with Fire," and "Eat, Pray, Love." The only downside is that they're all pretty pricey: many sell in the $15-20 range, whereas the Kindle versions mostly go for $10.

On the other hand, Fictionwise offers e-books in a variety of formats, many of which are compatible with a wide range of devices. Still, if you're shopping for e-books for, say, your iPhone, you'll want to crunch the numbers to make sure the Micropay rebate is a better deal than, say, buying books in the Kindle store to read in the eponymous app.

Ultimately, I think most avid e-book readers will find some great savings here.

Amazon inexplicably charges nearly as much for the e-book edition as for the hardcover.

(Credit: Amazon)

Dear e-book publishers: stop gouging us.

Look, I'm your biggest fan. I've been reading digitally distributed fiction and non-fiction since the early days of the PalmPilot.

The most frequently used apps on my iPhone, bar none, are Kindle, eReader, and Stanza.

But I'm getting increasingly frustrated with e-book prices, which rarely represent a savings over their print (aka dead-tree) counterparts.

Case in point: I just read a glowing review of Jonathan Tropper's "This is Where I Leave You." I'm sold; I want it. But something's amiss here: Amazon's hardcover price is $15.57, while the Kindle edition sells for $14.01.

Now, I understand books cost money. There's editing, publishing, and distribution. Paper, ink, trucks, gasoline. Storage, shipping, shelf space, sales staff. And the countless people involved in all those transactions.

E-books, on the other hand, consume zero trees. They weigh nothing, occupy no physical space, and don't get shipped in the traditional sense. Middlemen are few and far between. So you're left with, what, editing costs and the pittance you pay the authors?

Explain to me, then, why the e-book edition of "This is Where I Leave You" sells for $14.01. The $.01 suggests there must be some calculation at work, some formula you use to determine that Kindle and iPhone owners get to save all of a buck-fifty-six when they read green.

The Kindle is a bit more affordable at $299, but there are still cheaper alternatives.

(Credit: Amazon)

As you may have heard, Amazon just dropped the price of the Kindle 2 to $299.

As a fan of A) e-books, B) gadgets, and C) deals, I'm pleased--but I still think there are better, cheaper alternatives. Hear me out.

For starters, the 8GB iPod Touch does waaaay more than the Kindle (you don't really need me to list everything, do you? Music, videos, games, Internet, apps of all kinds...), but costs just $229. Heck, get a refurb for $179--I just did.

Obviously the Touch has a smaller screen than the Kindle, but it's also a backlit touch screen. Just yesterday I spent the better part of a five-hour flight reading an e-book on my iPhone (via the Kindle app, ironically). No eyestrain, no headaches, no problem. Try it before you pooh-pooh it. (I also routinely read in bed with it. Can't do that with the Kindle unless there's a light on.)

Here's an even more radical idea: buy a Netbook. As regular Cheapskate readers know, it's not uncommon to find models selling for as low as $200, sometimes even less.

And with a couple minor tweaks, it's a simple matter to turn your Netbook into a Kindle. Yes, I know, it's heavier and bulkier--but it's also a full-blown computer!

My goal here is not to trash the Kindle, which I think is a terrific device. (Anything that encourages reading is aces in my book.) In fact, it's even more terrific now that you can (cheap plug alert!) read the Cheapskate blog on it.

But $299 is still too high, at least for me. (Amazon needs to lower its e-book prices, too, but that's a gripe for another day.) What about you? How much would you pay for a Kindle?

Want an Amazon Kindle but can't stomach the $359 price tag? (Me, neither.) This might be the next best thing: Borders has the Sony Reader PRS-505 for $199.99 shipped. (Apply coupon code SONY505READ at checkout to get that price.)

Like the Kindle, the Sony Reader is an e-book viewer. Though it can't download them wirelessly, Sony's eBook Store does carry about 100,000 titles as well as half a million public-domain works from Google. Alas, most of the commercial books are priced a few bucks higher than Amazon's.

Before jumping on this deal, you'll definitely want to read David Carnoy's review of the PRS-505. You can also see his video review up above.

Much as I'm liking this price, my e-book reader of choice remains my iPhone. I've gotten a surprising amount of flak for this (notably in this post about freebie books--many of which are still available, by the way), for reasons I don't fully understand, but I still can't see buying and carrying a separate, single-purpose device when I can read comfortably on the device I'm already carrying.

What do you think? Is $199 a good entry point for an e-book reader with a nice, big screen? If so, act fast: I'm not sure when this code expires, but probably quite soon.

Stanza: download 10 free e-books from Random House and thousands more from other sources.

I love reading books on my iPhone, but I don't love e-book prices. I mean, digital content requires no printing, binding, shipping, storage, or heavy lifting--so why does Amazon charge the same price for the Kindle edition of "The Kite Runner" as for the paperback?

That's a debate for another day (though let me go on record saying I'd buy a lot more e-books if they were priced in the $1 to $4 range). For now, let's look at ways you can read on the cheap--or, at least, the cheaper--on your iPhone.

• Look for freebies Stanza, one of my favorite e-book viewers (just acquired by Amazon, incidentally), connects you with thousands of freebies. For example, check out the Random House Free Library, which currently stocks 10 mainstream e-books. (Best bet: Charlie Huston's superb crime-noir series, which starts with "Caught Stealing.") Meanwhile, there's Google Book Search, a browser-based solution that connects you to a whopping 1.5 million public-domain books. Point Safari to http://books.google.com/m.
• Look for deals E-bookseller Fictionwise already discounts its e-books, but you can stretch your dollar even further by setting up a "Micropay" account (i.e., a debit account). Most books come with a Micropay rebate, meaning you get 10 percent to 15 percent of the purchase price added back to your account. But sometimes Fictionwise runs rebate specials, as it's doing right now with J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series: Buy any/all of the books and you get back 100 percent. You can read Fictionwise e-books using eReader or Stanza. (Just make sure to choose titles that are available in the Secure eReader format.)
• Try before you buy Amazon's Kindle app lets you read free of charge the entire first chapter of any book in the Kindle Store. That's a great way to see if you like a book before plunking down your $10. However, you can't browse the store from within the app: You have to queue up your sample chapters from your browser. Not so with Shortcovers, an e-book viewer with a built-in bookstore that offers sample chapters for many titles (but only forewords for others).
... Read more

Get 'The Whiskey Rebels' and eight other e-books absolutely free.

(Credit: eReader)

I've made no secret of my love of e-books. I read 'em on airplanes, in bed at night, in line at the post office, and so on. But I do have a complaint: They're not priced substantially lower than their dead-tree counterparts.

That's why I'm tickled about this: e-bookseller eReader is offering nine Random House works of fiction absolutely free.

These aren't bargain-bin titles from no-name authors, either. The collection includes three crime-noir novels from Charles Huston, all of which earned 4.5 stars from Amazon readers; The Whiskey Rebels, a brand-new (and well-reviewed) historical novel by David Liss; and The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death by Laurie Notaro, a 4.5-star collection of essays.

Amazingly, there's no catch here--just add the books to your shopping cart and check out. The eReader software that's required to view the books is available for Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone, and iPod Touch, as well as Windows and Mac systems.

I can't speak highly enough of my experience using eReader on my iPhone. In fact, I'll go so far as to say the iPhone makes a way better e-book reader than the Amazon Kindle. Agree? Disagree? Let your opinions fly in the Comments. Meanwhile, grab these freebies while you can. I'm not sure when this "holiday special" expires.

Update: Users of the Stanza iPhone/iPod Touch app can download this same batch of free books directly to their devices.

My two cents on e-book readers like the Sony Reader: awesome technology, overpriced hardware. I just can't see paying $299 for one. But $149? Now we're in the ballpark.

If you don't mind applying for a Sony Visa card, that's exactly the deal you can get. Here's how:

First, apply online for the credit card, which promises instant approval (assuming you have decent credit, natch). Sony's offering a $150 credit when you purchase something priced at $299 or higher--like, oh, the Sony Reader. Add one to your shopping cart at SonyStyle (in your choice of spiffy colors), then pay for it with your new "card" (you're allowed to make one purchase before the actual card arrives in the mail).

Obviously, a $150 credit isn't the same thing as a discount (you're still $299 out-of-pocket). But you can easily use that credit for gas, groceries, or whatever. The bigger question is whether the Sony Reader is the right e-book gizmo for you. (Reading CNET's review may help you decide.)

Much as I'm a huge fan of e-books, I prefer to read them on my iPod touch--a pocket-size device I'm already carrying anyway. What do you think? Is $149 a low enough price to get you to pull the trigger on a Sony Reader? Personally, I'd like to see it hit $99.

(Credit: Tor Books)

Like to read? Between now and Sunday, July 27, Tor.com is offering two dozen sci-fi and fantasy books free for the download. You don't even have to register; just click, download, and read!

Most of the books are available in HTML, Mobi, and PDF formats--choose the one that suits you best. If you're a BlackBerry, Palm, or Windows Mobile user, for instance, grab the Mobi files for use with the free Mobipocket Reader. Want to read on your iPhone or iPod touch? Any of the formats will do if you use freebie app Stanza (iTunes link): It supports all three.

I'm not familiar with many of the titles on the list, but I'm currently halfway through the paperback edition of John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" (bought it before I found this offer), and it's a terrific read.

Thanks to reader Denny for mentioning this deal!

Get 'The Shining' in e-book form free (after rebate) from Fictionwise.

(Credit: Fictionwise)

As a longtime fan of e-books (I used to read them on my PDA; now I read 'em on my smartphone), I've been waiting for a good deal so I could spread the word. Fictionwise answered the call: The Web-based e-bookstore is offering three complete Stephen King novels for free. Yes, there's a catch, but it's not hard to swallow.

Here's how it works: First, you create a Micropay account, which is basically a debit account into which you deposit funds from your credit card or PayPal. Next, you buy Carrie, Night Shift, and/or The Shining (King classics, all). All three titles include a 100% Micropay rebate, meaning Fictionwise will immediately refund the full purchase price into your account. You'll have to spend the money on other e-books, but you get three freebies out of the deal. And Fictionwise frequently offers Micropay rebates on other titles, so you can really stretch your book-buying dollar.

The King books are available in eReader, Mobipocket, and Microsoft Reader formats, meaning you can read them on just about any PDA or smartphone. I know many people are reluctant to read books on small electronic screens, but trust me when I say you quickly get used to it. And nothing beats having a good book at your side when you're stuck in line someplace.

Any other e-book fans out there? Wish Apple would get off its rear and offer e-books for iPhones? (Rumor has it Fictionwise will be supporting the platform soon--woo!) Hit the Comments and discuss your favorite e-books and e-book readers.