Wie man sich einfach ein eBook fast kostenlos ausdrucken kann

Manchmal reicht ein eBook einfach nicht aus und man will bedrucktes Papier in den Händen halten. Doch der Gang zum eigenen Tinten- oder Laserdrucker ist oftmals frustierend. Da stimmen die Seitenaufteilungen nicht, überhaupt das Format ist selten im DIN A4 Format usw.

Für das Korrekturlesen sind gedruckte Bücher manchmal einfach noch praktischer. Wie aber bekommt man sein Buch ordentlich gesetzt ausgedruckt?

Autoren, die mit Amazon arbeiten haben da jetzt eine einfache und sehr preiswerte Möglichkeit. Amazon bietet ab sofort einen Autorenexemplar oder Proof Druck für eBooks an. 

Was ist das und was kostet es?

Proofs oder Autorenexemplare dienen dem Autor dazu, Papierexemplare als Muster für Verlage oder zum Korrekturlesen durch Dritte anzufordern.
Im Hintergrund wird die Datei des eBooks an CreateSpace, die Druckdienstleistungstochter von Amazon, geschickt. Somit ist bei den Kosten klar, dass es ähnlich günstig ist wie wenn man einen vollen Createspace Account angelegt hat - was aber wesentlich aufwendiger ist. Für ein s/w Buch das im ca. DIN A5 Format 180 Seiten hat, muss man circa 3 € rechnen. Ja, richtig gelesen circa 3 €! Hinzu kommt eine ebenfalls seitenzahlabhängige Versandpauschale von ebenfalls rund 2€ bis 3€. Rabatte bei höheren Mengen gibt es leider prinzipiell nicht. Ebenso bleiben die Versandkosten pro Stück leider gleich. Trotzdem ist das ein sehr gutes und bequemes Angebot um sich Korrekturexemplare oder Leseexemplare für Freunde und Familie oder eben Verlage zu beschaffen.
Auch für gelegentliche Lesungen kann man die gedruckten Exemplare des eBook z.B. signiert an den Fan bringen.

Wie kann man Probedrucke vom eBook bestellen?

Amazon gibt hierfür folgenden Ablauf an :

• Go to your Bookshelf and find the paperback for which you would like to order a proof.
• If your paperback is in "Draft" status, the option to request a proof will be enabled in the ellipsis ("...") menu.
• Click Request Proof Copies.
• Select the order quantity. You can order up to 5 copies at a time.
• Select the Amazon marketplace closest to your shipping destination. The cost will then be displayed. This cost doesn't include shipping and applicable taxes.
• Click Submit Proof Request.

Within 4 hours of submitting your request, you'll receive an email with a link to complete your proof order. You must complete your purchase within 24 hours of receiving this email.
Once you receive the email and click on the link to complete your order, you’ll be redirected to the Amazon Shopping Cart/Basket. You can use your existing payment information and delivery addresses or add new addresses to send proof copies to reviewers.
Proofs are eligible for all paid (standard and expedited) shipping options available to Amazon customers except Prime. You can ship proofs to multiple shipping addresses by placing separate orders for each destination.

Wie unterscheiden sich die Bücher von normalen gedruckten ?

In den Büchern findet sich ein Aufdruck: Not for Resale, also nicht für den Weiterverkauf bestimmt. Zudem tragen sie keine ISBN Nummer auch wenn das eBook eine hat. 

Wie viele Exemplare darf man bestellen ?

So viele, wie man Geld hat! Zumindest gibt Amazon keine Grenze hierfür an sondern sagt, dass ein Auftrag so viel kostet wie die Druckkosten eines eBooks mal die Anzahl der Exemplare.

Interessante Alternative zum Copyshop? Was meint ihr dazu?

Amazon bettelt: Autoren sollen Protestbriefe an Hachette senden

In dem seit Wochen andauernden Streit um Provisionen und Preise für ebooks, hat Amazon auf eine Zeitungsanzeige von 909 Autoren in der New York Times hastig reagiert. Kindle Autoren werden aufgefordert, massenhaft Protestmails an den Verlag Hatchette zu senden und ihm klar zu machen, dass seine aktuelle Kampagne die freie Ausbreitung günstiger ebooks behindert.
Amazon versucht so der PR Kampagne entgegenzusteuern die derzeit über eine ganzseitige Anzeige in der New York Times das Verhalten von Amazon gegenüber Autoren und Verlagen kritisiert.
Hier die Amazon Email von heute:

Dear KDP Author,

Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.

With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.

Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive.

Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.

The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.

Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.

Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.

But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.

And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.

We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.

We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.

Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com

Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com

Please consider including these points:

- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.

Thanks for your support.

The Amazon Books Team

P.S. You can also find this letter at www.readersunited.com

Die 99 besten E-Books der Welt!

Das ist, einfach ausgedrückt das Ziel meines Blogs. Klingt nicht bescheiden, ist es auch nicht. Vielleicht ist es sogar recht subjektiv und niemals für jeden Leser gleich. Einen Versuch ist es aber mal wert.
Ich bewerte E-Books nach Inhalt, Form und Nutzen.

  Hier gibt es den Kindle E-Book Reader zu kaufen

Ich hoffe ihr habt Spass daran und lasst euch hin und wieder inspirieren. Nun geht es los, die schweißtreibende Tipparbeit nach der anregenden Lesearbeit.
Derzeit beschäftige ich mich eingehend mit dem Kindle E-Book Reader, den es seit Neustem auch bei uns in Deutschland zu kaufen gibt.
Die Auswahl an E-Books ist riesig, obwohl die meisten Titel bisher nur auf englisch erschienen sind. Rund 25.000 gibt es aber auch als deutsche E-Book Ausgabe. Viele von diesen Titeln sind sogar kostenlos! Dabei handelt es sich überwiegend um Klassiker, deren Urheberrecht schon lange abgelaufen ist. Aber auch viele sehr nützliche E-Books sind gratis oder fast umsonst erhältlich.

Mit dem Kindle im Starbucks sitzen und die Skripte für die Vorlesung reinziehen, oder im Urlaub im neusten Krimi zu schmökern, das hat was. Wer einmal vom E-Book Reader Fieber angesteckt wurde, den lässt es nicht mehr los. Ihr merkt schon: Meine Begeisterung dafür ist grenzenlos.