Recently, I was looking for a book I needed for research. It's a self-published work, I'm like 95% sure of that, and not available at the usual places, only on the man's website. Well, that's not completely true. If I wanted to pay more than what he's charging, I could get a copy somewhere else, but I wasn't willing to add an extra $10 onto the cost.
I'd prefer not to buy on his site, but I needed the book badly enough to do that. Okay. Let me download the ebook.
No ebook. Only paper.
My guess is he's doing this to try to keep piracy at bay, but OMG, I wanted it in electronic format, not paper.
Once upon a time, I only wanted my reference books in paper, but somewhere along the line, that changed. Maybe it was when I ordered a research book that was so huge, it was difficult to hold it. (Hardcover and very, very thick.) I ended up buying a second copy in the ebook version so I didn't have to try to read The Tome. Or maybe I've just grown accustomed to ebooks because I read all my fiction in this format. Two moves showed me the benefit of electronic books.
But ebook wasn't an option so I ordered paper. The man didn't accept PayPal, which I definitely didn't like. Now I have to give you my credit card information, too? And when I sucked it up and ordered anyway, I didn't get a confirmation email. I screen capped the screen with my reference number.
All these complaints aside, the book arrived quickly. Within days. I'll be able to highlight and use page flags to reference things I might need to review.
I'd still rather have an ebook.
