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Which online bookstores do you use?


Michelle

Online Book Buying  

47 members have voted

  1. 1. Which online book stores do you use?

    • Amazon
      38
    • Book Depository
      16
    • Wordery
      3
    • Waterstones
      7
    • B&N
      0
    • Other
      14


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I would never use Amazon because postage is much too expensive to Australia. Book Depository has free shipping and usually the cheapest books anyway, so that's always my preferred option. :) I also use some Australian-based websites.

 

Also, I use an ad-blocker, so I never see referral links. Sorry.  :blush2:

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I would never use Amazon because postage is much too expensive to Australia. Book Depository has free shipping and usually the cheapest books anyway, so that's always my preferred option. :) I also use some Australian-based websites.

 

Also, I use an ad-blocker, so I never see referral links. Sorry.  :blush2:

 

I'm amazed Amazon haven't got an Australian site as well - they have UK, US, Germany, Canada, several other country specific ones.

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  • 4 weeks later...

One thing that came to mind is that if I remember correctly, when this was discussed years ago, a simple click on the banner didn't produce any money, but one had to click on the banner and also buy something. Do I remember correctly? 

 

Also, personally I think you, Michelle, would make money more easily and quicker if more people paid to support the forum. I don't mean to patronize or boss around, because I've been a non-paying 'regular' member for quite a few years now. I remember being a supporter back in the day, and even when the subscription had ended, you Michelle didn't cancel my supporter membership for a year or two, and that was mighty generous! So I'm no saint myself in paying for the subscription. But I finally got my act together and got a Paypal account and it's so easy to use... 

 

I was just wondering, how much is the subscription fee at the moment? And if it was reduced by a bit, would more members decide to subscribe? 

 

And I know you don't like to 'beg' for people to subscribe, but as I'm not you or an admin or even a moderator, but a regular member, I'd like to make a plea to the other forum members to do a little digging, if possible at all! :)   I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes with this plea :) 

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I mostly use The Book Depository, both for myself and for others. If I can't find something there, or it's too expensive, I have a look on Amazon.

 

I live in Belgium, so I don't think Waterstones and Barnes & Noble deliver here. I do love going to Waterstones stores when I'm in Belfast or London. I also reckon if they did deliver to Belgium, the postage would be quite expensive.

 

I've only used Wordery once, to buy a gift for a friend. I'd never heard of the website before.

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I almost always use Amazon too - I have to as I have a Kindle and it's the only store that works. Yes I know I could use software like Calibre that changes the format of the book so it can be read on Kindle, but I can't be bothered with all of that. I do online surveys on a few different sites for which I am paid in Amazon vouchers, so it makes sense for me to use them to buy books.

 

I did recently order one book from Waterstones though - a guide book to the island of Malta where I am going in a few weeks. This was a paper rather than Kindle book. I got it from Waterstones because unusually it was actually cheaper on there and of course because it was a paper book rather than Kindle, by using click and collect I didn't have to pay postage. Amazon charge you for this unless you spend £20.  

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One thing that came to mind is that if I remember correctly, when this was discussed years ago, a simple click on the banner didn't produce any money, but one had to click on the banner and also buy something. Do I remember correctly? 

 

I was just wondering, how much is the subscription fee at the moment? And if it was reduced by a bit, would more members decide to subscribe? 

That's very true about the banners.. you need to click on them, and then go on to buy something, and I then get a tiny percentage. I've tried different book stores, but just haven't been able to make it work. I refuse to add great big adverts, especially those which pop up when you visit, because they annoy me so much on other sites.

 

The supporter fee is only £10 for a year, and it hasn't changed since I started it up. I'm not sure reducing would make much difference. I've had a fair response this time round, and I really appreciate it.. as it means I can help out with server costs. :)

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That's very true about the banners.. you need to click on them, and then go on to buy something, and I then get a tiny percentage. I've tried different book stores, but just haven't been able to make it work. I refuse to add great big adverts, especially those which pop up when you visit, because they annoy me so much on other sites.

Those would be really annoying, yes. I hope you never have to resort to them!

 

 

The supporter fee is only £10 for a year, and it hasn't changed since I started it up. I'm not sure reducing would make much difference. I've had a fair response this time round, and I really appreciate it.. as it means I can help out with server costs. :)

Yes, 10£ isn't really all that much and changing it probably wouldn't make much difference... I'm glad to hear that you've had a fair response :smile2: I think years ago when we had more members coming on here way more frequently, it was easier to make the sufficient amount of money. Now it might be trickier as we don't have as many regular members :unsure:

 

Long live the forum!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all,
 
I'm a big ebook reader and very much so involved in the world of self-publishing and all things ebooks.
 
Once I got a good understanding of what exactly ebooks are and how to produce one (from guides like this one: www.1and1.com/digitalguide/online-marketing/online-sales/e-books-part-one-how-to-create-an-e-book/), I began to look for digital bookstores other than amazon - mostly for a different variety, and of course prices. Knowing the various formats of ebooks and what your device can take is also helpful.
Here are some of the ones I use: Kobo, Smashwords, eHarlequin, eBooks.com, Barnes&Noble (Nook) and Lulu.

Hope some of these help! :P

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  • 1 month later...

I use Amazon for most of mine and the children's books, we recently signed up for prime for ordering general household bits and bobs so its come in very handy to get my books delivered the next day. I have noticed the prices are slightly more though to get them delivered with prime than other sellers. I used to use the Book Depository and Smileywoo I think it is because they used to send out good offers through email. I'm writing this as I patiently await the couriers arrival for my next Amazon book delivery :D

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I use Amazon a fair bit (we have Prime membership, so books come nice and fast), Book Depository and Wordery occasionally (delivery times are yawningly long, especially Wordery), abebooks a lot, and Blackwell's more and more. 

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  • 1 month later...

I use Amazon. Sometimes if I see the same book cheaper on eBay then I'll be it from there. 

 

One thing that annoys me about Amazon is if you see a few books that you want to buy and they are all from the same seller, it is not possible for you to pay a certain amount in one sum for P&P but instead £2.80 per item.

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Book Depository, who are often cheaper than Amazon, and have free delivery.  Occasionally Abe books as well, I got most of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles from Abe.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Personally I usually buy books in bookshops and don't often use online book stores. However, recently I found out about very interesting epic series "More than a Game" and it was nesessary to use online bookshops to get first parts of this fantasy novel. I bought them trough Amazon and I really liked it, because it was very comfortly, easily and quickly.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

I use Better World Books for pre-loved purchases. They have shipping warehouses in the US and UK and ship worldwide free.

I use them because of their business ethos of providing fiction and educational reading to under privileged children worldwide. Check them out at https://www.betterworldbooks.co.uk/ or https://www.betterworldbooks.com/

Obviously owning a Kindle Paperwhite, I buy my ebooks through Amazon.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 months later...

I ordered from a new place I discovered on Friday, Bert's Books (probably not hard to find but the website is https://bertsbooks.co.uk/ ). I actually saw it a while ago and thought that it was a book subscription place, but it is a shop (you can get book subscriptions from them though, which is obviously where the confusion started!) I only ordered on Friday, had an email later in the day to say the books had been shipped, and I've just had an email from Hermes to say they've been delivered. Which seems particularly good since postage was free! Both the books I got are signed too :D I'll definitely be using them again.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest Falabaleem

I tend only to use Amazon as a fall-back — normally I use Wordery or Blackwells, and go to their sites directly. If it's secondhand, then I do use Amazon, in the shape of bookfinder.com.

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  • 11 months later...

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