Do You Have An eBook Shopping Pattern?

Do you have a favorite store or publisher you buy books from? Have you tried a variety of different places, but tend to find yourself returning to a favorite?  Are you afraid to purchase ebooks from certain places? Do you support small publishing houses? I want to know!

Recently I added a tab to the blog titled "eInfo", where I've created links to a few of my favorite publishers and book stores that I love to browse and buy from. But even then I noticed that I tend to 'favor' certain sites. Whether it's the ease of navigation through the site and store, the variety of formats available for download, the company policies, or just the overall love of the genres and/or authors, I'm honestly not sure what the ultimate driving factor is. 

With all of the eStores and publishing houses, I have little, if any, experience with the way in which they treat the authors during the publishing process, or the customers in terms of problems they experience during their purchases. All I know, is that I've never had any problems as a customer in any of my purchases from any pub sites or online stores. With this conclusion, I can say that 'problems' I've encountered doesn't factor in to my decision.

However, regardless of my experiences with different companies, I still tend to favor a couple of them. For the most part, I know that the authors and genres play a HUGE factor in my purchase trends. There are a couple of authors that I will buy pretty much anything from, so that plays in to the trend, I'll follow them where ever they publish. And of course genres and writing styles are equally just as important to me. With these couple of factors in mind, I find myself continuously returning to Samhain and Loose ID. Recently I've added Lyrical, Ellora's Cave, and All Romance Books to that mix, but still, I predominantly return to Samhain. 

I must also include one of my own fears here, and that would be the way a publishing house sets up their book presentations and shopping carts. If the shopping cart format looks like an inconvenience to navigate, or if they don't offer a variety of formats to choose from, then I have a hard time hitting the 'buy' button. Another factor for me not purchasing ebooks from certain places is often due to the lack of information. I honestly don't understand how publishers expect readers to purchase a book with a lack of a blurb, cover, or any additional information that may help me as a reader decided if this is a book for me.

As for large retail stores, I hate to even admit this, but I tend to buy about 90% of my ebooks now-a-days from Amazon, and all my print books from Barnes & Noble. While I have both the Nook software and Kindle software as ereaders, I think it's safe to say that my decision isn't necessarily influenced by the difference in software. Although I do tend to lean toward the mobi/Kindle version due to presentation and format. But, even with the large percentages of my books still being purchased through Amazon, I'm finding that the more a small publishing house offers the mobi/Kindle version, the more that I am willing to purchase from them and not Amazon. Therefore, I'm finding myself slowly buying more and more from these small ebook publishers. Not to mention, I like to support the small companies as much as I can so they stay in business!

So, with all my rambling, I was wondering... What do other people tend to do? Do others, like myself, have a preference from where/who they purchase their books from? Do people follow companies, authors, or genres loyally, playing in to their own influences in their purchasing trends? Or are people still leery of purchasing ebooks from small publishing houses?

I would absolutely love to know what, how, and where other readers purchase their books from through any of the questions I've posed.

Giveaway Contest:

And in the spirit of purchasing ebooks, my new found love of My Book Store and More (MBaM), and my silly curiosity of seeing how their unique online gift certificates work, I am going to offer up two ebooks from MBaM, to two people who leave a comment answering any of the questions I've asked, and participates in any of the polls on the left sidebar. 

The books will be the winners choice, you just tell me what book you want from the store. But I will be using their unique gift certificates by sending specific amounts. I'm being completely silly and just needing to see how this works! :)

Obviously, this is open to anyone, anywhere. Giveaway ends Wednesday, Oct. 20th.


That's all. Easy-Peasy!!


Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences!