Well the digital age is finally catching up with me in respect of books/ebooks.

I have 5 or 6 books on music studio recording (plus a ton of others I'm not too concerned about) that the time has come to get on my iPad instead of a physical copy. The issue I have is that having already paid £30+ for the physical version, it looks like I have to pay the same for the electronic version!

Anyone know of any way, short of scanning thousands of pages, of converting, or obtaining ebook versions of already owned books? I don't mind paying for this, just not full whack again!!

Cheers

 
I would be nice Damien, for sure.
 
When one orders a CD from Amazon, most purchases are associated with 'Auto-Rip', which means you can access the mp3 version of the album at no further cost.
 
I wonder how they square that if one decides to sell or give away the physical CD though. I suppose one should really also delete the online version?
 
If any book purchase from Amazon also came with a Kindle version, that would actually be really cool.
 
 

I've been slowly warming to e-books. Initially, it was just for reading on airplanes because I could load up a dozen at a time in preparation for a trip. But they're also great for reading in bed because you don't need a reading light. And with my aging eyesight it's great to be able to turn any book into a large-print version. They're cheap and nearly impossible to set fire to.
 
The biggest drawback is you can't pass them on to a friend when you're done with them. That's what keeps me going back to Half-price Books on a regular basis.
 
To answer the question: no, there is no legal or convenient way to obtain a free e-book copy of a physical book you've already bought.
 
Unless it's really old. There are tons of public-domain titles freely available, including some audio-relevant material such as "On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music" by Hermann von Helmholtz or "Principles of Orchestration" by Rimsky-Korsakov. For general reading enjoyment, Project Gutenberg has made literally thousands of titles available for download. The downside is that they're scanned images, so the text quality can't be any better than the source material.

Thanks chaps!

I suppose it's a catch 22 for publishers, as you say, buy the physical copy, sell it but retain downloaded version, copyright minefield!!

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check them out. Also found something called BitLit, not holding out much hope but I'll give it a look

I know this is a pretty lame workaround, but if you're looking to read some pages of a book while you're out and about and you don't want to carry the book, you could always snap a few quick photos of the pages and read them from the photos. Sounds ridiculous but I've done it before to catch up on a chapter on the subway. 
 
90% of the books I buy are electronic now. I don't even have a Kindle, I just read them on my phone (which is admittedly a large one). I also have all of my manual PDF's on Google Drive which I can access anytime on my phone. So if I have a 5 minute wait for a subway or whatever I just fire up a manual and do some learning. 
 
Having said that, nothing beats a real manual. For all of the convenience of e-books, the one thing I don't like about them is that you have no physical sense of where you are in the book. With a real book I find it so much easier to flick back and forwards, keeping my finger in the current page. I know you can theoretically do this with e-books by saving bookmarks and navigating to the contents menu but it's just not the same. 

I prefer "real" books because I'm usually needing a break from staring at a screen when I read one.  Plus, I keep having to change the screen protector on my phone when I add notes or highlighting... 

Perhaps it is also time to observe that an e-book can be automatically typeset from the manuscript, published and distributed for a few pennies a copy, and does not pay the author any more royalty than a physical book. A physical book has to be manufactured from purchased materials in quantities often larger than can be marketed and distributed via several layers of sellers each of whom requires a profit. Ultimately the final seller is traditionally guaranteed that unsold copies will be bought back by the publisher. A reasonable price for an e-book would be author's royalties plus a dollar. And people are complaining about the drug companies ripping us off. 

I think that we'll eventually get there, as with CDs you buy on Amazon as Steve mentioned.
 
Oddly enough, I've recently moved into the opposite direction after much reading on the laptop vie Kindle app and iBooks. Those were fine for light reading, but I don't feel quite as comfortable reading more substantial works. Though readers have gotten much better.
 
A side "benefit" of the real thing, which is silly to most I guess, is the smell of the books. It creates some kind of odd connection to the book. Picking up a book on a shelf also helps shifting modes. It's like sitting down with your plate and enjoying a fine meal, compared to just ingurgitating whatever while standing up in front of the tv... It consecrates that moment, so to speak. To me, anyway.
 
I would miss those if "real" books vanished.

sharke
I know this is a pretty lame workaround, but if you're looking to read some pages of a book while you're out and about and you don't want to carry the book, you could always snap a few quick photos of the pages and read them from the photos. Sounds ridiculous but I've done it before to catch up on a chapter on the subway. 
 
90% of the books I buy are electronic now. I don't even have a Kindle, I just read them on my phone (which is admittedly a large one). I also have all of my manual PDF's on Google Drive which I can access anytime on my phone. So if I have a 5 minute wait for a subway or whatever I just fire up a manual and do some learning. 
 
Having said that, nothing beats a real manual. For all of the convenience of e-books, the one thing I don't like about them is that you have no physical sense of where you are in the book. With a real book I find it so much easier to flick back and forwards, keeping my finger in the current page. I know you can theoretically do this with e-books by saving bookmarks and navigating to the contents menu but it's just not the same. 

 
Thanks for the tip, but I’m more just looking for the convenience at home. Two-fold really, clear out some room, but also, if I want to look up a particular EQ method, I can just pick up the iPad and ping, it’s there, instead of fighting my way through the many post-it notes I have poking out the physical book.
 

craigb
I prefer "real" books because I'm usually needing a break from staring at a screen when I read one.  Plus, I keep having to change the screen protector on my phone when I add notes or highlighting... 

 

Rain
I think that we'll eventually get there, as with CDs you buy on Amazon as Steve mentioned.
 
Oddly enough, I've recently moved into the opposite direction after much reading on the laptop vie Kindle app and iBooks. Those were fine for light reading, but I don't feel quite as comfortable reading more substantial works. Though readers have gotten much better.
 
A side "benefit" of the real thing, which is silly to most I guess, is the smell of the books. It creates some kind of odd connection to the book. Picking up a book on a shelf also helps shifting modes. It's like sitting down with your plate and enjoying a fine meal, compared to just ingurgitating whatever while standing up in front of the tv... It consecrates that moment, so to speak. To me, anyway.
 
I would miss those if "real" books vanished.

 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not fully immersed in the digital world. Just sorted through my spare room today after a room move, sorting through DVDs including a few VHS), CD’s and books. Nothing beats going out and buying a CD, reading through the booklet whilst giving it its first listen. Even have quite a bit of vinyl which is not bad for someone fresh into their 30’s! LoL
 

slartabartfast
Perhaps it is also time to observe that an e-book can be automatically typeset from the manuscript, published and distributed for a few pennies a copy, and does not pay the author any more royalty than a physical book. A physical book has to be manufactured from purchased materials in quantities often larger than can be marketed and distributed via several layers of sellers each of whom requires a profit. Ultimately the final seller is traditionally guaranteed that unsold copies will be bought back by the publisher. A reasonable price for an e-book would be author's royalties plus a dollar. And people are complaining about the drug companies ripping us off. 

 
Whilst that’s the dream, I’m sure I read somewhere that production of books is relatively cheap and there’s not much difference in production costs between physical books and ebooks, which is quite disappointing. 
 
 

Hi,
 
With my bad eyesight, the digital is not flexible enough for me, in that the page is never big enough or smaller, and I can not adjust and move the monitor or laptop every other page to adjust to my bad eyesight as needed.
 
I still read a LOT, but never off the screen and normally, for example, on articles on music and such, I have to print them and then read them slowly or ... an hour later I'm done for 3 to 4 hours with massive headaches. Such is the problem with bad eye sight, but I think that 50 years of reading on a book, has me comfortable in that are much more than a monitor, that I still have issues with ... for example ... I have to get off the computer/monitor about 30 minutes before I fo to bed, and this interferes with my enjoyment of things ... this does not happen with a book!
 
As for publishing, I'm afraid it should be all electronic here on out ... even the ship-gourds that are stealing and publishing my own father's work for their benefit, are doing it on the paper, but these are mostly academic dogs, and they are not making a whole lot, but it is more than what the family and the mom get! We're working on getting those rights so this can't be done without permission or otherwise.  Right now they are taking advantage of the 95 year old lady and doing whatever they want!