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Why do all the books that would be really (overly) convenient to read in ebook format vs physical that I want always end up being published by the shiesty as gently caress publishers who want $12+ for ebook versions of books that have been in paperback for 10-20 years. Bastards. gently caress s&s and harper collins. They were big enough bitches to deal with when I worked for a company who had them as customers. Now that they finally actually have a good chunk of their catalogs available on amazon they're even bigger cocks about it. Assholes. Amazon needs to go back to forcing them to $9.99. Seriously. I got the ebook version of Infinite Jest for $9.99, which was still overpriced all things considered, and they want $13.99 for a copy of underworld right now? A copy that I can't ever lend to anyone?! (Ok, I can, and I do strip the drm off as part of my backups, not the point.) What is this highway robbery?! The Pale King was only $14.99 to get delivered on release date. This poo poo is just getting ridiculous. Also, why the hell is there still no goddamned legal ebook copy of The Cantos of Ezra Pound. I might actually finish that damned thing if I didn't have to carry around a brick with me to do so. </rant> mith fucked around with this message at 17:32 on May 29, 2011 |
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May 29, 2011 17:29
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It's really frustrating to see out-of-print novels that aren't available in an electronic format. The one publisher I wanted to contact about it only had a Twitter account, and they asked me "What was your question?" and never got back to me after I tried to sum up my question in 140 characters.
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May 29, 2011 19:07
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Anyone have any good Kindle Singles recommendations? Got a Kindle special offer to buy $5 worth to get a $5 amazon gift card.
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May 29, 2011 22:13
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The new e-readers from Kobo and B&N have expansion slots but don't offer MP3 playback or even web browsing--why on earth would one need a 32 GB SD card for -e-books alone? It would be nice to have a e-ink reader that can at least double as an MP3 player, which only the somewhat memory strapped Kindle can do. I have commandeered my partner's Kindle, but she is getting feisty and wants it back: I have to get my own reader for the sake of our relationship. I would like something (for serious reading, which means for me no LCDs lest I get a visit from the migraine fairy) that would eliminate the need to carry yet another deceive on trips. Perhaps the old Nook's price will plummet after the touch is released... Is the new Sony tablet worth the $300 price? mith posted:Seriously. I got the ebook version of Infinite Jest for $9.99, which was still overpriced all things considered, and they want $13.99 for a copy of underworld right now? I agree that e-book pricing is nuts, but not having to lug around "Infinite Jest" justifies every penny of its electronic price. Yudo fucked around with this message at 23:36 on May 29, 2011 |
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May 29, 2011 23:25
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The original Nook classic can play MP3s and should be available pretty cheap until they run out of stock. It might be a good choice if you don't mind not having the latest eink screen.
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May 29, 2011 23:56
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mith posted:Why do all the books that would be really (overly) convenient to read in ebook format vs physical that I want always end up being published by the shiesty as gently caress publishers who want $12+ for ebook versions of books that have been in paperback for 10-20 years. Bastards. I really don't understand the agency model. It seems like the only person that actually wins out is Apple (and technically Amazon, but they supposedly don't like this model). I could be misremembering, but from what I understand, before Apple made a fuss, Amazon bought the rights to sell each copy of an e-book at 50% of retail price. Using The Pale King as an example (MSRP of the hardcover is $28) they get each copy for $14. This is probably the same for the actual hardcovers, in which case Amazon makes just over a buck for each hardcover they sell. However, in the case of ebooks, Amazon is more concerned with selling the platform (Kindle device), than the ebooks themselves, and would have allowed for a $4 loss by selling it at $9.99. From this scenario, Amazon is down $4, publisher makes $14, customer is happy. In the agency model, however, the publisher is selling the books themselves at whatever price they want, and Amazon is making a 30% commission by acting as the agent. With the same book as an example, the publisher sells it at $15. From this scenario, Amazon makes $4.50, publisher makes $10.50, customer is unhappy. As I said before, it seems to me the only person in the agency model that would be happy is Apple, because it means they don't have to take a loss on book sells, which they don't want to do because they're not using book sells to push their device. Am I completely mistaken in how this works, or are publishers somehow just that stupid?
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May 30, 2011 02:20
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Asclepius posted:I really don't understand the agency model. It seems like the only person that actually wins out is Apple (and technically Amazon, but they supposedly don't like this model).
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May 30, 2011 02:33
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BannedNewbie posted:The original Nook classic can play MP3s and should be available pretty cheap until they run out of stock. It might be a good choice if you don't mind not having the latest eink screen. I am looking for one on Ebay now, though the old Nook's MP3 player leaves much to be desired. I would go for one, nonetheless, if the price (used or new) was under $90. I'll probably end up with a Kindle or the new Nook. Its just dumb that Nook and Kobo waste their hardware's potential. The only thing that concerns me with the Nook is that I am very likely to be leaving the United States for an extended period of time.
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May 30, 2011 03:11
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Yudo posted:The only thing that concerns me with the Nook is that I am very likely to be leaving the United States for an extended period of time.
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May 30, 2011 04:11
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Asclepius posted:I could be misremembering, but from what I understand, before Apple made a fuss, Amazon bought the rights to sell each copy of an e-book at 50% of retail price. Using The Pale King as an example (MSRP of the hardcover is $28) they get each copy for $14. This is probably the same for the actual hardcovers, in which case Amazon makes just over a buck for each hardcover they sell. However, in the case of ebooks, Amazon is more concerned with selling the platform (Kindle device), than the ebooks themselves, and would have allowed for a $4 loss by selling it at $9.99. I don't think that losing money on each ebook is part of Amazon's strategy. I think its the other way around - Kindle devices are pretty cheap (and Kindle apps on all the other platforms are free) and that drives ebook sales.
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May 30, 2011 04:14
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Its not part of their long term strategy, but they want to make sure they have the market share. Kind of like how they were selling the latest Lady Gaga album for 99 cents. They're losing money, but they're hoping you'll stick with them.
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May 30, 2011 04:44
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Quantify! posted:Why is that an issue with the Nook and not the Kindle? Haven't heard of this. Barnes & Noble is not a global retailer. Currently, you can only purchase Nook books in the US and Canada. I'm teaching English in South Korea until August, and I have to use a proxy to buy my books from the Nook Store.
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May 30, 2011 07:30
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I have a Kindle 3G and I'm loving the international support. Even here in India, I can buy books and have them sync right to the device and the last page read syncing works, all for free. The only thing they seem to charge for is newspaper subscription syncing and pushing custom content to the Kindle.
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May 30, 2011 10:48
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What does sync to last page read do anyways? Is it if you have two devices (Kindle and phone, for instance) with the same book on it that you can sync the last page read over Whispernet?
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May 30, 2011 17:29
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Rabid Koala posted:Barnes & Noble is not a global retailer. Currently, you can only purchase Nook books in the US and Canada. I'm teaching English in South Korea until August, and I have to use a proxy to buy my books from the Nook Store.
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May 30, 2011 18:29
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HeroOfTheRevolution posted:What does sync to last page read do anyways? Is it if you have two devices (Kindle and phone, for instance) with the same book on it that you can sync the last page read over Whispernet? Yep! I have it on my iPad and iPhone as well as my k3 and they all sync up nicely.
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May 30, 2011 18:47
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Do all Kindle books have page numbers now for sourcing, or is it just some of them? I've got some class books that are available on Kindle, but I don't want to screw myself over citation-wise. Edit: Also, is there a way to set up Kindle to sync with Goodreads automatically? 'Cause that would be awesome.
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May 31, 2011 01:23
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Rastor posted:But since Nook supports the ePub + Adobe DRM standard you can buy ebooks from any store that offers in that format, right? Yeah. There's always that. Any books you buy from another store get put into your "Documents" folder. You can organize them into shelves. For example, I keep all the Song of Ice and Fire books under a shelf with that title so I know where to find them. It's actually a pretty neat system. The region thing also isn't a problem with things like newspapers. I had a subscription to the New York Times. I used a VPN to make the purchase. After that, the newspaper was downloaded to my Nook every morning without hassle. Once you have the book/newspaper, region issues don't apply. It's only the purchasing that's difficult, and you can avoid the matter entirely by using another ebook store. EDIT: I understand why people like the Kindle, but I absolutely love my first-gen Nook. It's sturdy as hell (I've dropped it at least three times), it feels nice in my hands, and the e-ink display is crisp and easy to read for hours on end. When this thing dies, I will definitely be buying the Nook Touch. The Nook Color can go jump off a building. Without e-ink, that device is just a lovely iPad. Rabid Koala fucked around with this message at 01:43 on May 31, 2011 |
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May 31, 2011 01:36
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Jigsaw posted:Do all Kindle books have page numbers now for sourcing, or is it just some of them? I've got some class books that are available on Kindle, but I don't want to screw myself over citation-wise. To find out whether a specific kindle book will have page numbers, look at the product description. They should all list 'Print Length', but the next item will be 'Page Numbers Source ISBN' if it has page numbers - then when referencing you can just use that ISBN/edition.
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May 31, 2011 02:48
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modig posted:"devaluing their content." Having ben on conference calls with the idiots I can confirm this is indeed their reasoning. It doesn't make sense, but it is their reasoning. They don't seem to understand that cutting out the printer/warehouse/etc/etc/etc lowers their cost so much that it already has devalued their distribution model to the point of needing revamping. It's not the consumer's fault that they refuse to lay off all the dead weight bureaucratic workers that still feed the old system. They keep up at this rate and they're doomed for a fate worse than the music industry. They're pretty much following the same "resist until people are pirating so much of our content that we can maybe bitch to congress about getting our business model legislated back into working" riaa model. quotison posted:I don't think that losing money on each ebook is part of Amazon's strategy. I think its the other way around - Kindle devices are pretty cheap (and Kindle apps on all the other platforms are free) and that drives ebook sales. No they very clearly stated they were taking a loss on the $9.99 new books. They just thought they'd be able to convince the publishers in the long run. If only they had been able to. 
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May 31, 2011 07:27
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Does anyone have any experience with putting multiple Kindles on the one account? My sister's just bought one and I'd like to be able to share my library with her and vice versa. Are there any downsides to doing this apart from the whole "someone else could theoretically use my CC" angle?
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Jun 1, 2011 04:00
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Some publishers flag their books for limited downloads, for example only to 6 different devices. But with only 2 people it is unlikely you would ever hit the limit.
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Jun 1, 2011 05:24
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You might also want to change your Sync Between Devices settings so you don't clobber each others' last page read.
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Jun 1, 2011 05:44
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Contra Duck posted:Does anyone have any experience with putting multiple Kindles on the one account? My sister's just bought one and I'd like to be able to share my library with her and vice versa. Are there any downsides to doing this apart from the whole "someone else could theoretically use my CC" angle? The biggest thing you want to make sure of when you do this is to name each kindle with something unique. (example: John's Kindle ; Jane's Kindle) Otherwise its no big deal, me and my wife both have a seperate kindle linked to one amazon account. You can manage both of them from the kindle website.
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Jun 1, 2011 14:39
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Contra Duck posted:Does anyone have any experience with putting multiple Kindles on the one account? My sister's just bought one and I'd like to be able to share my library with her and vice versa. Are there any downsides to doing this apart from the whole "someone else could theoretically use my CC" angle? My whole family does this and I haven't had any issues. I just have a GMail label for receipts for books I don't buy and have them pay me back every so often. One thing I would recommend is turning sync off just in case two people are reading the same book at the same time.
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Jun 1, 2011 15:09
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Cartoon Man posted:The biggest thing you want to make sure of when you do this is to name each kindle with something unique. (example: John's Kindle ; Jane's Kindle) Otherwise its no big deal, me and my wife both have a seperate kindle linked to one amazon account. You can manage both of them from the kindle website. Yep that's what we do. I back up all the books I buy in calibre and usually load them onto the kindle via usb, personally.
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Jun 1, 2011 16:38
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Awesome, looks like it'll work great then. Thanks for all the responses!
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Jun 2, 2011 02:21
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Amazon is doing a big 'sunshine deal' right now. Its a bunch of small and midsized publishers reducing prices from 99 cents to $2.99. Two weeks only. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000692281&tag=kwab-20 Article about the whole event here: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-amazon-kindle-sunshine-deals-help-publishers-test-e-book-pricing/
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Jun 2, 2011 15:38
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Some of the books on sale (maybe a lot, I only saw the ones I had already put on my wish list) for $2.99 on Amazon are also $2.99 on B&N. Good news for Nook owners.
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Jun 3, 2011 00:43
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Sperg Victorious posted:Amazon is doing a big 'sunshine deal' right now. Its a bunch of small and midsized publishers reducing prices from 99 cents to $2.99. Two weeks only. A lot of fiction about the Amish in the literary section. But otherwise, this is great. Some of Vonnegut's books are discounted for this deal.
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Jun 3, 2011 00:55
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Oh sweet Cat's Cradle is 3 bucks. There are two versions however; one from Rosettabooks and the other from Random House (which is 11 bucks). Is there a significant difference between the two?
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Jun 3, 2011 00:58
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GoldenNugget posted:Oh sweet Cat's Cradle is 3 bucks. There are two versions however; one from Rosettabooks and the other from Random House (which is 11 bucks). I believe the Rosetta edition has the book not just in English, but also in Greek and Hieroglyphics, in case you want to make comparisons.
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Jun 3, 2011 01:42
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On the ebook front, apparently Borders is tired of pretending.Some Teleread reader posted:Don’t know if you’re aware yet. Borders has stopped doing ebooks, The main reason this is likely to piss off Kobo/Borders faithful: Borders Rewards and Borders Bucks (whatever the hell those are) don't work with the Kobo site the way they did with the Borders-branded store, although they still claim you can use Borders gift cards.
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Jun 3, 2011 03:52
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EasyEW posted:On the ebook front, apparently Borders is tired of pretending. Wooooow, loving low-blow, Borders. I am glad I did not get a Kobo.
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Jun 3, 2011 04:10
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Somebody ought to put Borders out of their misery. They were a lovely bookseller 10 years ago, and it's taking far too long for them to completely fail.
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Jun 3, 2011 04:52
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Quantify! posted:Somebody ought to put Borders out of their misery. They were a lovely bookseller 10 years ago, and it's taking far too long for them to completely fail.  . That's more than any other bookseller I've seen (if you know of one let me know).
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Jun 3, 2011 04:57
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Doc Faustus posted:I believe the Rosetta edition has the book not just in English, but also in Greek and Hieroglyphics, in case you want to make comparisons. In other words, there is absolutely no relevant difference, which is the case for Slaughterhouse Five, as well, except for the cover. I wouldn't be surprised if both publishers had the exact same digital copy to work from. If you manage to dig through the endless Christian self-help, weight loss, autobiographies of people you don't know, and housewife romance books, there are a couple good deals, depending on what you like to read. For instance, Casino Royale and Wizard's First Rule. E: It's funny seeing Cat's Cradle on the Kindle, since it has so many chapters, which fill the location bar with marks. Asclepius fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Jun 3, 2011 |
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Jun 3, 2011 05:03
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Who doesn't want to read Rock Hard and Love Drunk Cowboy? Some of the deals are in the top 20. Hopefully that'll encourage more of these types of sales. I kinda wish some authors would do packs, like there is one author I'm reading who pumped out a 13 book series. Would be nice to be able to buy all 13 in one discounted pack. Granted, each book is like 2 or 3 dollars, but still.
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Jun 3, 2011 05:49
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GoldenNugget posted:Oh sweet Cat's Cradle is 3 bucks. There are two versions however; one from Rosettabooks and the other from Random House (which is 11 bucks). Doc Faustus posted:I believe the Rosetta edition has the book not just in English, but also in Greek and Hieroglyphics, in case you want to make comparisons. Plus, if you don't understand the book within six months, they'll give you your money back.
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Jun 3, 2011 07:03
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Asclepius posted:and Wizard's First Rule. Man, 2.99 isn't nearly enough for them to pay you to take those electrons off their hands. I dug around and found a couple things that looked a little interesting, though.
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Jun 3, 2011 07:39
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