The problem we ran into with Sony Readers was with ebooks checked out of the library, which was very important to my wife. There are two formats, PDF and ePub. If you have PDF’s and then add ePubs it locks up your PDF’s and vice versa. Apparently the only way to unlock them is to redownload them. The library limits you to 3 downloads per checkout, and besides it is a pain in the ass. When you check Sony’s support site for this, they say it is a known issue and their advice is to make sure you only have one format on at a time.
I returned the Reader and got her a nook. It allows library books and she enjoys the ability to buy books from work or in the van as we travel.
FUCKING A HELL YES to having tags on books like MP3s have, that can be edited for author/title/year/etc. and custom sorted, and for being able to create folders. GOD DAMN the Kindle UI is a piece of shit pain in the ass.
I have not tried to download a library file as of yet. I do not use the Sony software to manage my ebooks. I use Calibre, which may be a way around this problem. Calibre will allow you to convert a file from one format to another.
You don’t even have to strip the DRM from the books to edit the tags – Mobi2Mobi and the Mobi2Mobi GUI will let you edit the author, title, cover image, etc. even on a DRM-protected book. I almost always have to do that with Kindle and other Mobipocket books because they stupidly put the author’s name in as “Firstname Lastname” when it’s obvious to anybody that it should be “Lastname, Firstname” for proper sorting.
I definitely DON’T want them to quit coming out with apps for other platforms – in particular, I want them to finish up the damn Windows Mobile app so I can read my Topaz books on my cell phones. They’ve already got a Mobipocket reader to work from; how hard can it be to come out with a frickin’ Kindle for Windows Mobile app???
Oh, and I want them to clean Apple’s iBook store’s clock, just because it seems like Apple coming out with the iPad and the iBook store has triggered this flood of raised prices and “agency” books on the Kindle. I know the truth is more complicated than that, but it irritates me nevertheless.
Well, there were a zillion ebook retailers before Amazon came out with the Kindle, and Fictionwise seemed to be moving a lot of books. Amazon only had a “monopoly” on selling books cheaply and making them very easy for the end user to obtain and read. Now, the breaking of their “monopoly” has resulted in poorer selection and higher prices for the consumer. How’s that a good thing?
First of all, as you admitted in your earlier post (and yet blithely hand-waved away), the changing structure of ebook selling is the result of a variety of factors, rather than a simplistic effect of the iPad’s release.
Amazon became the Wal-Mart of ebook sales, forming an effective monopsony and giving publishers little choice except to cave in to its price structure or not sell their books. Now, with more outlets, and thus more competition for the publishers’ books, the prices are more likely to reflect competitive market forces rather simply getting beaten down by Amazon’s monopsony power. Over time, some books will probably get cheaper, and others might get more expensive, as the overall market shifts in line with the new players.
Also, given the current state of some sectors of the publishing industry, a slight increase in price for the consumer might actually result in better long-term health for the industry as a whole, and also in better selection for readers in the long run. It’s all very well to whine about wanting your ebooks for a few bucks each, but the fact is that, even at low prices, some books won’t sell enough to justify their publication.
For me, a healthy and vigorous intellectual culture is best served by an industry where publishers don’t have to focus only on best-selling crap to make a living, and where they can publish small-run books in the knowledge that those books will pay their way. If a few publishers put their foot down with Amazon and tell them, “If you want to sell our books, you need to abide by the prices we set,” i have no problem with that. Nor will i be crying too many tears for Amazon, given some of the strictures that they place on companies that do business with them. One Doper actually started a thread about the issue a few years back.
I’m sure some books won’t sell enough to justify their publication even at low prices. But JA Konrath’s sales figures seem to indicate that low-priced ebooks sell a LOT more than higher-priced ebooks. Don’t know if his experience is typical, though…
Frankly, I like the way Baen’s site does it best: they charge a premium for digital ARCs, so those of us who want to read the books as soon as possible can pay extra for the privilege. Then the price goes down when the book actually comes out, and the price drops off to paperback-ish level after a while.
Meanwhile, other publishers have been setting prices of $24.95 apiece for ebooks for years.
I agree. What I don’t see is how Amazon’s old method was causing a problem with this, since they were paying whatever publishers charged them and then reselling the books for their $9.99 for the super-popular books, and often significantly more for less popular books, more in line with what the publishers were charging. Seems a lot like publishers having no faith in ebooks and shooting themselves in the foot, to me. And now the prices on ebooks have gone up on a significant number of books. Are they going to make more money by raising prices? I doubt it … maybe from hopeless book junkies like me, but even then I don’t know.
