Ebooks?

[Thrawn]

I never thought I would ever need an iPod - I had a discman that played MP3 discs, after all! It was basically the same thing, and SO much cheaper. Then I got an iPod, and I couldn't believe how convenient it was.

I know eBook readers are a little bit of a different story, but I'm a fairly technology-fascinated sort of person, and with so many people saying exactly the same thing about a Kindle that I heard about an iPod, I really had to give it a try.

Plus, it lets me buy Trek books that are out of print. Out of print Trek books, on occasion, skyrocket in price enormously (I'm looking at you, Mission: Gamma), and with THAT price differential I'll break even on the Kindle in about 15 purchases.

It finally arrives later this week (they've been on backorder forever), and I can't wait to see if I like it or not.

 

[leola]

Living in the Great White North, I can't buy a Kindle. I do have a Sony eReader and I absolutely love it. It's not backlit, which apparently reduces eye strain, so it does require ambient light. It also has the ability to play MP3s to earphones and display photos, black and white only. In a perfect world, it would have wifi, display colour photos, and have speakers and a keyboard. Then it would need more tech. That's not the intent -- it's a 'book'. Or, several books. And I love it for that. Goes with me everywhere. I use it every day. Love, love, love it.

 

[DimesDan]

Living in the Great White North, I can't buy a Kindle. I do have a Sony eReader and I absolutely love it. It's not backlit, which apparently reduces eye strain, so it does require ambient light. It also has the ability to play MP3s to earphones and display photos, black and white only. In a perfect world, it would have wifi, display colour photos, and have speakers and a keyboard. Then it would need more tech. That's not the intent -- it's a 'book'. Or, several books. And I love it for that. Goes with me everywhere. I use it every day. Love, love, love it.

I already have something which has all those functions! tis called a Lap Top

 

[JWolf]

Titan: Over a Torrent Sea actually released today! The first ebook in a long time that released on time. Hurray!

S&S price for pbook - $8
S&S price for ebook - $10 (adobe, palm format)
Diesel price for ebook - $9.64 (adobe, palm format)
BooksonBoard price for ebook - $7.84 (adobe, mobi & palm format)

Also available at Fictionwise, at a good price...maybe. If you can figure out their micropay/rebate silliness.

Not available at eReader.com (nor any other recent Trek ebooks). Why is that site even still around?

All of you ebook readers out there...speak with your dollars.

Fictionwise has Star Trek" Titan: Ove a Torrent Sea for $9.99 or $8.49 (club price) with a 55% micropay rebate. But the only format they have is eReader. Micropay is where you this 55% goes and can then use it to purchase eBooks hat are less then 35% discounted. So say you are a club member, you will be getting $4.67 back into your micropay account. Then you find an eBook for say $4.00, you can then use your micropay to buy it. without outlaying even more cash.

CyberRead has it for $9.99 with a discount of 25$ for a total of $7.49 if you use the code PAYPAL until March 15. But, if you review any eBook at CyberRead, they'll send you a 40% discount code whoch would make it $5.99. It's in Mobipocket format.

Living in the Great White North, I can't buy a Kindle. I do have a Sony eReader and I absolutely love it. It's not backlit, which apparently reduces eye strain, so it does require ambient light. It also has the ability to play MP3s to earphones and display photos, black and white only. In a perfect world, it would have wifi, display colour photos, and have speakers and a keyboard. Then it would need more tech. That's not the intent -- it's a 'book'. Or, several books. And I love it for that. Goes with me everywhere. I use it every day. Love, love, love it.

I already have something which has all those functions! tis called a Lap Top

I'd like to see you whip out your laptop while on public transportation and start to read a book. Go on, do it. Would you mind lugging this laptop around with you say if you had a doctor appointment so you could read while in the waiting room? While a laptop is nice, it's too big, too heavy, too bulky, and not enough battery life.

 

[JWolf]

I was sorta thinking about getting into ebooks, but reading this thread has not thrilled me. Ebooks cost more than paperbacks? How does that make any sense?

Simon & Schuster used to have reasonable eBook prices. But recently they've decided to make the list price on most eBooks $9.99 which is a higher price then the MMPB. What is looks like to me is that S&S want to do away with eBooks and raising the prices to ridiculous amounts will do just that.

I know eBook readers are a little bit of a different story, but I'm a fairly technology-fascinated sort of person, and with so many people saying exactly the same thing about a Kindle that I heard about an iPod, I really had to give it a try.

Plus, it lets me buy Trek books that are out of print. Out of print Trek books, on occasion, skyrocket in price enormously (I'm looking at you, Mission: Gamma), and with THAT price differential I'll break even on the Kindle in about 15 purchases.

It finally arrives later this week (they've been on backorder forever), and I can't wait to see if I like it or not.

Actually, the backorder was on purpose by Amazon so they could stop selling the K1 and eventually switch over to the K2. Now people are actually receiving the K2. I have a Sony Reader PRS-505 and I do think you will enjoy your K2. It is nice to have lots of books to haul around without adding weight and bluk to my bag.

 

[Claudia]

About the Sony 505 - I heard that it's quite slow when it comes to "turning a page" (or loading the next page... whatever you want to call it *g*). Is that true?

Then again, why not use a netbook as ebook-reader - it's lighter and not as bulky than an ordinary notebook, you can use it as mp3-player, connect to the internet... and battery life's quite decent as well. And you get it at the same price as an ebook-reader...

 

[ATimson]

Fictionwise has Star Trek" Titan: Ove a Torrent Sea for $9.99 or $8.49 (club price) with a 55% micropay rebate. But the only format they have is eReader. Micropay is where you this 55% goes and can then use it to purchase eBooks hat are less then 35% discounted. So say you are a club member, you will be getting $4.67 back into your micropay account. Then you find an eBook for say $4.00, you can then use your micropay to buy it. without outlaying even more cash.

CyberRead has it for $9.99 with a discount of 25$ for a total of $7.49 if you use the code PAYPAL until March 15. But, if you review any eBook at CyberRead, they'll send you a 40% discount code whoch would make it $5.99. It's in Mobipocket format.

But any of those would tell S&S that $10 books will sell, which is a message I refuse to give. I don't doubt they'll draw the wrong conclusions from the drop in sales, much like they refused to realize that the drop in SCE readership came from the fact that they doubled the price, but I refuse to bend over for them again.

 

[sparky99]

JWolf - Thanks for explaining how various micropay and rebates work. Personally, I'm all about ease and find that it's too much work figuring out the best deals over the long term. I just look for the best price on what I want to buy right now. That is turning out more & more to be BooksonBoard.com (BTW... not a spokesperson).

Turns out they have a reward program of a similar type too. Some book purchases earn you reward dollars that you can use towards your next purchase.

Someone mentioned that they dislike a backlit screen, that it is hard on the eyes. With the eReader software you can set the page color to black and the text as white or light gray and it is very easy on the eyes.

And the idea of laying down in bed at night with a laptop or a netbook seems kind of hard. You can't beat the portability of a PDA that has ALL of your entertainment needs built in. Not that I'm trying to get anyone to buy one, which is actually sort of difficult these days as nearly all PDAs are phones as well.

 

[Thrawn]

I was sorta thinking about getting into ebooks, but reading this thread has not thrilled me. Ebooks cost more than paperbacks? How does that make any sense?

Simon & Schuster used to have reasonable eBook prices. But recently they've decided to make the list price on most eBooks $9.99 which is a higher price then the MMPB. What is looks like to me is that S&S want to do away with eBooks and raising the prices to ridiculous amounts will do just that.

I know eBook readers are a little bit of a different story, but I'm a fairly technology-fascinated sort of person, and with so many people saying exactly the same thing about a Kindle that I heard about an iPod, I really had to give it a try.

Plus, it lets me buy Trek books that are out of print. Out of print Trek books, on occasion, skyrocket in price enormously (I'm looking at you, Mission: Gamma), and with THAT price differential I'll break even on the Kindle in about 15 purchases.

It finally arrives later this week (they've been on backorder forever), and I can't wait to see if I like it or not.

Actually, the backorder was on purpose by Amazon so they could stop selling the K1 and eventually switch over to the K2. Now people are actually receiving the K2. I have a Sony Reader PRS-505 and I do think you will enjoy your K2. It is nice to have lots of books to haul around without adding weight and bluk to my bag.

No, I know why it happened; didn't change the fact that it took 3 months for my order to be processed

It arrived yesterday; I've only played around with it a little so far, but I'm happy with what I've seen.


RANDOM NERDY QUESTION: Does anyone have any idea if "locations" correspond mathematically to word count? Or, if anyone has the Destiny books downloaded, would you mind telling me how many locations each book has? I know no one in the universe cares about this aside from me, but I've always thought very mathematically, and it'd make me happy to know.

 

[JWolf]

About the Sony 505 - I heard that it's quite slow when it comes to "turning a page" (or loading the next page... whatever you want to call it *g*). Is that true?

Then again, why not use a netbook as ebook-reader - it's lighter and not as bulky than an ordinary notebook, you can use it as mp3-player, connect to the internet... and battery life's quite decent as well. And you get it at the same price as an ebook-reader...

Actually, the page turning is quite fast. It's no slower then you turning the page yourself and sometimes faster as we don't always turn pages all that fast. The screen is not backlit which a lot of people prefer.

As for using a netbook, the netbook's battery is measured in hours, the 505's can be ready for a lot longer then that. I took my 505 on vacation recently and was able to read longer (without need for a charge) then I could have had I had a netbook. Also, the form factor of the 505 is easier to hold and easier to carry around. And, when you are laying in bed, the 505 is a lot easier to hold comfortably.

But any of those would tell S&S that $10 books will sell, which is a message I refuse to give. I don't doubt they'll draw the wrong conclusions from the drop in sales, much like they refused to realize that the drop in SCE readership came from the fact that they doubled the price, but I refuse to bend over for them again.

I will not purchase a Star Trek eBook for $9.99. But when it was 50% off, that was when the price became reasonable enough to purchase. Amazon's price on the S&S eBooks is $7.99 which is the same as the MMPB without any discounts.

The message S&S is giving to people who do want to read eBooks is "We don't want you as a customer. Go away!"

RANDOM NERDY QUESTION: Does anyone have any idea if "locations" correspond mathematically to word count? Or, if anyone has the Destiny books downloaded, would you mind telling me how many locations each book has? I know no one in the universe cares about this aside from me, but I've always thought very mathematically, and it'd make me happy to know.

I think that location corresponts to size and not word count as Mobipocket does thing in 64k blocks. And AZW is just Mobipocket with a slightly different DRM.

 

[Thrawn]

RANDOM NERDY QUESTION: Does anyone have any idea if "locations" correspond mathematically to word count? Or, if anyone has the Destiny books downloaded, would you mind telling me how many locations each book has? I know no one in the universe cares about this aside from me, but I've always thought very mathematically, and it'd make me happy to know.

I think that location corresponts to size and not word count as Mobipocket does thing in 64k blocks. And AZW is just Mobipocket with a slightly different DRM.

Huh, ok. I think it'd still make a pretty good approximation.

Does anyone have the Destiny books downloaded? I know the wordcounts of those.

 

[MarciaCat]

I will not purchase a Star Trek eBook for $9.99. But when it was 50% off, that was when the price became reasonable enough to purchase. Amazon's price on the S&S eBooks is $7.99 which is the same as the MMPB without any discounts.

The message S&S is giving to people who do want to read eBooks is "We don't want you as a customer. Go away!"

I wrote to S&S again today sending my message through both of their online customer service forms. I added "Torrent" to the list, and pointed out that I'm not the only one curious/furious over their lack of LIT format and the prices; I gave them links to this thread and similar ones at MobileRead so they could see for themselves.

I also let them know how displeased I am (I'm afraid I all caps yelled it. ) over the lack of response to my previous queries.

I would be happy to purchase the eReader version of "Torrent" that Fictionwise has at 50% off if only I was capable of doing what needs to be done in order to use it on my Sony Reader. Heck, the same goes for "Shards & Shadows"!

 

[JWolf]

If anyone wants to give S&S a phone call instead of email that may end up going noplace, here's the link to a bunch of numbers for them. I'm going to try Customer Service first.

http://www.simonandschuster.net/content/feature.cfm?feature_id=470&tab=32

 

[tmclough]

The worst part about ebook prices being the same as or higher than pbooks, is that the ebooks are DRMed.

What would you people think if ebooks cost the same as pbooks, but were DRM free?

 

[ATimson]

What would you people think if ebooks cost the same as pbooks, but were DRM free?

I can remove DRM from any of the formats I choose to buy, so that's not an overly compelling argument to me. I think they'd be better off if, rather than matching the print price, adopting a fixed price regardless of hardcover/paperback; everything from Baen (well, everything at release, they charge you more for the ARCs) is $6 when it comes out.

 

[Thrawn]

I don't know if this is a good place to ask this, but I have a bunch of .lit files that are NOT DRM-ed (so hopefully this doesn't conflict with that policy), but I'm having some trouble making them convert to a format Kindle can deal with. If I use ABC Lit Converter, all of the files come out with formatting missing (no italics, bold, etc), and if I use LitConverter (also called c-lit), it makes a bunch of linked HTML files that won't convert if I email them to amazon.

Does anyone know how to solve this problem? I just want to make an html, pdf, or doc file formatted correctly from a lit file so I can send it to my Kindle. Online forum searches have not been helpful, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.


Edit: of course, not 30 seconds after I post this, I figure it out. I have the best sense of timing ever.

Carry on.

 

[MarciaCat]

I don't know the answer, but I would suggest you go to the MobileRead forums. There will be someone there who could answer it. They're quite helpful over there; they've helped me many times!

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'd love to get my hands on Vanguard #3: Reap the Whirlwind - but it's not available as PB (at least not at a reasonable price, not even 2nd hand)

Are you sure it's out of print already?

That'll still be shelf stock in many bookshops. Amazon second hand market has 17 Used & new from $3.00. Many sellers send internationally, including that first one. Some prices are a bit inflated, though.

 

[Claudia]

Problem is the reasonable price - and I'm not willing to pay a fortune for shipping alone, as is the case when I order from amazon.com...

 

[JWolf]

I don't know if this is a good place to ask this, but I have a bunch of .lit files that are NOT DRM-ed (so hopefully this doesn't conflict with that policy), but I'm having some trouble making them convert to a format Kindle can deal with. If I use ABC Lit Converter, all of the files come out with formatting missing (no italics, bold, etc), and if I use LitConverter (also called c-lit), it makes a bunch of linked HTML files that won't convert if I email them to amazon.

Does anyone know how to solve this problem? I just want to make an html, pdf, or doc file formatted correctly from a lit file so I can send it to my Kindle. Online forum searches have not been helpful, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.


Edit: of course, not 30 seconds after I post this, I figure it out. I have the best sense of timing ever.

Carry on.

I don't know how you figured it out, but Calibre works very well and easily to convert those LIT into Mobipocket using any2mobi.