They have two right now, actually.
Now through April 3, when you purchase Micropay dollars at Fictionwise, you will receive a 5% Micropay Rebate bonus! Buywise Members will receive a 10% bonus when buying Micropay dollars! For example, if you purchase $20 of Micropay, an extra $1 is added to your Micropay account (Buywise members would receive an extra $2). This is limited to a purchase of up to $250 of Micropay (that's 40 five-dollar Micropay units).
Note the error in math.


I also noticed that Fictionwise is offering Arthur Clarke's ebooks with a 50% Micropay rebate. Sweet.
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/arthurcclarkeeBooks.htm?cache

I also noticed that Fictionwise is offering Arthur Clarke's ebooks with a 50% Micropay rebate. Sweet.


Can someone explain how this micropay thing works? ARe they seperate from Fictionwise? Is it sort of like buying Jefferey $s or Microsoft points?

They talk about all these rebates and stuff on the site, but don't really explain what micropay is.

BOb

It's basically store credit, like buying a gift card at Wal-mart. In this case, Fictionwise is saying: after you buy this $6 ebook, we'll put a $3 credit in your account.

FWIW, I did pick up $22 worth of Micropay scratch for $20 yesterday. While their PR people may have trouble with math, apparently their servers are safe from them.

I don't know if it's been posted or not but Fictionwise is having a big sale until April 2, 2008 (two days only). 50% Micropay rebates on everything, buywise club discount still applies.

Can someone explain how this micropay thing works? ARe they seperate from Fictionwise? Is it sort of like buying Jefferey $s or Microsoft points?

They talk about all these rebates and stuff on the site, but don't really explain what micropay is.

BOb

Basically, Micropay is like having a gift card to a specific store. In this case Fictionwise. So when you get a Micropay rebate on your eBook, you can then use that credit to purchzase other eBooks from Fictionwise. 100% Micropay rebates mean you get the full cost back as credit towords other eBooks. It's a pretty good system.

I know about Micropay.

I am saying that Fictionwise is giving back 50% Micropay rebates on each and every title today and tomorrow (April 2). Applies on all ebooks (membership, magazines not included).

This is not an April Fool's Joke. I bought a bundle of books, so I can confirm it.

I just think the cover for this Thieves Word book is just too funny.

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook3090.htm?cache

Basically, Micropay is like having a gift card to a specific store. In this case Fictionwise. So when you get a Micropay rebate on your eBook, you can then use that credit to purchzase other eBooks from Fictionwise. 100% Micropay rebates mean you get the full cost back as credit towords other eBooks. It's a pretty good system.

Ok, but when I buy something, am I paying for the book, or am I paying for some type of "micropay" dollars/units, then using that to buy the book? Do you have to "buy" micropay units up front, then buy books with the micropay credit? How does it work? Still not sure.

BOb

Ok, but when I buy something, am I paying for the book, or am I paying for some type of "micropay" dollars/units, then using that to buy the book? Do you have to "buy" micropay units up front, then buy books with the micropay credit? How does it work? Still not sure.

BOb

You pay the regular price for the book (or club price if you join the club).

For whatever amount you buy, an amount equal to 50% is deposited in your micropay account which is like store credit. You can then later use the micropay 'money' to buy subsequent books.


For the current sale you must use a credit card or PayPal to purchase books and get the 50% micropay back.

I bought $51 and change in books and got around $26 micropay credit. Not a bad deal. Books were cheaper than the Kindle store during this sale. And you can get lit format and remove the drm if you feel the urge.

YAnd you can get lit format and remove the drm if you feel the urge.

... or mobi or ereader and remove the drm if you feel the urge.

Ok, but when I buy something, am I paying for the book, or am I paying for some type of "micropay" dollars/units, then using that to buy the book? Do you have to "buy" micropay units up front, then buy books with the micropay credit? How does it work? Still not sure.

BOb
You pay for the entire eBook up front. Then 50% goes into your micropay account. So if you but a $10 eBook durin the sale, you get $5 back. it's like a store gift card. You can then spend the $5 on another eBook after the sale. If you buy enough eBooks, you can get basically free eBooks.

Fictionwise always have 100% micropay rebate offers on a few books - ie buy the book (for cash) and get a micropay credit of the entire cost of the books. Effectively it's a "two books for the price of one" offer.

You pay the regular price for the book (or club price if you join the club).

For whatever amount you buy, an amount equal to 50% is deposited in your micropay account which is like store credit. You can then later use the micropay 'money' to buy subsequent books.


Great, got it now, thanks!

BOb

Why oh why did I come here? I've just blown my book budget for the next six months.

I'm in a similar position... I "paid off" my new book club membership last night for an all up cost of about $200. Ow! I had to resist the temptation to just buy entire series or authors though. But I think I'm going to increase my budget on this, and try to get more of my collection electronically.

It does amuse me that I only buy cracked "secure" formats because I don't want to be saddled with DRM. But it is nice to be able to buy newer works (and some older ones). I think I'm going to try to automate the process a bit more so I can do less clicking and more reading.

I'm in a similar position... I "paid off" my new book club membership last night for an all up cost of about $200. Ow!
wow $200... how many books did you get in total? And how much time do you need to read them? Do you have any other hobbies? :D :thumbsup:

31 books later & my book budget's shot for a bit.

Do they have the store-wide type sales often?

wow $200... how many books did you get in total? And how much time do you need to read them? Do you have any other hobbies?

I got three or four magazine issues, a couple of collections and about 15 books IIRC. Plus a few freebies and short stories.

One of my problems is that I read quite fast. I'm still only getting about 30k words/hour out of the Sony, I think it's a combination of small screen and slow page turns[1]. But that does mean that a 90kw novel only takes about three hours. I've given up trying to train myself to forget books, now I just leave them for a year or two before I re-read them. The problem with that is that library books wear out and vanish but books that I buy stack up (two to four novels a week, 52 weeks a year, two year's worth of reading... more than 200kg of books).

One irritation I'm finding with books that I scan and OCR is that I remember much of what I've proof-read so that the final book is half-familiar. But poorly proofread books annoy me a lot (so even many bought works are hard to read... hmm, maybe that also helps account for my slower reading on the liseuse).

I have lots of other hobbies, but I like to read for an hour or so before I go to sleep each night. www.moz.geek.nz/mozbike for example.

[1] (edit) I'm using a 9pt font in LibPRS I think, so I get about 27 lines per page. This is why I'm so intent on getting a double page reader or one with a bigger screen. I might have to drop another point in text size.

I just purchased the last 4 books in the Star Trek Alings & Arrows mini-series. I now have about $25-$26 in my Micropay account.

Ok, but when I buy something, am I paying for the book, or am I paying for some type of "micropay" dollars/units, then using that to buy the book? Do you have to "buy" micropay units up front, then buy books with the micropay credit? How does it work? Still not sure.

BOb

Checked the thread, and I don't think anyone else has actually answered this.

Micropay is a system to get around credit card transaction fees. If you browse Fictionwise, you will see that many "books" are actually individual short stories, and their price is correspondingly low. Micropay allows you to pay a large amount into your account, and incur a visa fee once. Then when inspiration strikes, you can spend small amounts without worrying about "minimum charges" on the credit card.

However, once you have such an account set up, Fictionwise will do things that can credit this account, because they don't have to process an actual transaction. They frequently have a single special (sometimes individually chosen for you if you're a club member) whereby you buy a new book with a credit transaction (and it's typically a novel priced on the higher end of mmpb prices), then the amount of that credit transaction is ALSO added to your micropay account.

In the past, I've avoided these offers, because they invariably are for the secure formats. Others regularly use them and break the drm, and I suppose I will eventually join the crowd. Until then I just buy multi-format (unencrypted) versions.

Micropay is a system to get around credit card transaction fees.

Specifically, the credit card fee charged to the retailer (Fictionwise in this case) is decided by a formula like "30 cents plus 3% of the total value", which for a small transaction gets ugly for both sides - you buy a 50 cent story and get charged 80 cents (or Fictionwise charge you 50 cents and only get to keep 20 cents). Either way it's not good.

This, incidentally, is why people like me carry AmEx cards. AmEx have the highest transaction fees of any readily available card so they're an excellent way to punish retailers who have an effective monopoly. Since I don't actually have that problem ery often I don't bother, but when I was regularly forced to buy overpriced food and fuel from local monopolists, I used one for exactly this reason.

Australia is moving towards making it mandatory to disclose credit card fees and making it legal to pass those on to customers. The major cards are deeply angry about this because their contracts forbid both actions. The reasons are hopefully obvious.

Yes. Most books on Promo at Fictionwise, especially those with 100% Micropay rebates had to be paid with credit card. That's because once money is left in the Micropay account, it's like deferred sales. So if you buy using Micropay, Fictionwise don't get new money. If you have plenty of Micropay credits, you sometimes feel compelled to spend them, just like if you have lots of loose change in your pocket.

One of my problems is that I read quite fast. I'm still only getting about 30k words/hour out of the Sony, I think it's a combination of small screen and slow page turns[1]. But that does mean that a 90kw novel only takes about three hours. I've given up trying to train myself to forget books, now I just leave them for a year or two before I re-read them. The problem with that is that library books wear out and vanish but books that I buy stack up (two to four novels a week, 52 weeks a year, two year's worth of reading... more than 200kg of books).
Have you heard of their library program LibWise? I think it could save you a lot of money to just borrow books from their library (discussion in this thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22051)).

But on the other hand you have your Micropay credit now ;)

This, incidentally, is why people like me carry AmEx cards. AmEx have the highest transaction fees of any readily available card so they're an excellent way to punish retailers who have an effective monopoly. Since I don't actually have that problem ery often I don't bother, but when I was regularly forced to buy overpriced food and fuel from local monopolists, I used one for exactly this reason.


That's also why:

a) It's comparatively rare to find shops in Europe who accept AmEx. MasterCard and Visa are pretty much universal; AmEx is only widely accepted by hotels and the fancier restaurants. I'm a credit-card merchant myself and I don't accept AmEx - it's too expensive.

b) Most European retailers have a minimum transaction limit below which they won't accept credit cards - generally around the £5 / €10 mark.

b) Most European retailers have a minimum transaction limit below which they won't accept credit cards - generally around the £5 / €10 mark.

At least for VISA I do not think this is allowed. In Sweden they sometimes insists on a fee of maybe €1 if you buy for less than €10 but that I think is not allowed by VISA either.

At least for VISA I do not think this is allowed. In Sweden they sometimes insists on a fee of maybe €1 if you buy for less than €10 but that I think is not allowed by VISA either.

I think the rules must vary from country to country. It's certainly allowed (and very common) in the UK.

I think the rules must vary from country to country. It's certainly allowed (and very common) in the UK.

It seems I was wrong about Sweden:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32001D0782:EN:HTML


(11) The no-discrimination rule in the Visa rules prohibits merchants from adding charges to cardholders who pay with their Visa card(13). In addition, the no-discrimination rule prohibits merchants from giving consumers discounts for paying with other means of payment, such as for example cash. The rule does not apply in countries where it has been abolished by national competition authorities, that is, in the United Kingdom (for credit cards), Sweden and the Netherlands(14).

50% Micropay rebates on all ebooks at Fictionwise for credit card purchases, extended until 10AM EDT April 04, 2008, as per Fictiowise website.

Apparently, Amazon Kindle (low book prices) is making an impact on the sales of other online bookstore, that Fictionwise resorted to this 50% Micropay rebate program.

Booksonboard has taken notice too. It's now offering 30% all ebooks (straight discount, not rebate) and rewards dollars too. No sure when it would end (presumably when Fictionwise ends their promo?) - the website just says as long as the sign is up.

Too late for Booksonboard as I already bought a boatload from Fictionwise. I have enough books to last me through the year, and if I finish them before then, I still have all those Micropay credits to spend through. ;)

UPDATE: Fictionwise promo seem to have ended prematurely, as the rebates have reverted back to their previous rates.

Arf, I missed the rebates : books appeared with 50% micropay in my wishlist, but when I was ready to check-out, they were back to normal :(
But it's strange : they still announce the rebates on their front page.

It's happening to me too. I hope they fix it in time for me to get the rebate.

50% Micropay rebates on all ebooks at Fictionwise for credit card purchases, extended until 10AM EDT April 04, 2008, as per Fictiowise website.

That's nice of them, since I didn't get the E-Mail about that until 7PM yesterday and didn't get to my computer until after midnight. :smack:

Jason

I emailed Fictionwise support. Hopefully, they will rectify this. I hope they will extend it further because of this boo-boo.

I got most of what i wanted, but went back in to buy a few more works from an author I discovered (from my purchases yesterday). But the 50% rebates are not there anymore, so I left them in my wishlist for another day. No hurry, if the promo didn't come back, I might get them from booksonboard.

Have you heard of their library program LibWise?

Yeah, I was reading that. But it's MobiPocket only, and since I don't have a crack for that format it's worthless to me (Sony don't support the format).

I emailed Fictionwise support. Hopefully, they will rectify this. I hope they will extend it further because of this boo-boo.

I got most of what i wanted, but went back in to buy a few more works from an author I discovered (from my purchases yesterday). But the 50% rebates are not there anymore, so I left them in my wishlist for another day. No hurry, if the promo didn't come back, I might get them from booksonboard.

I also bought lots of books earlier in the week, but, when the sale was extended put another $50 worth in the cart.
I've also emailed support, & am desperately hoping the rebates reappear.
Unfortunately the closing time of 10AM in Eastern US is 2AM here in Australia.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to take advantage of the 5o% rebates even if they're reinsatated

That's nice of them, since I didn't get the E-Mail about that until 7PM yesterday and didn't get to my computer until after midnight. :smack:

Jason


Yeah, me too! I got the email late yesterday (april 3) saying that it WASN'T an April Fool's joke and that ALL books came with a 50% micropay rebate ending on April 2. I just chalked it off as an April fool's joke (which I am getting kind of sick of when it comes to 'reputable' internet sites).

I would have purchased a lot too!

Under 20 minutes. Good thing I left those things in my cart.

As to these types of sales not being worthy of front page news, I beg to disagree. If the deal is good enough, then it's news. If it's run-of-the-mill, or the discounter implement it every month, then it's not.

Under 20 minutes. Good thing I left those things in my cart.

As to these types of sales not being worthy of front page news, I beg to disagree. If the deal is good enough, then it's news. If it's run-of-the-mill, or the discounter implement it every month, then it's not.

Our front page is also an RSS feed. It's seen by thousands of people. I am really not comfortable with giving retailers free advertising on MobileRead's front page. I only announced that the error had been fixed because I wanted to make sure that all the people who missed out could still get the ebooks they wanted.

I don't like advertising any sale at all. Discussing it, yes.

It's a site policy issue. For a site like this, I do understand that it's almost like free advertising and since this site caters to all book sellers, it could reek of 'playing favorites.'

But as forumer, I feel that if it had been news, then a greater number of people could have benefited from a good deal. Not everyone reads posts in the forum everyday, but many do glance at RSS feeds or come to the site for news or updates.

It's a balancing act, and it's your call.

Sale at Fictionwise is now over, hope TheLongshot and all others who miss the deal yesterday was able to get in their purchases before it's gone. I will probably not buy new books using credit card for awhile. Had over $100 worth of Micropay rebates to spend. And all those books I bought would last me awhile too, I am not too prolific a reader. ;)

The sale was lost on me : I wasn't online at the right time :(
Still, they did not answer my mail. I can only hope they'll do something for losers like me :)

No reply to mine either.

Fictionwise reply received. But won't satisfy those who declined to checkout because the total didn't display the 50% Micropay rebates. If you had bought books yesterday, they will credit your account with the appropriate credits. Wouldn't help FixB or others who noticed the problem and refuse to check out their purchases. Maybe they could nag Fictionwise further until they relent...

BTW, matching Fictionwise, Booksonboard had withdraw the 30% off across-the-board promotion as well.

Oh, well, too bad. Doesn't really matter : I still have lots of ebooks to read :)

Sale at Fictionwise is now over, hope TheLongshot and all others who miss the deal yesterday was able to get in their purchases before it's gone. I will probably not buy new books using credit card for awhile. Had over $100 worth of Micropay rebates to spend. And all those books I bought would last me awhile too, I am not too prolific a reader. ;)

Yeah, I got my books this morning. Between that and all the freebies that I have gotten, it should last me a while.

Jason

On that note.. is Fictionwise good with its recommendations? I mean, are things as recommended there seem to be true recommendations? I only ask this because one of the sites I used to visit a while back (had nothing to do with ebooks, mind) would cook the books on their recommendations.. and I want to make sure.

Redcard : do you mean the reader's reating ? I think it can be quite useful.
If you meant the Top Ebooks, Daily Specials, etc., they are more linked to sales than to the quality of the books.

As for the subject of the topic : I got a pretty nice reply from them asking me to proceed to the checkout I suspended, and they will manually add the rebates : I am getting still more reading material :) :)

Redcard - Do you mean the recommendations on the right hand side for some of the books? If so, I've found them to be hit or miss. I've been led to some gems and some duds. I do like the reader ratings, you have to purchase the book to rate it. Makes it hard to pad the ratings without spending $$$.

Woohoo...

Just purchased my first books from Fictionwise and converted it to LRF. Thanks to Kovid.

Unfortunately I missed the big sale.

Oh well.

Also, did you notice there is a bug on the FW site, if I log out, I can't login again without closing the browser.

Also, I would like for it to stay in https protocol all the time. Not even sure why the site lets you log in on a non-secure connection.

BOb