MobileRead January 2012 Mobile Read Book Club Run-Off Vote

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

But nobody said it should!!! * sigh* How do these things even start. At no point did anybody say that the book has to be available everywhere.

Then I'll ask again. If the books are not required to be available everywhere *why* is the effort being made to provide a list of sites. Surely the folks who live in Australia, Canada, Sweden, England, etc. know where to purchase ebooks locally, so that shouldn't need a list for them. I have no intention of search worldwide to make sure any book I nominate is available worldwide. That leaves the mods or interested parties to do the searches and then append that information to the nominations. I seriously do not see the need. If you're interested in reading the *book*, you should vote for the *book*. If it's not available as an ebook at your location, I'm pretty sure you can find it in another format. Unfortunately, availability versus quality is generally a kiss of death for the voting process.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I still don't see the harm in adding the links to the post. And where was it said that an ebook had to be available everywhere? The only suggestion that seemed to come even close to that was Jon's saying:



I think most of us would agree that that finding a book available everywhere would be pretty impossible.

As to Jon's suggestion, I said that I liked it. If, however, having a rule about books being available in ebook format in those three regions completely diminishes the nomination process, then I will withdraw my support of that suggestion.

But I think the links to should stay.

And my suggestion about availability was shot down and that's OK.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

But nobody said it should!!! * sigh* How do these things even start. At no point did anybody say that the book has to be available everywhere.

Nobody said I cannot nominate a book that's not an eBook in the USA. This just sounds so like the Republicans and Obama's health care that it's not funny.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Then I'll ask again. If the books are not required to be available everywhere *why* is the effort being made to provide a list of sites. Surely the folks who live in Australia, Canada, Sweden, England, etc. know where to purchase ebooks locally, so that shouldn't need a list for them. I have no intention of search worldwide to make sure any book I nominate is available worldwide. That leaves the mods or interested parties to do the searches and then append that information to the nominations. I seriously do not see the need. If you're interested in reading the *book*, you should vote for the *book*. If it's not available as an ebook at your location, I'm pretty sure you can find it in another format. Unfortunately, availability versus quality is generally a kiss of death for the voting process.

I've said the idea came because of Black Rain. It won as January's book. Now we are getting a number of posts that it's not available as an eBook. I cannot say how many of these people voted for it. But if they know ahead of time it's not available in the format they want, it won't be voted for.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Then I'll ask again. If the books are not required to be available everywhere *why* is the effort being made to provide a list of sites. Surely the folks who live in Australia, Canada, Sweden, England, etc. know where to purchase ebooks locally, so that shouldn't need a list for them. I have no intention of search worldwide to make sure any book I nominate is available worldwide. That leaves the mods or interested parties to do the searches and then append that information to the nominations. I seriously do not see the need. If you're interested in reading the *book*, you should vote for the *book*. If it's not available as an ebook at your location, I'm pretty sure you can find it in another format. Unfortunately, availability versus quality is generally a kiss of death for the voting process.

We have been having an entire discussion about this, previous to your post, which has lead us to where we are. Suffice it to say: If you don't like the links, you don't have to use them.

[Nyssa]

Now that that is over, and so that I am clear:

Tom, is it a rule or is it an understanding that the book should be available as an ebook somewhere? Or, is ebook availability no longer necessary for consideration?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Now that that is over, and so that I am clear:

Tom, is it a rule or is it an understanding that the book should be available as an ebook somewhere? Or, is ebook availability no longer necessary for consideration?

I'm not Tom... but it's gotta be an eBook... the nomination thread text should mention this. Although it looks like it doesn't currently.

BOb

[sun surfer]

We had a short conversation on that about a half a year or so ago. I think pilotbob said that it had to be available as an ebook either in the U.S. or Canada to be eligible, so a book would be ineligible only if it were available in neither of the two.

I think the logic was something about the U.S. being where most of our members are from while Canada is where this site originates from. My memory of it is a bit hazy but that's my recollection of it.

ETA - I see pilotbob posted above me. Do you recall that, pilotbob? Actually, what you are saying now sounds correct, that it just has to be available as an ebook somewhere. Maybe someone else just proposed the U.S./Canada thing but it wasn't the actual rule.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Now that that is over, and so that I am clear:

Tom, is it a rule or is it an understanding that the book should be available as an ebook somewhere? Or, is ebook availability no longer necessary for consideration?

It has always been that a nominated book has to be a legal eBook in at least one eBook store at the time of nomination. A Canticle for Lebowitz was available in one store as a large print Mobipocket version. Now since that store no longer sells Mobipocket, that books could not be nominated as it's not available anyplace as a legal eBook.

I did not know of the USA/Canada restriction though.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I did not know of the USA/Canada restriction though.

I think that just may have been a mistake on my part. I think someone proposed that with the logic I posted but it wasn't ever a rule. Now that pilotbob has posted, I think he made clear then that as long as it's an ebook somewhere it's acceptable, as you say.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I'm not Tom... but it's gotta be an eBook... the nomination thread text should mention this. Although it looks like it doesn't currently.

BOb

Originally Posted by sun surfer

We had a short conversation on that about a half a year or so ago. I think pilotbob said that it had to be available as an ebook either in the U.S. or Canada to be eligible, so a book would be ineligible only if it were available in neither of the two.

I think the logic was something about the U.S. being where most of our members are from while Canada is where this site originates from. My memory of it is a bit hazy but that's my recollection of it.

ETA - I see pilotbob posted above me. Do you recall that, pilotbob? Actually, what you are saying now sounds correct, that it just has to be available as an ebook somewhere. Maybe someone else just proposed the U.S./Canada thing but it wasn't the actual rule.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It has always been that a nominated book has to be a legal eBook in at least one eBook store at the time of nomination. A Canticle for Lebowitz was available in one store as a large print Mobipocket version. Now since that store no longer sells Mobipocket, that books could not be nominated as it's not available anyplace as a legal eBook.

I did not know of the USA/Canada restriction though.

Thank you all.

It having to be an ebook somewhere makes sense!! I would also understand the USA/Canada stipulation, if it were in place.

[Asawi]

Well, I decided to spend a little money and buy Black Rain. I think my daughter will want to read it as well, and I spend so little on books nowadays with e-libraries providing most of my reads.
Put my (real) US address in, found a 35% discount code and payed $5.84 at Kobo.
If I don't have my US address in my profile and log in at Kobo the book doesn't even show up when searching due to georestrictions.
I could have waited for my library to reopen Jan 16th and get a hardcopy, but I really, REALLY, prefer ebook reading.

[WT Sharpe]

Just to be very clear, no one is asked to do anything differently when nominating a book. No rules have been changed. No one is saying that a ebook has to be available in every country. Here is the additional wording which will appear in the second post of the nominating thread, along with a tally of the nominated books:

Wondering if a particular book is available in your country? The following spoiler contains a list of bookstores outside the United States you can search. If you don't see a bookstore on this list for your country, find one that is, sent me the link via PM, and I'll add it to the list. In addition, if members let me know that an ebook is unavailable in a particular geographic location, I'll note it in this post, right beside the Inkmesh search for that particular book.

Spoiler:

Australian
Angus Robertson
Booktopia
Borders
Dymocks
Google

Canada
Amazon. Make sure you are logged out. Then go to the Kindle Store. Search for a book. After the search results come up, in the upper right corner of the screen, change the country to Canada and search away.
Google
Sony eBookstore (Upper right corner switch to/from US/CA)

UK
BooksOnBoard (In the upper right corner is a way to switch to the UK store)
Amazon
Google
Waterstones
WH Smith

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just to be very clear, no one is asked to do anything differently when nominating a book. No rules have been changed. No one is saying that a ebook has to be available in every country. Here is the additional wording which will appear in the second post of the nominating thread, along with a tally of the nominated books:

Change "sent to "send me the link". Other than that it looks great!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Change "sent to "send me the link". Other than that it looks great!

Thanks. The wife was rushing me out the door while I was writing that, so at least I've got an excuse for that typo!