Dell magazines like Asimov's

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is there any way to buy previous editions from Amazon, as I believe one could (?) from FW?

Even at Fictionwise only the previous half dozen or so issues were available. I'm not sure if you can choose to start with an older issue at Amazon.

[Section8]

I'm also going to miss buying Asimov's discounted at Fictionwise. As a substitute, I see that Lightspeed can be purchased in epub directly from their website: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/ebooks/ (I haven't actually purchased it this way, so not sure about DRM). It also looks like it can be discounted at kobo.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by Section8

I'm also going to miss buying Asimov's discounted at Fictionwise. As a substitute, I see that Lightspeed can be purchased in epub directly from their website: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/ebooks/ (I haven't actually purchased it this way, so not sure about DRM). It also looks like it can be discounted at kobo.

I looked into them a couple of months back and I'm pretty sure they're DRM free. Additionally, if you purchase a lifetime subscription for $500 (iirc), you get all issues past, present, and future in multiple formats.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by hwlester

I looked into them a couple of months back and I'm pretty sure they're DRM free. Additionally, if you purchase a lifetime subscription for $500 (iirc), you get all issues past, present, and future in multiple formats.

Where did you find the lifetime subscription? It sounds interesting but I can't find it.

Graham

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Graham

Where did you find the lifetime subscription? It sounds interesting but I can't find it.

Graham

http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/su...-subscription/

[RobertJSawyer]

Harry, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America negotiated a deal with Dell Magazines that allowed them to sell back electronic issues of ANALOG and ASIMOV'S, but only going back a limited number of months (six, I believe). The reason was that the magazines only acquired (and paid for) First Serial Rights, and allowing back issues to be perpetually for sale was cutting into the authors' abilities to sell reprint rights to their stories to anthologies, and depressing the market for authors' own story collections.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/su...-subscription/

Ah, thanks. I misread hwlester's post. I thought it was referring to Asimov's. Sorry.

Graham

[hwlester]

I did a trial subscription of Analog this morning. Unfortunately, the current issue is the January/February 2013 issue I bought from FictionWise with the last coupon... As someone pointed out, it does appear to be DRM-free, although it can't be directly loaded from the Nook site. (I downloaded to the Nook for Android, then opened the epub in Sony Reader for Android to test.) Someone also pointed out that Fictionwise's files were smaller which also appears to be true (504k vs. 1.1M). Not sure where the difference is, but I suspect it's HD images for the color nooks.

[susan_cassidy]

I don't see a January/February 2013 issue of Analog at Fictionwise.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

I don't see a January/February 2013 issue of Analog at Fictionwise.

I'm wondering if they pulled it. It was posted, along with the January 2013 issue of Asimov's, just before the shutdown announcement. Both no longer seem to be on Fictionwise.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by hwlester

Someone also pointed out that Fictionwise's files were smaller which also appears to be true (504k vs. 1.1M). Not sure where the difference is, but I suspect it's HD images for the color nooks.

Well, I compared the FW version with the B&N version and other than a couple of whitespace formatting differences in the OPF file and the addition of a nook-specific tag in the OPF file, the contents are identical. The difference is that the Nook version is uncompressed while the FictionWise is compressed. So... If they are DRM-free and you want to shrink them, you can extract them and re-compress them.

[ShellShock]

I don't have any any Andriod devices but I do have an ipad, so I have done a trial subscription to Asimov's. (I'm in the UK). But I don't want to read on the ipad, as I do all my reading on my Kobo. However there does not seem to be any way to get the epub from the Nook ipad app onto my PC so I can then transfer to the Kobo. Also the subscription has not appeared in my Library on the Nook web-site, so I cannot download from there to my PC/Kobo.

In short, I'm stuck. This is so frustrating...I have bought this magazine for years, first in paper and then from FW. And now I can no longer read it! (I don't consider the ipad a reading device). Don't the publishers want my money?

Is Andriod more open than the ipad? It seems that if you download the mag to an Andriod device, you can then get the epub of the device into Windows?

[pdurrant]

There is software that extracts files from the backup of the iPad that iTunes makes

[ShellShock]

Even better, I think I have cracked it! I used Nook for PC for download the epub to my PC. On Windows 7 the epub gets saved to C:\Users\user\Documents\My Barnes & Noble eBooks\your email address. As others have said, the epub is not encrypted so it is a simple matter to transfer to the Kobo.

Nook for PC is not (yet) supported in the UK so it is not listed as one of the supported devices when you purchase the subscription on the Nook UK web site. But you can download Nook for PC from the USA site (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-pc/379003591/) and it works fine. Also the subscription is not showing in My Library on the Nook web site, but I'm not worried about that. The main thing is that it appears in the Nook for PC library (under eMagazines).

This should work out better/cheaper than FW, where they stopped subscriptions some time ago, so I have had to buy each issue individually. Now I can have a cheaper subscription from B&N.

Also the epub format I think is very similar to the format FW was selling recently. The Asimov's epub on FW changed format internally a few months ago. The old format had much better use of css and was produced by converting from another format to epub using Calibre (obvious because of all of the Calibre styles in the css). The format changed a few months ago on FW, and the same new format is being used by B&N (presumably it is the supplier who changed the formatting). Now the formatting is more "primitive" - less css, no paragraph indents, limited use of style classes and no evidence of Calibre. I always do my own styling anyway, so I can use my existing styling that I have been using when I got the mag from FW.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

Harry, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America negotiated a deal with Dell Magazines that allowed them to sell back electronic issues of ANALOG and ASIMOV'S, but only going back a limited number of months (six, I believe). The reason was that the magazines only acquired (and paid for) First Serial Rights, and allowing back issues to be perpetually for sale was cutting into the authors' abilities to sell reprint rights to their stories to anthologies, and depressing the market for authors' own story collections.

Thanks, Robert - that makes sense.