Which ebook WebSites are best for UK Customers?

[TetraKM]

Hi All,

today I pose a question... Which ebook WebSites are best for UK Customers?

I'll expand this by saying I would like to know which allow me to buy from the UK? Without letting me get all the way to the check out and then say your credit card or otherwise is a UK one and no good

I subscribe to a few rss feeds on ebook websites as well as get the usual newslettes from fictionwise but I have never actually bought a book yet. - Catching up on my dickens at the moment (thanks for giving me them sony with my reader )


I have noted a few problems with Waterstones (epub and free flow or something along those lines) So if there no good where do I go?

Ta
TetraKM

[HarryT]

FictionWise and BooksOnBoard are both excellent. Both sell Microsoft Reader (LIT) books which can trivially be converted to Sony's LRF format.

Catching up on my dickens at the moment (thanks for giving me them sony with my reader)

I would modestly suggest that you take a look at the Dickens books that I've created and uploaded the Book Uploads forum here. I think you'll find that they are considerably better formatted than the Sony versions, not to mention the fact that they have all the original illustrations.

[jaffab]

Originally Posted by TetraKM

Hi All,

today I pose a question... Which ebook WebSites are best for UK Customers?

I'll expand this by saying I would like to know which allow me to buy from the UK? Without letting me get all the way to the check out and then say your credit card or otherwise is a UK one and no good

I subscribe to a few rss feeds on ebook websites as well as get the usual newslettes from fictionwise but I have never actually bought a book yet. - Catching up on my dickens at the moment (thanks for giving me them sony with my reader )


I have noted a few problems with Waterstones (epub and free flow or something along those lines) So if there no good where do I go?

Ta
TetraKM

I purchase from ebooks.com, which is an amercian web site which does have UK restrictrictions, but can be overcome in a few seconds. The advantages are (1) Good selection (the uk web sites are rubbish), (2) Cheap compared to the UK prices (generally about half the price) and (3), easy to use. I use a standard UK credit card, and have had no problems purchasing books (other than the quik way to overcome the restriction - as shown below).

I put a 'how to' guide here....
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29967

[TetraKM]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I would modestly suggest that you take a look at the Dickens books that I've created and uploaded the Book Uploads forum here. I think you'll find that they are considerably better formatted than the Sony versions, not to mention the fact that they have all the original illustrations.

Thanks Harry will do. Pictures - so much better than reading

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TetraKM

Thanks Harry will do. Pictures - so much better than reading

It's not so much that; it's just the fact that, for me at least, the pictures give you so much more "feel" for a world that's now vanished, in terms of fashion, street scenes, the way that houses were furnished, and so on. It enormously enhances the whole "experience" for me.

[GingerTez]

Originally Posted by TetraKM

<snip> Which ebook WebSites are best for UK Customers?

I'll expand this by saying I would like to know which allow me to buy from the UK? Without letting me get all the way to the check out and then say your credit card or otherwise is a UK one and no good

I<...snip...>

I have noted a few problems with Waterstones (epub and free flow or something along those lines) So if there no good where do I go?

Hi,

I've 'bought' 3 books from Watrerstones for my reader (used points rather than paying for them but the outcome is the same) and I have had no problems with the epub format from Waterstones. Pagination works well, no problems with page breaks. I think you might be getting mixed up with the other Adobe DRM format - Secure Adobe Reader - which is just a DRM'd PDF with all the headaches that PDF creates.

I've also purchased from Fictionwise using PayPal - it doesn't matter which country your PayPal account is in when buying through PayPal and their exchange rates have been really good so far. I have my PayPal account setup to take money via my Switch/Maestro card when I don't have sufficient funds so it's quite painless. I don't know of Fictionwise accept UK credit cards for paying with but I have downloaded an eReader file from there that required credit card details for the DRM and it was accepted with no problems.

From Fictionwise I've downloaded Secure Adobe format (PDF with DRM) which can be used on the Sony 'as-is' but has relatively frequent 'extra' page breaks (once every 4 pages on the book I'm currently reading) and I've also downloaded Microsoft LIT format, used C-Lit to convert it to HTML, and then used Calibre to convert it to Sony format; sounds painful but only took 10 minutes in total which was about 9 minutes downloading the tools and 1 minute actually doing the conversion. Done a similar thing with an eReader file too - quite painless.

These are just my personal experiences - WHSmith also do eBooks and are UK based but I haven't used them yet.

Hope this helps,
Terry.

[TetraKM]

I completely agree - they also help reinforce the times and feeling in growing your imagination or visual journey of a story, often creating the depth and assisting where you are not sure how the antiquated language of yesteryear compliments todays modern terms.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

If you use Books on Board, I'd suggest you only buy a couple of books to start with - the first time I used them (about two-three weeks or so ago) I went on a bit of a spree and had to wait to download the books whilst they verified I was real! The process was painless - took a couple of e-mails or so, but was lengthened because I bought the books quite late at night (UK time) and had to go to bed before the e-mail arrived telling me I could get my books. The chap I dealt with was very friendly and prompt, and explained that this was because I had bought so many books (about a dozen I think).

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

The chap I dealt with was very friendly and prompt, and explained that this was because I had bought so many books (about a dozen I think).

I don't get this... why should they care how many books you buy at once? Money is money. It's not like thieves steal credit cards and go on a book shopping spree, that's ridiculous.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

I guess it might have had more to do with value than quantity. But on the other hand, if I was a thief and wanted to check I had real working card, I'd buy the cheapest thing I could find online.

The other possibility is that he was just very politely fobbing me off

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

But on the other hand, if I was a thief and wanted to check I had real working card, I'd buy the cheapest thing I could find online.

But then you'd buy one book, not twelve. Right?

I still don't get them. Even if they we're afraid it was a bot buying up lot's of books, still... why do they care? The bot still has to pay, and again, money is money.

But let's go back on-topic: IMO the best ebook stores for any country are Fictionwise and BooksOnBoard. Great selection, great prices and most importantly, easily removable DRM (if you buy LIT, and you should).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Valloric

I don't get this... why should they care how many books you buy at once? Money is money. It's not like thieves steal credit cards and go on a book shopping spree, that's ridiculous.

You'd be amazed. The company who sells my computer software gets endless orders for literally EVERY product in their online store using stolen credit cards, which are endemic in East Africa. People don't care WHAT they buy with stolen cards as long as they think that they can re-sell it. I know that eBooks can't be re-sold, but most of the people using such cards wouldn't realise that.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You'd be amazed. The company who sells my computer software gets endless orders for literally EVERY product in their online store using stolen credit cards, which are endemic in East Africa. People don't care WHAT they buy with stolen cards as long as they think that they can re-sell it. I know that eBooks can't be re-sold, but most of the people using such cards wouldn't realise that.

But, why would the vendor care? My understanding is that Visa/Mastercard (at least in the US) protect the CC holder and the merchant from fraud. As long as the merchant gets an approval for the purchase they have the cash. The CC company eats any fraudulent charges not the vendor or CC holder.

Unless this vendor does not have a real time commerce system that get's CC approvals, then I guess I could understand it.

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

But, why would the vendor care? My understanding is that Visa/Mastercard (at least in the US) protect the CC holder and the merchant from fraud. As long as the merchant gets an approval for the purchase they have the cash. The CC company eats any fraudulent charges not the vendor or CC holder.

Because, at least in the UK, if the customer is not physically present when the transaction is made, the card holder is protected, but the merchant is not protected.

The merchant is protected if they check the card-holder's billing address, but "real-time" systems which do that are pretty new. When I was a card merchant, for example, I used to enter all my credit-card slips into a "batch" system a couple of times a week - there was no "real time" checking. There are still a lot of small card merchants who don't have real-time card-checking systems.