Great News! Amazon scores more ebook exclusives

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

No, you still pay for it because monopolist telcos charge a fortune whenever they can is actually the reason.

Amazon has cut a deal with some providers - e.g. so in Australia we don't have to pay for this any more for example. If in a smaller market than that though with one phone company, it might last forever.

The problem with that is that Amazon still charges you even if you only own a Wi-Fi Kindle or if you buy for reading on PC or phone. So lets say I want something on my Android phone. I have to pay $2 for Whispernet delivery while I also pay my data carrier for the file download. Same goes for the PC app.

At the very least Amazon could make the Whispernet fee an optional extra to select when buying a book. It offers no value whatsoever for people with Wi-Fi Kindles or people using other devices.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by Crusader

The problem with that is that Amazon still charges you even if you only own a Wi-Fi Kindle or if you buy for reading on PC or phone. So lets say I want something on my Android phone. I have to pay $2 for Whispernet delivery while I also pay my data carrier for the file download. Same goes for the PC app.
At the very least Amazon could make the Whispernet fee an optional extra to select when buying a book. It offers no value whatsoever for people with Wi-Fi Kindles or people using other devices.

Exactly

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, if your reading program or device of choice uses ePub, then AZW is rather useless.

Ummm... and if your reading program or device of choice uses MOBI, then EPUB is rather useless. Would you argue that authors and publishers should not be given any choice in where there books should be sold? And if Amazon is somehow evil for not using EPUB, what about those online retailers who don't use MOBI? Somehow less evil?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And given how rather poor the coding inside a lot of Mobipocket eBooks is, converting can take a lot of time to clean up the mess.

The file format has nothing to do with how well or poorly a book is coded - that's entirely down to the expertise/diligence of whoever is responsible for the book.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And for a lot of people who do not use Kindles or Kindle software and who do not DRM strip and/or convert, these Einstein eBooks are a lost cause.

And for anyone who chooses not to read electronic books one could say the same thing. Does that make anyone who only publishes a book in electronic format similarly dastardly and greedy and evil?

Look... I'd much rather see books published in as many formats as possible, but I simply can't agree that publishing in MOBI format only and selling books via a company that provides free applications to enable users of a wide range of devices to read the books, is somehow locking books away from 99% of the population, which is how you're portraying it. If someone chooses not to use a free app, that's their choice - but they can't then turn round and say "you won't let me read that book" simply because it isn't compatible with the specific device they prefer to use.

[NoBull_Steve]

Some verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting things are going to go on behind the scenes over the next two years with these "exclusive rights". There are THOUSANDS of living authors whose titles either have reverted rights back to them or never had digital rights to their books to begin with. We're going to see them coming out of the woodwork this and next year. And why shouldn't we?

They wrote publishable books that were (mostly) neglected by their publishers and are now ready for a rebirth. I worry about the "exclusivity" that's seeming to happen...both with individual book rights and with a certain company with the name of a fruit used to bring man to a fall from grace....

But in the long run, all roads that fill author pockets with money means more and better choices for the consumer!!!

IMO!

[AlexSno]

Good point!

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by NoBull_Steve

Some verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting things are going to go on behind the scenes over the next two years with these "exclusive rights". There are THOUSANDS of living authors whose titles either have reverted rights back to them or never had digital rights to their books to begin with. We're going to see them coming out of the woodwork this and next year. And why shouldn't we?

They wrote publishable books that were (mostly) neglected by their publishers and are now ready for a rebirth. I worry about the "exclusivity" that's seeming to happen...both with individual book rights and with a certain company with the name of a fruit used to bring man to a fall from grace....

But in the long run, all roads that fill author pockets with money means more and better choices for the consumer!!!

IMO!

you mean a pomegranate?

[JSWolf]

Personally, I am against exclusivity for eBooks. I don't want to see an eBook come out in just one format. These days they should be in two formats at least those being ePub & Mobi. LIT is dead so that's not going to happen and I think eReader is mostly dead but it still possible for that format.

So really, there should be no real reason for exclusivity. All that does is piss people off and generate overall lower revenue for the publisher and/or author.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Personally, I am against exclusivity for eBooks. I don't want to see an eBook come out in just one format. These days they should be in two formats at least those being ePub & Mobi. LIT is dead so that's not going to happen and I think eReader is mostly dead but it still possible for that format.

So really, there should be no real reason for exclusivity. All that does is piss people off and generate overall lower revenue for the publisher and/or author.

ever encounter the situation where a bookstore did not carry any books from a particular publisher because the publisher cut a deal with a different store?

And I do hear what you are trying to express. I too wish there was a genuinely open format w/o DRM but that is not the real world and never will be. So best I see we can do is work with what we have. In that light Kindle books are no less open than DRM'd EPUB. Both have reader apps which work on pretty much all platforms, even Sony is taking a whack at a reader app these days.

So, I don't see the issue other than a given brand of store owned reader does not read the format of the other company. Yet is someone owns a device that is not branded to a bookstore odds are high there is the ability to run an app for both.

Like I wrote, I hear what you are saying, just it's not gonna work that way, yet. Critical mass in terms of ebook sales has yet to be achieved. Plus I have yet to find a book I wanted that Amazon has not carried yet another bookstore did. Long as this is the case, I don't care and I expect to be long dead before that is a real issue, if it ever becomes one.

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

ever encounter the situation where a bookstore did not carry any books from a particular publisher because the publisher cut a deal with a different store?

Not the same thing at all. Notwithstanding the fact that first sale doctrine gives all bookstores the right to sell books from all publishers, you can still get the book in the format of your choice (incidentally the only one available for pbooks). The problem here is not that Amazon sells the book exclusively, the issue is that they only do so for their own walled-garden devices.

I too wish there was a genuinely open format w/o DRM

DRM is the problem. If it weren't for encryption converting files would be a non-issue.

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

The problem here is not that Amazon sells the book exclusively, it's the issue is that they only do so for their own walled-garden devices.

Ahem...

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

...or a Windows PC, or a Mac, or an iPad, or an iPhone, or a Blackberry, or an Android phone, or a Windows phone...

"Walled-garden" devices? That's a big garden!

[rogue_librarian]

Neither my ereader (Pocketbook) nor my Linux-based PC will officially support Amazon ebooks. So, yes, I'm obviously on the other side of that wall (and couldn't care less, just making a principle point here).

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, if your reading program or device of choice uses ePub, then AZW is rather useless. nd given how rather poor the coding inside a lot of Mobipocket eBooks is, converting can take a lot of time to clean up the mess.

And for a lot of people who do not use Kindles or Kindle software and who do not DRM strip and/or convert, these Einstein eBooks are a lost cause.

Amazon has made it so you can read their books without removing DRM. If you chose not to use one of the free apps that is your problem. It is available legally and easily to everyone.

If you want to take an extra minute you can read it on your EPub reader. If you are concerned about thelagality/ethics of doing so, you can read it on any number of other devices.

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Amazon has made it so you can read their books without removing DRM.

Not on my choice of devices and Operating Systems, no.

If you want to take an extra minute you can read it on your EPub reader.

Oh, I can strip the DRM easily enough. Question is, why bother? If I'm willing the resort to questionable legal tactics there are probably easier ways.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

Not on my choice of devices and Operating Systems, no.



Oh, I can strip the DRM easily enough. Question is, why bother? If I'm willing the resort to questionable legal tactics there are probably easier ways.

The key word is choice. If you have a choice you are not excluded. If you choose to not use the free, legal apps then you have decided that you don't want to read the book. That is your choice. Which you have acknowledged but many others fail to acknowledge.

[DiapDealer]

If you choose to not use the free, legal apps then you have decided that you don't want to read the book. That is your choice.

I'm not on rogue_librarian's "side" on this particular thread topic, but he/she is correct in saying that Amazon has alienated the Linux desktop user. There is no native "app for that."

(yes, I realize that Kindle for PC will now run under Wine, but that leaves Linux diehards with a sour taste in their mouth)

Your device runs on Linux, so please be kind enough to release a version of your reading app that runs natively on that particular platform... you've already done it for every other platform under the sun.