100% Micropay Rebate at Fictionwise on all books till 8/31 w/ 5-year membership

[PsyDocJoanne]

Hi everyone,

I would assume a lot of you got the same email, but just in case you didn't know about this, here's the scoop:

This week Fictionwise goes where no eBook store has gone before: Until
the end of August, all five-year Buywise subscribers may purchase any
of our 56,000+ eBook titles and receive 100% of the purchase price
back as a Micropay Rebate when paying by credit or PayPal.

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, 100% Micropay Rebates on every
single eBook at Fictionwise until the end of August for 5-year Buywise
subscribers! There is a limit of $300 in total rebates received from
this offer. Offer does not apply to non-eBook items like eMagazine
subscriptions. You must first subscribe for five years of Buywise
service, then transactions after that will show the 100% Buywise Super
Promo rebates. But hurry, the 100% rebates end on August 31! Some
other restrictions apply. For complete information, see:
http://www.fictionwise.com/help/Buyw...erPromoFAQ.htm

If you are already a five-year Buywise subscriber, meaning your club
expiration date shown in your bookshelf is later than July 1, 2013,
you already qualify! You will see the Super Promo rebates in your cart
right now.

If you are a Buywise Club member with fewer than 5 years remaining,
you simply need to make sure you are subscribed for five years or more
to take advantage of this historic offer. Just purchase a 1, 2, 3, 4,
or 5 year membership, whichever gets your club expiration date past
July 1, 2013, and you qualify.

If you're not a Buywise Club member, now has really got to be the best
time to join ever! You can easily recoup the entire membership fee by
taking advantage of 100% Micropay Rebates on our entire catalog of
eBooks, then enjoy all of the benefits of the Buywise club for five
years!

For complete details on the Buywise club, see:
http://www.fictionwise.com/help/BuywiseFAQ.htm

[bbusybookworm]

This is so tempting!

For the cost of a 5yr membership (which gives a 15% discount on all purchase in the future), and paying cash up to the US$300 limit to get the books you'll get Us$ 300 Micropay Rebate. so the actual rebate is more of a 75% as the membership, if you don't already have it is US$ 125 - 12.5 Rebate = US$ 112.5.


The only problem is that you have to pay out cash to get the 100% rebate. And while I love my books, I Can't really justify tying up my next 3-4 months worth of book budget in one place as a lot of the books I like are not yet available in ebook format or I want a Pbook for my collection.

Still its a great deal, well worth getting if a large part of what you what you want is available with them.

[llasram]

Originally Posted by PsyDocJoanne

This week Fictionwise goes where no eBook store has gone before: Until the end of August, all five-year Buywise subscribers may purchase any of our 56,000+ eBook titles and receive 100% of the purchase price back as a Micropay Rebate when paying by credit or PayPal.

I don't know... These sorts of offers make me kind of worried about the future of Fictionwise. They inject a certain amount of cash into their revenue stream when they make the offer at the cost of future revenue as customers spend out of their micropay balance. Makes me wonder what's going on that they need cash now now now.

[Nate the great]

I had that same thought, llasram.

[pdurrant]

That is a tempting offer.

Bearing in mind that the five year membership comes with five eBook vouchers, a potential $50, this is essentially offering

$650 dollars worth of books for $424.95 (unless you're already a buywise club member, in which case it's for $407.45 for less, depending on how many years of member ship you have to go.

So it's effectively an additonal 30% off the already reduceded buywise club prices.

And $300 of those books need to be bought before the end of August. That's tricky, seeing as most fictiionwise eBooks come out to between $6 and $7 for buywise club members. That's 50 books to choose!

Hmmm... It's a close call. I suppose I'm likely to spend that much over the next few years at Fictionwise, but it's a big lump all at once.

Paul

Originally Posted by PsyDocJoanne

Hi everyone,

I would assume a lot of you got the same email, but just in case you didn't know about this, here's the scoop:

This week Fictionwise goes where no eBook store has gone before: Until
the end of August, all five-year Buywise subscribers may purchase any
of our 56,000+ eBook titles and receive 100% of the purchase price
back as a Micropay Rebate when paying by credit or PayPal.
http://www.fictionwise.com/help/BuywiseFAQ.htm

[pdurrant]

I suspect it's more to do with wanting to tie people into fictionwise for five years, than with an immediate need for cash. Without the buywise discounts, fictionwise prices are often higher than ,say, books on board. Getting people to sign up for five years would be a very good way of keeping buyers coming back to fictionwise for their eBooks instead of always shopping around for the very best discount.

Of course, I could be wrong. I hope I'm not. I've found fictionwise to provide good support the couple of times I've needed to ask a question.

Paul

Originally Posted by llasram

I don't know... These sorts of offers make me kind of worried about the future of Fictionwise. They inject a certain amount of cash into their revenue stream when they make the offer at the cost of future revenue as customers spend out of their micropay balance. Makes me wonder what's going on that they need cash now now now.

[koland]

Also, although you can use the micropay credit to buy books that they have on discount, you sometimes loose the full discount that way. For example, they have four books on "full discount", where you get 100% back in credit, but only if you buy them with a credit card or paypal. You only get the buyer's club discount if you buy them using micropay credit (the same is true of a number of their "big bargain" books). Those with lesser discounts, though, do work well with micropay discounts (some of the 10-20% discounts, for example, you do get the micropay credit even if you use micropay to buy them).

On the other hand - at BooksOnBoard, you can use their reward dollars just like "cash" (credit cards, really). Have $20 to spend - buy a 100% rebate book that is under $20 and you end up with the book and the full $20 credit (after you email them the receipt to get the credit). Theoretically, you could buy one book there and read forever without spending another dime (but you would be quite limited in what you can buy and some portion of that credit will no doubt expire after their 2 year limit).

I am, however quite tempted -- but finding that $300 in books this month would be tricky, as even then I wouldn't want to spend hardcover prices on ebooks.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And $300 of those books need to be bought before the end of August.

Of course you don't HAVE to spend $300. That would just maximize your ROI of course.

BOb

[llasram]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Of course you don't HAVE to spend $300. That would just maximize your ROI of course.

Looks like the "simple" break-even point (for people who aren't already Buywise members) is buying $62.49 worth of book up-front. Any more than that and you save money.

Of course, you can make it crazier. If you're an existing buy-wiser then you get an extra $5 rebate. If you pad the order you make with your x-year membership in up to $200 then you get a 15% rebate on the order instead of just 10%. Those together give a break-even point of (membership cost) - $85.00, increasing the up-front cost by $200 - (membership cost), of course.

[pdurrant]

Well, I decided is was too good an offer to miss. I'm already a buywise member, but only for the next few months, so I did need to buy a five year membership. For those interested in the numbers, here's how it went.

Outgoings:
Five year membership: $124.95
$80 Micropay (to take order over $200): $80
Books*: $299.51

Total: $504.46

Rebates into Micropay and other:
$80 micropay: $80
$5 bonus and 15%: $35.74
5 x $10 book vouchers: $50
Books: $299.51

Total: $475.25

It seems to me that by spending just over $500 now, I've bought $300 of eBooks for a net outlay of $29.21, as I now have $425.25 in my micropay account and 5 x $10 book vouchers.

I also have buywise club membership for the next five years, which will make fictionwise as cheap as anywhere else to buy eBooks, hopefully.

As I said, too good a deal to miss, provided Fictionwise don't fold before I've spent my micropay.

Paul

* 47 books in total, as I got one or two over $10. I chose books I hadn't read before, mostly by authors I know I like, but some new authors too. I was tempted by the Discworld series, but I've read them all in paper, and have most, if not all, still on shelves -- so that seemed a bad idea compared to getting new stuff.

Originally Posted by llasram

Looks like the "simple" break-even point (for people who aren't already Buywise members) is buying $62.49 worth of book up-front. Any more than that and you save money.

Of course, you can make it crazier. If you're an existing buy-wiser then you get an extra $5 rebate. If you pad the order you make with your x-year membership in up to $200 then you get a 15% rebate on the order instead of just 10%. Those together give a break-even point of (membership cost) - $85.00, increasing the up-front cost by $200 - (membership cost), of course.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I suspect it's more to do with wanting to tie people into fictionwise for five years, than with an immediate need for cash. Without the buywise discounts, fictionwise prices are often higher than ,say, books on board.

This is my take on it, too.

I think BooksOnBoard has been becoming more aggressive in its pricing lately, including the introduction of its "Reward Dollars" program (which I find ironic that they insist is NOT a rebate program, even though you actually have to send them an email with your receipt to prove you bought the book(s) - more like "real-life" rebates than Fictionwise's).

I've also had particular books that I've been waiting for that hit BooksOnBoard before (sometimes 2-4 weeks before!) they finally show up on Fictionwise. Today, as a Buywise Club member, I wait (and wait), fingers crossed, hoping it'll eventually show up. If I decide to let my membership lapse, though, I imagine I'd end up buying those books at BoB instead.

Because my first stop is always Fictionwise, however, I can't say whether the reverse would also be true. I don't know if there are any books that show up on Fictionwise before BoB.