Disappointment

[ronw]

As a new convert to R-Reading I recently purchased a Kobo when it became available in New Zealand. I love the Kobo but what really disappoints me is the lack of material to read. I have compiled a list of around 10 e-book shops on Internet and the range of their offerings is minuscule. I want to be able to read new fictions books and also have a good range of Non Fiction material.
The online shops have almost no new material in either category. They pad their offerings out with material that can be legitimately obtained freely else where on web. What are other E-Readers doing for material. Maybe I am missing the better E-Book sites so if you have any suggestions I would appreciate.
What I want to be able to read on my Kobo is
The latest books by Jeffery Archer, John Connolly, John Grisham, Robert Goddard and other popular authors.

[kaas]

Which shops did you try?
Have you tried booksonboard.com?

cheers,

kaas

[karenr_nz]

Hi Ron,

One of the problems is that we are in NZ - as soon as you log into any ebook store with your correct address, half the titles (or probably more) will become unavailable. There are work arounds for this - check out other threads relating to 'Geographic Restrictions' - but they are a pain in the butt and don't seem to be working so well. Also some authors are simply not releasing their books as ebooks (John Grisham has only recently done so).

That said, I find that BooksOnBoard has one of the best selections that are available to us in NZ. Sometimes books are available from UK stores but not from US stores so check that as well. This hassle and frustration are why many resort to the darknet ...

Good luck.

[ronw]

Yes I have looked at Books on Board and once again there range is very limited. Looking at Grisham for instance they have one book The Summons which has been in print for some time but none of his more recent books. I also worry about the price they are sites sell E-Books for. In most cases they are marginally cheaper than hardback where as most books go through a cycle of hardback, Large format soft cover paperback and finally if its not all sold they can slash prices as remainders.
But E-Books which must save considering there is no actual printing saving paper distribution etc, seem to get priced at way above realistic prices and do not seem to come down as actual print books do.
What do others think are E-Books deliberately priced higher than one would expect.

[AnemicOak]

For me BoB has 23 titles in ePub by Grisham...
http://www.booksonboard.com/index.ph...3,PB,E3&V=list

[karenr_nz]

Oh yes - definitely priced higher than expected (you can find lots of threads on that topic too!)

At BooksOnBoard I found 67 titles for John Grisham. Unfortunately, pretty much all the ebooks are geo-restricted for NZ, although you can buy the audio books. The e-books prices were a little high ($9.99US or about $14NZ) but certainly not at hard-back levels - you may have been looking at the audio books which are about $20US. At Waterstones (UK) I found 10 ebooks for Jeffrey Archer (typically around 6 pounds), but I don't know if they are geo-restricted. You've just got to shop around.

[Bremen Cole]

My radical solution to your problem is this. If the publishers don't want to sell their ebooks in your country, than go to the torrents. Every book by Grisham and most other authors is freely available. If the publishers are to stupid to take your money, then that is their problem.

If they are not going to have ebooks available, then they shouldn't sell the readers.......

[ronw]

Thanks I was not searching correctly. How do you think prices compare wih print books?

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by ronw

What I want to be able to read on my Kobo is
The latest books by Jeffery Archer, John Connolly, John Grisham, Robert Goddard and other popular authors.

In Canada, from kobobooks.com, there is a fair selection of three out of four. It surprised me Jeffrey Archer is not available. A number of his books are from Macmillan (St Martin's Press) ... and, oddly, they ARE available in Kindle format at Amazon. This includes new and old titles of his for $8.39 or $9.99 in Canada with Whispernet delivery.

It drives me nuts, too, that a title can be sold as an audiobook, paperback and hard cover ... but apparently the same region isn't allowed the e-book. It's monstrous, actually.

[Kiwimick]

Try Smashwords pretty sure they sell worldwide and there are a lot of free books that you can pick up on there as well. Even some Kiwi authors....You also have PM

Mike

https://www.smashwords.com/

[ngrant]

If you are a patient sort of person, here is an extremely inexpensive way of getting ebooks to read on your Kobo - just put HOLDs on the new releases and wait your turn. Many of the non-fiction titles you will be able to borrow right away if they are in the library collection as those are not as popular.

This digital library permits anyone (even overseas) to pay US$15 for an annual membership and allows up to 10 titles checked out at a time. Go to this page [link] to see the collection of ebooks available (Adobe DRM EPUB and PDF formats are compatible with your Kobo, you will need to install Digital Editions software to download and transfer books).

Click on the "Sign Up Now" in the top right corner to view and print the application form, then fill out and mail with an international money order. It seems to be taking 2 to 4 weeks for the processing of new applications and if you are lucky they will e-mail you your membership number so you can start checking out titles right away. In the worst case you may lose the first few weeks of your annual membership due to processing and mailing the library card to you.

Here is the person to contact if you have any problems (or to ask any questions), she e-mailed me my PIN number when I forgot what I put on my application form!

Pam Lippincott
Free Library of Philadelphia
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-686-7501
e-mail: pam@freelibrary.org

I hope that the Philadelphia Library continues this valuable service. I have been able to get quite a few of the newer releases that I wanted to read, just by getting on the waiting list and reading other things while I waited.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ronw

How do you think prices compare wih print books?

In general I find that if the book is out currently as a hardcover I can usually find it for $10-$15. If it's out in mass market paperback I find they usually either cost the same as the paperback cover price or are $1-$2 less.

There has been a problem since Agency Pricing started in the US (April 1st) when some publishers haven't been lowering the $10-$15 price to match the paperback. Whether this is by design or incompetence I'm unsure.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole

My radical solution to your problem is this. If the publishers don't want to sell their ebooks in your country, than go to the torrents. Every book by Grisham and most other authors is freely available. If the publishers are to stupid to take your money, then that is their problem.

If they are not going to have ebooks available, then they shouldn't sell the readers.......

Absolutely!
There is also a little bit more legal way of doing this. Install a free VPN client, get a US/UK/Canadian mail forwarding address and to hell with geographic restrictions.

[neilmarr]

Good to have your company, Ron. Geographical restrictions are a pest for e-reading folks outside the US, and -- in spite of the excuses -- the problem could be easily fixed by simply opening retail websites in, for instance, Europe, Down Under and Hong Kong.

Don't hold your breath, though, for such a simple quick fix.

Meantime, pop into www.bewrite.net and take a look around our store there. Drop me a line of any two or three titles that catch your eye and I'll send them over to you in the format of your choice with our compliments to kick start your library.

Very best. Neil (ntmarrATbewrite.net [use the @ sign, of course])

[nashira]

I'm in Australia and while I don't have a dedicated ereader device at the moment... well it's hard not to feel your pain. Publishers have a habit of making books expensive and hard to find here in the first place, nevermind in the ebook market.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. They're either plain lazy and they're trying to get us to do all the work to get things by... interesting means instead of them having to bother. Or they're trying to "kill" the ebook market in non-US territories so they can justify themselves being slower than an ent when it comes to change.

I do recommend Smashwords, though. And Baen if you're into sci-fi (they also have a free library). There's also the various places for free classics, if you're into those.