Fictionwise has shut down!

[cromag]

I've got 192 ebooks at Fictionwise, but I download and back-up at purchase so this is mostly an intellectual exercise. I have a few ebooks from FW that weren't/aren't available at B&N -- I haven't checked the list yet, but I wondered what would happen to them.

I do liberate my ebook purchases, but it was always just a whole lot easier to buy them that way from the start. I'll miss that.

Otherwise, I've seen this before. I was a big fan of Amie Street, an online music vendor, until Amazon bought them for the sole purpose of shutting them down and directing their customers to Amazon. Their servers were jammed at the end, too.

[Moe The Cat]

B&N does maintain a list of titles that can't be transferred from Fictionwise. Perhaps the people who are reporting Fictionwise titles that refuse to show up on their B&N account might find the reason here.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

B&N does maintain a list of titles that can't be transferred from Fictionwise. Perhaps the people who are reporting Fictionwise titles that refuse to show up on their B&N account might find the reason here.

Nope. Checked the list before starting the account transfer process. None of my books are on the list, but only three of 121 have appeared in my nook account (so far; customer service asked that I give them 24 hours for everything to show up).

[fjtorres]

I'm wondering...
(I know that trying to make sense of senseless screwups is futile but I like banging my head against walls from time to time.)
What DRM were the files that *did* transfer originally encumbered with?
ADEPT, maybe?

[simplyparticular]

The 2010 agency launch broke my .pdb iPhone workflow, and led to my apprenticing myself to Calibre, so I've already backed up the majority of my FW and eReader bookshelves.

I haven't gotten the FW email yet, but I did get the one for eReader. I purchased 180 titles from 2003 through 2009. Exactly ONE has transferred

It's one of those Daily freebies promos, not even one I paid for. I've read it, and I disliked it. ETA it was a eReader DRM.

But when I look up some of the books I'm missing on the list that was linked upthread, they aren't on that list either.

Ah well, I avoid B&N and Amazon because I'm still bitter about what they did to FW/eReader and Mobi/Stanza. The early Nook adopters begged B&N to transfer over those bookshelves and we were told no, so I was going to give B&N partial credit for finally doing it, but I'll hold off the applause for now!

Back to shopping from Kobo, reading on my Sony or iDevice, and borrowing from the libraries.

In spite of the entire eBook industry trying to deter me, I still like eReading.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I'm wondering...
(I know that trying to make sense of senseless screwups is futile but I like banging my head against walls from time to time.)
What DRM were the files that *did* transfer originally encumbered with?
ADEPT, maybe?

Here's the breakdown for my 19...

Multiformat - 18
LIT - 1

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by InStim

I have the "email doesn't match issue also. My address is the same on the Fictionwise and B&N accounts, and they had the proper address in the link supplied in the email.

I also have this problem. I have only made a few Fictionwise purchases. I wonder if they meant to instead have a message saying that none of my books can be ported over to BN. I guess I'll check back here later for more news.

[ladyplf]

Wow, I can't say that I'm surprised about ereader.com but I am about fictionwise although since my pocket pc died and I moved to android I haven't been to either site to shop. I did visit fictionwise just to see what was new but everything that made that site likable was already gone and they couldn't compete with Amazon.com's prices.

The best thing about fictionwise was the unsecured ebooks which I could read on any device anywhere but those days are just gone. It was fun while it lasted but the future is Amazon.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just received the following e-mail from FW (I'm in the UK):

That looks to me like Fictionwise thinks you're in the US (note the reference to December 21st as the end date, while for outside US it's said to be 31st January).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

That looks to me like Fictionwise thinks you're in the US (note the reference to December 21st as the end date, while for outside US it's said to be 31st January).

Actually you may well be right. I think I did change my address to a US one to get around the earliest form of geographical restrictions which they imposed. That probably explains, too, why my books have been migrated to the US B&N .

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Actually you may well be right. I think I did change my address to a US one to get around the earliest form of geographical restrictions which they imposed. That probably explains, too, why my books have been migrated to the US B&N .

Well, you can always move back to the UK at some point, I suppose.

Indeed, I suggest that anyone outside the US or UK with a fictionwise account should immediately 'move' to the UK (or the US - but perhaps that boat has sailed).

[chilady1]

Just finished confirming all of my books from FW in Calibre. Of the 562 books purchased/freebie - only 20 weren't in Calibre. That's pretty good.

[FourGold]

I was able to bulk download my existing Fictionwise library. I have been meaning to strip the DRM from my oldest purchases but had never done it - doing it now ! I had forgotten how long ago I joined Fictionwise- my first purchase was 2001! I didn't even have a hand held device until 2003 (Franklin eBookman ). It's sad to see them go...

[curtw]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Here's the breakdown for my 19...

Multiformat - 18
LIT - 1

for me, it's 113 Multiformat, and 8 Secure Mobipocket. The three that have transferred were all Multiformat.

P.S.

It looks like the Fictionwise 100-book bulk download limit has been waived. I got all of my Multiformat books in one go. For those of you with 600+, it might make things easier...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

B&N bought them and then destroyed them. I'm going to sit back and wait for the same thing to happen to them! Rot in hell B&N!

B&N did not destroy Fictionwise. Apple with the help of the agency publishers helped to destroy Fictionwise. Even though B&N bought Fictionwise, the business model that Fictionwise used before agency was not viable. So because of this, they could not really compete. It's a shame that Apple and the others took down a really good eBook store in their attempts to derail Amazon.