Is the end near for Mobipocket?

[ebookreaders]

The end seems to be near for the Mobipocket ebook standard. On the sign up page of Mobipocket Ebookbase, the following text is displayed:

Effective September 2009, we will no longer open new accounts for publishers to sell titles through the Kindle Store or MobiPocket.com. If you have an existing account, there will be no change and you can continue to upload and sell titles using Ebookbase. New publishers with a US address and bank account can sign up to sell ebooks in the Kindle store via our self-service publishing channel at http://dtp.amazon.com

Now that many ereaders switch to ePub, and cannot read their DRM'ed Mobipocket ebooks anymore, and Ebookbase is not accepting new Mobipocket publishers, it looks like Mobipocket is exit. Too bad, Amazon could have done much more with the format.

(via eReaders.nl)

[nrapallo]

[EricGagne]

Originally Posted by ebookreaders

New publishers with a US address and bank account can sign up to sell ebooks in the Kindle store via our self-service publishing channel at http://dtp.amazon.com[/i][/indent]

And if you're not an American writer.................tough luck............your parents probably told you that becoming a writer wasn't a good idea anyway.

I hate Amazon.

[Steve Jordan]

Amazon seems to be doing its damndest to segregate the int'l e-book market, removing Mobi from all but American hands. That really bites, for two reasons: One, it limits the potential number of authors who would like to be part of the Kindle store; and two, it limits the amount of foreign works that will be available to Kindle owners (since foreign authors will have little access and less incentive to create books for the Kindle).

Fortunately, independents can still create and sell Mobi-formatted e-books... they just can't do it through the large commercial aggregators. You may see many more indie websites popping up soon.

But I can't see this doing anything except helping to promote more widespread use of ePub.

[beachwanderer]

I agree with Steve here.

Being an old PalmOS-User I'm sort of used to this kind of feeling:

Riding an old but trusted and still very reliable horse till the end may come one day ...

So we will stick to what we have (there is no epub-reader for the "dead" Palm OS and never will be) and read mobipocket and .prc from websites with copyright-free or cc-content or independent Publishers / Authors as long as it is possible.

But if this could help to cut the number of formats in the long run then there could be something good in it.

[zerospinboson]

Awesome. They're trying to make their consumers hate them, if not immediately, then in retrospect (when they want to switch devices). It seems awfully short-sighted, however. Sure, they might release UK/elsewhere versions of the Kindle.. But I imagine it will be too late to not make the papers remark upon introduction 'gee, they're supporting the format that forces you to only buy from Amazon' at the time of introduction and first reviews.

[Dylrob]

@#*\$(+! Amazon! It's because of this kind of behavior that I refuse buy any incarnation of the Kindle.

[arit]

I liked the Mobipocket logo :/

[Daithi]

I know Amazon has had problems with some books being published for the Kindle where the publisher (self-publisher) didn't have rights to the book being published. Is it possible that this change is related to that problem? After all, Amazon is maintaining existing relationships, and only requiring that new publishers have a U.S. linked bank account.

[tsgreer]

I just got an email that mentioned that Amazon DTP (their self-publisher wing) will no longer accept public domain titles. Here is the text of the email:

Subject: Alert from Amazon DTP

Dear Publisher,

We’re working on a policy and procedure change to fix a customer experience problem caused by multiple copies of public domain titles being uploaded by a multitude of publishers. For an example of this problem, do a search on “Pride and Prejudice” in the Kindle Store. The current situation is very confusing for customers as it makes it difficult to decide which “Pride and Prejudice” to choose. As a result, at this time we are not accepting additional public domain titles through DTP.
Thank you

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by tsgreer

I just got an email that mentioned that Amazon DTP (their self-publisher wing) will no longer accept public domain titles. Here is the text of the email:

Subject: Alert from Amazon DTP

Dear Publisher,

We’re working on a policy and procedure change to fix a customer experience problem caused by multiple copies of public domain titles being uploaded by a multitude of publishers. For an example of this problem, do a search on “Pride and Prejudice” in the Kindle Store. The current situation is very confusing for customers as it makes it difficult to decide which “Pride and Prejudice” to choose. As a result, at this time we are not accepting additional public domain titles through DTP.
Thank you

That would seem to be for the best. Those 'self'published works are making an absolute mess of Goodreads.. new 'editions' are constantly automatically added by/to the system there, and they'll probably stay there forever, considering you can't click the links to see if it's still being sold (as they don't have ISBNs).
While it hardly seems reasonable to allow the 'big' publishers to publish PD titles in the Kindle store while others won't be able to any more, (which sort of makes me wonder) it will definitely clean up the store a bit.

[Steve Jordan]

Yes, I'm sure the Big Pubs will still be able to sell their PD e-books in the Kindle store...

Actually, Amazon should have known that was what was going to happen regarding PD titles. They act as if they're surprised that the public has used the Kindle store as they have.

(But I doubt they really care about the DTP system at all. Based on the amount of thinking and care that they've put into the system, I expect DTP is there solely to pull more consumers in through their suddenly-self-published authors. At some point, Amazon will likely make more stringent demands on indie publishers to use their site, or cut them out altogether, in favor of the Big Pubs. And any excuse will do: Excessive "pirated" works; quality issues; lack of cost controls; or a just plain "failed experiment.")

A lot of this could also be due to the growing animosity towards American publishing, via Amazon and Google, by the rest of the world. Amazon may feel the absolute need to isolate itself for protection's sake, and finds that it can no longer maintain a European connection to the old MobiPocket.

As Daithi hinted, it could also be a step to make legal actions against transgressors easier, making sure they do not have to go through foreign courts...

[ectoplasm]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Yes, I'm sure the Big Pubs will still be able to sell their PD e-books in the Kindle store...

Actually, Amazon should have known that was what was going to happen regarding PD titles. They act as if they're surprised that the public has used the Kindle store as they have.

Maybe they should have seen it coming, but at this point, something needs to be done if Amazon wants to clean up the mess for older titles.

Before I received my Kindle, I imagined that I could buy electronic versions of "real" published books like "Pride and Prejudice". I imagined these books would be pristine electronic copies from professional publishers. Instead, I found countless low priced versions that appear to come straight from Gutenberg, complete with bad formatting and typos. Of course you can't know this until you download a sample.

They should have seen it coming, but they didn't. Now they need to do something about it.

[rcuadro]

Maybe I can use my Kindle as a paperweight

[Faenad]

Very sad ending for the Mobipocket team.

After Mobipocket it will probably be Stanza's turn.