[neilmarr]

Points taken. Thanks.

By the way, Anamardoll, the thread you mention was not a plug but a genuine call for advice about ebook-bundling because we'd never tried it before and weren't sure which way to go. The bundling scheme was only in the brainstorming stage at the time and wasn't launched.

We took all MR members' advice on board and launched the scheme according to that advice some time later. We did not mention that launch here, you might notice. Wouldn't dream of it. That's not why I'm a member of MR.

As many fellow-members here will confirm, we don't use this board and its community for plugs or cheap advertising. EVER!

Many members will also confirm that we've sent them free e-Omnibus collections in appreciation of their interest since we started to release them.

Over the past couple of years -- although we now publish about one exclusive new book a week -- we've never plugged a single one here at MR.

If a title or genre applies to a specific and already-running thread (not one I or my tech partner Tony Szmuk has started), I sometimes mention a relevant book and invite anyone contributing to or reading that thread to drop me a line for a free copy in the digital format of their choice with absolutely no strings attached. Many get more books than they actually asked for.

And I do a lot behind the scenes on a PM and email basis to advise members who approach us, as does tech partner Tony on technical matters. In fact, there are those here who have set up successful side-line businesses and made a success of their self-published work as a direct result of our help.

Whether anyone here has ever bought from us, I don't know for sure. What I do know is that I've sent out hundreds or maybe thousands of freebies, to which many members will attest. I gave up keeping count months ago.

During Read an Ebook Week in April, we always open our entire catalogue and invite members here to pick out any two or three titles that catch their eye and then we send them free. In fact, we usually send more than two or three if we can pin down an MR member's favourite genre or a series s/he's interested in from the original request.

I understand your suspicions of malintent and the gently implied charge of hypocrisy on my part, Anamardoll.

But it's really not merited. To see how much we appreciate this community and what we learn here, pop into our site or blog sometime and you will see a prominent link and logo for MobileRead.com as well as for Calibre.

I confine mention of our wee house to the links below and our commitment to DRM-free ebooks.

Best wishes anyway. No offence meant, and I assure you that none is taken. Neil