When I proposed we open up this thread to romances from other retailers and to freebies
and bargains, I did so because I thought this would give the thread a wider scope.
After all, everyone can find out what romances are free for Kindle on a given day just by going to ReaderIQ and using the sort-by-genre feature. The valuable information, for me, is which of the cheap or free ebooks out there are actually the ones worth getting. So the more people post here, identifying authors or titles that are worth reading, the better.
Deeply as I appreciate ATDrake's work in pointing out freebies, I would prefer not to depend only on him/her. Romance is not his/her primary point of interest, and although the posts include a lot of information on the authors that can be garnered from databases, there is comparatively little of the "I read her last book - excellent!" or "She's an autobuy for me" we get here. Again, the more input we receive from dedicated romance readers, the better.
In addition, the groups are not so clearly cut into Kindle-owners and non-Kindle-owners as might be assumed. It is possible for non-Kindle-owners to acquire ebooks from Amazon and read them quite legally on their PCs. Some readers are prepared to strip DRM, others aren't. Geographical restrictions are another huge stumbling block. Many of the books offered for free or at reduced prices are not available to Europeans at all, or only at much higher prices. This is not only true for Amazon, but also for Kobo, BoB and even ARe. So I have to check the availability of the books I am interested in in any case.
Take some of the more recent offerings, for example: I would have loved to get T.J. Bennett's
The Legacy (full price for me from BoB, as Nook is US only), or some of the Avon Earls deals (full price in Germany) posted above. On other hand, the deal on Gina Robinson's
The Spy Who Left Me on Kobo that Blossom pointed out worked perfectly well and, with the addition of a coupon, proved an excellent bargain.
Furthermore, books on Smashwords and ARe are often multi-format and may be interesting for owners of various ereaders. Books on Carina come DRM-free and can easily be converted, as can quite a few Kindle books, as Blossom said above. Should information about such books then be posted several times? And who would take the time to really distinguish, while posting, between them and others that are only interesting for a more limited group?
My final point is a political one really: I deplore the format war that is being waged between Amazon and the other retailers. This war is fought on our, the customers', shoulders. So I would prefer not to carry the artificial division that is forced on us readers into a discussion group like ours. (Steps down from soapbox.)
In the end it's completely up to each of you in which thread and about what books you post. If several romance threads should pop up, I would read all of them gladly, but might not post at all of them. So long as as much relevant information as possible is made available to as many romance lovers as possible, I am happy.
