Quote:
Originally Posted by avid01
From Kobo or Sony, which is the preferred EPUB shop?
Another book of my choice is only available in Amazon (I want EPUB), B&N (Their Alf process is not so friendly as for the others if I understand correctly), Sony and Kobo. That leaves me with Sony and Kobo.
Assuming same prices and regarding customer service, ease of use, the availability of samples (Amazon style)?
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Based on your criteria, I'd humbly suggest that you give B&N another look; the Alf process is identical once you create your key. If you're unconvinced, find a free, but DRM-encumbered book at each of the stores and unencumber it.
The reason that I suggest B&N again is that you asked about samples and B&N's are the best, bar none. The samples are DRM-free epubs and downloadable without any extra software. In fact, even if I'm going to buy the book somewhere else, I almost always download the B&N sample first to check the formatting. Kobo samples
must be read in Kobo software and Sony, as far as I can tell, doesn't offer them at all. Most other stores that offer samples, offer them through an online viewer only. Since I like to unzip the epubs and poke around under the hood (ugly HTML tends to lead to reader problems), that leaves B&N.
As far as ease of use goes, B&N is fine as long as you're willing to have a credit card number on file all the time, even for free books. That's actually my biggest beef with B&N and almost kept me from buying from them in the first place, but I decided that the other benefits were worth it. Kobo's search is
terrible and when I buy at Kobo, I often find myself browsing at Amazon or B&N and then going to Kobo with the ISBN. Once you select your book, Kobo's and Sony's checkouts are about the same.
I know you specified equal prices, but the big benefit that Kobo and Sony share is coupons. Kobo throws coupons all over the place and if you watch Sony, you can get a 30%-40% off coupon every few months. I like Kobo's store the least, but I've probably spent more money there than at any other because of the deals. Sony has the nice feature where you can enter a coupon code before you search and only show books that are eligible for the discount.
One last downside to B&N that you may or may not ever notice is that B&N makes slight changes to the CSS files in the epubs. I've spot-checked a few and while I receive identical epubs from Sony and Kobo (and most other vendors), B&N makes a few changes (usually something like "15px" will become ".25in" or something). Google Books, by the way, changes the HTML files so much that it actually affects formatting and I won't buy from them for that reason.
I've (knock on wood) never had to avail myself of any of their customer service departments, so I can't comment there.