Quote:
Originally Posted by queentess
I'm not sure what you mean - here's the link to the Sony store (for one of the free books) from the Suduvu page. Do you need a pc to be able to download Sony books?? If so, shouldn't all Sony users have pcs? |
Yes, you need a PC to be able to download books for the Sony Reader
from Sony's store. But there are lots of other sources of books for the Sony Reader that
DON'T have that restriction. There's Fictionwise and Baen/Webscriptions and Smashwords and Feedbooks and... Anyway, there're plenty of Sony Reader owners who do not have PCs running any flavor of Windows. Nor should they --
Sony should cater to its users, not the other way around!
Quote:
Originally Posted by queentess
Suduvu has links to the Sony and Kindle stores, as well as a downloadable pdf option. I agree, I wish it was available in either ePub or mobi, but Sony/Kindle is good enough for me! And I've had surprising good luck at converting pdf's into mobi using some Adobe tools.
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Sony has been too clueless to support Mac or Linux or Anything-That-Isn't-Windows. They could easily have made a store based on web standards that could be used by anyone who owns a Sony Reader, but noooooo...
Basically, PDF is not a very good ebook format for portable devices. And there are lots and lots of portable devices out there that aren't Kindles or Sony Readers... along with lots of Sony Reader owners who don't have PCs.
As the Suvudu web site currently stands you get three choices:
- Non-DRM PDF file available to anyone. But it's not very useful for small-screen devices.
- DRM-polluted .lrx file from the Sony store. Useful only for Sony Reader owners who are also PC users.
- DRM-polluted Kindle-formatted file for Kindle owners (and also iPod/iPhone owners, I guess). No use for anyone who doesn't fit that description.
What's missing is a DRM-free ePub. Or a Microsoft .lit file. Or Mobipocket format. Or... Anything, really, for anyone who didn't want PDF and wasn't either a Kindle customer or a PC-using Sony customer.
That leaves out lots of Mac users. And Linux users. And owners of IRex or Bookeen, or Hanlin, or Astak or any of the rest of the eBook devices.
That hypothetical DRM-free ePub would make the books accessible to anyone who wants to read them with no restriction to type of device or host computer or... And given that Harper Collins is attempting Baen-style marketing here...
Hey Kid! Try a an eBook, you'll like it. And the first hit's free...
...they would do well to copy Baen's proven-successful approach. Which is to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to sample the wares you are giving away for free. Putting roadblocks between where you are and potential future sales just doesn't make any sense.
Thus, the free books should be:
- DRM-free.
- In every format they can reasonably support via file conversion utilities (like Calibre).
- Easily found and downloaded.
- Either (a) beginnings of popular series or (b) good older books by popular authors who have lots of other books that new fans could purchase.
Of this list, Harper-Collins/Suvudu has gotten the first partly right (with the PDF), but not with the Sony and Kindle versions. They've completely dropped the ball on the second item. They've arguably succeeded on the third and fourth. But those first two items make a HUGE difference.
Xenophon