News flash! Barnes & Noble buys Fictionwise for $15.7 million

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Angst

Here's hoping B&N can use their buying power to negotiate ebook distribution, (through FictionWise), with more publishers. If they can also use their clout to lower ebook prices, I will be in heaven. Just what every reader wants: greater selection at lower prices.

I like FictionWise. I wonder what will happen to their micropay program?

Presumably it'll get swapped for the B&N rewards card.

[daffy4u]

I believe B&N has been reading my posts.

Originally Posted by daffy4u

It would be interesting for me to see all the energy spent on being mad at Amazon channeled into creating some competition that works for the people who don't like Amazo. I don't know if that means working the publishers or picking a company like Fictionwise or BooksonBoard and helping them grow.

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Could the fact that Amazon was selling DRM free music part of the push that was necessary for Apple to go DRM free as well? It may take competition from an outside source to get Amazon to change it's stance (or maybe just time).

In the last case Shortcovers has been on the radar for a 2 or 3 months with their samples and cell phone options. Competition. Bang! Amazon opens up to Apple.

You people really should listen to me more. <where's the running and hiding smiley?>

[curtjester]

Well I would be happy if their customer service didn't just ignore you. Bought a book with horrible formatting with hundreds of words broken up into 2 parts and they never answered back.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

However, with Fictionwise owning the ereader format, their having to drop Overdrive mobi books, and now their being owned by a larger Amazon competitor (and Amazon selling Kindle books for the iPhone and possibly other devices), I'm not sure that things bode well for those folks who use Fictionwise to buy Mobipocket books.

An example of this is the latest Star Trek eBook... Over a Torrent Sea. It's not available at Fictionwise in Mobipocket it's only available in eReader which is a really poor format. But it is in Mobipocket at BooksOnBoard.

The conversion I get from ereader2html gives me the worst HTML of any of the convertible formats.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Probably a new generation eink eBookwise using epub with eReader DRM.

Which I do hope never ever happens. We have perfectly good Adobe DRM for ePub which we can remove. So why not let it be?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

wow, that could be really awesome actually !!

um.. not really. Do you want YET ANOTHER DRM standard that you then have to wait for someone to crack the DRM? And on top of that, it makes ePub a real mess and might actually scare publishers away from it. And who loses out? We the consumer do.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Of course, the same parallell happened with music distribution to an extent. MP3 was the first on the block so it was adopted, then along came OGG and AAC. iTunes has some success with AAC, but it's by no means the most popular. OGG technically gives you more for less and is more flexible, even AAC is an open standard, but MP3 still survives despite it being a lesser format.

Fraeunheuffer (spelling?) must be jumping for joy at all the licensing

The thing is, since Amazon are trying to play hardball, it might be relatively easy then for ePub to take over. If most devices, except the Kindle, handle ePub, then instead of having to come out with a version in umpteen different formats, the publisher just comes out with ePub (with Adobe's DRM) then we all can win. However, for that to happen, Mobipocket has to go since they want to be the only DRM on the block.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

The modification may have to do with the mysterious reason as to why MobiPocket still exists. Amazon could certainly have taken over and sold Mobi books as is. I still think there is some legal thing that keeps MobiPocket in play and Amazon with an tweaked version of mobi.

My guess to AZW is that AZW leaves open the option of Amazon adding yet another DRM format to the Kindle if they ever decide they want to. So if ePub takes over the world, Amazon can add it in without having to give up AZW.

Also AZW gives Amazon full control over the eBooks and it allows them to make shady/sleazy backroom deals to get exclusive content in AZW. What's good for Amazon is not always good for eBooks in general. Amazon is not making eBooks come to the mainstream by keeping them held so tightly.

[fugazied]

Interesting, I wonder what will change?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mjh215

I agree it is not an ebook format, but it can easily be argued to be the 'de facto standard' format that ebooks have been distributed in. I simply dislike that term, dfs, because of that reason. It is being used here as a means to an end, and yet it requires the arguing of definitions to qualify it.


It seems that way to me as well.



Because companies always like to have closed proprietary formats for the illusion of control. It is up to the consumer and knowledgable professionals to fight that as much as possible even if it can be a losing battle.

---

As for the MP3/OGG thread, I wouldn't purchase or support purchasing MP3's either. I own CD's (And vinyl ) with my archival format of choice for the longest time being FLAC, though now with HD's so cheap I just image them. I will listen to MP3 and Vorbis, but would not use either as my archival format.


-MJ

What I did was purchase a Rio Karma that plays Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and MP3. So I am all set for whatever format I want. And if I ever purchase a different DAP, I'll go with Cowon who support FLAC, Ogg, MP3 and sometimes APE. All for less then an iPod.

And speaking of iPods, don't ever get one. Because then you'll be stuck with iTunes which is the worst piece of shite I've ever had the displeasure to use.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Adobe DRM tied to the device you purchase a book on? Granted it can be removed, but frankly some of us would prefer not to circumvent DRM (we are not crazy about getting in trouble by breaking those pesky laws that prevent it). I generally avoid DRM, but if I had to buy a book with DRM on it, I would prefer to do it in with ereader's DRM than with Adobe's.

--
Bill

But if there are multiple viruses infecting ePub, that may be all that's needed for publishers to just say ePub is too much of a hassle and ignore it and not bother and we the consumer get screwed. We do not need another DRM virus to cock up the works and get ePub not to be adopted.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But if there are multiple viruses infecting ePub, that may be all that's needed for publishers to just say ePub is too much of a hassle and ignore it and not bother and we the consumer get screwed. We do not need another DRM virus to cock up the works and get ePub not to be adopted.

There's a trojan going around at the moment that masquerades as a DRM-enabler for movies. Can't remember what the name of it is, but you're right, all it takes is a couple of those to get out into the wild and the whole thing will be seen as a disaster by both the publishing companies and the public.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

um.. not really. Do you want YET ANOTHER DRM standard that you then have to wait for someone to crack the DRM? And on top of that, it makes ePub a real mess and might actually scare publishers away from it. And who loses out? We the consumer do.

actually, my post was more responding to the proposition of a new device based on the eb1150 but with e-ink screen. i'm not in favor of any drm schemes.

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I believe B&N has been reading my posts.

You people really should listen to me more. <where's the running and hiding smiley?>

i hope B&N *has* been reading your posts, and all of ours : i think it would be great it publishers and retailers would listen to what we, the consumers, really want ! i hope you're right !!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

actually, my post was more responding to the proposition of a new device based on the eb1150 but with e-ink screen. i'm not in favor of any drm schemes.

i hope B&N *has* been reading your posts, and all of ours : i think it would be great it publishers and retailers would listen to what we, the consumers, really want ! i hope you're right !!

I hope too, but how long did it take the music industry to learn their lesson? They lost countless opportunities to turn the internet into the biggest cash making machine ever seen, but they blew it by treating digital the same way as they did physical product. It was left to the ingenuity of ordinary, and some not so ordinary, individuals to provide what the big companies lacked.

Every new instance of DRM, every locked-down and restricted format is just another roadblock in ebook adoption, another loss of revenue for them in the long run. If they'd, en masse, adopted ePub as the standard, opened their stores to every reader and priced it all fairly they'd have a good chance of still being relevant in a few years.

As it stands, too many formats, too many restrictions, too pricey. When this kicks of big and proper, I fear the internet will have left them irrelevant and just as clueless as the MPAA/RIAA et al.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Presumably it'll get swapped for the B&N rewards card.

Gak.

I wonder if this is the end of the good discounts at Fictionwise.