AMAZON KINDLE BOOKS ON NOOK?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by boswd

anything mainstream?

Baen has many mainstream SF authors. They are genre specific, but that doesn't mean that are only niche.

OK, I think I'm done for now.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by ApK

You mean "Locked out of 4 or 5 book sellers who, combined, don't seem to equal Amazon's selection, nor provide much compelling reason for an Amazon customer to shop at them," so say that. Tell the truth and there willl be little debate.

ApK

I don't have a dog in this fight, but can anyone actually confirm if this is still true? When B&N launched, they didn't have Amazon's catalog, of course, but I think a lot of that has changed.

I personally have never wanted a book that was only available at Amazon, and I've never seen an exclusive-to-Amazon result on, say, Inkmesh. But I could be looking for the 'wrong' books.

Certainly I would very much doubt that B&N + Kobo + Sony does not equal the bulk (say, 90%?) of Amazon's stock.

Of course, there might be small indie authors that have only bothered to publish a Kindle version, but other than that, I think the major publishers are dealing with all of the "Big Four", no?

I'm not sure I would take at face value any numbers presented by any of the "Big Four" eBook sellers. They tend to get rather creative when declaring the size of their stock. For one thing they tend to include public domain books which are available elsewhere.

Having said that, if I want a book on history I'm much more likely to find it on Amazon than the others, and Sony is in a distant second place. I can only speak for histories as that is 75% or more of what I read.

As far as should I buy at any particular store I say, "Hell no"! I'll buy wherever I can find it and from the least expensive store. Brand loyalty has no place in a repressed economy. But truth is, compared to print books there is still a small selection of the type of non-fiction eBooks I generally read, even when I look at all the stores.

And the quality of the typical eBook is way lower than the typical PBook, mainly because publishers have failed to grasp the idea of reflowable, user customizable text. Doing a quick and crappy conversion of a PBook to eBook and then charging me the same or more for the eBook as they charge for the PBook is unethical, IMO. If they are going to charge the same or more for eBooks then they should spend as much time designing and implementing them so that they look as good on an ereader as they do in printed versions. In short publishers need to be educated on single sourcing. If they were smart all future publications would be single sourced and permanently saved so that subsequent editions whether digital or printed could easily and quickly be made.

[Janet54]

Amazon sells a pre loaded sd card that is suppose to let you turn your nook into an android tablet with out voiding the warranty. No feedback on it yet.
http://www.amazon.com/Nook-Andriod-T...6885260&sr=1-3

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Janet54

Amazon sells a pre loaded sd card that is suppose to let you turn your nook into an android tablet with out voiding the warranty. No feedback on it yet.
http://www.amazon.com/Nook-Andriod-T...6885260&sr=1-3

That's not sold by Amazon, but a third party seller. You can make your own card (for free except time & the cost of the card) very easily.

[DianNC]

I finally figured out how to do it. If I can do it...anyone can. Thanks to an angel named Alf. And Alf's blog.

There are two ways, each equally easy. I tried both on two different Kindle books and they were both fast. Loading the plug-ins into Calibre is probably the most convenient, though.

Happy reading, everyone!

[osnova]

All I did was root Nook C and install Kindle for Android. Voila, I have Kindle on my NC.

[questionfear]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I don't have a dog in this fight, but can anyone actually confirm if this is still true? When B&N launched, they didn't have Amazon's catalog, of course, but I think a lot of that has changed.

I personally have never wanted a book that was only available at Amazon, and I've never seen an exclusive-to-Amazon result on, say, Inkmesh. But I could be looking for the 'wrong' books.

Certainly I would very much doubt that B&N + Kobo + Sony does not equal the bulk (say, 90%?) of Amazon's stock.

Of course, there might be small indie authors that have only bothered to publish a Kindle version, but other than that, I think the major publishers are dealing with all of the "Big Four", no?

IMO they're all about equal. There's probably a slight edge to Amazon when you add in Kindle Singles and the Amazon exclusive authors, and subtract free public domain books from all stores.

However, unless you're consistently looking for short but longer than short story length works AND have a very eclectic backlist taste it's unlikely either of those would seriously impact or harm someone who shops mainly at B&N or another Amazon competitor.

The biggest thing is inertia, plus the ability to share with a spouse. That's what generally ties me into Amazon, since I started on a Kindle 1 and now own a K3...when my non-ebook reading spouse wants to read something from my library it's easy to just send the book to the K1 and let her use that. Familiarity with the store and devices is also why I bought my dad a K3 for his birthday, since I could help troubleshoot more easily.

It's really that sort of inertia/attachment to an ecosystem that each company wants to cultivate, and that's the bigger issue than whether Amazon has 1,000,0001 and B&N only has 1,000,000 or some other such silly numbers game.

[anamardoll]

@QuestionFear

My own personal anecdata is similar to yours: the only thing keeping me "locked" into B&N is inertia and plus it's nice to have everything in the same online management on their Nook Library. I *could* change at any time, but haven't bothered to.

I get a little astonished when I see people claim that Amazon has 50% more titles (or whatever) than XYZ main store, because that has not been my experience.

(Indeed, I have a book on my wishlist that isn't available at Amazon but IS on B&N. But, again, Indie Author -- which I don't count.)

[ApK]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

@QuestionFear

My own personal anecdata is similar to yours: the only thing keeping me "locked" into B&N is inertia and plus it's nice to have everything in the same online management on their Nook Library. I *could* change at any time, but haven't bothered to.

I get a little astonished when I see people claim that Amazon has 50% more titles (or whatever) than XYZ main store, because that has not been my experience.

(Indeed, I have a book on my wishlist that isn't available at Amazon but IS on B&N. But, again, Indie Author -- which I don't count.)

You won't be able to discount indie authors for much longer. I think we're seeing a serious sea change happening.

In any case, my argument for a while now (and the reason for the poll I started) has been that the selection and prices at the handful of big general DRM stores is so comparable, that the "locked into Amazon" argument for choosing an ADEPT compatible reader over a Kindle seems pointless.

Not only that, but we only seem to hear dire warnings against the Kindle in favor of the ADEPT compatible ones, and never warnings the other way, when the anecdata (love the word, stealing it) here seems to indicate the Amazon customers find maybe even a bit more of what they look for than the customers of the other big 3 or 4 combined. Combined because the whole point of the argument is that you will have combined shopping power of those other stores, while with a Kindle, you are 'stuck with only' Amazon.
It seems instead it just as often the 'combined' shoppers who are 'stuck' not being able to shop at Amazon.

Personally, I shop at all of the stores, but it's usually just to take advantage of "free with coupon" deals I find here...stuff that I would not have gone looking for but am happy to try for free.
When I have gone looking for titles, I've occasionally taken advantage of a Kobo coupon over Amazon, but I've also hit Amazon promos that beat Kobo.

ApK

[boswd]

Originally Posted by ApK

You won't be able to discount indie authors for much longer. I think we're seeing a serious sea change happening.

In any case, my argument for a while now (and the reason for the poll I started) has been that the selection and prices at the handful of big general DRM stores is so comparable, that the "locked into Amazon" argument for choosing an ADEPT compatible reader over a Kindle seems pointless.

Not only that, but we only seem to hear dire warnings against the Kindle in favor of the ADEPT compatible ones, and never warnings the other way, when the anecdata (love the word, stealing it) here seems to indicate the Amazon customers find maybe even a bit more of what they look for than the customers of the other big 3 or 4 combined. Combined because the whole point of the argument is that you will have combined shopping power of those other stores, while with a Kindle, you are 'stuck with only' Amazon.
It seems instead it just as often the 'combined' shoppers who are 'stuck' not being able to shop at Amazon.

Personally, I shop at all of the stores, but it's usually just to take advantage of "free with coupon" deals I find here...stuff that I would not have gone looking for but am happy to try for free.
When I have gone looking for titles, I've occasionally taken advantage of a Kobo coupon over Amazon, but I've also hit Amazon promos that beat Kobo.

ApK

and basically all my point was if you want to shop around ereaders that do support ePub are much easier to deal with. I too take advantage Kobo basically on a bi weekly basis. Too many great coupons they send, it's cheaper, and no stripping drm etc. That's my point

With a kindle, unless you are into more self published indie writers, you do have to jump through more hoops, if you want to buy more mainstream copyrited,publisher's books. That is a fact.

[anamardoll]

You won't be able to discount indie authors for much longer. I think we're seeing a serious sea change happening.

I'm sorry, I'm not being clear. I don't discount "Indie Authors Who Only Publish On Amazon" because obviously their work is crap. I discount "Indie Authors Who Only Publish On Amazon" because obviously they haven't quite yet gotten around to uploading their book to the other sites for various good reasons.

I don't know a single Indie Author that says, "Pssh, why be on four sites to reach four different eReader markets when I can publish exclusively with Amazon?" I mean, I suppose they exist, but I consider that PARTICULAR subset of Indie Authors to be so small as to be statistically insignificant in the "Who Has The Biggest Catalog" p*ssing contest.

In any case, my argument for a while now (and the reason for the poll I started) has been that the selection and prices at the handful of big general DRM stores is so comparable, that the "locked into Amazon" argument for choosing an ADEPT compatible reader over a Kindle seems pointless.

I think the ADEPT issue has always been library compatibility which - presumably - will go away as a warning as soon as Amazon joins Overdrive.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by boswd

With a kindle, unless you are into more self published indie writers, you do have to jump through more hoops, if you want to buy more mainstream copywrited,publisher's books. That is a fact.

If you want to buy more mainstream copyrighted, publisher's books FROM PLACES OTHER THAN AMAZON. Yes.
But my point is there seems to be little reason for an Amazon customer ever to do so.

Certainly little reason when talking about B&N, Google Books or Sony.

I think our more legitimate disagreement might boil down to:
"Kobo or Amazon...who has the more of the best deals?"

That might make an interesting thread poll.

ApK

p.s. And of course, buying from any non-integrated store, even in the ADEPT world, usually invoves SOME additional hoops...can't buy from the device, etc. Yes, one or two additional and more significant (ethically and/or legally speaking) hoops on the Kindle side, no argument.

[anamardoll]

I would use the Kobo coupons more if the books were LABELED "coupon compatible" in the catalog. I HATE getting to checkout to be told -- again! -- the publisher doesn't allow coupons, don't blame us!

HEY KOBO? I BLAME YOU FOR NOT MAKING THAT CLEAR EARLIER.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I think the ADEPT issue has always been library compatibility which - presumably - will go away as a warning as soon as Amazon joins Overdrive.

That's a different issue, and yes, hopefully it will soon be a non-issue, too.

But until that happens. I've always said that if library borrowing is high on a prospective buyer's list and they don't want to strip DRM, Kindle is probably not for them. Unless it has so much else that's on their list that they're willing to compromise, of course.

I understand your Indie point now.
Yes, according to Smashwords, my primer will soon be on Kobo as well as the others, and my world domination will be complete!

ApK