Understanding Fictionwise's micropayments

[garygibsonsf]

Or more specifically, what they go towards. What it says on the Fictionwise help page:

'It's a place holder for money that you "deposit" every now and then using either credit card or check. Whenever you go to your shopping cart, you can "purchase" Micropay account dollars in $5 increments. That money goes into your account here at Fictionwise. You can use that money to buy stories in the future.'

Which is clear enough, and really pretty good. I get why they have the scheme, and why they might otherwise have to charge extra for purchases under $5.

My query is this: I know I can use micropayments towards stuff under $5. But it doesn't explicitly state anywhere whether or not they can go towards items (presumably ones that aren't already discounted in some form) that are *over* $5. If I accumulate, say, $20 worth of micropayments, can I use that to purchase a non-discounted ebook of the same value?

I have a very strong feeling that I couldn't, but if anyone happened to know for definite ...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

My query is this: I know I can use micropayments towards stuff under $5. But it doesn't explicitly state anywhere whether or not they can go towards items (presumably ones that aren't already discounted in some form) that are *over* $5. If I accumulate, say, $20 worth of micropayments, can I use that to purchase a non-discounted ebook of the same value?

Yes, absolutely - you can use Micropayments to pay for anything that doesn't explicitly state that it's "credit card payments only" (which most of the highly-discounted offers are). "Normal" book purchases can certainly be paid for by Micropayments.

[garygibsonsf]

That's great, Harry, thanks. I'd noticed the new Neal Stephenson book has a 100% rebate on Fictionwise, which is why I was asking. It has the same deal on BooksonBoard; their FAQ on their 'rewards' scheme is a wee bit more transparent in its description of what seems to be the same kind of deal.

[simond]

One drawback is that you can't use a combination, i.e. part micropayments and the rest being credit card, but I've never found it too annoying

[HarryT]

Yes, the 50% and 100% rebate offers are normally credit-card only, and you get the rebate as credit in your MP account. MP can be used to pay for anything that's NOT on a high-rebate offer.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

That's great, Harry, thanks. I'd noticed the new Neal Stephenson book has a 100% rebate on Fictionwise, which is why I was asking. It has the same deal on BooksonBoard; their FAQ on their 'rewards' scheme is a wee bit more transparent in its description of what seems to be the same kind of deal.

Basically, as mentioned, it's just a place-holder to use money -- YOUR money. In my opinion, it's a wonderful concept and has caused me to either buy more books or add more money. I'm not complaining at all, because I think they do an incredible job of supplying me with what I like to read - on the SF, horror side, that is. For mainstream literature, I go to Sony.

Remember, however, that the Stephenson book is NOT in multiformat. That's not a problem when you buy the book and then strip the DRM from the Microsoft Reader file and then go through another step and load the book onto your Sony PRS-505. (There's information on MobileRead about this process.)

Also, I would like to add, this book may become available from the Sony site once the book is actually published.

So, to recap, I love Fictionwise and the great reading they've been giving me. When someone makes the entire Leisure line of horror books available for Sony Reader and takes hundreds of dollars from me -- until someone does that, I'm pretty much committed to Fictionwise's horror books. (What a great webscription service that would be, to make the 2 they publish every month [or is it 4 now?] available like they do the print versions. I wish someone would do something on this. Sony??? Are you there? Can you hear me?)


Don