Get three free months of unlimited e-books from Scribd

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yeah but it doesn't go any further down than the default brightness. Moon does. You can make the screen go completely off with Moon+ so you can go really dark you can't do that with Kindle and there is the brightness bug that the Kindle and Overdrive app on the Nexus 7 that has yet to be fixed so it's best to use them with Screen Dim in the dark.

Ahh, I wasn't aware of that, it can get way too dim for my tastes as it is, so I never turn it anywhere near all the way down.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Does it have night mode on the Scribd app? I generally find that dim enough.

Yes there is night mode. I can't use night mode but I know some people prefer it. I use Sepia.

[SteveK]

All - If you decide to subscribe to Scribd after your 90 day trial, you may wish to check if they still offer an annual (rather than monthly) subscription, as it is much cheaper per year. Instead of $8.99 monthly, the annual subscription is only $47.99, which obviously amortizes to about $4.00 per month.

I haven't used my Scribd subscription much as I am not overly impressed with the Scribd app, but I figure I can easily get my money's worth buying the annual subscription. A monthly subscription is still a good deal, but an annual subscription is even better.

Enjoy.
SteveK

[booklover6]

I don't see that option anywhere on the site, SteveK. They may have done away with it.

[Poodlemom1]

I found a one-year gift subscription for $100. It saves a few cents.

[BearMountainBooks]

I was out trolling Scribd, mostly to see if my books were up there yet...and LO! Right next to one of mine, I found a couple of books that I want to mention because I was surprised to see them and they are quite well-liked in some cases:

Witch by Barbara Michaels (Elizabeth Peters) This was when she was writing Gothic horror. They won't be for every fan of Elizabeth Peters' stories, but I really liked most of her Gothic. The horror is almost always a ghost story, although a few are some pretty spooky murders. Well, there are almost always murders involved, I mean the nature of the murderer could be pretty spooky. Well, I explained that well, didn't I?

Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking. This is far from my favorite series, but is very popular in UF circles.

Under Wraps by Hannah Jane - I started this one time on ILL and had to return it before I finished. Don't believe the cover. It's more romance/cozy than it is UF. It does have paranormal, but that is the only vague relation to UF that I saw before I returned it. Some goo-goo eye passages that I could have done without, but I did like the mystery and the characters from what I read.

[BearMountainBooks]

For cozy mystery readers: Anne George books are there too, as is Lawrence Block. Block isn't exactly cozy, but not far off. A couple of Frank Tuttle's titles are there as well (Wistril Compleat is very good fantasy).

A bunch of Gemma Halliday's work is there too (more chick-lit than cozy mystery. Well, a kind of cross).

The Tell-tale Con by Aimee Gilchrist is on there too--probably the best YA mystery (cozy and humorous) I've read in years. We did this one as a buddy read on my blog and it was well-loved by most of the readers. Oh sure, a couple of readers couldn't connect, but that is going to happen...

[SteveK]

Booklover6, Poodlemom1 - Sorry, I didn't realize the annual subscription was no longer being offered. It will be interesting to see if annual renewals are offered when the time comes for renewal (October, in my case). I'll certainly renew if an annual renewal is available at a comparable price, but would have to think about it if only a monthly plan is offered. Guess I better focus on books from Scribd for the next few months.

SteveK

[Joykins]

Ok, I got on there (using their website), read a book, and have some thoughts.

First off, there's been no attempt to merge separate author records. Roberta A. Macavoy and R. A. Macavoy are listed as separate authors, each of whom have written about half her corpus. This happens for other authors where the names are identical (Gillian Bradshaw and Gillian Bradshaw-- listed as separate authors each with different books, although the books are all by the same author). And, even more confusing, search on the Author "Dave Duncan" and you'll see a list of his books, all for purchase and not covered by the subscriptio. But browse the Fantasy shelves and there are a ton of Dave Duncan books (many of them the same titles as the "purchase" books) available for borrowing. And Duncan is far from the only author with this issue. There is a related issue, where an author may have different editions of the same book, one available for borrowing and the other not, as well.

Searching and browsing shows only book covers. This makes it impossible to use the browser to search for a specific title or author on the page. I have also seen what appear to be the wrong covers for books (you can mouseover the cover to get more info; in these cases the mouseover shows a completely different book than the cover).

Different language is used for adding a book to your library, depending on what UI screen you're on. Confusing.

This all combines to make searching for books fairly tedious and slow. You have to hit the database several ways to make sure you've got everything they have by a specific author. I put a number of hours in, though, and have a few hundred books to read in my library.

The collection: it's kind of spotty and tends to have a lot of backlist, small publishers, and self-pubs, but on the other hand, there are TONS of works by some loved authors, and there are really strong collections in some niche genres that I like, so it will be worth the three months.

The app: I found the web-based app easy to use, enough options to get it readable without getting distracted by features. I like the 2-page view. It'll probably be better on a tablet when I get one, so I can take the book more places. But I read an entire book last night--I agree with Blossom that the Sepia theme is easy on the eyes.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Ok, I got on there (using their website), read a book, and have some thoughts.


Searching and browsing shows only book covers. This makes it impossible to use the browser to search for a specific title or author on the page. I have also seen what appear to be the wrong covers for books (you can mouseover the cover to get more info; in these cases the mouseover shows a completely different book than the cover).

This all combines to make searching for books fairly tedious and slow. You have to hit the database several ways to make sure you've got everything they have by a specific author. I put a number of hours in, though, and have a few hundred books to read in my library.

.

Their search function is quite terrible. The reason I found some of those great books I posted about above--I did a search on the TITLE of my book--I got 5 other titles listed before mine. NONE of them had the same title as mine (in other words what I entered was exact, but what was returned was a random set of books that contained the word "Witch.") When I enter my author name (or any other author name) I get the same randomness.

I contacted Scribd as an author to see if I could upload some titles for the sub service because not all of my title are with Smashwords. Their answer: No, but I could upload titles for sale. As an author or a small publisher that's a bit limiting. I like the sub service. The sale side isn't bad, but it has to be worth it because juggling multiple accounts as I already do is a pain. I'd much rather be able to upload a sale version AND a sub version so that readers could choose what they wanted to do.

Some of the small publishers might want to put their whole catalog up there on the sub service--but going through Smashwords is kind of iffy. I have more titles marked to go there than are showing up. My guess is they will never show up either, not without a lot of effort on my part to figure out "why" and support contact and so on.

That said, I think some of these things will get fixed as Scribd finds out what readers want. And Scribd seemed open to the idea of working with actual small publisher (without defining small). They probably do not want to have to support individual authors who have under 20 titles or something along those lines. Most small publishers will have 20 plus and growing so it's more beneficial for them and readers.

[GtrsRGr8]

I'm intrigued. I wonder if one or more of you could answer a couple of questions, though. If one or more of the questions have been covered in (a) post(s), I apologize--I didn't see them.

#1 Can a person keep any of the ebooks that they've downloaded from Scribd or are they strictly loans?
#2 Has anyone had actual experience trying to cancel a Scribd membership, trial or otherwise? I ask this because it's been my experience for some companies who offer free trial memberships to make it difficult to cancel them by burying the cancellation information--telephone number, _et al._--in fine print, etc. and, in general, giving the member a lot of "hoops" to jump through to be able to cancel his/her membership.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I'm intrigued. I wonder if one or more of you could answer a couple of questions, though. If one or more of the questions have been covered in (a) post(s), I apologize--I didn't see them.

#1 Can a person keep any of the ebooks that they've downloaded from Scribd or are they strictly loans?
#2 Has anyone had actual experience trying to cancel a Scribd membership, trial or otherwise? I ask this because it's been my experience for some companies who offer free trial memberships to make it difficult to cancel them by burying the cancellation information--telephone number, _et al._--in fine print, etc. and, in general, giving the member a lot of "hoops" to jump through to be able to cancel his/her membership.

I cancelled my account and yes there were a lot of "hoops" but eventually I got to cancel it. I only wanted to see what was available and it was a fair amount, but I don't think I'd like reading on the ipad so I just cancelled, otherwise I might have forgotten after 3 months and ended up being charged.

[49Kat]

Re cancelling, in my iPad app, under settings, there's a button to cancel the subscription.

PurpleStar, what kind of "hoops" were there?

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

Re cancelling, in my iPad app, under settings, there's a button to cancel the subscription.

PurpleStar, what kind of "hoops" were there?

It kept asking me if I was sure I want to cancel or something and I had to keep clicking yes cancel my account and eventually it did cancel.

[GtrsRGr8]

I just noticed on another website an advertisement from Scribd offering an one month trial membership. This three month trial offer is really great! I am very tempted . . . .