Scribd shrinking its romance catalog

[tempest@de]

Another few things to make me less than happy about the way they are working:

- the mobile app updated last week and with it I now have the menus half in brasilian Portuguese and half in English, I looked in the definitions to see if I could change the language and couldn’t find it, I don’t like that I can’t decide in what language I want to see the app, especially if they did a poor job in the translation for Portuguese.

- the list of recommended books for me is all over the place, with genres that I have no interest and have never looked for in scribd, before they shrinked the catalog it worked well for me, it suggested books similar to the ones I had read and I actually found some good reads trough it

- with the last update I had to give up in audiobooks, the app started working weirdly with them, the app crashed, or suddenly it would jump to the beginning off the book, 2 times I had to restart the phone, so I decided it wasn’t worth the aggravation and gave up.

[tempest@de]

Another good one from scribd, yesterday I started a book in the app, this morning I continued reading in the web browser, I just have one chapter left but since it was lunch time I closed the browser, and when I opened it again to finish the book scribd says «You have tried to read this from too many computers or web browsers recently, and will need to wait up to 24 hours before returning to this book.»

I only read in the app and the same pc computer using the same browser, so I can’t see how is it that I have used to many computers, and since I really really wanted to finish the book I’m mad, I hope it doesn’t say the same thing in app when I open it later.

[Blossom]

That is a new one. I've never had a problem and I have 6 devices I'd read from. I'd contact support. I don't see me rejoining with all the changes.

[booklover6]

My 6 months at half price ended, and I happily restarted my subscription. 99% for the audio books. I load at least 6 at a time to my LG Volt and then disconnect the wifi while I listen to them. My son listens on a different phone.

Fingers crossed they don't start screwing with the audio books!!!

[Atunah]

Hopefully they won't mess with your audiobooks booklover.

I about gave up trying to make audio books work for me so that is not a lure with scribd for me. I just can't get into listening.

My cancelled sub is running out in 2 days.

In all this time I have still not received one email from them. Oh well. I am not going to play chase chicken with the books I want to read. I think there are like 5 books left in my library at this point, out of 167.

I had that issue with the books not opening a while ago after I used 2 devices. I emailed them at the time and I got a response saying they cleared all the licenses for my whole account. They could not tell me why it had happened. I only opened those books on 2 devices at the time which is all I have to read apps on. A fire6 and a Nexus.

[booklover6]

Well I wouldn't keep it just for ebooks. I really don't like being forced to read in an app on a tablet. I greatly prefer to read on my eink readers. I do have some non-fiction in my Scribd library, but whether I will actually ever read them is unknown. It's like the stacks of paper/hard cover books I still own....I could read them, but I'd rather not. I really like my eink readers!

[Blossom]

Their response to me was We still have thousands of romance titles for you to read. I don't think they are very good at math.

[tempest@de]

I didn’t contact support, I ended the book without problems at home with the app, but since I was afraid it wouldn’t let me, I turned the wifi off and only then opened the app and that book, I had to manually jump to the last chapter because it couldn’t synchronize without the wifi.

Booklover, and the app works well with the wifi turned off?

I’m asking because in order to listen to the audiobooks I have to download them to the phone and play start with the wifi on, if it’s turned off the audio doesn’t load. If by chance I close the app I have to turn the wifi on again for the audio to load and start again, even if it is already stored in the phone. This is specially irritating when I’m in a place where I don´t have wifi, because I don’t use 3G so if this happens when I’m walking in the steet, wich was when I used to listen, I can’t restart the book and have to wait to get to a place with wifi.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

Booklover, and the app works well with the wifi turned off?

I’m asking because in order to listen to the audiobooks I have to download them to the phone and play start with the wifi on, if it’s turned off the audio doesn’t load. If by chance I close the app I have to turn the wifi on again for the audio to load and start again, even if it is already stored in the phone. This is specially irritating when I’m in a place where I don´t have wifi, because I don’t use 3G so if this happens when I’m walking in the steet, wich was when I used to listen, I can’t restart the book and have to wait to get to a place with wifi.

Yes, absolutely. I keep the wifi off all the time, unless I need to connect to add or delete. (I only use that phone for Scribd audio books).

I do recall issues with ebooks not loading on my KF6 - if they had been on the device a long time. Then I would have to delete and re down load the ebook. But so far I haven't had that happen with audio books.

I wonder how ebooks have put them in the hole, while audio books have not. They are more expensive. I can and often do listen to a complete audio book in two days. So that would be like 12 a month. Plus what my son listens to. That's a lot of audio books.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

From Bob Mayer:
https://writeitforward.wordpress.com...omance-titles/



More at the sources.

And so it begins...

....

Many Worlds Hypothesis

Romance Writers! They’re everywhere.
You’ve got to watch out for them.
They dress to the T’s with
their new green vests
and perfect lipstick.

They’re in all the worlds and
they’re dangerous – they have power.
They intend to change the world
to their way of thinking --
and they will.


Kenny A. Chaffin – 3/5/01
(from No Longer Dressed in Black)

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by booklover6

I wonder how ebooks have put them in the hole, while audio books have not. They are more expensive. I can and often do listen to a complete audio book in two days. So that would be like 12 a month. Plus what my son listens to. That's a lot of audio books.

I suppose there are more people reading than listening to audiobooks, not everyone that likes to read likes to listen, the first time I listened to an audiobook a few years ago, I didn’t like it, although the idea had it’s appeal, I could “read” when I couldn’t actually read, like when walking in the street, at home doesn’t count because we all know that it is possible to read and move around the house

I tried it again with scribd and found that I enjoyed listening to the books, but I found that although there are some authors and books that I enjoy in ebooks I don’t enjoy in audio, a lot off it has to do with the performer, some of them don’t appeal.

With scribd I listened 13 audios since the end of 2014, I started 6 or 7 that I never finished because they didn’t engage me enough, whereas I read 570 ebooks in 15 months, so I can easily see why they are losing money with me, especially considering that from those I only payed membership for 6 months, the others were free because of promotional stuff.

[fjtorres]

Now it is the audiobooks getting cut back:
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...obook-service/

Scribd quietly announced on its blog late Friday night that it is imposing a quota on audiobooks. Starting 20 September, subscribers will be limited to listening to a single audiobook per month, and they will also have the option of buying additional audiobook credits for $8.99.

More at the source.
And, doubtless, more reductions coming soon enough.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Now it is the audiobooks getting cut back:
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...obook-service/

More at the source.
And, doubtless, more reductions coming soon enough.

one per month? Those reductions will come in the form of more subscribers leaving the service.

Scribd, meet the fat lady

[Atunah]

Holy moly, they are killing them self off step by step. I can't believe I used to be such a cheerleader for them at one point.

[AnemicOak]

I wonder what gets cut next, SF/Fantasy or Mystery/Thriller eBooks.



I can't see any way to get a total title count for any categories. It'd be interesting to watch and see if the categories do a stealth downsize and slowly shed titles over months even if they don't do a big all at once cut like they did with Romance.