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

[Faenad]

I sent an email to fictionwise yesterday at 12:13 GMT, complaining about the book "Flatlander: The collected tales of Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton" in mobipocket format, which was severely messed up (six chapters repeated and others in the wrong order).

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.

I hope they will improve quality control. I'm quite shocked they sell such crappy ebook.
If that happened to me I would not purchase again from the same reseller.
Did that happened to a lot of people, with Fictionwise or other resellers?

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No you don't - there's a whole mini-industry of "iPod File Managers" out there to replace iTunes. What do you find "problematic" about iTunes? I think it's a fabulous piece of software personally.

It's a fairly awful piece of software with a large music library such as mine (25K tracks or so). It is very resource intensive, somewhat crash-prone, and installs all kinds of cruft on your system (not to mention the many useful features it lacks). This is on Windows -- runs somewhat better on Macs (but still lacks a lot).

And it is needed for the iPod Touch and iPhones -- Apple has basically locked out the third-party music managers for those devices, as opposed to the Classics and Nanos.

[mrgiedrnkr]

When I read this, I thought "Oh Sh$t." I buy my ebooks from Fictionwise when I do not use the library. I fear that the micropay program will go away and the sales will go away. The B&N rewards card cannot stack up to the promotions they have. I was surprised that in reading this thread, it took me until like page 12 to see someone mention the micropay and promotional issues. I am really bummed about this merger. The only upsides is that maybe Fictionwise will get more books in stock before they kill the promotions.
Stacy

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Faenad

I hope they will improve quality control. I'm quite shocked they sell such crappy ebook.
If that happened to me I would not purchase again from the same reseller.
Did that happened to a lot of people, with Fictionwise or other resellers?

I think a lot of that is outside of Fictionwise's control. They don't create the ebooks, the publishers do. If you tell Fictionwise about a badly formatted book they can pass that information on to the publisher and request a corrected copy, but I don't think Fictionwise can do anything about it themselves.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I think a lot of that is outside of Fictionwise's control. They don't create the ebooks, the publishers do. If you tell Fictionwise about a badly formatted book they can pass that information on to the publisher and request a corrected copy, but I don't think Fictionwise can do anything about it themselves.

Depends. I think they have something to do with creating the Multiformat books. I always have to download the lit version of those and convert to get a decent book as the other formats I've tried haven't been formatted as nicely.

On the DRM'd books it's the distributor, or sometimes the publisher, who's responsible.

[HarryT]

It doesn't say very much, but there is a FAQ about the purchase on the FW web site:

http://www.fictionwise.com/bn.htm

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

DRM is the virus infecting most of our legally purchased content.

[TallMomof2]

I certainly hope that B&N prices don't arrive at Fictionwise. B&N is a purty place but too $$ and too far away (closest is almost 10 miles away) to go to very often.

[pdurrant]

It was a DRMed Mobipocket eBook. The quality wasn't their fault, since they had no hand in its formatting, just as a physical bookshop has no hand in the printing and binding of the books it sells.

The only thing you can judge them on is how they handle a customer who's bought a faulty book. In this case Fictionwise have acted very well. They refunded the money quickly, and have taken that edition off the market. Checking for that book now

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook83268.htm

reveals only the eReader version, which, since they control eReader, I'm assuming they've fixed. (Note that although the description still mentions Mobipocket, it's not available in the format pop-up.)

Originally Posted by Faenad

I hope they will improve quality control. I'm quite shocked they sell such crappy ebook.
If that happened to me I would not purchase again from the same reseller.
Did that happened to a lot of people, with Fictionwise or other resellers?

[pagansoul]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

It's a fairly awful piece of software with a large music library such as mine (25K tracks or so). It is very resource intensive, somewhat crash-prone, and installs all kinds of cruft on your system (not to mention the many useful features it lacks). This is on Windows -- runs somewhat better on Macs (but still lacks a lot).

And it is needed for the iPod Touch and iPhones -- Apple has basically locked out the third-party music managers for those devices, as opposed to the Classics and Nanos.

I have an iTunes collection of around 20k of tracks an have never had a crash or install problem but I also have a MacPro and 8GB ram on my machine. For me, what iTunes is missing is more print options of your collections. I'm sure you can download to a spreadsheet somehow but I have never tried. I tend to use the 'print to PDF all the time'.

[bill_mchale]

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.

That may be, but the problem has nothing to do with ereader. Their DRM at least is device neutral and there is no attempts by them to use DRM to control where and how I read my books. The basic problem is that the ePub spec essentially left any details regarding DRM to the implementor. Thus the failing is ePubs.

With respect, I think most of your arguments seem to be built around the ability to remove adobe DRM from existing ePub files. The problem is that, 1. That removing DRM is illegal for most of us and 2. suggests a level of computer sophistication that most people don't have.

My personal preference is to have no DRM at all. In fact, I won't buy or otherwise read a DRM'd book (nor obtain an illegitmately unlocked copy). That being said, if I were to do so, I would choose eReader (either original or the ePub version) over any other DRM'd format simply because I know that as long as I retain my passcode, I will be able to read the book well into the future without needing to break any laws.

--
Bill

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

That may be, but the problem has nothing to do with ereader. Their DRM at least is device neutral and there is no attempts by them to use DRM to control where and how I read my books.

Well, there is definitely "control" in that an eReader software client is needed for the device.

It's a little better DRM scheme than, say, Mobipocket -- but it is just as unacceptable to me, personally.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Well, there is definitely "control" in that an eReader software client is needed for the device.

It's a little better DRM scheme than, say, Mobipocket -- but it is just as unacceptable to me, personally.

I will grant that a the software is necessary. But unlike Mobi, ereader seems to be working to make sure it is available on as many platforms as possible.

Again, I am not arguing for DRM. I am only stating that if I have to put up with DRM, I would prefer one that did not tie my book to "registered devices".

--
Bill

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Depends. I think they have something to do with creating the Multiformat books. I always have to download the lit version of those and convert to get a decent book as the other formats I've tried haven't been formatted as nicely.

On the DRM'd books it's the distributor, or sometimes the publisher, who's responsible.

You may be right there. I was thinking of the DRM stuff.

[mjh215]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

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.

I own a Sansa Clip myself. I also would never purchase an iPod, nor any Apple product... (To all the fanboys, more power to you, this is just how I feel) I researched my purchase at www.anythingbutipod.com

I'd probably look at a Cowon myself if I wanted a larger player, but for what I use it for the Clip is wonderful...

-MJ