Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre

[BetterRed]

John Wycliffe started it in 13nn something with his heretic Bible

Seriously though, if you can't cope with the language used in a novel in context of the time and place in which it is set, and/or when it was written, then you probably shouldn't be reading it.

Apparently there's a woke version of Finnegans Wake doing the rounds - I hear it's not even funny. And I insist the 'w' word is the right word in this context.

BR

[hengyu]

Tragically, the worst part of all this is that I use Kindle Unlimited legitimately - but I normally DeDRM and use Calibre to fix some egregious formatting to my taste. I like having my indents and margins consistent across all my books and now this is no longer possible on Unlimited. Shucks.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by hengyu

Tragically, the worst part of all this is that I use Kindle Unlimited legitimately - but I normally DeDRM and use Calibre to fix some egregious formatting to my taste. I like having my indents and margins consistent across all my books and now this is no longer possible on Unlimited. Shucks.

No sympathy from me. If you read a DeDRMed copy, the author doesn't get paid.

[hengyu]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

No sympathy from me. If you read a DeDRMed copy, the author doesn't get paid.

Does he only get paid when I read it via Unlimited? That seems rather bizarre to me

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by hengyu

Does he only get paid when I read it via Unlimited? That seems rather bizarre to me

Yup, authors get paid by percent read.

[Quoth]

If someone without a KU sub buys an ebook the Author/Publisher gets 30% if less than $2.99 price (ex. VAT or sales Tax and delivery charges), otherwise 70%. If someone borrows on KU then Amazon pays nothing at first, unlike any other library loaning ebooks (who have to buy whatever number of simultaneous loans they offer, also in UK & Ireland there is a per loan royalty of about 35c). Amazon decide on a pot of money for KU and based on pages read on real kindle, kindle app (inc Fire), then eventually pay the Author/Publisher something. This only works with the eBook transferred direct to App or Kindle and Amazon monitoring your page turns later via Whispernet (Wifi or Cell/Mobile on the host of App or on eink Kindle). This system abuses content providers and privacy of consumers. What they should do is run a system like real libraries and Scribd do.

So if you remove the DRM on a KU title, and have it as a sideloaded book, no pages are ever read and no-one gets paid from the pot that is part of the KU subscription income.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Quoth

This system abuses content providers and privacy of consumers. What they should do is run a system like real libraries and Scribd do.

Amazon tried that and it didn’t work. When authors were paid by the borrow the system was flooded with one page books. Being paid by the size of the borrowed book results in 10,000 page books full of nonsense.

The reason that paying by borrow works for libraries is they have a curated collection. If books on KU had to go through a review and acceptance process then the overall quality of the collection would greatly increase and pay by borrow would become practical.

Of course authors would be upset when their books were rejected and consumers would by unhappy with the higher fee that Amazon would need to charge.

[hengyu]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Amazon decide on a pot of money for KU and based on pages read on real kindle, kindle app (inc Fire), then eventually pay the Author/Publisher something.

Yikes, that seems like a batshit payment structure to me.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Amazon tried that and it didn’t work. When authors were paid by the borrow the system was flooded with one page books. Being paid by the size of the borrowed book results in 10,000 page books full of nonsense.

Yes, I'm aware Amazon did it wrong. The problem is wanting to automate everything and not have human curation. Greed, and it's why Social Media sites are cess-pits.

There are better ways, but the current system works well for Amazon.

[k9fancier]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

John Wycliffe started it in 13nn something with his heretic Bible

Seriously though, if you can't cope with the language used in a novel in context of the time and place in which it is set, and/or when it was written, then you probably shouldn't be reading it.

Apparently there's a woke version of Finnegans Wake doing the rounds - I hear it's not even funny. And I insist the 'w' word is the right word in this context.

BR

Woke. I must confess to a certain stress response when the term is bandied about as if we were all adherents to a certain (authoritarian and, dare I say it, racist) ideology. What does Woke mean? Generally speaking, not what you think it means.

Woke: "aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)"

So, I am so curious given the literate population of this site, from a purely moral perspective, what is this knee jerk use of the term?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by k9fancier

So, I am so curious given the literate population of this site, from a purely moral perspective, what is this knee jerk use of the term?

Because it's been abused many times, and especially in whitewashing books written in the past by now-dead authors. Also in making allegedly historical movies while disregarding any historical veracity re racial makeup, mindset and societal norms of the time depicted. All this is extremely annoying. You can't change history by pretending it didn't exist. Moreover, you can't even learn from past mistakes if you pretend they didn't happen.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by k9fancier

Woke. I must confess to a certain stress response when the term is bandied about as if we were all adherents to a certain (authoritarian and, dare I say it, racist) ideology. What does Woke mean? Generally speaking, not what you think it means.

Woke: "aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)"

So, I am so curious given the literate population of this site, from a purely moral perspective, what is this knee jerk use of the term?

Stone the crows it was wordplay, primarily aimed at the prior poster.

BR

[johnelle]

I discovered that my wife's old (Gen 1?) fire was still registered to our account so I was successfully using the USB transfer method. However this morning I purchased / downloaded 6 books and half get a DRM error if I try convert them from AZW to Epub. I've tried the download twice with the same result.

Not sure if they are treating the Fire differently than a e-ink machine but looks like it is time to finally close the Amazon bookstore for my purchases.

[Quoth]

Fire is completely different to an eink Kindle.

The Fire is Amazon customised Android tablet with a variation of the Kindle App for Android, so it's nothing like a real physical Kindle (all eink), no doubt that's why they dropped the Kindle prefix on Fire, apart from the fact it's not just for ebooks.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by johnelle

I discovered that my wife's old (Gen 1?) fire was still registered to our account so I was successfully using the USB transfer method. However this morning I purchased / downloaded 6 books and half get a DRM error if I try convert them from AZW to Epub. I've tried the download twice with the same result.

Not sure if they are treating the Fire differently than a e-ink machine but looks like it is time to finally close the Amazon bookstore for my purchases.

It does not work for Fire tablets. That is why the description of method 3 specifically says e-ink Kindles. The books that worked must not have had DRM.