Fictionwise vs the Kindle Store

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Amazon also seem to have much harsher geo-restrictions that makes workarounds a bit of a problem.

Would you mind clarifying this? My understanding is that geo-restrictions are based on the for publishing rights in each country. If you are restricted from purchasing a book from the U.S. Kindle store, that same restriction should apply at any U.S. based ebook retailer (Fictionwise, BoB, B&N...).

Do you not have to work-around this by changing your home country to the U.S. in order to purchase books? If that's true, then how is Amazon more difficult (harsher) than another store?

I'm in the U.S. so for the most part I don't have to deal with it so I may not have a clear understanding of what others outside the U.S. are going through.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Sure you can use Kindle for PC and go through the meriad additional steps to get the file readable on your device.

K4PC circumvention could not be much easier (it is significantly easier to use than mobidedrm), but I agree that you are left with a DRM-free MOBI in a mostly ePub world.

[Crusader]

As promised here are the titles of the novels used:

Roving Mars				Steve Squyres
Arctic Drift					Clive Cussler
Lonely Planets				David Grinspoon
30 Days of Night: Movie Novel	Tim Lebbon
Xombies:  Apocalypse Blues	Walter Greatshell
Quantico					Greg Bear
Moving Mars				Greg Bear
Project Aura				Robert Doherty
The Gatekeeper				Michelle Gagnon
The Cases that Haunt Us		John Douglas & Mark Olshaker
Don't Kiss them Goodbye		Allison DuBois
Red Mars And Green Mars		Kim Stanley Robinson
Blue Mars and The Martians	Kim Stanley Robinson
Phantoms					Dean Koontz
Altered Carbon				Richard K. Morgan
Hidden Empire: 		                Kevin J. Anderson
Assemblers of Infinity			Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason

It would be interesting if people could post similar comparisons of their purchases after the current sale at Fictionwise has ended to see how they stack up then.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

K4PC circumvention could not be much easier (it is significantly easier to use than mobidedrm), but I agree that you are left with a DRM-free MOBI in a mostly ePub world.

But it takes about 60 sec to convert it to your format of choice. If one is willing to spend the time searching for the best deal and that particular best deal is a Mobi book, is it not worth the time to convert it?

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Crusader

As promised here are the titles of the novels used:

Roving Mars				Steve Squyres
Arctic Drift					Clive Cussler
Lonely Planets				David Grinspoon
30 Days of Night: Movie Novel	Tim Lebbon
Xombies:  Apocalypse Blues	Walter Greatshell
Quantico					Greg Bear
Moving Mars				Greg Bear
Project Aura				Robert Doherty
The Gatekeeper				Michelle Gagnon
The Cases that Haunt Us		John Douglas & Mark Olshaker
Don't Kiss them Goodbye		Allison DuBois
Red Mars And Green Mars		Kim Stanley Robinson
Blue Mars and The Martians	Kim Stanley Robinson
Phantoms					Dean Koontz
Altered Carbon				Richard K. Morgan
Hidden Empire: 		                Kevin J. Anderson
Assemblers of Infinity			Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason

It would be interesting if people could post similar comparisons of their purchases after the current sale at Fictionwise has ended to see how they stack up then.

Thanks! Mine would be more of a bestseller mystery list. I still have a little micropay banked at FW. I'll experiment with the some purchases over 2010 and see how things compare.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Would you mind clarifying this? My understanding is that geo-restrictions are based on the for publishing rights in each country. If you are restricted from purchasing a book from the U.S. Kindle store, that same restriction should apply at any U.S. based ebook retailer (Fictionwise, BoB, B&N...).

Do you not have to work-around this by changing your home country to the U.S. in order to purchase books? If that's true, then how is Amazon more difficult (harsher) than another store?

I'm in the U.S. so for the most part I don't have to deal with it so I may not have a clear understanding of what others outside the U.S. are going through.

Currently Amazon performs checks on the IP and I'm assuming on the country the Kindle is actually used. Recently there has been quite a number of reports of people receiving notices from Amazon informing them they need to provide proof of US residence after they used the workaround to buy US restricted books. So the Kindle store is more difficult to bypass the restrictions and you run the risk of having your account closed.

With Fictionwise it seems to be easier to use the workarounds. A valid US address is all that's needed when paying via a CC. On rare occasions you need to use a proxy to download the purchased book once. After that you can use your account normally and it stays available for download without any checks.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Thanks! Mine would be more of a bestseller mystery list. I still have a little micropay banked at FW. I'll experiment with the some purchases over 2010 and see how things compare.

Yes, I think the amount of savings will greatly depend on your reading habits. I've got a 'to be read list" that's far too long, so I don't jump at the newest bestsellers. In general I'm happy to wait till the price on new released before picking it up. It's seldom that I have a book I must buy as soon as it's released.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Currently Amazon performs checks on the IP and I'm assuming on the country the Kindle is actually used. Recently there has been quite a number of reports of people receiving notices from Amazon informing them they need to provide proof of US residence after they used the workaround to buy US restricted books. So the Kindle store is more difficult to bypass the restrictions and you run the risk of having your account closed.

With Fictionwise it seems to be easier to use the workarounds. A valid US address is all that's needed when paying via a CC. On rare occasions you need to use a proxy to download the purchased book once. After that you can use your account normally and it stays available for download without any checks.

Gottcha. I do recall Dr. Drib and a couple of others receiving that email though I haven't heard of anyone having their account closed (so far). It would freak me out to receive that kind of email, so I appreciate the desire to avoid it.

[stewball]

Originally Posted by Mitch G

I'm definitely price driven and will spend a couple of extra minutes if it will save me a couple of bucks.
Is there a meta search site (like pricegrabber) that can be used to identify the cheapest ebook price - and that takes into account things like the micropay discounts?


Mitch

I use the AddAll Ebooks search engine that you can add to firefox. You give it a book and it searches Amazon, BoB, FW, Sony, Waterstones, WHSmith, Mobipocket and Powells) and gives a link, format, and price.


Stew

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

But it takes about 60 sec to convert it to your format of choice. If one is willing to spend the time searching for the best deal and that particular best deal is a Mobi book, is it not worth the time to convert it?

That depends on how you value your time. I typically buy 20 or more books at a time from Fictionwise. I'll discount part of the time it takes me to select them because I typically have 50 or more on my wish list. But part of the selection process is determining my 'buying strategy' too. That is, which should I purchase with CC vs which should I purchase with MP to get the best overall deal. I haven't actually measured that, but I'll assume it takes me an additional 15 minutes 'gaming' different selections to see which give the best deals.

So that's an extra 15 minutes, then there's the extra 20 minutes to strip the DRM & convert them. That's over a half-hour of my time that I wouldn't need to spend if I bought from Amazon. (Assuming I was willing to keep the DRM.)

I'm typically busy enough that I'd rather spend an extra $30 than 'waste' that half-hour. OTOH I do 'waste' it because 1) I don't have a Kindle and 2) even if I did I still wouldn't like Amazon managing my reading list.

Basically, I've preferred MOBI format as that allows me to modify titles, authors, and the synopsis, all of which I find essential to managing my library. I also strip the DRM before I archive the books. (I've also added cover images but that takes considerably longer so I haven't done it consistently.) Lately I've been converting my archives to ePub, but the basics are the same-it's just the output that differs.

So I go thru the extra 20 minutes to strip the DRM for my own reasons but that doesn't detract from the fact that the Kindle fanatics have a point. One of the things I detest about US (and possibly international) society today is the focus on getting the lowest price, regardless of what you've got to do to get it. I'll sometimes shop at a store that charges slightly more if it provides a significantly better shopping experience than the lowest-priced store. And sometimes I won't-it depends on several factors, including what I feel like putting up with at that time.

But that's the point I'd like to make about the Kindle 'fanatics'. Maybe they're focusing on the shopping experience, which sounds like it's much better at Amazon than at FW. (On re-reading I see that that's not quite right either, but don't know how to say it better. If they ignore 'getting the best deal' from FW then I'm sure the shopping experience is at least as pleasant as at Amazon, but then Amazon has the better prices. So it ends up being a question of how important it is, to you, to get the best possible price.)

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

So that's an extra 15 minutes, then there's the extra 20 minutes to strip the DRM & convert them. That's over a half-hour of my time that I wouldn't need to spend if I bought from Amazon. (Assuming I was willing to keep the DRM.)

Not sure if you know this but if you search around there is a plug-in which can be used with Calibre that will automatically do the deDRM work on Mobi books quickly upon import. No muss, no fuss.

One of the things I detest about US (and possibly international) society today is the focus on getting the lowest price, regardless of what you've got to do to get it. I'll sometimes shop at a store that charges slightly more if it provides a significantly better shopping experience than the lowest-priced store.

Hey, Id rather spend more at Target than less at Walmart. I think we all have our limits (when we have enough means).

But that's the point I'd like to make about the Kindle 'fanatics'.

I prefer to stay away from this word as it has no real definition and is really more of a personal definition. I think most of us are fans of our particular readers or cars or computers or whatever or we'd stop using them and move on to something else if possible.

Maybe they're focusing on the shopping experience, which sounds like it's much better at Amazon than at FW. (On re-reading I see that that's not quite right either, but don't know how to say it better. If they ignore 'getting the best deal' from FW then I'm sure the shopping experience is at least as pleasant as at Amazon, but then Amazon has the better prices. So it ends up being a question of how important it is, to you, to get the best possible price.)

I'm sure there are many people who are perfectly happy purchasing content from the Sony store (for those who own Sony Readers) or Barnes & Noble (for those who own nooks) and there is nothing wrong with that (it's their money after all). And of course there are those (like MobileRead members) who are aware of other choices but still have a preferred choice for ebook retailers. To each his or her own.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Crusader

I made a mistake in my initial figures since I used a 25% off coupon as well.

Without the coupon the totals are:
Kindle store: $119.97
Fictionwise: $135.24

So without the coupon the edge goes to the Kindle store when not taking Micropay into account.

Okay, and for non-Americans, what happens when you include a $2.35 (UK VAT returns to 17.5% in 2010, so not $2.30 anymore...) fee per Kindle book?

Well, let's do it: 34 books, so...

Kindle store: $199.87
Fictionwise: $135.24

Although half the books probably aren't available, it does illustrate my repeated point about the Kindle not being the best deal outside America for many books.

[daffy4u]

Which ebook retailers have worked best for you so far in the UK, DawnFalcon?

[dmaul1114]

I don't buy that many books. 1-3 a month tops. So I stick with the Kindle store for convenience.

I'm basically spending pocket change on e-books so it's not worth the time to hunt for bargains, covert books, strip DRM etc.

But definitely worth it for people spending a lot more money on e-books.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Which ebook retailers have worked best for you so far in the UK, DawnFalcon?

Fictionwise and Baen. Although I tend to buy direct from authors where possible.