NOT HAPPY

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Shadowboxer:

I am here to help as I work for Astak. You could have sent me a PM and I could have acted.

It has been mentioned on this forum at least 50 times that ereader is a format owned by Barnes&Noble. We DO support their non-DRM format... but they will not allow us to get their DRM format. Our own eBook Store carries ONLY PDF and EPUB... not ereader titles.

Bob

Bob, this is not true. you support PalmDOC but not eReader. I wish you did and you guys were working with fictionwise to get that support but it is not in the current firmware even for non-DRM. Believe me, I have checked. It would be nice to have even non-DRM but currently it is NOT there.

Dale

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by jusmee

I do SO sympathise with shadowboxer. I am APPALLED at the implementations of DRM and the quality of the software in general. The troubles I had getting my wife's computer (Windows 2000) to even download and install ADE (issues with flash etc etc) then to get it and the ereader authorised were something NO non-technical user should EVER have to put up with.

Then the confusion over different formats (not just the drm'd ones) and types of DRM is so bad, I fear the fledgling eBook industry is doomed unless it gets sorted out real soon. Don't get me wrong, I love eBooks, but I can (just about) handle the silly idiosyncrases, but the pain and confusion being inflicted on newbie users will drive them away.

Shadowboxer says he's "lost trust in this device" and I don't blame him. This will be MANY new users' experience the way things are at the moment.


Sorry rant over

Dear Jusmee:

You need to understand the whole picture.

We ALL hate DRM. It is a royal pain in the rear!! It is confusing, messy, and a horror for end users and for Astak. BUT... the device is not the problem here. You know and everybody on this forum knows how many times I have said "Our Astak Devices have Adobe Digital Editions... meaning they handle PDF and EPUB DRM." Also said a million times: "We WISH we could get eReader DRM from Fictionwise but Barnes&Noble demands exclusivity".

Is all of this confusing for newbie users? Hell yes!! That is WHY we have this forum... in hopes of explaining it. That is also WHY we established at great expense our own eBook Store... to try to make things simple by ONLY having PDF and EPUB!! Then the stupid Agency Model by five publishers comes out and makes (overnight) books we had not download anymore. It IS lunacy what is going on. But Astak is the only one trying to make it at least easier!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Bob, this is not true. you support PalmDOC but not eReader. I wish you did and you guys were working with fictionwise to get that support but it is not in the current firmware even for non-DRM. Believe me, I have checked. It would be nice to have even non-DRM but currently it is NOT there.

Dale

Dear Dale:

Sorry. It was always explained to me that PDB was Fictionwise and Fictionwise uses and sells eReader. We will TRY to get a label on the box that says PalmDOC to avoid any more confusion!

Thank you for correcting me!!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Dale:

Sorry. It was always explained to me that PDB was Fictionwise and Fictionwise uses and sells eReader. We will TRY to get a label on the box that says PalmDOC to avoid any more confusion!

Thank you for correcting me!!

Yes, the problem is that windows users think of the extension as being gospel and only used by one application. Unfortunately for Windows users some things didn't start out in windows but in some other OS like Palm. You can read about PDB in our wiki.

Dale

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Jusmee:

You need to understand the whole picture.

We ALL hate DRM. It is a royal pain in the rear!! It is confusing, messy, and a horror for end users and for Astak. BUT... the device is not the problem here.

Never said it was.

Originally Posted by Robertb

You know and everybody on this forum knows how many times I have said "Our Astak Devices have Adobe Digital Editions... meaning they handle PDF and EPUB DRM." Also said a million times: "We WISH we could get eReader DRM from Fictionwise but Barnes&Noble demands exclusivity".

Is all of this confusing for newbie users? Hell yes!! That is WHY we have this forum... in hopes of explaining it. That is also WHY we established at great expense our own eBook Store... to try to make things simple by ONLY having PDF and EPUB!! Then the stupid Agency Model by five publishers comes out and makes (overnight) books we had not download anymore. It IS lunacy what is going on. But Astak is the only one trying to make it at least easier!

I was talking about the eBook industry in general. I was not taking a potshot at AStak at all. Yes, having your own bookstore and the forum helps. I imagine many new users don't flock to forums to find out about things.

Try to take a step back and see it the way a newbie would. They are used to wandering into any REAL bookstore on the street, and choosing a book to read. No need to buy from any particular store, or chain of stores. No need to worry about the brand of book they buy.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by jusmee

Never said it was.



I was talking about the eBook industry in general. I was not taking a potshot at AStak at all. Yes, having your own bookstore and the forum helps. I imagine many new users don't flock to forums to find out about things.

Try to take a step back and see it the way a newbie would. They are used to wandering into any REAL bookstore on the street, and choosing a book to read. No need to buy from any particular store, or chain of stores. No need to worry about the brand of book they buy.

Dear Jusmee:

I always know you mean only the best!

You are right. It is a nightnmare out there for newbies and for thinkies (those remotely toying with the idea of buying a device). It is SO easy to walk into a store and just buy a printed book.

Yes, I agree with you. The IDPF (International Digital Publishing Federation) has been pushing for 5 years for all to support EPUB. It is slowly happening; but the big guns like Kindle have their own format and won't let others have it. YET... newbies and thinkies buy more Kindles than all other designated eBook Readers combined. WHY? They have the dollars to do everything optimally and then advertise like mad.

It is a sorry state of affairs. Now Apple jumps in with a 1.5 pound monster and ties up 5 major publishing houses to go with fixed pricing. Who loses? All of us eBook buyers do. Nothing is gained... we just cannot discount numerous titles.

Yes, I would sometimes love to just cry. Sometimes the frustration is overwhelming. Sometimes I do "want to shout, at the top of my lungs, WHAT'S GOING ON?". But, I have to stay optimistic and keep slugging away. I cannot change the world... all I can do is make it better in my own way, to help others.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Robertb

It is a sorry state of affairs. Now Apple jumps in with a 1.5 pound monster and ties up 5 major publishing houses to go with fixed pricing. Who loses? All of us eBook buyers do. Nothing is gained... we just cannot discount numerous titles.

Robert,

Apple had absolutely nothing to do with the decision of a number of major publishers to go with the "agency model". You make it sound as though Apple are the "cause" of it. That is completely erroneous.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Robert,

Apple had absolutely nothing to do with the decision of a number of major publishers to go with the "agency model". You make it sound as though Apple are the "cause" of it. That is completely erroneous.

I beg to differ.
Apple has everything to do with breaking Amazons Gorilla hold on the Publishers.
All the other e-book sellers together, probably did not move as many titles as Amazon did.

Amazon and Wal*mart dictate what they want to suppliers if they want to sell their brand in our stores.
Costco specifies package size/price point to their suppliers.
(Lone) Gorillas usually get their way.
2 Gorillas fighting each other, let others alone to play their games.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Robert,

Apple had absolutely nothing to do with the decision of a number of major publishers to go with the "agency model". You make it sound as though Apple are the "cause" of it. That is completely erroneous.

Apple is not the cause in the sense that they did not force the change but they were certainly the impetus for the change and the timing of the change. A second major player in the ilk of Amazon, whomever it was, caused the change. The publishers are lashing back.

Dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by theducks

All the other e-book sellers together, probably did not move as many titles as Amazon did.

That may be true in the local market of the US, but perhaps you don't appreciate just how insignificant Amazon are elsewhere in the eBook market. ePub totally dominates the market elsewhere, and Amazon are a "bit player".

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That may be true in the local market of the US, but perhaps you don't appreciate just how insignificant Amazon are elsewhere in the eBook market. ePub totally dominates the market elsewhere, and Amazon are a "bit player".

True enough but the publishers involved are US publishers.

Dale

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Robert,

Apple had absolutely nothing to do with the decision of a number of major publishers to go with the "agency model". You make it sound as though Apple are the "cause" of it. That is completely erroneous.

Apple had little to do with the agency pricing (Apple's market strength gave them the push to implement it), but everything to do with other bookstore's inability to offer discounts.

Agency pricing *should* allow bookstores to take a cut out of their 30% in order to entice customers. Doesn't, on its own, forbid a store from having lower agency prices than another store; a store that specializes in science fiction could contract for a lower rate for those books in exchange for higher rates on others. But Apple's "nobody gets lower prices than us" contract means a flat minimum across the industry--and that, not specifically the agency model--is what's causing the problems, as stores are scrambling to adjust their software to remove bargain-incentives they used to offer.

ETA: Astak's ebook store went live? Where? Google doesn't find it.

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

ETA: Astak's ebook store went live? Where? Google doesn't find it.

www.MyEZRead.com

Unfortunately, they seem to be affected also. The site is still streamlining it's software and the new prices, so be patient with the problems.

AJ

[Elfwreck]

Not worried about glitches; just want to look at the site. (Um. McCaffrey's Dragonseye is a romance/erotica book?)

And hmmm listings for individual books have raw html code in the description pages. And are all titled Welcome to MyEZRead.com.

And eek, all DRM'd, even books that are available elsewhere without DRM. (At least, they claim to be ADE books, regardless of DRM status. Including public domain books.) Supported devices list should mention PCs (or do people just know that you don't need an ebook device to buy & read the books?)

Don't mind me; I'm just rambling with initial thoughts on the site. As it's ADE-only, I'm not going to be buying from it because I don't buy DRM.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Apple had little to do with the agency pricing (Apple's market strength gave them the push to implement it), but everything to do with other bookstore's inability to offer discounts.

Agency pricing *should* allow bookstores to take a cut out of their 30% in order to entice customers. Doesn't, on its own, forbid a store from having lower agency prices than another store; a store that specializes in science fiction could contract for a lower rate for those books in exchange for higher rates on others. But Apple's "nobody gets lower prices than us" contract means a flat minimum across the industry--and that, not specifically the agency model--is what's causing the problems, as stores are scrambling to adjust their software to remove bargain-incentives they used to offer.

ETA: Astak's ebook store went live? Where? Google doesn't find it.

Dear Elf Wreck:

As mentioned, the new eBook Store (www.MyEZread.com) is a Soft Run. That means it works well but it is open only to Astak Dedicated Forum members. We did this for three reasons:

1. We love our forum members and so many wanted to see and try the new website. We went ahead to give them access.
2. We still want to have a live forum on the website run by our new eBook Specialists so people can respond, ask questions, make suggestions, read the Specialist's Book Reviews, see what others are reading, and get answers.
3. As always, Astak and I VALUE this forum here as a group of very learned eBook Reader and eBook lovers who really know what they want. We have taken about 50 posts to date and condensed them down to about 14 suggestions to improve the eBook Store and make it better. Those 14 recommendations will likely all get action. Things like PayPal and a better search, and better organized categories are already planned to be implemented. We also want to let people know what is DRMed and what is NOT.

In about a week we will send out press announcements, get listed with Google, and such. We are also in talks with Google now to add Google Editions (which would add upwards of 10 Million eBooks (some in other languages as well).

Google will find it soon enough.