Fictionwise has noticed the Sony

[CJBarrow]

I contacted Fictionwise to ask how they were progressing in converting their Multiformat books to lrf format and received the reply below yesterday afternoon.

Fictionwise started uploading Sony Reader files for MultiFormat titles last week.

Most of the MultiFormat titles published in the past year have Sony Reader files available now, and we are a little less than half-way through the process of creating .LRF files for our 16,000-title archive ... we hope to have Sony Reader files available for all our MultiFormat titles soon.

MultiFormat titles with Sony Reader files available will display [Sony Reader (LRF)] in the "Available eBook Formats" list on the eBook page.

This is an example of a MultiFormat eBook available in Sony Reader
format:

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook49171.htm

At this time, the Sony Connect store is the only place to purchase secure eBooks for the Sony Reader. Sony has not indicated any interest in changing this policy.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Fictionwise Support Team

[jasonkchapman]

Originally Posted by CJBarrow

[Quoting Fictionwise] At this time, the Sony Connect store is the only place to purchase secure eBooks for the Sony Reader. Sony has not indicated any interest in changing this policy.

That's okay, though. Thanks to Fictionwise, we now have a situation where market dynamics can do its job. Somewhere along the lines, whether or not they're ever released publicly, the FW sales for .lrf will be compared to the ConnSTORE sales for DRMed books. At that point, someone will likely have to make a decision, because I seriously doubt that Sony's Reader business plan is based strictly on selling hardware. They'll either settle for licensing "Works on Sony" secure e-books, or they'll pressure the publishers to change their ways. Hopefully, both.

No matter the result, it's a smart move for Fictionwise and I, for one, intend to reward them with my dollars. I have no idea what FW's annual sales are, but if a thousand of us spend an extra $200 with them this year, we ought to get noticed.

There's another possible bonus here, too. This may be one of the best things to happen to backlisted writers in a long, long time.

[astra]

How do I know whether a particular book is available in Sony format?

I am (a bit dense ) a little bit lost on Fictionwise.

[happyreader]

The Sony format falls under the category of Multiformat.

So if a book is listed as being available in Multiformat then you're good to go.

With one caveat. Fictionwise is still in the process of converting over their entire catalogue. If it's a newly offered title then it's already been done. The very oldest titles will be the ones that are converted last.

[HarryT]

If you display the details of a "Multiformat" book it will list the formats it's available in. You can look and see if that includes "Sony Reader LRF" yet or not.

[jasonkchapman]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

How do I know whether a particular book is available in Sony format?

I am (a bit dense ) a little bit lost on Fictionwise.

Stick with the Multi-Format books, as opposed to Secure e-books. If you do a search, the Advanced Search lets you filter the results by format.

The detail page on the Multi-Format books list the available formats like this:

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [170 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [7 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [8 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [82 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [79 KB], hiebook (KML) [61 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [44 KB], iSilo (PDB) [6 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [8 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [15 KB]

[astra]

OK. Thanks guys

[stustaff]

error ignore

[dhbailey]

I really appreciate these posts about FictionWise and their move to multi-format books which includes the LRF format.

I just bought a book there and was pleased with how it shows up on the reader so I bought a membership and plan on buying a lot more books there in the coming months.

It's good to have another source for ebooks at reasonable prices, formatted specifically for the Sony Reader.

[Ozric]

Yeah, I got a club membership at Fictionwise this week and it's awesome. Personally I prefer to buy their multiformat books in LIT form and convert them in case I ever want to read my purchases on a different device in the future that doesn't support LRF, but it's great they offer the format.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Ozric

Yeah, I got a club membership at Fictionwise this week and it's awesome. Personally I prefer to buy their multiformat books in LIT form and convert them in case I ever want to read my purchases on a different device in the future that doesn't support LRF, but it's great they offer the format.

You can redownload multiformat books in a different format if you change devices. This is a great advantage.

Dale

[Ozric]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

You can redownload multiformat books in a different format if you change devices. This is a great advantage.

Dale

Ah, I didn't know that...excellent. I'll probably still continue to download them as LIT's though