Free (Kindle DRM-free) The Library of Forgotten Books by Rjurik Davidson [SF/Fantasy]

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

But the 8.99 Bug Jack Barron is 9.28 - which is going the other way.

Huh. Maybe you're getting a 9.99 price as well, but adjusted downwards to Australian currency. That would seem about proportionate with 2.99 USD=2.78 AUS=92% of which 9.28 is 92% of 9.99.

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Open Road I am pretty sure I've mentally dismissed as not much of interest and way too expensive, so never knew they had stuff as generically fantasy like Hambly?

Apparently their CEO is ex-Random House or something and brought a list of the good authors to poach. They started out doing those literary fiction former "bestsellers" but now they've got Patricia C. Wrede and other genre people as well.

It's probably just as well. At least their books are discountable.

When Random House went Agency in Canada, not only did they remove the possibility of coupons and the regular discounts, but they also inflated some of the Canadian prices by an extra $2 off the existing base pre-discount list. I saw some of Hambly's mystery novels go from $6.99 suggested before discounts (at which point they'd been $5.59 or so at the standard Kobo pre-coupon price) to $8.99 in single day. I'd been slowly supplementing my hardcovers with the e-book editions when the good coupons came up, but no more of that now. I can spend that money getting her newest in the series out from Severn House who've picked her up, now that Random House has dumped her from their frontlist.

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Only in Australia, as far as I am aware. No idea how that makes sense given there is zero paper market to 'protect' for those - unless they are just trying to do that in general. Which is also $%^%!*#& stupid, of course as the Kindle Select cheap book goldmine just means reading and cash goes there or small presses instead. $14 for E. C. Tubb or D. G. Compton or whoever ebooks is clearly delusional.

I think they are trying to do that across the board, considering the asking prices of much older semi-obscure midlist backlist at new paperback-equivalent print prices for typo-riddled e-editions. To give a fun example, Barbara Hambly's Icefalcon's Quest, 5th in her increasingly inaccurately named Darwath Trilogy* came out in hardcover in the late 90s with a corresponding mass market paperback which would have cost some $8 or 9 CAD around that time.

How much are Random House asking for the e-book edition? $21 CAD. No, that is not a typo. Apparently they're trying to tie it to some form of hypothetical trade paperback reprint price. But to be fair I should point out that the Hambly books I have from them have generally had very nice typo-free editions which incorporated the original artwork for the chapter headers and the maps and good formatting. Though not $21 CAD worth of good formatting.

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

As far as Tor.com goes - I would have done that too, actually. They do still have free html ones which I am sure calibre or instapaper or something will snag for you in a few seconds if you fancy one converted as you are probably aware.

I'm lazy and I don't even bother reading the stories on the site any more. If they really want to put up barriers in my convenience in reading and spreading the word around what's essentially glorified promo material for their site and associated sales, I just don't care enough to bother jumping the hurdles and therefore I end up not reading their promo material or looking at the related stuff which might make them associated sales, much less telling other people about stuff I found there.

Which is probably mildly sad, because I did end up buying Charles Stross' Laundry series based upon the Tor.com tie-in stories back when they were still downloadable and maybe I'm missing out on a bunch of great stuff. But I just don't care anymore.

* Many things should take re-naming cues from Douglas Adams' marketing team.

[Blue Tyson]

Ah, 9.99 adjusted down, didn't think of that. Should have, given the standard action by booksellers is charge Australians more.

Nah, Tor USA doesn't really have great stuff anymore - except maybe Steven Brust (16th in a series or whatever hardly cutting edge). Unless you count Hannu Rajaniemi who Gollancz had first anyway.

They are extremely middle of the road dull now.

I've always read stories on the web, so that doesn't bother me in the slightest - saves time. Tend to read short stories at my desktop to start with.

But yeah, only look there now when someone mentions something, really.

Plus, Dark Horse and Comixology and DriveThru Comics and 2000 AD etc. all charge the same to everyone on the web - so the considerable amount of cash that would have gone to the price fixers basically goes to comic companies now.

[scrapking]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Plus, Dark Horse and Comixology and DriveThru Comics and 2000 AD etc. all charge the same to everyone on the web - so the considerable amount of cash that would have gone to the price fixers basically goes to comic companies now.

I do tend to see the same normal retails everywhere, but Comixology has big theme sales, and Kobo's discount codes work on them, so there are ways to save (and with Kobo's discount codes, you don't need to wait for sales as Kobo always has discount codes available if you hunt around online forums).

[Blue Tyson]

You mean if you have a Kobo device you can use their discounts there?

[ATDrake]

You don't even need a Kobo device to get the discounts in the Kobo store.

I actually have many more paid purchases from Kobo than Amazon because of the coupons, which I originally got by signing up for the newsletter, and now keep track of via the KoboBooks.com Discount Codes thread in the Kobo forum, which is very handy as everyone contributes their finds and someone keeps the first post up to date with latest valid coupons.

ETA: You probably can't use Kobo coupons in the Comixology store, if that was what you were asking, but the equivalent comics titles seem to be discountable in the Kobo versions.

[Blue Tyson]

Right, but that is just a small selection of what the others carry, isn't it? Still useful to know.

[Blue Tyson]

On the reverse exchange rate front :-

Sweet Justice: Selected Short Stories from…
By Neil Gaiman 2000 AD Books, November 2011 ISBN: 9781849973212
Download options: Adobe DRM EPUB

Buy this Book

* Price: $2.78

Is what you get in the search engine.


http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Sweet-Justice-Selected-Short-Stories/book-RhMo4EEgHkSZ8w6K0h-uzg/page1.html


But it was 3.80 when I went to buy it. This was 3.49 at Amazon (come down about 50% since they first put it up I think). So as you say, a better deal with a coupon - and possibly 3.99 and 3.80 with exchange rate at Kobo - which means their search engine is strange then.

As you say though, cheaper with a coupon.

[ATDrake]

Sometimes the initial pricing depends on your apparent IP (Kobo tries to match you up with a country) but once you're logged in it's supposed to give you the pricing that matches up with the address in your account, even if you're lying about it and/or "vacationing" overseas.

But sometimes the Kobo system is kind of wonky and their search engine is often made of fail anyway.

ETA: It says it's $3.49 CAD for me in Canada.

[Papi47]

Thank you for the link