Who has tried eReatah?

[KarateMonkey]

I just signed up. I'm looking at it for the moment as a speculative investment. I like the model, and I'm willing to take a chance on them getting popular enough to draw both a bigger catalog, and the attention of hackers who can build the tools we need to liberate books from the app itself. Until that happens, though, I'm not getting anything I'm really invested in keeping from them.

[Bryan Batten]

Hello Everyone! A quick introduction, I am Bryan Batten the founder of eReatah. I appreciate your interest and discussion around our service. I just stumbled upon this thread and thought I would offer up to answer any questions anyone may have. Please feel free to email me directly at Bryan.batten@ereatah.com
Best regards

[Bryan Batten]

Originally Posted by SteveK

I probably won't join, but I do find it intriguing that you supposedly always have access to any book you have previously downloaded, so that books you downloaded last month are still available this month, etc. Even if you cancel, you'll still have access to your previously downloaded books as long as you keep the app on your device, according to the FAQ.

I wonder how long it will be before this is changed, as essentially it almost seems like you're purchasing the book for $7.50, albeit with limited access in terms of devices.

Interesting, but I'm not sure the potential savings outweigh the drawbacks of limited access.

SteveK

Hi SteveK -
You are correct, once you download the book it is yours (within the limits of publisher mandated DRM). We have no plans to change the fact that you "own" the book.
As it stands now, you can access your books on up to six devices and those devices can be any Android device or iOS device. I hope you will give us a shot. We will work incredibly hard to ensure we create the best reading platform available. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
Bryan
Founder eReatah

[Bryan Batten]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Yeah, $7.50 per book for books where I can't download a file to use on my various devices doesn't appeal to me.

I hope you will give us a shot! We are looking into the ability for users to read downloaded books on various devices. Do you mind explaining exactly what you are looking to do so I can better explain to the team what we need to do?

Thanks
Bryan

[Bryan Batten]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

Wow, their subscription plans are kinda pricey.



I usually wait until a book is under $6 before I buy it, so this would end up costing me more. I am also surprised that there isn't a quantity discount for the premium plans. They are each $7.50 per book.

Hi!
This is Bryan Batten, the founder of eReatah. I believe that we provide tremendous value to our members. Over 80% of our books retail for over $8.99 and many (45%) are over $12.99.
Take a look at the service, we will work incredibly hard to make sure you enjoy it!
Bryan

[Bryan Batten]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Are we sure this is a legal site? If publishers won't let Amazon or B&N charge less than xx dollars for a book, how are these people getting away with it?

Hi Susan
This is Bryan Batten, eReatah's founder. I can ensure you that we are completely legal and in order to get the titles on our site we have to have contracts with all of the participating publishers that allows us to distribute their titles through a subscription model. We have been working with and is negotiations with publishers since 2011, so it has not been an easy path to get the allowance we now have! I hope everyone will check us out as we have worked hard on behalf of readers to be able to bring this model to you!
If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to me @ bryan.batten@ereatah.com

[Bryan Batten]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I will not sign up for book or magazine subscriptions that use proprietary apps. That is no different that DRM to my mind and a pain in the ass. If they want my business then I need to be able to read their offerings on my Kindle or Epub reader (preferably without DRM)

Hi Kenny
The DRM requirements are not set by the retailer but by the publishers. Retailers would not be allowed to provide certain publisher's titles without DRM.
Thanks
BRyan

[Bryan Batten]

Originally Posted by usuallee

Woof - selection just isn't there. There are a few well-known authors in there though, I was a little surprised Stephen King was there. But there is no way to search for a specific book/author as far as I could tell. Might be intriguing if the books could be liberated - if indeed we would be "purchasing" the books.

Hi Usualle
We are working hard to continually add major titles. We just added another major publisher last week and continue to add publishers everyday.
With regards to search we do in fact provide users the ability to search via the app and website
Send me a note to Bryan.batten@ereatah.com and I will send you some screen shots showing you the search. Or if you would like, I'd be happy to give you a quick demo of the service
Have a great weekend!
Bryan

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Bryan Batten

Hi!
This is Bryan Batten, the founder of eReatah. I believe that we provide tremendous value to our members. Over 80% of our books retail for over $8.99 and many (45%) are over $12.99.

Hi, welcome. You do realize that we at MobileRead are extremely good at store-hopping and feretting out discount coupons, so we can often buy retail books for under $2.99, sometimes even less, and if we're lucky, we get them for free during a promotion?

Not to burst your bubble, but we hardly ever pay full retail price around here, so to us, your service would seem expensive.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Are we sure this is a legal site? If publishers won't let Amazon or B&N charge less than xx dollars for a book, how are these people getting away with it?

Because you're not paying $7.50 per book, you're paying $15/month whether or not you get two books in any month.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Bryan Batten

Hello Everyone! A quick introduction, I am Bryan Batten the founder of eReatah.

Welcome to MobileRead. Thanks for taking the time to answer questions in this thread.

I hope you are successful in your venture. You seem to be targeting the moderate reader, offering just two to four books per month. I think a big limiting factor will be lack of availability of your titles on EInk based ebook readers. I'm also a little surprised that there's no discount going from the 2 to 4 book level. Indeed, it's $0.01 more expensive to sign up for 4 books than two 2 book subscriptions!

But I don't think it's for me (even if I was in the US). Over the past few years I've been buying an average of 10 to 15 ebooks per month, for average prices of $3 or so. There are very few authors/series where I'm willing to pay $7.50 or more.

Hmm... checking my records, I've only ever spent $7.50 or more on an ebook 63 times over the past ten years or so. That's only 2.8% of my purchases.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Hmm... checking my records, I've only ever spent $7.50 or more on an ebook 63 times over the past ten years or so. That's only 2.8% of my purchases.

Wow. Your details-OCD even far exceeds mine. Congratulations.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Wow. Your details-OCD even far exceeds mine. Congratulations.

It didn't take much effort. When I imported all my ebooks into calibre earlier this year I added a custom field for price, and added in the price I paid for books working from my email records. Now I just fill in that record whenever I import a book.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Bryan Batten

I hope you will give us a shot! We are looking into the ability for users to read downloaded books on various devices. Do you mind explaining exactly what you are looking to do so I can better explain to the team what we need to do?

Thanks
Bryan

If I'm tied strictly to your app it's a non-starter. If I can't download a book to my PC using "standard" DRM methods such as Adobe Adept so that the book can be used on a multitude of devices, especially a dedicated reader, then that's where I stop being interested. Even on a tablet I don't want to be tied to one reading app as it might not meet my needs.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by Bryan Batten

Over 80% of our books retail for over $8.99 and many (45%) are over $12.99.

Like Katsunami said, most of us don't buy books at retail prices. Kobobooks generally has lower-than-retail prices, and they give out a lot of discount codes. For example, throughout September, they had an unlimited 50% code that made me spend far more than I intended to.

Personally, if I look for a book, I will only get it if I have a discount code, or if it's on sale somewhere. So considering this, 7,50 for a book is expensive, because it's above what I typically pay for a novel.