FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Fbone

If I read and return while keeping wifi off (to save battery), how does the author get paid? I download to PC transfer then return.

Does the Kindle remember past info? I do wish for authors/publishers to get credit for the borrow.

If you never turn wifi on, then it seems very unlikely that anyone but amazon is being paid for your KU reading, although presumably some of your subscription goes to authors whose KU books are reported as read.

Kindles monitor reading in fine detail and keep logs for a long time.

Someone that lives in California, which has a law requiring turning over data on customers that ask for it, asked for his data a got detained kindle reading information as a result. I have no idea whether this person kept wifi off most of the time or not.

One way to get an answer to your question would be for someone that lives in California or a place with a similar law, is in KU, and keeps wifi off most, but not all the time, to request their data, look through it and see if it has reading info for the KU books.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I rather doubt that it does. Amazon has to watch out for fraud, and books being opened, and then jumping to the last page it likely to be dismissed as fraudulent.

Correct, they'll see that you opened it, jumped to the last page and didn't spend enough time with it open to actually read it, so the author won't get any credit. Leaving the book open for a long time also won't work, because they still see the jump. To them it looks like you at best read the first and last page and nothing in-between. They're not going to pay the artist for that.

If they did, the program would be ripe for abuse, and absolutely would be abused.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I rather doubt that it does. Amazon has to watch out for fraud, and books being opened, and then jumping to the last page it likely to be dismissed as fraudulent.

Hmm. The scale that this would have to be done to actually be profitable for a self published author seems like it would be more work than the actual payoff. I know many people turn off the wifi to save battery life, so it would be a legitimate use if they downloaded the KU book, read it on their kindle and returned it again via wifi. That would then be flagged as fraud, even though it wasn't fraud. What then? Hmm?

Anyways, whatevs. Believe what you want.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by kyrilson

Hmm. The scale that this would have to be done to actually be profitable for a self published author seems like it would be more work than the actual payoff. I know many people turn off the wifi to save battery life, so it would be a legitimate use if they downloaded the KU book, read it on their kindle and returned it again via wifi. That would then be flagged as fraud, even though it wasn't fraud. What then? Hmm?

Anyways, whatevs. Believe what you want.

From what I understand of the process is that if you read a KU book on a Kindle with WiFi disabled, the next time you turn WiFi on and the Kindle syncs, the information will include the number of pages read, time read, etc. It's not as if your Kindle connects to Amazon for every page flip.

There have been quite a few successful attempts to game the KU reading stats which one of the reasons that Amazon is doing their best to keep the details of their current algorithms for KU payments a burn before reading secret.

The linked page is a few years old and the practices mentioned are of limited usefulness today but still worth reading: KU Scammers on Amazon – What’s Going On?.

Edit: Since this is horribly off topic for this thread, I'd suggest that we look at moving this discussion to the Amazon Kindle forum or the Lounge forum if it is to continue.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by Manabi

Correct, they'll see that you opened it, jumped to the last page and didn't spend enough time with it open to actually read it, so the author won't get any credit. Leaving the book open for a long time also won't work, because they still see the jump. To them it looks like you at best read the first and last page and nothing in-between. They're not going to pay the artist for that.

If they did, the program would be ripe for abuse, and absolutely would be abused.

Originally Posted by kyrilson

Hmm. The scale that this would have to be done to actually be profitable for a self published author seems like it would be more work than the actual payoff. I know many people turn off the wifi to save battery life, so it would be a legitimate use if they downloaded the KU book, read it on their kindle and returned it again via wifi. That would then be flagged as fraud, even though it wasn't fraud. What then? Hmm?

Anyways, whatevs. Believe what you want.

This has already been done, Amazon blacklisted several authors for doing this.

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon...ishing-system/

bernie

[Dr. Drib]

Maybe tomorrow will bring some new Sci-Fi ebook bargains.

Here's hoping...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RoGuE_StreaK

Pirates of Perilous, book 9 of John DeChancie's humorous fantasy series Castle Perilous, is currently "free" under Kindle Unlimited (is that Aus only?), otherwise US$3.22; the previous 8 books are all still around US$9ish.
Unfortunately I use a Kobo Touch purely with epubs, and having never used the Kindle ecosystem I don't want to sign up only to find I can't convert it after purchase; I'd happily purchase for someone else if they can make a non-drm epub for me? I haven't been able to find it in any other digital format / platform, and I'm just finishing re-reading the preceeding 8 books.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Pirates-Pe.../dp/B017IJPR8U

I checked on Amazon US and UK and just the 9th book is available on Kindle Unlimited.

[piperclassique]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I rather doubt that it does. Amazon has to watch out for fraud, and books being opened, and then jumping to the last page it likely to be dismissed as fraudulent.

Ah. Better not do that again, then. How about on a Kindle app with wifi on some of the time, including as i get near to the end?

Sent from my YAL-L21 using Tapatalk

[RoGuE_StreaK]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I checked on Amazon US and UK and just the 9th book is available on Kindle Unlimited.

Yeah sorry that may have been unclear, I was saying that the other 8 books are only available via purchase and at a higher/"normal" price, around the US$9 mark. I haven't read #9 yet (I'm currently back onto DeChancie's brilliant Skyway trilogy), but typically the Castle books are reasonably stand-alone, so you could try #9 and happily go back to the others at another time.

I highly recommend the Skyway trilogy, but they are also still around the US$9 mark; #3, Paradox Alley, works pretty well as a stand-alone, so if you want to dabble you could start with #3 and then if (when) you get bitten, go back to #1 and #2 to get the full backstory. I originally stumbled on the paperback of #3, and only found the other two at least a decade later.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by RoGuE_StreaK

Yeah sorry that may have been unclear, I was saying that the other 8 books are only available via purchase and at a higher/"normal" price, around the US$9 mark. I haven't read #9 yet (I'm currently back onto DeChancie's brilliant Skyway trilogy), but typically the Castle books are reasonably stand-alone, so you could try #9 and happily go back to the others at another time.

I highly recommend the Skyway trilogy, but they are also still around the US$9 mark; #3, Paradox Alley, works pretty well as a stand-alone, so if you want to dabble you could start with #3 and then if (when) you get bitten, go back to #1 and #2 to get the full backstory. I originally stumbled on the paperback of #3, and only found the other two at least a decade later.

If you check on https://earlybirdbooks.com/, usually every saturday they publish (and send via email) a number of offers in different fields (History, Science Fiction, Mystery etc.) You can subscribe to those you are interested into.
I often find there offers about the Castle Perilous books, greatly discounted. Others too. I bought them all a long time ago from FictionWise (long long time ago) and they were quite nice, worth also of re-reading as they are not mastodontic books of 1.000 pages.
If you are interested it is worthwhile to sign for an email newsletter on these offers.
After a while they are mostly the same ebooks, but a good percentage change from time to time. I found some very good offers.

Bruno

[salty-horse]

Hey, look! A book deal!

Limit of Vision by Linda Nagata is $0.99 on Amazon.com

Virgil Copeland is a young scientist working in a lab in Honolulu. With his research team, he’s developed an artificial life-form known as “LOVs,” an acronym for Limit Of Vision, because in size LOVs are just at the boundary of what the human eye can easily see.

LOVs contain bioengineered human neurons. They enhance brain function when implanted in test animals. Experimentation on humans is, of course, highly illegal. But it's the nature of brilliant and ambitious young minds to ignore the rules. Believing the LOVs to be perfectly safe, Virgil and his team experiment on themselves, using implanted LOVs to enhance their own cognitive abilities—until tragedy strikes, and the experiment is exposed.

In a desperate attempt to preserve the last of the LOVs, Virgil flees Honolulu. He takes refuge in the steamy Mekong Delta, where he finds unexpected allies: a maverick businessman, a defiantly independent journalist, and an artificial intelligence charged with overseeing the welfare of a tribe of homeless children. Together this unlikely group resolves to preserve and nurture Virgil’s LOVs—only to find themselves swept up in a whirlwind of runaway biotechnology, with compounding consequences ever more bizarre and unforeseeable.

[JSWolf]

And yet another eBook deal. WOO HOO!

Intervention by Julian May for $1.99

For 60,000 years, the worlds of the Galactic Milieu have observed Earth, waiting for humanity to evolve sufficiently to join them. Now, humanity is almost ready for Intervention. Across the world, children with unusual mental powers are being born, known as operants. One such is Rogi Remillard, humble book dealer. Helped by an entity he labels the family ghost, Rogi will inadvertently steer his family – and so all mankind – into the future.

Rogi's journey starts with his nephew Denis, as he guides his strong metapsychic abilities. The young man's irresponsible father certainly isn't interested, focusing instead on his volatile son Victor. Yet Victor's own emerging powers make him increasingly dangerous. Events take a dark turn when Victor starts consorting with criminals, eventually setting his sights on undermining society itself. Only his family can bring him down, but Denis may be forced to call to the stars for help.

Kobo
Google
Amazon

[Tarana]

Beauty By Robin McKinley $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Don't know this author but my cousin liked this book which is a rewrite of the Beauty and the Beast story.

Dawn By Octavia E. Butler $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
I've never read anything by this author but I know she's popular!

Also, if you are filling in Diskworld titles by Terry Pratchett, Amazon has been dropping prices on random ebooks in that series. Not as low as last December for the most part. Pyramids, The Truth, Hogfather and Witches Abroad are all $4.99.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Beauty By Robin McKinley $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Don't know this author but my cousin liked this book which is a rewrite of the Beauty and the Beast story.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OGWASXC/

Not to be confused with Rose Daughter, McKinley's second retelling of the same story.
Jo Walton covered both on Tor.com Two Beauties, Two Beasts: Robin McKinley’s Beauty and Rose Daughter

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And yet another eBook deal. WOO HOO!

Intervention by Julian May for $1.99



Kobo
Google
Amazon

"WOO! HOO!" ? --- I didn't know you had this in you, Jon.

OK, 'humor' aside. Has the Kindle version improved since 2012? (See the first review from "Anonymous Coward" at Amazon U.S.A.)