Great News! Amazon scores more ebook exclusives

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Not for long. Amazon is already working on a web-based Kindle app. The beta is for samples, the full version will allow reading of full books.

Am I the only one to have the thought that this is their answer to Apple wanting to close off the iDevices to apps that don't sell through the iStore?

They must have started development before the kerfluffle, still, that's what popped into my head when I saw it.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

Am I the only one to have the thought that this is their answer to Apple wanting to close off the iDevices to apps that don't sell through the iStore?

It's much more likely they started it because of Google. They were saying well over a year ago that their ebook implementation will run through a browser.

[EowynCarter]

...or a Windows PC, or a Mac, or an iPad, or an iPhone, or a Blackberry, or an Android phone, or a Windows phone...

I read book on my opus, or my orizon.
No can read on the orizon, no will buy. Period.

Exclusive = bad !

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

ever encounter the situation where a bookstore did not carry any books from a particular publisher because the publisher cut a deal with a different store?

That's not the same issue at all. I see that sometimes Target as an extended version of a CD. I can go to Target and buy it and it will work on my CD player. I cannot go to Amazon and buy an eBook and have it work on my 650. I can go to this other bookstore, buy the pBook and read it the same as if I bought it at another bookstore.

And I do hear what you are trying to express. I too wish there was a genuinely open format w/o DRM but that is not the real world and never will be. So best I see we can do is work with what we have. In that light Kindle books are no less open than DRM'd EPUB. Both have reader apps which work on pretty much all platforms, even Sony is taking a whack at a reader app these days.

I don't mind it when there is a Kindle version and an ePub version. I do mind it when there is a Kindle version only. Sure, I can strip the DRm and convert. But why should I have to go through the hassle of having to convert? Also, sometimes the eBook is better in ePub. For example, the Lord of the Rings eBooks are better in ePub then Mobipocket as the graphics are better. Sometimes the formatting is better. I've read eBooks in ePub that make use of some feature that Mobipocket doesn't have. So if I bought the Kindle version, I'd have a lesser reading experience. Also, I don't want to buy from Amazon. I have seen some Mobipocket eBooks where the graphics were too tiny and that spoiled the eBook as the graphics were important to be able to see.

So, I don't see the issue other than a given brand of store owned reader does not read the format of the other company. Yet is someone owns a device that is not branded to a bookstore odds are high there is the ability to run an app for both.

So where is the Kindle app for my 650? There isn't one. And to be honest, I don't want one for it. I want ePub. So basically, Amazon is trying to wall off as many eBooks as they can from millions of people. Lots of people have a reader that's not a Kindle. It could be a Sony, nook, Pocketbook, Astak, iRex, etc. They don't handle Kindle eBooks. There is no add-on app for them. And to top it off, lots of people do not know how to strip DRM. They do not know how to convert. They do not know how to fix up the formatted due to the conversion. It's not a good thing to try to keep eBooks locked away from people. Amazon is basically trying to keep eBook out of the hands of people that did not purchase a Kindle or use a device to read that has a Kindle app.

Like I wrote, I hear what you are saying, just it's not gonna work that way, yet. Critical mass in terms of ebook sales has yet to be achieved. Plus I have yet to find a book I wanted that Amazon has not carried yet another bookstore did. Long as this is the case, I don't care and I expect to be long dead before that is a real issue, if it ever becomes one.

It would work fine if the publishers did not allow Amazon to do these exclusive deals. The publisher would sell more eBooks if they had them available to more people. To be honest, if I did purchase an exclusive eBook from Amazon, I would convert it to ePub and pirate the hell out of it just to let it be for other people who do not have access to it otherwise.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I don't understand why so many people don't seem to understand this. It's not about revenue. It's about profit.

The more people who have access to a given eBook and can buy it, the more profit the publisher will make. That's why it's ass backwards to do an exclusive deal with Amazon. Sorry to the author, but you deserve to be screwed over (pirated) like you are screwing over others for making this bad deal.

J.A. Konrath is screwing over fans big time. The latest book in the Jack Daniels series is only available via amazon and that's I think 4 months before the pBook comes out. So to fans who don't read Mobipocket and do not convert, they are screwed. That's just one example.

[pholy]

From post 94 - the whole post. It's just too long to quote fully.:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's not the same issue at all. I see that sometimes Target as an extended version of a CD. I can go to Target and buy it and it will work on my CD player. I cannot go to Amazon and buy an eBook and have it work on my 650. I can go to this other bookstore, buy the pBook and read it the same as if I bought it at another bookstore.

...snip...

It would work fine if the publishers did not allow Amazon to do these exclusive deals. The publisher would sell more eBooks if they had them available to more people. To be honest, if I did purchase an exclusive eBook from Amazon, I would convert it to ePub and pirate the hell out of it just to let it be for other people who do not have access to it otherwise.

I have to agree with Jon here -

Darn, I hate it when that happens. But he is right, this time.

[snipenekkid]

Ebooks are not sold like other products and I don't see it changing. I see what the analogy was trying to point out but, to me, it just does not apply.

Everyone might not like exclusive deals but usually it's just those who have the "other device" and can't read the format. Also many of these deals are time limited. Same thing happened with Pearl panels when Eink released them. Only Sony & Amazon had them for a number of months. No different than a period of exclusivity of a given ebook either at the time of hardback release or prior to the hardback release. Odds are the book will be out in EPUB when the HB is released.

This is just business. Some stores get exclusive rights to a product either for all time or for a specific period. Happens all the time and if there is not a store in your area which is part of the deal you go without it. Stop all the feet and hold your breath all we want but it's not gonna change a thing.

If the manufacturers (publishers) felt this was going to lose them money they would not make such a deal.

Personally I suspect these are all still in the excremental, errrr, experimental stage. We'll see exclusivity deals with different authors and ebook sellers over time. Some authors have many more Kindle readers than those who use EPUB readers.

It's not that big a deal as it's not like they are taking away your birthday. Think of it as tantric sex. Delaying the gratification makes it all the better once you get your turn!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

Ebooks are not sold like other products and I don't see it changing. I see what the analogy was trying to point out but, to me, it just does not apply.

Everyone might not like exclusive deals but usually it's just those who have the "other device" and can't read the format. Also many of these deals are time limited. Same thing happened with Pearl panels when Eink released them. Only Sony & Amazon had them for a number of months. No different than a period of exclusivity of a given ebook either at the time of hardback release or prior to the hardback release. Odds are the book will be out in EPUB when the HB is released.

This is just business. Some stores get exclusive rights to a product either for all time or for a specific period. Happens all the time and if there is not a store in your area which is part of the deal you go without it. Stop all the feet and hold your breath all we want but it's not gonna change a thing.

If the manufacturers (publishers) felt this was going to lose them money they would not make such a deal.

Personally I suspect these are all still in the excremental, errrr, experimental stage. We'll see exclusivity deals with different authors and ebook sellers over time. Some authors have many more Kindle readers than those who use EPUB readers.

It's not that big a deal as it's not like they are taking away your birthday. Think of it as tantric sex. Delaying the gratification makes it all the better once you get your turn!

It is a big deal. It means a lot of fans who supported the author are getting screwed over. This is why if I bought it, I'd pirate the eBook all to hell and back. I'd even offer it to anyone on MR who wanted it if that was allowed.

There is no indication that these exclusive deals are time limited and even still, we don't know the time. So why should we be waiting some unknown amount of time for an eBook we never should have had to wait for in the first place?

Let's say you were reading the Jack Daniels series and you were reading it in ePub and then it comes out in AZW and you cannot strip the DRm or convert. You'd not be happy to find out that you are now denied access to an eBook you really want.

But overall, all exclusive deals do is piss people off and make a mess of eBooks even more so then we have now. I mean if Amazon had gone with ePub and the standard adept DRM, then there would be very little fragmentation in the eBook market. It would be Apple and B&N and everyone else. So really, we do have to blame exclusivity and the fragmentation we have on Amazon. So basically, we have Apple in one corner causing the agency model and Amazon in the other causing exclusivity and fragmentation.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But overall, all exclusive deals do is piss people off and make a mess of eBooks even more so then we have now. I mean if Amazon had gone with ePub and the standard adept DRM, then there would be very little fragmentation in the eBook market. It would be Apple and B&N and everyone else. So really, we do have to blame exclusivity and the fragmentation we have on Amazon. So basically, we have Apple in one corner causing the agency model and Amazon in the other causing exclusivity and fragmentation.

Are you going to lend them your time machine to allow them to have used a format that didn't exist when they were developing the first Kindle?

[DMSmillie]

No-one's being "screwed over". Except the authors whose works you copy and distribute illegally because you're throwing a tantrum. No-one's being "denied access" to these "exclusive deal" books, either - as has been pointed out ad nauseam Kindle ebooks can be read on a wide range of devices. Hardly Amazon's responsibility if you choose not to use any of the free apps they provide. I'd suggest it's a rare e-reader owner who doesn't also have either a PC or a Mac.

Just when did the law get written that says that JSWolf MUST be able to read EVERY ebook on HIS personal choice of e-reader?

[pholy]

I notice the people arguing for Amazon exclusive deals all have Kindles...

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by pholy

I notice the people arguing for Amazon exclusive deals all have Kindles...

Easy point to score, and a lazy one, based on the assumption we'd be arguing differently if the exclusive deal was with Barnes & Noble, for example. No way for anyone to prove it one way or the other.

I bought a Kindle because it fits my requirements. I choose not to get into DRM stripping, but I don't go wailing all over the place because I can't read DRM'd ebooks that are published only in EPUB format. The choice of ereader was mine, and the choice of format and retailer is the author/publisher's.

I've got no problem with the notion that the ideal is for all ebooks to be available in all formats. I'd wholeheartedly agree with that.

I do have a problem, though, with the notion that publishing an ebook in just one format, through one major retailer, is somehow evil, and deserves to be punished by having the books pirated and distributed indiscriminately; and in particular I have a problem with the constant misinformation that it is "denying access" to those books for those without a Kindle, when that patently isn't true.

The fact that I dislike that kind of dishonest argument doesn't mean I'm "in favour of" Amazon exclusive deals, as implied by the quote above. I'm simply not willing to accept that this kind of exclusive deal - with any major retailer - is the monstrous evil being portrayed here.

[kjk]

I don't have a Kindle (yet ), but I also don't really have that much of an issue with exclusives. But I'm used to them from the console game wars.

[LCF]

Originally Posted by kjk

I don't have a Kindle (yet ), but I also don't really have that much of an issue with exclusives. But I'm used to them from the console game wars.

Yeah, at least with books the whole exclusive thing can be (fairly simple and arguably illegal) circumvented. Try playing a Playstation exclusive on the PC.


.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Are you going to lend them your time machine to allow them to have used a format that didn't exist when they were developing the first Kindle?

ePub didn't exist when Sony made their readers. But Sony did go the ADE route. There was nothing stopping Amazon from doing the same thing.