MyEZread.com eBook Store LAUNCHING!!

[rhadin]

Robert,

I was all set to make a purchase but you only offer the second book in a trilogy, not the first -- which is available as an ebook. In my case I was looking for Fiona McIntosh's Vasilar Trilogy books volumes 1 and 2 (volume 3 is not yet published) but you are missing Royal Exile, the first volume. Buying the second without the first is kind of pointless.

A suggestion on ways to search. One of my gripes with Fictionwise is the poor searching. I think it would be helpful, especially in science fiction and fantasy where authors tend to write series, to be able to search for first books in a series. I like to browse through series, find the ones that interest me, and then buy the complete series. Being able to search for only first books in a series would aid that.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by polly

Just some general comments:

I agree that it would be nice to be able to search by format, since I greatly prefer ePub over pdf.

Some of the book description pages didn't code correctly. Several of the ones that I looked at had html markup on them. Others were walls of text that were hard to make out on the screen. I looked some of those books up in Amazon and found the same description with better formatting.

It would be really nice if you had one entry for a book with all of the formats available, especially for the more prolific authors. I noticed with Anne McCaffrey, for instance, that one book might show up several times, sometimes in pdf and other times in ePub. It would be much easier if I could choose the book and then click on one of the formats to purchase that format.

It becomes a little tedious going through an author's works when there are several copies of the same title scattered throughout. See also above.

It would be nice if the author searches were a little more precise. I wouldn't have expected that searching on Connie Willis would bring up every Connie in your database. It appeared that most of the actual Connie Willis books were near the top, but I spotted a few further in. I don't think people will have the patience for this.

Some of the books are missing covers on the search display page and had a generic MyEZRead cover instead. Clicking on other covers opened the descriptions page, but with these books you could only click the More Info button.

It would be easier to search if there were two search bars, one for author and one for title. Yours seems to default to title and I often search on author, so that became an annoyance.

I'm impressed that it handles misspelled words well and produces titles even though they aren't exact matches. I do wish that the search remained visible in the search bar though, so that I could adjust it if I didn't get quite what I expected.

The prices are great and the search engine is very fast.

I'm not sure how you do it, but I would recommend getting your bookstore included in searches by www.inkmesh.com and http://ebooks.addall.com. Both of them are great places to comparison shop for books. Your prices are competitive, but people still have to find you.

Hope this is helpful.

Dear Polly:

Of course it is helpful! Very helpful!! The eBook Specialists will look into all your comments. Yes, I agree that I also can get flustered when I search for one author and it brings up pages of other authors also with similar names. Make sure you type in BOTH names of the author... that helps a bit.

I, myself, will go to the two links and see about getting us up on there. That is VERY kind of you and I can use the help!

Remember, this is a Soft Run for MobileRead Forum. In two weeks we will launch press releases and do email blasts. We are trying to get banner ads here on MobileRead also.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Robert,

I was all set to make a purchase but you only offer the second book in a trilogy, not the first -- which is available as an ebook. In my case I was looking for Fiona McIntosh's Vasilar Trilogy books volumes 1 and 2 (volume 3 is not yet published) but you are missing Royal Exile, the first volume. Buying the second without the first is kind of pointless.

A suggestion on ways to search. One of my gripes with Fictionwise is the poor searching. I think it would be helpful, especially in science fiction and fantasy where authors tend to write series, to be able to search for first books in a series. I like to browse through series, find the ones that interest me, and then buy the complete series. Being able to search for only first books in a series would aid that.

Dear rhadin:

We will try! We, of course, buy most of our content from a wholesaler. That may change as we get more into this. For now, we have what the wholesaler sends. I will let the eBook Specialists hunt for what you want!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by gastan

I'm sorry but this just plain confuses me. Free? Geographical purchasing restrictions?

Dear Gastan:

I am with you on this. It seems very weird to me that a Global Powerhouse like Google places geographuical restrictions but they do. I KNOW they have their free eBook library all over the world but then they chop it up into tiny segments for each eBook Seller.

We are working on this and trying to get some more freedom. Just please remember that Google sets the rules and not us. We have to beg!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I see that you've not yet taken on board the new Agency pricing model.

http://www.myezread.com/book.asp?EAN=9787770641190

That is a link to I, Alex Cross. You have it at $16.99 and the price is supposed to be $14.99 under the new agency pricing.

Dear JS:

Good point and smart thinking. You are well informed. BUT, we deal with a wholesaler who has to tell us what titles are affected and what the pricing for the Agency Model is. I wrote this morning and they are trying to get me what I need so I can make the changes.

We WILL be complying, of course!!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by SpunkieNeutron

Since you offer multiple formats, I would recommend providing the ability to filter which formats show up during a search or through browsing a category.

Dear Spunkie:

eBook Specilists already looking into this!!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear JS:

Good point and smart thinking. You are well informed. BUT, we deal with a wholesaler who has to tell us what titles are affected and what the pricing for the Agency Model is. I wrote this morning and they are trying to get me what I need so I can make the changes.

We WILL be complying, of course!!

If I am not mistaken books are affected from the following publishers...

Macmillan
Simon & Schuster
Harper-Collins
Hachette
Penguin

I double checked this list from the article at Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...561517284.html.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by QIbHom

I'm sorry, Robertb, I wasn't clear. I was thinking of the box on the upper right hand side that has author, title, etc., when I'm in the record of a book. Click on author there.

P'Terry is an affectionate fan nickname for Terry Pratchett.

I really need to be more clear. My apologies.

Dear QIbHom:

You are a favorite of mine and always do fine posts. You are just fine and I am happy to get the full name!!

Thank you!!

[Robertb]

Dear All:

I am leaving for a long-needed mini-vacation but will be back Monday. In the meanwhile, our eBook Specialists are monitoring this thread and establishing a good interface for commenst and ideas and suggestions. Keep your comments coming!!

[Davimee]

Enjoy your well deserved time off! I hope you're able to leave work at work, and just relax while you're away.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

How different do ADE epub and pdfs look in comparison? I have only bought epubs. Anyone able to provide screenshots or verbally mention the difference in terms of reading?

I prefer epubs over pdfs. They are much easier to read on the pc via ADE

[cfrizz]

The site looks great Robert & so does the pricing! One thing I would like to see is, for a series of books for example Fern Michaels The Sisterhood series, would it be possible to list them in the correct order that they came out in? I don't want to read book 3 before I read book 2.

Thanks.

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear All:

I am leaving for a long-needed mini-vacation but will be back Monday. In the meanwhile, our eBook Specialists are monitoring this thread and establishing a good interface for commenst and ideas and suggestions. Keep your comments coming!!

I'm glad to see the site up and running. It is obviously experiencing growing pains. I did a search for books by Stephen King and only got about three of his many titles. When I searched for his work by title I discovered they are there. When I bought one--Rose Madder--it took the payment but failed to download the book. I got this message instead:

The requested eBook title cannot be downloaded at this time due to difficulty in communicating with the retail site. Please try again later.

Of course you aren't officially open for business until tomorrow so I will try again later.

I like the looks of your store and the search speed is very fast.

[6charlong]

I hate to post right after my last post but I came to the Astak page first and missed Jon's post above about the Agency Model pricing. Apparently all the eBook stores on the internet are giving people the same error message I got on the Astak site. I guess we'll have to wait until the publishers tell us what price eBooks are going to be.

Bad luck.

[tmclough]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If I am not mistaken books are affected from the following publishers...

Macmillan
Simon & Schuster
Harper-Collins
Hachette
Penguin

I double checked this list from the article at Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...561517284.html.

If this is correct, then I retract my former to S&S.
And a big, fat to Apple for encouraging such behavior amongst the publishers mentioned, in the first place. (I would have preferred a different digit, but I don't believe that one is available.)