Open Road price drops to $0.99

[koland]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

Sorry, no new 99 cent sale. I just thought I'd note that Open Road seems to have stopped giving away one of their public domain works daily, and now they are selling the selected item at 99 cents.

I saw that as well. And since the regular price is also $0.99, that means it is just a highlighted title, not even a sale priced item.

[bookmarked]

I was browsing my Amazon (US) wish lists today when I noticed that nearly all of the Open Road titles are marked "currently unavailable". I'd been puzzling over the reason for this when I remembered this sale from last year. Now I wonder if they're planning a repeat this year. I hope so.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

I was browsing my Amazon (US) wish lists today when I noticed that nearly all of the Open Road titles are marked "currently unavailable". I'd been puzzling over the reason for this when I remembered this sale from last year. Now I wonder if they're planning a repeat this year. I hope so.

Thanks for the "heads up." I've enjoyed several titles of theirs that I have bought. Please do keep us informed.

[elaysee]

Following an observation in another forum, I went and spot-checked some of the titles I've bought from Open Road Media at Amazon. While they still show up in My Content and Devices, they don't show the "You purchased this title on..." on the current product pages. I assume Open Road has given everything new ASINs or something. Caveat emptor, if you don't have a good external tracking setup for your purchases.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by elaysee

Following an observation in another forum, I went and spot-checked some of the titles I've bought from Open Road Media at Amazon. While they still show up in My Content and Devices, they don't show the "You purchased this title on..." on the current product pages. I assume Open Road has given everything new ASINs or something. Caveat emptor, if you don't have a good external tracking setup for your purchases.

I checked a few of my ORM ebooks purchased at B&N and Kobo, and they still show up as purchased when I examine them, so it must be changes to ASINs only. I used to sometimes spot check Amazon due to their December 2016 giveaway, I guess it's Calibre all the time now.

[sufue]

Yes, Open Road is definitely a really bad offender at issuing new "versions" that don't show up as previously purchased. Sometimes I even remember to mention this when talking about Open Road sales, but I forget and/or assume folks know this by now a lot too.

Most of the Open Road authors I like, I already have all the titles I want, so I don't really have to check. But when looking at the few authors I still want some titles from, I either have a list of the ones I need or I have my Kindle "Content and Devices" and Kobo "My Books" pages open so I can check for titles I've already purchased.

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I checked a few of my ORM ebooks purchased at B&N and Kobo, and they still show up as purchased when I examine them, so it must be changes to ASINs only. I used to sometimes spot check Amazon due to their December 2016 giveaway, I guess it's Calibre all the time now.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by sufue

Yes, Open Road is definitely a really bad offender at issuing new "versions" that don't show up as previously purchased. Sometimes I even remember to mention this when talking about Open Road sales, but I forget and/or assume folks know this by now a lot too.

Most of the Open Road authors I like, I already have all the titles I want, so I don't really have to check. But when looking at the few authors I still want some titles from, I either have a list of the ones I need or I have my Kindle "Content and Devices" and Kobo "My Books" pages open so I can check for titles I've already purchased.

I don't know if this will be of any help or not, but I am almost certain that ISBN numbers never change, whereas, as you remarked, ASIN numbers can and do.

My issue goes far beyond just Open Road titles--I have many ebooks, scattered over a large number of publishers, from a bunch of different vendors--from eBooks.com to Amazon.com to Westminster Theological Bookstore (back before they quit (apparently) selling ebooks)--and in all kinds of formats (many of them DRM Protected). And I don't remember well what I already have purchased.

I'm thinking of creating a table in Microsoft Word (A table is easier to create than a spreadsheet. Many times people think that they have to use a spreadsheet; from what I know, I think, however, that a table would suffice unless you need the computer to do calculations within the document.). In one column, I'd put the ISBN numbers--one for ISBN-8 numbers (if available) numbers and another one for ISBN-13 numbers (if available), the title, the authors' names (last name first) in separate columns ("fields?"), and maybe another category or two. Oh, of course by publisher (Open Road or whoever).

With a click or two, I could sort the entries(?) in the categories by ISBN *'s, titles, the author's name, publisher, whatever, alphabetically or numerically, of whatever I desire. So, with a click and a glance, I would be able to know what I have and where it is. The only fly in the ointment, that I can see, is that it would take a lot of time to make entries for the books that I already have.

Maybe there are programs like Calibre that would make it easier than that to make entries for books that I already have, add new entries, etc. With either system, it would keep me from buying a book again, that I already have.

Thoughts by anyone? (Mods: If there are more than one or two posts, I'll start a new thread.)

[gbm]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I don't know if this will be of any help or not, but I am almost certain that ISBN numbers never change, whereas, as you remarked, ASIN numbers can and do.

My issue goes far beyond just Open Road titles--I have many ebooks, scattered over a large number of publishers, from a bunch of different vendors--from eBooks.com to Amazon.com to Westminster Theological Bookstore (back before they quit (apparently) selling ebooks)--and in all kinds of formats (many of them DRM Protected). And I don't remember well what I already have purchased.

I'm thinking of creating a table in Microsoft Word (A table is easier to create than a spreadsheet. Many times people think that they have to use a spreadsheet; from what I know, I think, however, that a table would suffice unless you need the computer to do calculations within the document.). In one column, I'd put the ISBN numbers--one for ISBN-8 numbers (if available) numbers and another one for ISBN-13 numbers (if available), the title, the authors' names (last name first) in separate columns ("fields?"), and maybe another category or two. Oh, of course by publisher (Open Road or whoever).

With a click or two, I could sort the entries(?) in the categories by ISBN *'s, titles, the author's name, publisher, whatever, alphabetically or numerically, of whatever I desire. So, with a click and a glance, I would be able to know what I have and where it is. The only fly in the ointment, that I can see, is that it would take a lot of time to make entries for the books that I already have.

Maybe there are programs like Calibre that would make it easier than that to make entries for books that I already have, add new entries, etc. With either system, it would keep me from buying a book again, that I already have.

Thoughts by anyone? (Mods: If there are more than one or two posts, I'll start a new thread.)

That is one of the uses I have calibre for, it is always open and only takes a couple clicks to check for a book I already have.

bernie

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by gbm

That is one of the uses I have calibre for, it is always open and only takes a couple clicks to check for a book I already have.

bernie

What about:
1. DRM Protected books? I've heard something about a plug-in or some such . . . .
2. Books at Barnes & Noble, which books are no longer downloadable?

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I don't know if this will be of any help or not, but I am almost certain that ISBN numbers never change, whereas, as you remarked, ASIN numbers can and do.

My issue goes far beyond just Open Road titles--I have many ebooks, scattered over a large number of publishers, from a bunch of different vendors--from eBooks.com to Amazon.com to Westminster Theological Bookstore (back before they quit (apparently) selling ebooks)--and in all kinds of formats (many of them DRM Protected). And I don't remember well what I already have purchased.

I'm thinking of creating a table in Microsoft Word (A table is easier to create than a spreadsheet. Many times people think that they have to use a spreadsheet; from what I know, I think, however, that a table would suffice unless you need the computer to do calculations within the document.). In one column, I'd put the ISBN numbers--one for ISBN-8 numbers (if available) numbers and another one for ISBN-13 numbers (if available), the title, the authors' names (last name first) in separate columns ("fields?"), and maybe another category or two. Oh, of course by publisher (Open Road or whoever).

With a click or two, I could sort the entries(?) in the categories by ISBN *'s, titles, the author's name, publisher, whatever, alphabetically or numerically, of whatever I desire. So, with a click and a glance, I would be able to know what I have and where it is. The only fly in the ointment, that I can see, is that it would take a lot of time to make entries for the books that I already have.

Maybe there are programs like Calibre that would make it easier than that to make entries for books that I already have, add new entries, etc. With either system, it would keep me from buying a book again, that I already have.

Thoughts by anyone? (Mods: If there are more than one or two posts, I'll start a new thread.)

ISBN numbers can change if the publisher changes or if other details of the book change.

Although Calibre is really designed to manage ebooks, you could also use it to manage your physical books by adding dummy text files for your physical books and add tags like HC (hardcover), MMPB (mass market paperback), and TPB (trade paperback). It can even be the same text file, just create something with one line in your favorite text editor. I find it's slow to enter these entries from the Calibre GUI, especially if you're planning to enter a bunch. It seems faster to me to run

calibredb add -d -T HC -I isbn:978-1538744413 dummy.txt
  where -d means allow duplicates
           -T means tag
           -I means identifier

with all the print books you want to add, and then start up Calibre and select all the "print books" you've added and do a bulk download of the metadata and covers.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

ISBN numbers can change if the publisher changes or if other details of the book change.
<snip>

Oh yes, I meant the identical text. If the publisher changes or other details of the book change, the ISBN ought to change, so peeps can tell that there is a difference. I'm almost sure that different printings ("1st printing," "2nd printing," etc.) do not affect the ISBN; but at the same time, I'm just as sure that a new edition will cause a change in the ISBN, or at least it should.

An illustration of why that is important: back in the pre-ebook days, after much looking and comparing models I bought some bookcases. They were really just what I wanted. When I ran out of room on those bookcases for all of the books that I was accumulating, I special-ordered three more bookcases, made by the same manufacturer with the same model# as the ones that I had bought before. However, they had made a major change in the design so weren't just like the bookcases that I had ordered before! Not only did they have a design feature that I didn't want, they didn't match the bookcases that I already had. The upshot is: they should have changed the model #, so people would know (or suspect) that there was a difference in the bookcases. I did end up keeping them, largely to keep the (real nice) people from the furniture store having to return them to the manufacturer, or whatever. I actually called the manufacturer and told them how I didn't appreciate them making the change, but still keeping the same stock number. Instead of the representative apologizing, it was obvious that she was not happy about me complaining about it!

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

What about:
1. DRM Protected books? I've heard something about a plug-in or some such . . . .
2. Books at Barnes & Noble, which books are no longer downloadable?

Apprentice Alf can help with DRM (just Google) and I add my print books and suchlike as empty books (see add books menu). BTW the import list plugin was very handy for adding my previous database of print books to calibre.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I'm thinking of creating a table in Microsoft Word (A table is easier to create than a spreadsheet. Many times people think that they have to use a spreadsheet; from what I know, I think, however, that a table would suffice unless you need the computer to do calculations within the document.). In one column, I'd put the ISBN numbers--one for ISBN-8 numbers (if available) numbers and another one for ISBN-13 numbers (if available), the title, the authors' names (last name first) in separate columns ("fields?"), and maybe another category or two. Oh, of course by publisher (Open Road or whoever).

With a click or two, I could sort the entries(?) in the categories by ISBN *'s, titles, the author's name, publisher, whatever, alphabetically or numerically, of whatever I desire. So, with a click and a glance, I would be able to know what I have and where it is. The only fly in the ointment, that I can see, is that it would take a lot of time to make entries for the books that I already have.

I've always found spreadsheets easier for something like that, not because I think I have to use them. Sorting by columns is quite easy, but I haven't used Microsoft Word in a long time, so I have no idea how it compares to sorting tables in that. Even if sorting is similar in ease, if you end up with more than a couple of columns, spreadsheets are much easier to deal with. There's no set page size to deal with, so as you add columns, you just scroll horizontally, or simply full-screen the spreadsheet program to see more columns at once. Also, there's no padding in spreadsheet cells by default, while all the word processors I've used add padding by default to table cells. This means more rows and columns in the same amount of space. You can probably edit the table properties to remove all padding, however. Another thing that saves space: no margins in the spreadsheet. Not sure you can set them down to zero, but you can at least make them smaller in Word.

For something like this, which has no real personal info, I'd do it in a spreadsheet in Google Drive. That way I can access it from any computer with Internet access, and even on my phone if need be. I actually use spreadsheets for lots of things, and very few have calculations in them.

But you should use whatever you're most comfortable with, after all you're the one who has to maintain it.

[bookmarked]

Originally Posted by bookmarked

I was browsing my Amazon (US) wish lists today when I noticed that nearly all of the Open Road titles are marked "currently unavailable". I'd been puzzling over the reason for this when I remembered this sale from last year. Now I wonder if they're planning a repeat this year. I hope so.

I haven't gotten around to doing something about the dead items on my wishlists, but now I see that they're back to normal now. I wonder if Amazon redirected wishlisted Open Road items to new ASINs or if they undid whatever was done before?

It's starting to feel like the weird things social experiments Kobo does.

[bgalbrecht]

Open Road is having a sale today, mostly $1.99, some $0.99 or $2.99 for omnibus.

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