Fictionwise discontinues Buywise Club

[Graham]

Originally Posted by riemann42

I wonder if this means that FW is handling agency pricing by just not selling books from those publishers. In other words, those items missing from our wishlists may never come back.

My guess is that Fictionwise have insisted that their Buywise benefits must continue for existing members, and that since one of those benefits is 15% off all ebooks sold on the site they are negotiating madly with the 5 agency publishers to get that concession, or they'll keep them off the site.

Their Buywise page yesterday was updated to this:

http://www.fictionwise.com/help/buywise_message.htm

where they seem to make it clear that the 15% will continue to apply across the board until existing members' subscriptions expire.

Fictionwise have come in for a lot of stick on these boards over the last 24 hours, but you could also read the situation as theirs being the only site actually trying to put up a fight... we need to wait until the dust settles and see.

Graham

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Graham

Fictionwise have come in for a lot of stick on these boards over the last 24 hours, but you could also read the situation as theirs being the only site actually trying to put up a fight... we need to wait until the dust settles and see.

Graham

I think this is the last drop for a lot of people (at least for me, it is). I've been growing more and more dissatisfied with FW lately. There are less and less multiformat books and more and more geographic restricted books. They claimed it was only a small part of their catalog, but is about 99% of my choice of books. And the fact that I can't even filter those books out is even more annoying.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I think this is the last drop for a lot of people (at least for me, it is). I've been growing more and more dissatisfied with FW lately. There are less and less multiformat books and more and more geographic restricted books. They claimed it was only a small part of their catalog, but is about 99% of my choice of books. And the fact that I can't even filter those books out is even more annoying.

But again, your dissatisfaction stems from something that was imposed on FW from the outside.

I'm in the same boat, being in the UK, and now have to buy a lot elsewhere, but it's pretty easy to get round the lack of a filter on FW. Basically if it's multiformat you can buy it, if it isn't then it's 99% likely that it's got a geographic restriction so I don't even bother looking.

But I don't blame FW for that. I'm saddened, but not in a "that's the last drop" sort of way.

Graham

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Graham

But again, your dissatisfaction stems from something that was imposed on FW from the outside.

I'm in the same boat, being in the UK, and now have to buy a lot elsewhere, but it's pretty easy to get round the lack of a filter on FW. Basically if it's multiformat you can buy it, if it isn't then it's 99% likely that it's got a geographic restriction so I don't even bother looking.

But I don't blame FW for that. I'm saddened, but not in a "that's the last drop" sort of way.

Graham

Actually, part of it is something can do something about. Don't show me the collection that is not available to me. Now they keep saying they have these books I'd love to have only to find out in my cart that I can't buy them...

Also, I don't think they're working really hard at finding other options for readers not from the US and CA. At least at booksonboard they show what formats I can't buy (from publishers who only sell in the US, probably) but also formats which I can buy (different price, different publisher...)

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Actually, part of it is something can do something about. Don't show me the collection that is not available to me. Now they keep saying they have these books I'd love to have only to find out in my cart that I can't buy them...

Each book clearly states the geographical restrictions on its own page. You don't need to wait until you put it in your cart to find this out.

Also, if you click on Advanced Search one of the options is Geographic Availability. That may not replace a store-wide filter based on your location, but it's pretty good and shows they are trying.

Graham

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Graham

Each book clearly states the geographical restrictions on its own page. You don't need to wait until you put it in your cart to find this out.

Also, if you click on Advanced Search one of the options is Geographic Availability. That may not replace a store-wide filter based on your location, but it's pretty good and shows they are trying.

Graham

That might be so, but I still see those books when I go to the first page. If I'm not even able to buy them, then why would I want to see them? And always having to use the advanced search becomes highly annoying. I can't just search for author anymore, because I'll probably get 99% of unusable results back.

Also, I generally work from the search result list, and geographic restrictions isn't mentioned there...

[June]

Hmmm... I had a LONG wishlist that is now down to one page with 21 titles.

This in combination with the hoops I have to jump through wiht geographical restrictions, means I'm actually glad I did not renew my Buywise in December. :?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

That might be so, but I still see those books when I go to the first page. If I'm not even able to buy them, then why would I want to see them? And always having to use the advanced search becomes highly annoying. I can't just search for author anymore, because I'll probably get 99% of unusable results back.

Also, I generally work from the search result list, and geographic restrictions isn't mentioned there...

Sorry Sweetpea, because overall I'm agreeing with you about how sad it is that we can't buy what we want through FW anymore, but surely if you normally use the search results list to view your potential purchases why not use the advanced search?

The extra time it takes to apply the Geographic filter is vastly smaller than the time you spend reviewing the books, or wasted time spent clicking through or putting books in your cart.

Graham

[Sweetpea]

I never search by any of the fields of the advanced search. Only on last name or title... Or I just go to a certain category and see what is new...

I normally watch the new arrivals once week and then only search when somebody mentioned an author I had never heard of, or a book I had never heard of.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Graham

Fictionwise have come in for a lot of stick on these boards over the last 24 hours, but you could also read the situation as theirs being the only site actually trying to put up a fight... we need to wait until the dust settles and see.

Graham

Fictionwise hasn't told us what's going on -- so we don't KNOW. We know that out choice of books seems to have been changed for the worse. We don't know when or if that will get corrected. We don't know what Fictionwise is doing about it.

We know that one of our main reasons for buying books on Fictionwise has ended (or will when our memberships expire) -- we don't know what Fictionwise is doing about it.

Lee

[sassanik]

If I remember correctly Barnes and Noble had something a while back where if you paid a fee you got 20% off all your book purchases.

I am wondering if perhaps they are planning on transitioning the buywise club over to that plan or some variation of it.

My wish list went from 4 pages to 2 at FW and my list on BoB was also affected.

I am hopeful that FW and BoB are able to get everything worked out quickly.

I am also glad I live in US it sounds like the geographic restrictions are most annoying if you live outside the US.

[BuddyBoy]

Well it's the 4th and still no sign of umpteen titles removed last week. I'm wondering if they will ever come back or when they do they'll be purchasable with the 15% discount. My membership has another 3 years and seven months to go, and there doesn't appear to be any secured book that appeals to me that I can't find cheaper at Sony or Amazon.

[TallMomof2]

It is the week-end and Fictionwise is still a small shop. My best guess is that we should see something in the next day or two. I don't purchase much besides multiformat but there were a handful of books on my wishlist that I'm waiting for the price to drop.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

It is the week-end and Fictionwise is still a small shop. My best guess is that we should see something in the next day or two. I don't purchase much besides multiformat but there were a handful of books on my wishlist that I'm waiting for the price to drop.

Not only a weekend buy a holiday weekend. Many places had no work Friday or closed early. To many people are on Internet time.

BOb

[Scott Nicholson]

Fictionwise acting obscure and disconnected from its customers and authors?...hmm, why is this not news to me...

Scott Nicholson
http://hauntedcomputerbooks.blogspot.com