Fictionwise Can Be a Good Deal Even Without a Sale

[Marcy]

I didn't think Fictionwise was ever a good deal without their super sales, but I just realized they can be competitive or even a super deal on the right books.

I just bought Riverworld for $4.69 in Micropay dollars. It's $9.99 at amazon and not available anywhere else that I can find yet. It was also $9.99 at Fictionwise, but was 15% off for being a new book, 15% off for my Buywise membership and had a 35% rebate even when paying in Micropay. Pretty good deal.

There are many other new (to Fictionwise) books at $7.99 ($3.75 after discounts) and $6.99 ($3.28 after discounts). If you are into romance they get even cheaper.

It kind of made up for the 2 new 100% rebate books that I want being available only in ereader. What a useless format. I have ereaders from three different manufacturers and not one supports it.

-Marcy

[JSWolf]

So if you want eReader support, get a nook. But you have better devices then a nook.

[Croptop]

Originally Posted by Marcy

It kind of made up for the 2 new 100% rebate books that I want being available only in ereader. What a useless format. I have ereaders from three different manufacturers and not one supports it.

I take advantage of the sales by buying the eReader books and converting them to ePub.

Of course, with the new "Agency" pricing model coming in, it looks like I'll be getting all of my reading material from my public library from now on.

[JSWolf]

Fictionwise is going to hell fast. They are doing away with buywise and discounts. Apple computer has single-handedly screwed eBooks for generations to come.

[MikhailT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Fictionwise is going to hell fast. They are doing away with buywise and discounts. Apple computer has single-handedly screwed eBooks for generations to come.

Single-handedly? Please tell me exactly with facts how they did that? You honestly think Apple put guns on the publishers' head and told them to change or they'll shoot them?

The publishers wanted this for a long time, they are the one making the deal. If they didn't want it, they could easily just say no.

The only reason they haven't change this in the past is because Amazon was the big boss with the largest market of eBooks and devices. The publishers didn't have a choice. If Google came in and would make something like iPad, they would've change to the agency model as well because now Amazon can't control them.

[JSWolf]

The reason it's Apple's fault is that Apple allowed this. Nobody else did.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So if you want eReader support, get a nook. But you have better devices then a nook.

I can't stand the nook. What's the point of the silly LCD screen at the bottom? That would only distract me. To my surprise I've found my favorite device is the Pocketbook 360. If it only had a decent dictionary it would be absolutely perfect for me.

-Marcy

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by Croptop

I take advantage of the sales by buying the eReader books and converting them to ePub.

Of course, with the new "Agency" pricing model coming in, it looks like I'll be getting all of my reading material from my public library from now on.

Is there some way to do this other than ereader2html? Because I find it a total pain and gives me a document that still needs a lot of work to convert to epub. I will buy *any* format except ereader. Even .lit is totally easy to convert into a perfect epub.

-Marcy

[riemann42]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The reason it's Apple's fault is that Apple allowed this. Nobody else did.

Everybody allowed it. If you want to blame anyone, blame Amazon. Amazon is the one that set the 9.99 standard for ebook pricing, selling eBooks at a loss at times.

I am worried about Fictionwise and eReader.com. If they can't give micropay rebates, then they can't compete on price. If they can't compete on price, then what's the point? The site has poor selection and isn't nearly as clean as other sites (like kobo).

Marcy, I have a nook and I like it. The touchscreen does turn off while reading, and makes page turns quick and easy.

As far as converting ereader docs goes, I recommend erdr2pml, then ebook-convert to convert it.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by riemann42

I am worried about Fictionwise and eReader.com. If they can't give micropay rebates, then they can't compete on price. If they can't compete on price, then what's the point? The site has poor selection and isn't nearly as clean as other sites (like kobo).

Kobo? Are you kidding? I think they are a horrible ebook site. Their search is crappy because it uses OR instead of AND and they don't have a cart! If you want to buy 10 books you have to buy each one, one at a time. Poor implementation.

Originally Posted by riemann42

Marcy, I have a nook and I like it. The touchscreen does turn off while reading, and makes page turns quick and easy.

As far as converting ereader docs goes, I recommend erdr2pml, then ebook-convert to convert it.

I've discovered I like my readers simple. The simpler the better. I don't like the Kindle because of the useless keyboard. It makes the device bigger for no reason. My 2 favorites are my PRS-900 and my Pocketbook360 because they are essentially all screen. They have no extraneous real estate outside the reading area. I though I would miss the touch screen to turn pages on the Pocketbook but I don't. Since it rotates 360, I can put the page turn button wherever it is convenient.

Thanks for the ebook-convert info! I was using erdr2pml, then xpml2xhtml and that gave a mess. Just importing the pml into Calibre and converting from there is much easier! Now I can actually buy the ereader books if they are the only option! Thanks again!

-Marcy

[nikkers]

I read on an ipaq pda running windows mobile. I have mobi microsoft reader and ereader all on it. On fictionwise, a lot of there mobi titles in my bookshelf arn,t downloading now.

[Desertway]

Originally Posted by Marcy

Kobo? Are you kidding? I think they are a horrible ebook site. Their search is crappy because it uses OR instead of AND and they don't have a cart! If you want to buy 10 books you have to buy each one, one at a time. Poor implementation.

Nearly all my paid books come from Kobo. Great coupons. No problem with search since I always know the author and title of what I'm looking for.

Originally Posted by Marcy

I've discovered I like my readers simple. The simpler the better. I don't like the Kindle because of the useless keyboard. It makes the device bigger for no reason.

Useless? No reason? It seems that a keyboard would be quite useful for annotations, Google and Wikipedia lookups, as well as the rudimentary web and email functions of the Kindle. I don't have a Kindle and I'm not interested in those features, but plenty of people are.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by Desertway

Nearly all my paid books come from Kobo. Great coupons. No problem with search since I always know the author and title of what I'm looking for.



Useless? No reason? It seems that a keyboard would be quite useful for annotations, Google and Wikipedia lookups, as well as the rudimentary web and email functions of the Kindle. I don't have a Kindle and I'm not interested in those features, but plenty of people are.

Even knowing what I want, I find Kobo a pain. Example, I *really* wanted The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. Type Bryce Courtenay into the search -- you get 500 results, of which not a single one is a book by him. Type Power of One into the search -- again 500 results, not one being the book I'm looking for. Now Fictionwise. Type Bryce Courtenay into author search -- no results. Not what I hoped for, but at least an easy answer. Type Power of One into title search -- only one result. It isn't the book I wanted either, but is only one result to scroll through and does have power of one all in the title.

I had only a Kindle for my first 18 months of e-reading and the keyboard was a waste to me. The only use it ever got was to scroll through a list of titles. And every other ereader I've had allows just as efficient scrolling, even without a keyboard.

As to using it for note taking, if you could use that crappy keyboard for more than a short sentence you have more patience than me. The keyboard on my phone works better and is half the size. For any serious note taking you really need a decent and responsive touch screen or a real keyboard. To type in something short like a URL or search term a virtual keyboard is fine. The Kindle keyboard is neither one nor the other -- functions about as well as a virtual keyboard but takes up as a lot of space.

-Marcy

[causticmuse]

Originally Posted by Marcy

Even knowing what I want, I find Kobo a pain. Example, I *really* wanted The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. Type Bryce Courtenay into the search -- you get 500 results, of which not a single one is a book by him. Type Power of One into the search -- again 500 results, not one being the book I'm looking for. Now Fictionwise. Type Bryce Courtenay into author search -- no results. Not what I hoped for, but at least an easy answer. Type Power of One into title search -- only one result. It isn't the book I wanted either, but is only one result to scroll through and does have power of one all in the title.

-Marcy

Wow...I had no idea that Kobo's search was so poorly designed until I read this and tried your "Bryce Courtenay" search myself, including Boolean search string variations using "and" and "&" (which were totally ignored). It seems that if the results don't yield your desired authors or titles on the first page, you can pretty much assume that Kobo doesn't carry them. Otherwise, there will be pages and pages of useless results to browse through.

I get the feeling that they programmed their search this way to make their catalog of titles look much larger than it actually is. When you click on the individual categories to browse, you'll see that some subjects--particularly in non-fiction--have only a handful of random titles.

[riemann42]

I've always used inkmesh to do my searches... guess you're right about Kobo's site.