All Romance eBooks / OmniLit to close on 12/31/16

[Josieb1]

I wonder if a web hosting bill is due on the 1st. Of course they would have known about it and should have budgeted accordingly, and not by stealing authors money, but it would explain the drop dead close date.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Blossom

They didn't know they could. You have to understand. ARE has an app where you can purchase and read books. Some don't own PCs just their phones, some are on vacation seeing it's the Holidays. It's a complete mess. Alot of these people do not know anything about DRM, never heard of Calibre or know what a epub is. They are having to learn fast... It's a mess.

Sent from my Nexus 7

I agree it's awful. Readers have been drawn into believing ebooks are safe, it's only us on this forum, or those affected before, that understand the reality, most of the readers I know, and even some authors, have absolutely no idea what back up even means. It's horrendous. This will turn out to be the worst of its kind, so far. Silver was bad enough but this is worst. I have 459 books with them and even I am a quarter of the way through a tickback exercise. I'll be spending all day on it tomorrow. I want to be sure I have everything. Fictionwise was a pleasure compared to this mess.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I wonder if a web hosting bill is due on the 1st. Of course they would have known about it and should have budgeted accordingly, and not by stealing authors money, but it would explain the drop dead close date.

That date is more likely for tax reasons. They won't want to have to file on the business for 2017.

[milady133]

Or BooksOnBoard, I don't know how the payment to authors or publishers went, but the customers had time enough to download their books, and I'm still able to connect and see a list of my books (I've just tried and the download doesn't seem to work).

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by Blossom

They didn't know they could. You have to understand. ARE has an app where you can purchase and read books. Some don't own PCs just their phones.

Sent from my Nexus 7

I've told a lot of people to download their books in case the seller goes belly up or the title is removed because of some legal snafu. I've even offered to teach them how to do it. Most people couldn't be bothered or blow me off. I have over 1000 ebooks and 700 audiobooks. I make sure I have copies!

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Didn't you tell them to backup their eBooks? Sorry, but I do not feel for anyone who has not bothered to download their eBooks. There's no excuse not to.

Totally agree. Unless you have been living under a rock, all the closures that have gone on with stores had to have taught you to IMMEDIATELY download your books right after purchase. If you don't you deserve whatever you lose.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Which is why we need to find another independent store or publisher to support, and keep trying to support the alternatives to Amazon.

With the exception, of course, of any alternatives that associate with Lori James of ARe.

Me, too. I like using Amazon, but I still want to have alternatives. So far, I'm looking at Bookstrand. And I'll check out Smashwords if I can update my e-mail address (and if their search has gotten better).

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Agency pricing doesn't prevent reward and rebate schemes.

It doesn't per se, but in reality Agency publishers have to allow it and they mostly don't. It always struck me as crappy that HC stopped allowing ARe/Omni to do it with their books (HC, Avon, Harlequin, Carina, etc.), but then have their own rewards program on Harlequin.com which competes directly with ARe and other sites. ARe could have allowed folks to continue to earn on HC or other Agency books, but without publisher permission they couldn't allow folks to cash in rewards towards purchase of those same titles.

Kobo's current superpoints reward scheme allows points to be earned from all ebook purchases including those from publishers using agency pricing.

You can earn points, which has nothing to do with permission from the publisher, but can't use the points to buy books from any Agency publisher, which would require publisher permission just like a coupon/discount would.

[Leilani]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Fictionwise was a pleasure compared to this mess.

I still have my batch files of mobi/prc's (should have done epubs too) but it was super easy. What did suck though was trying to run the import into B&N and seeing as B&N is pretty much dead, it was probably a waste of time.

I keep losing books (I did get my inventory completed last night) - I'd only missed backing up one book of the 276 (out of 281 Wednesday night-272 today) but I have no idea what 3 I lost (I figured out one because I had it on a gifting list).

And ARe is going to be able to keep all the ebuck money which is shitty for readers. Will certainly keep me from having a sizable credit with any bookseller other than Amazon (at least I can spend it on other than books).

And yeah, we can buy direct from publishers, but most don't have gifting options set up plus it was nice to buy from one place so your credit card number isn't saved at multiple vendors.

The international readers are really screwed with one less place for buying internationally.

Smashwords - Yikes, can a site be less user-friendly. Whatever else you say about Amazon, you can't say it's not user-friendly.

[sufue]

I mostly follow mysteries, and a few that I remember off the top of my head as being on Smashwords include: Emma Jameson (Lord and Lady Hetheridge series), Ashley Gardner (pen name for Jennifer Ashley, series is Captain Lacey), P.B. (Patricia) Ryan (Nell Sweeney), Hazel Holt, Deb Baker (several), Connie Shelton, Lyn Hamilton (Lara McClintock), Raymond Benson (Stiletto) and Edie Claire (Leigh Koslow). Not sure these are all still on the Smashwords site, but might be worth a look. There are pretty good romantic elements in the first three I listed, for those who are looking to replace All Romance more than Omni Lit, but still these are mysteries and not classic romances. Totally agree that the Smashwords website is atrocious!

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

That's up to the author, John. We have that ability now if we want it. I think the "mess" was the inability to use tags so searching is...random. Amazon used to allow tags, but like anything else, authors abused that system too. It does get a little pointless, but tags could help with searches. Right now you have to pretty much know the author or publisher you are looking for.

There are some good small publishers at Smashwords, but you have to look for them specifically. I think Gemma Halliday is still there and I used to keep a running list of some of the ones I'd had good luck with, but I honestly don't shop there much anymore. (Gemma Halliday books are also on Amazon and Kobo and they are usually couponable). There were a couple of fantasy publishers I used to keep track of but I can't remember the names off the top (or the bottom) of my head.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Totally agree. Unless you have been living under a rock, all the closures that have gone on with stores had to have taught you to IMMEDIATELY download your books right after purchase. If you don't you deserve whatever you lose.

That seems pretty harsh. We've all had our "sadder-but-wiser" experiences, but I don't see why people who really may not have known about or experienced a shut-down "deserve" to lose access. I'm not involved here, but ARe seemed a thriving concern and if I preferred to read on the app anyway, I may well have thought that the worst-case scenario, as with BoB and Sony, was that I'd have sufficient notice and time to download my purchases in anticipation of a closure. In short, what's the point in playing the smug card and blaming the victim? She'll know better after this, but I don't see why the average person would think to guard against having a store close virtually overnight.

But then, I'll admit to some fellow-feeling. Most of my Amazon and Audible purchases are only in the cloud and I feel safe enough with those. My Tantor and Downpour purchases are probably less secure, but I can't be bothered to download in advance of use (although I made an exception for the irreplaceable Aubrey/Maturin novels read by Simon Vance).

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by issybird

That seems pretty harsh. We've all had our "sadder-but-wiser" experiences, but I don't see why people who really may not have known about or experienced a shut-down "deserve" to lose access. I'm not involved here, but ARe seemed a thriving concern and if I preferred to read on the app anyway, I may well have thought that the worst-case scenario, as with BoB and Sony, was that I'd have sufficient notice and time to download my purchases in anticipation of a closure. In short, what's the point in playing the smug card and blaming the victim? She'll know better after this, but I don't see why the average person would think to guard against having a store close virtually overnight.

But then, I'll admit to some fellow-feeling. Most of my Amazon and Audible purchases are only in the cloud and I feel safe enough with those. My Tantor and Downpour purchases are probably less secure, but I can't be bothered to download in advance of use (although I made an exception for the irreplaceable Aubrey/Maturin novels read by Simon Vance).

I download all Audible and other audiobook purchases and keep a serperate copy plus i load them into Itunes. I haven't really tried to strip the DRM from Audible but would not hesitate to do so if i lost access in any way. I have also authorised an android device for all four of my audible accounts as i sideload everything unlistened to onto my Samsung.

After my previous issues with Amazon I am paranoid about backing up everything digital i buy as best I can.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I agree it's awful. Readers have been drawn into believing ebooks are safe, it's only us on this forum, or those affected before, that understand the reality, most of the readers I know, and even some authors, have absolutely no idea what back up even means.

In other words, they are about to have much bigger problems wit any of their electronic devices, including computers, than just the loss f some books.

Really.

The importance of backing up information you care about should be second nature to everyone who uses digital media in the digital era.

Count me in among the no-sympathy crowd.

[JSWolf]

In the past, before the Kindle, Amazon sold eBooks in different formats including Mobipocket, MS Reader, and PDF. Amazon stopped selling eBooks and the eBooks that customers purchased were no longer available. That meant that if anyone needed to redownload to update the DRM, forget it, screwed. So no, do not trust any company (not even Amazon) to store your eBooks. Either do it yourself or take the risk of losing them.

If you buy an eBook from Amazon and the author eventually pulls that eBook from Amazon, will you still have it available?

Kobo & Google have no history of pulling eBooks from customers. But I don't trust them either to keep my eBooks. I don't trust Amazon either. I trust myself to download them and keep them backed up.

[Blossom]

People have to remember that people are still with great reluctance entering the digital age. On a romance club I belong to most still read only physical books. They have no idea about ebooks, calibre and the like. You all seem to be stuck in a bubble and think every reader is ebook savvy like you. The truth is we are a very small percentage and they are the majority.

Don't you remember how it felt the first time it happened to you. Have some sympathy for these poor folks instead of pointing fingers.

ARE pushed their app alot. Downloading on their site in the old days was pain. I never did figure out how to redownload from them. I don't know if it's still like that but you had to submit a ticket to them to redownload a book which is one of the reason I never got anything but freebies from them.



Sent from my XT1528