The ebook experience

[gmw]

I'd like to see truth in advertising: don't switch the cover on me (don't sell with one and then give me a damn brown paper bag version on download).

I'd like to see better quality control. Even the big publishers regularly get metadata wrong, or formatting wrong, forcing (obsessive people like me) to fix things before they can get comfortable reading. I am still surprised just how badly these supposed professionals are at creating ebooks.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Do you have any proof of this or is this more “it’s a fact because Jon says it is”. And no the happenstance of the events occurring near each other isn’t proof of causation

I'm sure that all the indie paper book stores that went out of business because they couldn't compete with B&N also went out of business because of agency pricing.

In general, for an indie to compete with the big boys, they have to find a niche that the big boys aren't filling. It's especially hard in the ebook industry where Amazon, B&N and Apple make it very easy to buy and automatically load you purchase on your device.

I suspect that it's going to take some sort of big change to break Amazon's hold on the ebook industry, much like streaming music broke iTunes's hold on the digital music industry. If I knew what it was, I would be pitching the idea to some big money guy.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by gmw

I'd like to see truth in advertising: don't switch the cover on me (don't sell with one and then give me a damn brown paper bag version on download).

I'd like to see better quality control. Even the big publishers regularly get metadata wrong, or formatting wrong, forcing (obsessive people like me) to fix things before they can get comfortable reading. I am still surprised just how badly these supposed professionals are at creating ebooks.

I know why they do the cover thing, they no longer have the right to use the original cover, but yea, it bugs me also.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Then read ePub on a Reader or with an app that supports ADE page numbers and you'll have working page numbers on every eBook you read. Problem solved.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Or just sideload from Calibre. The Count Pages plugin will also help.

Unless like me, you bought a Kobo specifically so you could obtain library books when away from home with no computer to sideload from. Can't choose epubs in this case.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

We have most likely discussed a lot of this, but what improvements do you want when it comes to eBooks?

Personally, I'm fine with the actual reading experience of using Marvin on an the bigger iPad Pro. I was fine with CC as an eBook library connecting to Calibre prior to this Fall's catastrophe with regards to CC (I still regularly donate to Calibre on a regular basis after using if since the beginning, just because it's so useful).

I'm still waiting for the buying and discovery process to show some sort of improvement. Right now, it's pretty much regressed from where it was a decade ago (when we at least had authoralert). Way back when, I expected the buying experience to be much more personalized. Authoralert style lists of authors that I like, where I'm notified when an author comes out with a new book or an older book finally makes it to eBooks. Amazon claims to have this with author follows, but it really only seems to work sporadically at best, at least for me.

I also expected recommendations to be better. Right now, Amazon seems to use it mostly to push books that they are being paid to pimp, or Amazon Unlimited or unique to Amazon eBooks. At one time, I could add and remove books from my recommended list, but that seems to have gone by the way side. I also expected much better filtering systems, so I'm presented with books that actually interest me rather than 10 pages of porn, PD books and indie authors who know how to game the system.

Just to add a bit, after doing a few chores, I had hoped when the Apple book store relaunched this year that Apple would push the envelop enough to give Amazon some competition, but so far, I've been underwhelmed by the new Apple store. As is normal for Apple, it seems to be oriented to the 80% majority rather than the power buyer. There are a couple of nifty features, but those features are purely available for eBooks (and audiobooks) purchased from Apple. In addition there seems to be little ability to edit meta data and the catalogue is considerably smaller than Amazon's. All in all, Apple gives me little reason to switch from Amazon and little hope that it will provide meaningful competition for Amazon.

What was this Fall's catastrophe with regards to CC ?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

What was this Fall's catastrophe with regards to CC ?

You can see it in the CC forum. Basically, last summer the original developer of CC sold it to a new person who apparently hired some developers. In the process up updating the CC for iOS code this fall, one of the developers released a development release that had a ton of bugs including some pretty much require deleting and reloading books when you trigger them, which unfortunately happens to me on a regular basis. There is a thread about it in the CC forum.

[mitford13]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Agency doesn't allow discounts by the store. Agency doesn't allow for loyalty rewards to be applied to agency eBooks. That's the problem. That's why stores like Fictionwise and BooksOnBoard went out of business. There business models were unable to work with Agency. That's still the same today. Nothing's changed.

Actually, I noticed about a year or so ago that on Amazon the $1 slow shipping credits can now be used on Agency books. So either there was a contractual change or somebody in Legal got creative with interpreting the existing language. That’s for US Agency - there are also some (relatively rare) Agency books from UK publishers and the credits don’t work on those. And then there’s the ‘buy $20 in ebooks get $5 digital credit’, from what I’ve seen those $5 work on both US and UK Agency prices as a discount.

[tomsem]

Amazon has a Great on Kindle discount that is acquired when one purchases a Great On Kindle book. Apart from that there are other offers that apply more generally , for example a $3 discount on any graphic novel that I used yesterday.

I’m pretty satisfied with current situation. There is always room for improvement of course. For example I would like have ability to have more than one book open at a time on platforms that support multitasking and multiple ‘desktops’ (Windows, iPadOS and macOS). I’ve yet to see any reading app that offers this apart from PDF apps.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I’m pretty satisfied with current situation. There is always room for improvement of course. For example I would like have ability to have more than one book open at a time on platforms that support multitasking and multiple ‘desktops’ (Windows, iPadOS and macOS). I’ve yet to see any reading app that offers this apart from PDF apps.

I just used calibre's CLI ebook-viewer to open two different books at the same time.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Amazon has a Great on Kindle discount that is acquired when one purchases a Great On Kindle book. Apart from that there are other offers that apply more generally , for example a $3 discount on any graphic novel that I used yesterday.

amazon's "Great on Kindle" discount is part of the "Great on Kindle" program the the publisher/author sign up for and thus agree to.

mitford13's question is whether "no rush" shipping discounts were agreed to by publishers/authors because agency contracts specified no discounts or tie-ins.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

You can see it in the CC forum. Basically, last summer the original developer of CC sold it to a new person who apparently hired some developers. In the process up updating the CC for iOS code this fall, one of the developers released a development release that had a ton of bugs including some pretty much require deleting and reloading books when you trigger them, which unfortunately happens to me on a regular basis. There is a thread about it in the CC forum.

Thanks I have only used CC for android. so I have not encountered that.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I just used calibre's CLI ebook-viewer to open two different books at the same time.

Sure, or you can open multiple browser windows for Kindle books and tab and tile them and workspace them. This works on iPadOS, Windows, macOS, maybe even Android and ChromeOS (I haven’t kept up). I don’t read books on my laptop or desktop, a calibre requirement.

It’s just odd that reading apps on laptop/desktop don’t in general support it, I assume it’s because like me not many people find that pleasant or useful. Particularly since MDI (and multiple app instances) have been supported since day 1 (‘workspaces’ took a little longer but have been there for years now).

Mostly I have 2 use cases:
1) side by side foreign language and English translation (or vice versa)
2) multiple side by side workspaces with reading app on one side and ‘something else’ (web page, note app, map etc.) on the other, with ability to switch quickly between them and persistence between restarts)

And they have to be more than just ‘viewer’ capability (i.e. need highlighting, bookmarks, annotation).

On iOS, I’ve seen apps like Marvin where they have two like-functioned apps that can provide 2 workspaces but then you are stuck if you go to 3. If someone would just implement iPadOS 13 features (I include Apple Books as one someone) I would be happy for at least a few minutes

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by barryem

I realize this is wishful thinking but I'd love to see ereaders not be sold by booksellers but by hardware companies, in the same way phones and tablets are now. That way we would have a lot more variety in our devices, larger, smaller, with buttons, without buttons, waterproof, not waterproof and we'd be able to pick the one that fit us best and then buy books from any store we choose.

Personally I'd pick an e-ink ereader the size of my phone. Someone else might want an ereader that's extra large. We'd all be able to get what we want and buy books for it on any store without converting.

Of course it's not going to happen in this universe so I guess I'm also wishing for an alternate universe. Maybe some of you have the physics background to help with that.

Barry

I never thought of that, but that would be preferable. Wasn't it tried before and didn't really take off, though? At least with Tablets other companies offer alternatives but still many readers stick with the cheaper fires

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

My only concern for "the ebook experience" is the relentless push from both Kobo and Amazon to audiobooks. I prefer DIY dentistry to audiobooks, but already actual ebooks seem like the neglected stepchild for the big retailers, who seem to have decided that everyone either already loves audiobooks or damn well ought to.

Yes, it's clearly the next big push that's everywhere. I like audiobooks, buy only for certain genres, only when I can listen to them (I can't be on the computer typing or reading and listen to them at the same time, as an example), and I'm picky with narrators. It does seem like more of a push toward audio and away from print, but they're going with the market and money I guess.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

I never thought of that, but that would be preferable. Wasn't it tried before and didn't really take off, though? At least with Tablets other companies offer alternatives but still many readers stick with the cheaper fires

The fundamental issue is getting books easily on the eReader device. Way back in 2008, if you had a Sony device, you had to use your computer to load your eBooks on your device. Amazon let you download directly from the store via wireless link, a huge advantage for Amazon. In addition you have DRM, with different stores having different DRM schemes. It's very difficult for a 3rd party eReader to compete against that.