Fictionwise has shut down!

[Bindi]

Still waiting for my code so I called B&N this morning. The most troubling statement by the rep was that she couldn't tell if I had opted in for the tranfer. She said that info isn't available in my account. When I asked how I could prove that I had opted in, she replied that I should just click on the email link again. I was also told to just wait for another week for my code.

[Lemurion]

I keep getting the same "wait another week," answer, and it's getting really annoying and frustrating. Though at least I've got the notations on my account that I definitely opted in.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Bindi

Still waiting for my code so I called B&N this morning. The most troubling statement by the rep was that she couldn't tell if I had opted in for the tranfer. She said that info isn't available in my account. When I asked how I could prove that I had opted in, she replied that I should just click on the email link again. I was also told to just wait for another week for my code.

I think I click on the email link 10 times. They must of hated that but I got my Code last Friday I think it was and everything went smoothly for all the books needed to transfer over.

[pdurrant]

I'm still waiting (in the UK) for my email with the code. I sent a question in to B&N Customer Service this morning asking about it, just to see what they say.

I really, really, dislike this two-stage process they've set up.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I really, really, dislike this two-stage process they've set up.

I agree. When Borders closed up here in the US the transfer to Kobo was easy and quick.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm still waiting (in the UK) for my email with the code. I sent a question in to B&N Customer Service this morning asking about it, just to see what they say.

I really, really, dislike this two-stage process they've set up.

I despise it. It seems both pointless and unnecessary. It should all have been done in one. Opt in to transfer, enter any necessary information, done.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm still waiting (in the UK) for my email with the code. I sent a question in to B&N Customer Service this morning asking about it, just to see what they say.

They did get back to me, but just with some boilerplate. I guess they're still busy with the US people. I'll wait a week longer, I think, before bothering them again.

[simplyparticular]

I've got a new wrinkle to my eReader/FW transfer. While I was hanging out on B&N's curing the CS chat and waiting on hold for the phone rep, I purchased two books, and a freebie.

I went to download to my desktop today, and all 3 are gone. Not in my active or archived shelf. However, the NOOK iPad app thinks they are in the Archive, and let me download them.

So now I get to call CS again. :P

[Lemurion]

Latest update from BN, wait another week. Every time I call, all they do is push the date back. It's getting very tiring.

[dcalder]

No waiting necessary in my case because those of us outside of the US and UK don't have a transfer option at all. Fictionwise never bothered to let me know about the shutdown, either. I only found out because I'd just gotten around to reinstalling Calibre after a Win7 reformat-&-reinstall and I was having issues trying to convert some Secure Mobipocket files that I'd apparently missed De-DRMing when I'd imported them (and which wouldn't De-DRM now, despite having a record of the PIDs that they should have worked with and using those PIDs with the appropriate plugin). When I went to confirm the PIDs on the Fictionwise site, I discovered the news about the Fictionwise shutdown. Argh! So, I figured that I'd start my Fictionwise rescue op with those troublesome Mobipocket files. Except, even after a fresh download, they still wouldn't De-DRM with the PIDs that were registered.

So, I decided that maybe I needed to have Mobipocket installed to get the plugin to work. Well, that was a whole other advanture that I won't even get started on - good thing that I managed to find the Mobipocket installer hiding in some old backup files. When I went to register the new PID at Fictionwise, it wouldn't let me - it said that only 4 were allowed.

Oddly enough, I already had 5 registered - maybe that's why none of them worked? So, after deleting two and registering the new one, I re-downloaded a secure Mobipocket and voila! the plugin managed to free it.

Since the Fictionwise bulk download link will now let you choose to download all of your books (not just 100 at a time) and will automagically split them into groups of under 100 (so, in my case, I ended up with 10 separate zips to download - and most of them did not actually contain 100 books), and also claims that your secure books would be automatically included (a reversal of the past where secure ones were generally not included in bulk downloads), I decided to just go ahead and redownload everything. My Calibre library was kind of a mess anyway, and pretty much all that was in it was Fictionwise books, so I thought that a fresh start would be just as well.

Once I'd imported all of the books from the downloaded zips, my total number of books was significantly lower than the total reported to be on my Fictionwise bookshelf. I'd unzipped and imported each Fictionwise zip separately. Either I had some duplicate purchases or Fictionwise duplicated files in some of the zips, because even with the clean start I had a few "dupes" which I was able to clear up right on import. Those didn't seem like enough to account for the discrepancy, so on a hunch I checked for the secure ebooks. I found that the secure ones actually were not necessarily included (though some seemed to have been, since when I did individually download and import them, they were dupes). Even after manually downloading all of the secure eReader and secure Mobipocket books, my count is still off. A few are accounted for by old eBookwise format books and another batch were old Microsoft Reader ones (also a lost cause), a few were victims of the Overdrive debacle that never got replaced, but I think that I may still be missing another 15 or 20. At this point, I'm just going to be thankful for what I did manage to salvage and make darn sure to make multiple backups of my new, De-DRMed Calibre library.

I'm also going to stop being so complacent about my Kindle books. Most of them have never been downloaded anywhere other than my Kindle. I've never bothered adding them to Calibre, freeing them up, or backing them up. That's changing now. I never want to be performing an 11th hour rescue operation again.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by dcalder

No waiting necessary in my case because those of us outside of the US and UK don't have a transfer option at all.

For those outside the US/UK, I can only suggest that perhaps a long "holiday in the UK" might be a good idea. That way you could change your Fictionwise address to your holiday home address, and also set up a nook uk account, and then register with B&N to transfer your books to the nook uk account.

To avoid confusion, I also suggest making sure that the email address on your fictionwise account and the email address your new nook uk account match.

And then you need to visit the page

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/fictionwise/379003818?&email=your@email.address.here

obvious substituting your email address on your fictionwise account for "your@email.address.here"

One might think that the number in the URL is personal to every account. This is not so, as can be seen here and here.

I think it's worth a try.After all, Fictionwise/Barnes and Noble can't do worse to you than to close your account and prevent you accessing your books again — which they're doing anyway!

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

For those outside the US/UK, I can only suggest that perhaps a long "holiday in the UK" might be a good idea. That way you could change your Fictionwise address to your holiday home address, and also set up a nook uk account, and then register with B&N to transfer your books to the nook uk account.

To avoid confusion, I also suggest making sure that the email address on your fictionwise account and the email address your new nook uk account match.

And then you need to visit the page

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/fictionwise/379003818?&email=your@email.address.here

obvious substituting your email address on your fictionwise account for "your@email.address.here"

One might think that the number in the URL is personal to every account. This is not so, as can be seen here and here.

I think it's worth a try.After all, Fictionwise/Barnes and Noble can't do worse to you than to close your account and prevent you accessing your books again — which they're doing anyway!

I hope everyone that is affected enjoys their UK holiday!!!

[snarkophilus]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

For those outside the US/UK, I can only suggest that perhaps a long "holiday in the UK" might be a good idea.

Before I were to start thinking about planning a "holiday", the advantage is that most (all) the eReader PDB books I've previously bought should be available as epubs?

Cheers,
Simon.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by snarkophilus

Before I were to start thinking about planning a "holiday", the advantage is that most (all) the eReader PDB books I've previously bought should be available as epubs?

I can't speak from personal experience, but others in this thread have reported that (I suppose unsurprisingly) that all their transferred books are now in ePub - Multiformat, Secure eReader, Secure Mobipocket, even secure LIT ebooks.

If I wasn't already in the UK, I think I would certainly be considering a "holiday" urgently — you only have until the 21st to register for the transfer.

[zebradude]

Well I just got off the phone with BN.com customer support and I was told that for people that had opted-in but never received their code BN is going to send out emails on this up coming Friday / Saturday.

I hope that this information is useful/correct!

(well so far as of Saturday morning no code!)