Google eBookStore Online Now

[Frawan]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I get a total of 1 book(s). And when I try to get to the next page, I get "This bookshelf is still empty"...

Me 2. I am only able to view 1 single book on Google Books. At least let us know what kind of books are available in the US so we can envy all the Americans. An empty shop is just plain silly....


Hmm. back to reading printed books

[Catlady]

Well, at least Google immediately issued a refund for my order, no questions asked. But I'm very disappointed. What's the reason to buy books from Google that are generally available elsewhere? And if books that aren't generally available elsewhere are basically unreadable, like the one I ordered, what's the point?

I guess the notation about "better for larger screens" on my book should have tipped me off!

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I went ahead and gambled $10 to buy a book. I was able to click on "read on device" and had a choice of downloading pdf or epub--though actually I was able to download both. On my book at least (Phantom Lady by William Irish), there is no DRM. The epub file is just a poor, unproofed conversion from the pdf--unacceptable. The pdf is unreadable on my JBL--font is tiny and I can't adjust it sufficiently to make it readable. I've requested a refund.

Wow!

[khalleron]

I went home on my lunch hour and bought a book (which I'm currently reading in hardcover and with my +50-year-old eyes having a hard time of it), but was not able to download it, either through ADE or the Sony Library - server error.

Will try again after work.

I realize this is the first day and they're probably deluged. Anyone else having this problem?

[JeremyR]

What I find curious is that they apparently are selling scanned in copies of books that are out of copyright and should be in public domain.

I understand that that that particular printing of the book is under copyright, but why not offer the original (out of copyright) printing for free?

I know, because they are a business and want to make money. But it irks me that public domain books (basically) get sold for money. In this case, $9.99.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

What I find curious is that they apparently are selling scanned in copies of books that are out of copyright and should be in public domain.

I understand that that that particular printing of the book is under copyright, but why not offer the original (out of copyright) printing for free?

I know, because they are a business and want to make money. But it irks me that public domain books (basically) get sold for money. In this case, $9.99.

AFAIK, everything that was available free before (over a million PD books) is still available free.

[jgray]

I have only downloaded two of the free ebooks so far, just to see how they were formatted. The epubs seemed to be a hybrid of several scanned images (book covers, copyright pages, illustrations, etc.) and the OCRed text from the PDF scans that Google originally did. The two books I briefly looked at had very few errors, but they definitely had not been proofread by a real human.

I have not downloaded any of the non-free books, so I don't know if they are any better as far as proofreading. If they have only been through the automated process, like the free books, then I won't be buying any of them at the prices I saw listed. Perhaps if the prices were much lower, I might tolerate a few more errors than usual (even some of the human proofread ebooks I've bought have errors).

The free books I looked at have very basic epub formatting. I would hope and expect the paid books to have better formatting. Again, if the paid books are just a combination of scanned pages and minimally formatted text with no human proofreading, I'll definitely pass. Perhaps some of you have spent your money can comment on this.

If Google really wants this to work, they are going to have to hire some biological units to proofread these books. No matter how fancy their OCR software is, it will never be as good as a real set of eyeballs when dealing with scanned images of old library books. They also should have someone do a better job with the epub formatting. If I'm going to spend real money on these books, I expect perfection, or nearly so.

Joe

[jgray]

Originally Posted by khalleron

AFAIK, everything that was available free before (over a million PD books) is still available free.

I did notice a few PD books that were being sold. It looks like the same old thing - someone else (not Google) is republishing a PD book and selling it. As discussed before, this is legal. Although if no additional content or value is added to these books, it is morally questionable.

I don't mind paying a nominal fee to someone who has provided a nicely formatted and proofread copy of a PD work, even if they haven't added any of their own content to it. I do object to paying real book prices for it though. If substantial new content or annotations are added, then that qualifies as a new work and should command a higher price.

Joe

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I don't see where it says "no download files included."

Can this really be true? Some books that you BUY can be downloaded and some cannot? After all the problems of ADE/differing formats/which reader supports what/etc Google is going to add ANOTHER level of complexity to buying ebooks?

eP

Come on now, you don't expect a media company to do something that makes sense, do you?

[ebookrights]

Originally Posted by Logseman

Not here (I am in Spain).

Google for an app called "MarketEnabler".

[ebookrights]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

If what they are selling is simply the output of their OCR software, I think they are going to see a big backlash from people expecting actual produced eBooks, like they would get from Amazon or others.

Funny thing is, I'm reading "A Cheistmas Carol", so much for OCR... Have no idea why it's defaulted to original scan... Have to click "Flowing text" to switch from the scans... Know there are more recent (copyrighted) copies of this but I can't buy (non-US)...

What I can say is, compared to other vendors, Google's offering is so automated and relatively lacking in quality.

I understand that Google's strength is its automated process, for once you'll probably find lots more books in public domain than the others. And if she has her way go, she'll have all the copyrighted but out-of-print books that others won't have, too.

P.S. Kindle is a better option right now.

[ebookrights]

Originally Posted by jgray

The free books I looked at have very basic epub formatting. I would hope and expect the paid books to have better formatting. Again, if the paid books are just a combination of scanned pages and minimally formatted text with no human proofreading, I'll definitely pass. Perhaps some of you have spent your money can comment on this.

If Google really wants this to work, they are going to have to hire some biological units to proofread these books. No matter how fancy their OCR software is, it will never be as good as a real set of eyeballs when dealing with scanned images of old library books. They also should have someone do a better job with the epub formatting. If I'm going to spend real money on these books, I expect perfection, or nearly so.

Joe

Ditto.

[Seabound]

Wow, Google taking money in exchange for unproofed books. Tsk, tsk, what were they thinking?

[Bookworm_Girl]

Google's philosophy has always been about the quantity of books amassed in their online library and not quality. I am surprised that many of the pay-books are scans only. At the moment I don't see much incentive to use the Google eBookstore if I can get a better quality product easily elsewhere. I will continue to use Google for those out-of-print books that you can't find elsewhere because there are some real gems out there for content even if the OCR is terrible. I will just continue to have multiple apps on my iPhone for syncing purchases.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by khalleron

AFAIK, everything that was available free before (over a million PD books) is still available free.

Maybe. But they still let people take books from PG and sell them (for $9.99 no less).

How hard is it, really, to have something that checks PG, sees if a title is there, and disallows it being uploaded (or being charged for).

Especially as they say on their front page something like "Over 3 Million Free Books". Of course, 2 million out of those 3 Million are being sold, but hey, they should be free.

It's just like Amazon, they say they have all these free books, but in practice, most are being sold.