New Ebook retailer in USA

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by mabelsound

Thank you so much! Didn't mean to make the thread about me lol

That was me that started the off-topic slant.

Apologies to everyone in this thread.

[sakura-panda]

Originally Posted by Apache

Sears was already in financial troubles. Buying another company in worse financial difficulties was a very bad idea. They would have been better off using the money to try to position themselves better in the market place.
Apache

KMart bought Sears, not the other way around. As you say, Sears was in financial trouble at the time and KMart apparently had money.

Back on topic, I am excited at the idea of being able to buy ebooks and support my local bookstore (they are an affiliate) but I do not want to use yet another reading app. It would be nice to be able to purchase a book and upload it into whatever reading app you prefer, with or without DRM. Purchased videos sync across services; why not books?

[DNSB]

Had anyone here tried DriveThruFiction? One acquaintance of mine has been telling me that they really like the site but then they were only looking at one author on there.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Had anyone here tried DriveThruFiction? One acquaintance of mine has been telling me that they really like the site but then they were only looking at one author on there.

I've picked up a few titles from them, but usually I use DrivethruRPG.com for RPG titles in PDF rather than fiction from DrivethruFiction.com in epub or PDF. On the whole, I haven't been overly impressed by their selection (or different format availability from certain publishers). I picked up a load of Wildside Press titles way back when from them, but since then only the occasional book from an indie author.

The one thing that did impress me was the responsiveness of one indie author who produced a book in epub3 which was impossibly bloated and unreadable, who produced an epub2 version when I complained.

[WillAdams]

drivethrurpg.com is notable for having the Girl Genius webcomics --- I have a complete set from backing their Kickstarters for print editions.

[ChrisHistorian76]

Originally Posted by sakura-panda

It would be nice to be able to purchase a book and upload it into whatever reading app you prefer, with or without DRM. Purchased videos sync across services; why not books?

I am by no means an expert, but this may have to do with the cost of licensing.

I think there are currently only two major video DRM systems: CPRM/CPPM and AES. CRPM/CPPM was developed by an LLC that consists of IBM, Intel, Matsushita and Toshiba. AES was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US. NIST is part of the Dept. of Commerce so AES may be free/open source.

For ebooks, there's three major systems: Adobe DRM, Apple FairPlay and Amazon DRM.

The cost of licensing Amazon DRM is $250 a month for the first 10,000 licenses, then a sliding fee based on how many additional licenses are purchased per month. I'd bet Apple and Adobe have similar pricing.

Again, I am by no means an expert so I may be completely all wet on this, but if a third-party ebook app needs an Amazon DRM license for each time the app's downloaded, or an Amazon DRM license for each time a user tries to open a Kindle book, that could get really expensive. Ditto for both Apple and Adobe.

Not only that, but IMO one of the things both Apple and Amazon have always understood is the "real" money is in repeat business. DRM's a tool to coerce consumers into their ecosystem, and therefore repeat business. Making things "easy" on consumers costs them $. IMO even though it's Bookshop and not a big conglomorate like Amazon or Apple, they don't necessarily want to make it easy either because that could cost them $.

We're also probably never going to be able to get Amazon, Apple and Adobe to construct one, or even two, common ebook DRM systems.

[Quoth]

DRM on Amazon is free for Amazon. Long ago they used variously Adobe and Mobipocket (but Mobipocket was already broken and they bought Mobipocket in 2005, so maybe free). Paying Adobe DRM royalties was obviously not going to continue for Amazon.

DRM is a scam. It's not needed at all. See also the consumer cost of HDCP DRM on HDMI, which is pointless.

[patibulaire]

Aucun intérêt,
Surtout
• Les livres numériques de Bookshop.org doivent être lus sur notre application Apple ou Android, ou via un navigateur Web, à l'exception des titres sans DRM qui peuvent être téléchargés et transférés vers votre application de lecture ou l'appareil de votre choix.
• Les utilisateurs d'appareils e Ink basés sur Android, qui ont un accès régulier à la boutique d'applications Google Play (Boox, Meebook, etc.), devraient pouvoir télécharger et lire depuis notre application Android . Le kilométrage peut varier en fonction de l'appareil.
• En raison du logiciel propriétaire de gestion des droits numériques (DRM) d'Amazon et des exigences DRM des éditeurs, il n'est actuellement pas possible d'acheter des livres numériques sur Bookshop.org ou dans les librairies locales et de les lire sur votre Kindle. Nous travaillons avec Kobo pour prendre en charge les appareils Kobo plus tard cette année.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by patibulaire

Aucun intérêt,
Surtout
• Les livres numériques de Bookshop.org doivent être lus sur notre application Apple ou Android, ou via un navigateur Web, à l'exception des titres sans DRM qui peuvent être téléchargés et transférés vers votre application de lecture ou l'appareil de votre choix.
• Les utilisateurs d'appareils e Ink basés sur Android, qui ont un accès régulier à la boutique d'applications Google Play (Boox, Meebook, etc.), devraient pouvoir télécharger et lire depuis notre application Android . Le kilométrage peut varier en fonction de l'appareil.
• En raison du logiciel propriétaire de gestion des droits numériques (DRM) d'Amazon et des exigences DRM des éditeurs, il n'est actuellement pas possible d'acheter des livres numériques sur Bookshop.org ou dans les librairies locales et de les lire sur votre Kindle. Nous travaillons avec Kobo pour prendre en charge les appareils Kobo plus tard cette année.

In English...

No interest,
Especially
• Bookshop.org eBooks must be read on our Apple or Android app, or via a web browser, with the exception of DRM-free titles, which can be downloaded and transferred to your reading app or device of choice.
• Users of Android-based e-ink devices with regular access to the Google Play app store (Boox, Meebook, etc.) should be able to download and read from our Android app. Mileage may vary depending on the device.
• Due to Amazon's proprietary digital rights management (DRM) software and publisher DRM requirements, it is currently not possible to purchase eBooks from Bookshop.org or local bookstores and read them on your Kindle. We are working with Kobo to support Kobo devices later this year.

I don't want support for Kobo from this shop. That to me sounds like yet another DRM we don't want.