ebooks | Let's talk about shops!

for me in the UK, I use Waterstones. I got my Sony ereader from them and I trust them completely.

Apart from that I've really used sharing communities and torrents

Hmm, the Waterstones books come with DRM, right? And I suppose they only have adobe books, since they sell the PR505. do you know if they take international orders?

I think they do indeed

I got into ebooks because of a friend selling through Changeling Press and Loose ID. Because I absolutely refuse to buy DRMed books, I've stuck with the little epublishers and have been pretty happy. Changeling has horrible covers, but their customer service has been great the couple of times I couldn't get a transaction to go through properly and then the time I was sent a truncated download link. Loose ID and Samhain, also great and they have a bunch of formats available which is nice. One weird thing I've noticed about Loose ID's PDFs is that if you try to convert them to another format, they lose their quotation marks. Samhain sells through My Bookstore and More and once you have an account, you can go back and download the books you've bought in other formats. That's nice. The one company I bought from that I wasn't thrilled with was Noble Romance. They didn't have a .lit format for the title I wanted so I tried downloading all of the formats they had available. Their HTML was *not* straight HTML. Instead, it was some funky can only be opened by IE format that I couldn't convert. The rest of the formats also looked like crap on my Sony. I probably won't buy from them again.

I've looked at Fictionwise, but their weird pricing system with rebates and stuff just turns me off. I'd rather just have a straight discount.

The micropay rebates on FW are a little weird, but they make sense.

100% Micropay rebate on a $10 book means, "If you buy $10 worth of stuff at our store, you can have this book free. And you don't even have to choose the $10 worth of stuff right now."

50% micropay rebate is, "buy the value of this book at the store, and this book is half off." And so on. It's like the buy one, get one half-off sales, but you don't have to decide on the "one" right away.

(I almost never get micropay rebates because I don't buy the books with DRM. They rarely have rebates for the multiformat books.)

Eh, that still doesn't gel for me. I'm sure it makes sense for them - drives more business to the site and demands loyalty to see a return - but when I don't buy DRMed books and their prices are still higher than I'm willing to pay, I don't see a lot of reason to screw around with building up a rebate. I don't like buy one get one half off sales either because I rarely need two of something. Just give me a discount.

Hey, MBAM! I've yet to buy from them because it was oddly difficult to find out what kind of formats they sold without actually registering on the site, a requirement I thought pretty strange at the time. what formats do they generally have?

As far as the fictionwise rebates, I don't buy a ton of DRMed stuff from them, so only earn and use a miniscule amount of micropay $. I do thinkthe whole thing is really geared toward people who buy lots of DRMed books from them, and use fictionwise as their major store. it is really only valuable in that case; otherwise, not so much.

I think it depends on the publisher, since they carry stuff from a couple of different houses. Here's Samhain's list: http://www.samhainpublishing.com/aboutebooks I buy .lit because they're the easiest to convert to .lrf in my experience.

I was debating buying the new Dresden Files in e but the only place I could find it without loading software was Fictionwise. Even after the microrebates that I wouldn't probably use, it was still cheaper to buy a hardcover from Borders and that's not DRMed. And I know that it's not them setting the prices, it's the publishers, but it's still frustrating.

I've got all the Dresdens that I know about. I think it's up to 10 in .lit format.

Let me check

This is the text file I had that came with them:

Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files" in MSReader (.lit) format.

[b]0 - Restoration of Faith[/b]
[quote][i]A promotional vignette from the author's website.[/i][/quote]

[b]1 - Storm Front[/b]
[quote]Harry Dresden--Wizard
Lost items found. Paranormal investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things--and most of them don't play too well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a--well, whatever.

There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed. [/quote]

[b]2 - Fool Moon[/b]
[quote]Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work - magical or mundane. But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise. A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses - and the first two don't count...[/quote]

[b]3 - Grave Peril[/b]
[quote]Called to Cook County hospital to deal with an enraged ghost, Harry Dresden, Chicago's resident wizard, is puzzled and disturbed not by the ghost's wrath but by the fact that someone had cast a torture spell on it, goading it into action. Harry's disturbance increases when he discovers that the same spell has been cast on one of his friends. Harry begins to realize that he and his friends may be targets of a vengeful spirit, and as he desperately tries to discover which of his many enemies has it in for him, his friends are attacked one by one. The spirit, whom Harry refers to as the Nightmare, continues to torment Harry's friends until he manages to cast a spell preventing it from harming anyone else until it kills him, which leads to a showdown that Harry might not survive.[/quote]

[b]4 - Summer Knight[/b]
[quote]Harry's life being what it is, in no time at all things get very much worse. First, a little old lady turns into a ghoul and nearly eats him, then Queen Mab of the Faerie's Winter Court informs him that she now holds his debt, and then the White Council of the wizards comes to Chicago to have a wee chat with their most wayward member. The only way Harry can avoid becoming toast is to make a deal with (you guessed) Queen Mab herself. This will provide the wizards have another option besides offering Harry up as a blood bag. Mab doesn't want much, she just needs Harry to find out who killed the Summer Knight before Armageddon breaks out all over.
Other than some assistance from a troop of pizza eating pixies, a den of young-adult werewolves, and a few faerie may-not-wannabees, Harry is on his own in this one. Unless you want to count the people (and not quite people) who are trying to kill him as company. Whatever the reason for the murder was, no one wants Harry to find it. Out of the six queens who rule Faerie, one has hired him and the other five just might kill him on sight. Yet he must talk to them all, as well as their supporters. Sometimes it seems that the vampires would have been a better choice.[/quote]

[b]5 - Death Masks[/b]
[quote]Harry Dresden is not having a good day. A vampire named Ortega is hunting the beleaguered wizard, intending to challenge him to a duel that, Ortega claims, will end the war between the vampires and the wizards. Harry has almost no hope of winning the duel, but soon he is preoccupied by another problem: Father Vincent, a priest, needs Harry's help in finding the Shroud of Turin, stolen by a trio of thieves. Harry traces two of the thieves to his hometown, Chicago, but when he finds them, he learns that he isn't the only one after them. A group of terrifying demons wants the shroud, and its leader is interested in Harry's soul, too. Harry must call on all of his friends, including three brave knights, his police-officer friend, and even his half-vampire ex-girlfriend, Susan.[/quote]

[b]6 - Blood Rites[/b]
[quote]Per usual, wizard-detective extraordinaire Harry Dresden is in trouble. He barely escapes an assassination attempt, courtesy of the Black Council of vampires, when Thomas, a vampire who has helped Harry out on occasion, asks him to take a case. It seems someone doesn't want porno film director Arturo Genosa's latest effort to get off the ground. An entropy spell has killed two of Arturo's assistants, and Thomas wants Harry to find the culprit. With suspects abounding--Arturo has no fewer than three ex-wives--Harry decides to pose as a production assistant at the studio. Though he isn't able to stop another sabotage attempt, this one threatening an actress' life, he does save the young woman. With danger closing in, the last thing Harry needs is a sexy succubus and a surprising revelation about his heritage.[/quote]

[b]7 - Dead Beat[/b]
[quote]Harry is coping with his new roommate--vampire half-brother Thomas. Harry soon has problems bigger than Thomas' clutter to deal with. Marva, one of Harry's vampire foes, summons him with a threat to his police-lieutenant friend, Karrin Murphy. Marva demands Harry get the Word of Kemmler for her, or she'll frame Murphy for murder. Harry doesn't even know what the Word is, but while he's trying to find out, and also what damage Marva will be able to do with it, several necromancers descend on Chicago. When Harry learns that the newcomers are students of Kemmler, an evil wizard who mastered ancient spirits in a way no one has since, he discovers that they are seeking the Word, too, in hopes of seizing the powerful knowledge within it and calling forth a powerful creature known as the Erlking.[/quote]

[b]7.5 - Something Borrowed[/b]
[quote][i]"Something Borrowed" was published in the short story collection My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, edited by P.N. Elrod. It takes place in the Spring or early Summer between Dead Beat and Proven Guilty, and it chronicles the marriage of two members of the Alphas, Billy Borden and his long-time girlfriend Georgia.
Events quickly get out of hand when Maeve and Jenny Greenteeth of the Winter Court attempt to derail the marriage in retaliation for Billy and Georgia's actions in Summer Knight. The failed coup is referenced in Proven Guilty, which was actually published several months before the short story.[/i][/quote]

[b]8 - Proven Guilty[/b]
[quote]Harry Dresden is assigned an unpleasant task by the White Council of Wizards. He has to find out where the Winter Fairy Court stands in the White Council's war against the vampires. To make matters worse, he has gotten a missive from a powerful wizard claiming someone is using black magic in Chicago. It doesn't take long for Harry to pinpoint the source of the problem. Molly, the daughter of a close friend, comes to him for help after her boyfriend is accused of attacking an elderly theater owner at a horror-movie convention. When another attack occurs and Harry sees the dangerous type of magic used, he knows he is dealing with a very serious threat indeed.[/quote]

[b]9 - White Knight[/b]
[quote]This time, when Harry Dresden gets a call from Murphy, it's off the record, because she has been demoted, things in SI are politically shaky, and the police have already declared a suicide. Once Harry gets a good look, though, the suicide is clearly a murder with magical intent. As he investigates, hoping as always to stop the killer before more die, evidence points to the worst possible suspect: his half brother. In another complicated case, there are a lot of very powerful players, and with the war between the White Council and the Red Court vampires, politics are played hard and fast. In tracking down the killer, Harry manages to catch the attention of the White Court vampires again, too. On top of all that, he is still teaching strong-willed, occasionally impulsive teenager Molly Carpenter, and the teacher-student dynamic is difficult for him. And oh, yes, Lasciel, the demon trapped in a coin Harry has secured under his summoning circle, is a lingering presence.[/quote]

9.5 - Its My Birthday Too (Many Bloody Returns)
Harry tries to deliver a birthday present to his brother, Thomas. As usual for Harry, all hell breaks loose when he gets there.

10 - Small Favor
No one's tried to kill Harry Dresden for almost an entire year, and his life finally seems to be calming down. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow.
An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, the Queen of Air and Darkness-and she's calling in her marker. It's a small favor he can't refuse...one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills- and loyalties-to their very limits.
It figures. Everything was going too well to last...

Want me to zip them up?

Thanks, but I did actually find them elsewhere. I was just annoyed with the whole pricing set up and ended up buying the hardcover from Borders on release day.

I use Fictionwise - I started out with Mobipocket on a pocket PC and recently moved to eReader on my iPhone. I chose Fictionwise because they accept PayPal - simple as that. I used to work for an internet business and I know from experience that buying stuff with a credit card on-line, particularly if that business is located outside your own country, is not as safe as people would have you think.

Fictionwise have a pretty good range, and their Micropay rebates mean that if I'm having a bad week, I can treat myself to a free book.

I predominantly use Fictionwise & BooksonBoard. The times I've downloaded from eHarlequin have been great too -- the one time a download wouldn't work, I emailed customer service & they fixed whatever the problem was.

I have to say, even the limited interaction I've had with Harlequin (downloading their free books, etc) has shown they've got the plot. I almost wish I read more of their romances so I could patronize them more.

They're one of the few large publishing companies that do. I know for some of their category lines, they release the ebooks a month early so in effect, they reward ebook readers by letting them get their hands on titles early.

I love Baen.com's Webscriptions, and I do buy some from Fictionwise. I won't buy anything with DRM, which cuts out all the large sellers like booksonboard and deisel ebooks. (And, for that matter, the Sony store, which I think of as a ridiculous endeavor based on archaic web practices... install our special software and you can only buy using registered machines! How quaint!)

I've also bought from a handful of other sites that don't use DRM; Freya's Bower sells erotica/romance, including supernatural & sci-fi, and Smashwords.com is basically Lulu for ebooks.

I've only ever dealt with one ebook shop, Amazon. I bought a copy of "Rosamund" from them because I couldn't find the actual print copy. I"ve never had a problem with them as a result.

I'll tell you what though, the ebooks you can find for free around the Internet are some sad copies. The formats are enough to drive a sane person crazy, and, IMO, having a format you can read is probably worth the $7.50 you would spend on the ebook.

I have gone back and picked up titles that I had originially picked up for free because I liked them so much that I knew I'd reread and wanted better formatting.

In light of this, I have to wonder if publishers are more afraid that people will pirate their well-formatted non-free ebooks, or if they are just afraid of piracy, period. I don't like the implicit case that suggests, though-- that DRM is a valid way to protect the income from the effort they've spent on marking up and proofreading the ebook.

I've picked up both well and poorly formatted books from pirate sources (more poor which is why I go back and buy them, but it may just be a function of the file format shared rather than the publisher). A lot of people just don't care about the format or aren't willing to pay for it. I haven't seen a specific version be more popular than others.

I can understand DRM ebooks, I really can. There is a lot of copyright tied up in the books themselves, and the investment from the publisher in making the print and the ebook copies. So I don't mind only being able to read it on specified devices as a result. I'm pretty okay with that. Just as I am with DRM music for the most part.

What I do object to is having to use a specific "digital editions" software to read the darned book, and having to jump through several hundred hoops to get another device approved (or worse having to buy it again to read on a non-approved device).

If the ebook people would do like Napster does and give a device, say a ST:TNG PADS like device (not the copyrighted Kindle, but like it) and a subscription fee to download their books AND use it on up to two other devices, then I think that the whole concept of ebooks would do much better. Yes have them expire and have to resync with the subscription. And if your subscription goes, then you lose the access to the books you downloaded. I can see that all day long.

But I'm just as irritated with proprietary ebooks as I am with iTunes. I purchase the book, then I can't read it anyplace but through their software? That messes me up and I want someone's head. So I turn to poorly formatted text versions of the book I can find for free if only because I can read it on many things.

I have to wonder if publishers are more afraid that people will pirate their well-formatted non-free ebooks, or if they are just afraid of piracy, period.

Sadly, the ones who don't get that if you don't treat your paying customers like criminals they won't have to act like criminals to be able to read the damned books on their reader of choice seem to think that, yeah.

if they are just afraid of piracy, period.

This. The head of our publications dept is terrified of ebooks, like the second they're available that everyone and their mother will be downloading them for free. He doesn't seem to believe me that in my experience, it's pretty much romance novels and really expensive computer texts that I see all of the time and that the demand for our relatively esoteric subject is so small that most people aren't going to bother looking if they're easily available.

*snort* Original format of the release doesn't matter--if somebody wants it, it'll be out there as soon as someone can get it scanned and OCR'd. Look how fast the Harry Potter books got switched over to an ebook format after they came out--I think I saw 'em within a day or two of the print release--despite Rowling's insane refusal to let them be released electronically for people to purchase that way.

It just comes down whether a publisher/author wants to treat their customers as criminals or as paying customers. Trust that most people are basically honest and understand the concept that if they don't pay for the stories they like, they likely won't get more because the author and publisher won't be able to create more good content without some monetary return. And not punish 95% of the population for the actions of the other 5%, who most likely wouldn't have bought the book anyway.

If that 5% is pirating to sell, yes, lay the legal smackdown on 'em; otherwise a publisher stands to gain a more loyal customer base by providing what they want to read in a format they want to read it in (e.g. Baen).

[/soapbox] *vbg*

So very true. There's nothing worse than sitting down to read a book and discovering that the entire thing is one long unbroken paragraph, or that the original was a badly scanned document run through indifferent character recognition software.

Baen has been the best ebook shopping experience for me. you pay for the content at a reasonable price and you get a variety of format choices to choose from to download. And if you change your mind on the format you can go back and pick another one.

I really like shopping at Baen too. Then again, anywhere where you can go in and get other formats for your ebooks automatically gets a bunch of FTW points :)

anywhere where you can go in and get other formats for your ebooks automatically gets a bunch of FTW points

Most definitely. *vbg*

Let's talk about shops!

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