Let's talk about shops!

[quivo]

I've always wondered which sources people tend to turn to, including official channels, when looking for ebooks. Fictionwise has earned a firm place on my list, and I know of other stores like BooksOnBoard and so forth, but have never really tried them because of the hassle of setting up different accounts.

Where do you guys tend to buy? In your experience, where are the best places to buy from, esp. as regards DRM, activation, and all those niggling little customer service issues you can't really know until you lose a download or find that the book isn't working?

Comments

[quivo]

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.

[cyprinella]

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.

[wide_worlds_joy]

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.

[aithine]

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.

[cyprinella]

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.

[aithine]

*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*