The Random Ebooks Questions Post

[elf]

Ask your questions! Get answers! Maybe even useful answers!

Ask anything! Ask about ereaders, or filetypes, or conversion methods, or where to find books, or which authors don't like ebooks, or what software works on which computers, or anything else ebook-related. Preferably, put the question, or part of it, in the subject line. That way, the questions will be easy to find, and new readers who show up can see if their question has been asked before.

Feel free to post links to your journal where you've spelled out your questions in detail (or just make a new post here; it's totally fine to make a long post about "thinking about ebook readers; what's the pros & cons of these two?")

Answer questions! If you know about a certain aspect of ebookery, jump in with answers!

Comments

Re: Basics: What can and can't I do with readers?

[brightwanderer]

Thank you for all the detail! After a lot of looking around and soul-searching I think I probably will go for the Kindle despite how much I dislike the proprietary thinking behind it. The choice in the UK seems to pretty much come down to Kindle vs Sony anyway, and the Kindle is considerably cheaper. If I can get non-Amazon indie stuff (and fanfic!) to work on it, I'm not too worried about buying from other stores.

(Since originally commenting I've been reading a lot of the links you've posted in this comm about indie publishing, and all at once realised there's a whole world of non-DRM stuff out there, so a lot of my concerns about jumping either way have eased. Also, I am now more excited about writing than I have been in years, because suddenly there's another option for my influenced-by-anime-epic-fantasy-with-incidental-gay-people stories. So thank you!)

Re: Basics: What can and can't I do with readers?

[elf]

The new Bebook might be worth looking at; if I remember Bebook specs, it'll read DRM'd Adobe stuff + non-DRM'd mobi, and a small handful of other filetypes. (I considered buying a Bebook. I decided that shipping from Europe bumped it out of my price range.)

Or you might look into the Jetbook/Jetbook Mini/Aluratek Libre lines. Those aren't e-ink, so the battery life's shorter, but they have some features that aren't covered by the other readers.

Rule #1 Of Buying An Ebook Reader:
Most people who like reading, are ecstatically happy with whatever reader they wind up getting.

There *are* pros and cons to the different ones, and if you've got specific reading habits or disabilities to deal with, you need to look into those. But if it's a case of "I just want books, in my pocket, ALL THE TIME" ... they all work for that.

Most of the device manufacturers try to steer you at specific bookstores. Most of the *publishers* try to steer you at bookstores. None of them are pitching, "hey, you could be reading FREE WEB CONTENT for years on this thing."

And I'm glad you're looking at the publishing options! (Have you seen the Three Micahs blog?) The more indie/self-published content out there, the more the mainstream publishers are going to have to realize that they've lost their entertainment monopoly, and if they want to succeed in the future, they'll have to do it through quality editing & selective promotion, not just counting sales because it exists as a hardcover.

Re: Basics: What can and can't I do with readers?

[brightwanderer]

Heh, impulsivity also came into it - I could (and did) walk into town during my lunch break yesterday to buy a Kindle on the spot. I believe Rule #1 to be already in effect. :D

Thanks for the blog link, I'll add that to my reader! Also poking around her samples on Amazon since I can now magically click and they appear on my Kindle (I cannot get over that. INSTANT BOOKS. When did I wake up in the future?)