No wonder ebooks aren’t selling
I decided that I would like to try the first book of the Dresden files, but I have no more shelf space, and I have my new ereader, so I thought I would get it in ebook format. Bloody hell! They really do do everything in their power to stop you from reading your ebooks once you have them, don’t they? The e bookshops in the US don’t sell to the UK. Once I’d found it in Waterstones UK, they force you to download some kind of Adobe software to enable you to read it. Do I look like I have 13 MB of computer space going spare? Well I don’t! And then, even if you cave in and have this unwanted software, you then have to register it with Adobe before they’ll allow you to take your ebook off your computer and put it on your e-reader.
Do I want to register my computer with Adobe? No I don’t. Who knows what they will do, once they’ve got me? Put DRM on the rest of my ebooks? Prevent me from using the rest of my library unless that too is registered with them?
Call me paranoid, but I don’t care to find out. So I have refused to register – which means that I can only read the ebook on my computer. There’s no way I’m sitting at my computer to read a book – that’s why I bought an ereader in the first place. So I’ve uninstalled the unwanted Adobe Lit thingy, and have spent £6 on an ebook I have no way of reading.
I’ve never been tempted to get a pirate copy of any book I could get on MBAM or one of the other romance etailers, because there you just pay the money, download the file, and it’s yours to put on your laptop or your e-reader as you like. Simple – it’s like buying the book and receiving it. But this rights management palaver that says I can grudgingly download the book but I’m not allowed to read it without signing over my firstborn first. Fuck that. I didn’t want to read it that badly anyway.
Yes. Exactly. This is the reason I haven’t gotten a Kindle or Sony Reader, even though I’m a huge gadget geek and love the idea. I’m just not sure I buy enough DRM-free ebooks to justify it, and I refuse to be locked in by the DRM for the books I buy in paper now. It would be like putting all my books in a safe and having to ask someone to unlock it when I want to read. No thanks.
Yes, I deliberately chose to get a CyBook Gen because that isn’t tied in with any kind of format or retailer – I wanted to stay independent and choose where I bought from. And the device itself is great, and is loaded up with all my romance ebooks – none of which have DRM. So I was in a flush of “Yay! Ebooks are great!” and thought I’d be ambitious and branch out into larger press books. Clearly the rules are very different there. And you’re right – it’s like having someone hold your books to ransom and infiltrate their software of unknown purposes onto your computer in the process. I’ll stick with print for a bit longer, in that case 🙁
Yes, I’m sticking with print for the most part too. I hear you on the bursting bookshelves though. I’ve been thinking lately that I need another bookcase . . .
I just hope the trend moves away from draconian DRM. Surely publishing will learn from the music industry? I can dream anyway.
there is a way to buy them with your credit card from amazon even from europe if you give an U.S. adress. At least that works for me and since I buy the book fair and square and I don`t think it`s cheating. I have all the books by Jim Butcher because I am a fan since his firts book (i think one of his best) and would offer them to you, but that would be piracy and I don`t. If you would kike to make an exception let me know
Karin
Thanks Karin! I’ve often wondered, if you buy a Kindle book, do they make you download special software for that too? My ereader will read .prc files (which I think is Kindle format), but not if there’s some kind of obstructive DRM in the way. I guess I’ll have to try it with a cheap one and find out!
Thanks for the offer! But a friend has sent me a copy of the first one (and as I’ve already paid for a copy which I didn’t receive, I think that’s fair.) I haven’t had time to start reading it yet, so I don’t know whether I will want the others. If I do, and the kindle experiment works, I might ask someone if I could borrow their address for the purposes of downloading it from the US.
Thank you!
*g* After nearly three years in this house, we finally organized our bookshelves last weekend, and now there’s a big stack of books on the hearthstone which we have to give away if we are to fit all our books on the shelves. Meanwhile I know I can fit 160 books on my Cybook reader, and thousands more if I buy an SD card to plug in the back and give it extra memory. I was hoping to replace some of my print books with ebooks and actually be able to reduce the amount of house space taken up by bookshelves – but that’s not going to happen now.
I’m sure they will get it sorted out eventually. We’re still in the Betamax days, I guess 🙂
I am reading on an iPhone and there you have to download the kindle reader app. I don`t know how it is with you reader…
I really hate all this DRM stuff, especially as it isn`t really stopping piracy on the net
Alex, how do you like your Cybook? Talking about e-readers is making me itch to get one. Though I’m also thinking about getting a Droid phone, so maybe that will be enough of an e-reader for me. Choices, choices.
Oh, right! Thanks! I’ll see if they’ve got any free ones, in that case, and just try to download one as an experiment. It would be good if I could buy from Amazon, since they’ve got everything!
I like the Cybook a lot. It’s really quite basic – black and white, and does nothing more than let you read books and listen to music. The screen is about the size of a page in a small paperback, but the device itself is much thinner than a paperback. I have it in a protective case, which makes holding it feel like holding a book.
The eink screen is very legible, doesn’t give me eyestrain, and doesn’t use any power except when you’re turning the page. That means that a fully charged battery lasts about a month. You can get 160 books on it, in its basic setup, but if you put an SD card in the back you can make that thousands.
It’s best at reading .prc files (which is mobipocket and kindle format) and tends to display .pdfs too small. But if you get the free mobipocket software, it’s only a moment’s work to convert any pdf, txt or html file into prc without adding any DRM. So the only format you really can’t read with it is epub. And you add books to it by downloading the file and sending it over a cable to the reader, as you would with a memory stick. The reader recharges its batteries by the same cable.
I certainly am a convert to e-books as a result of it – it makes the experience pretty much identical to reading a book, but you can carry 160 volumes in your pocket.