:sigh:....Some days....

[fiberaddict]

Called McCoy's yesterday...and they couldn't find any record of my purchase. :bangs head: Called back today....."OOOPS.....um...it was a mis-communication. We're going to go...go get them today, and we'll deliver 'em free of charge to you tomorrow, if that's all right...." :sigh: Yes, it is, but I really wanted them TODAY so I could get the barn all spiffy-fied. :sigh:

Himself is already comfortable with basic Algebra. He's got a good handle on it...so we may not need to do the Intensive Practice pages. We'll see. Today we read about Moses and the Exodus (good timing, huh? Passover begins Monday evening....) and he started building the Wilderness Tabernacle.

I did 3 loads of laundry, got them hung on the line, and did some Work-work. Also spent some time downloading (legally, for free!) most of the 1632 sequels. (I think I now have all the 1634 ones, and the 1635 ones, plus the 3 Gazettes, the 2 Ring of Fires....I think's that it. Baen put out CDs...and they've been uploaded for people to download. Can't wait to start on them!

I have a problem with DRM.......I understand it, I really do, but.......why is it OK to borrow paper books from a library, or to buy paper books from a resale shop, but it's not OK to borrow e-copies? I mean......OK. I have a LOT of paper books. LOTS. Most of them I bought from Half Price - let's face it, I can't afford my reading habit if I have to pay full-price. I DO buy some books new - when I have the funds, or if I have a good coupon, or if there's a sale (like at Borders that time....:whew:) but I simply can NOT afford to buy all my "fun" books at full price. The local libraries SUCK, big time - honestly, *I* have more knitting/weaving/spinning book then both of them put together, and I probably have more SF books then them, too. (Which are my 2 favorite genres). So....the libraries are out for *me* for fun reading. (Don't even bring up ILL - I've been waiting a good 4 years now for a spinning book I requested - I ended up finding it on eBay. They STILL haven't gotten it in at the library!)

And....most (not all, granted) of the e-books I have, I ALSO have printed copies. Jean Auel? Got all but the newest one in print. Ditto Diana Galbadon, and Neil Gaimon, and Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein, and and and....if it weren't for "lending" libraries of e-books, I'd be broker than I already am, having to buy digital copies of all of them. :sigh: (I will confess that I don't have any hard copies of Eric Flint's books - yet. I haven't been to a bookstore since I discovered him! :lol: And yes, I'll end up buying a few of his in print, just for the principle of the thing.)

I just.....I can't buy 2 or 3 copies of each book - like, say, for the kids, for school. Amazon won't allow you to put it on more than 1 device (and that's assuming they'll sell it in a format my reader can handle, or that Calibre can re-format)...so either 1 kid can haul the ebook around while the other is chained to the 'puter, or I have to purchase 2 copies. That's not right......I mean, with a print book I can read it, hand it to Himself, who can read it and hand it to Herself, and so on.....but with DRM, we're stuck.

I'm not trying to cut the author's royalty payments...but I don't understand why libraries aren't getting the same flack. It's...the same thing, really - 1 copy that hundreds of people can read. I'm not sure, even, why Half-Price doesn't get zinged - I mean, they're profiting on re-selling books, and I haven't heard any publishers whine about *that* (or garage sales, or thrift stores....I mean, really. What's the difference???)

:sigh: For the moment, I'm hunting free sites, and I try to avoid the obvious non-legal ones. I'm not sure what a real solution would be - again, I don't want to hurt author's royalty streams, but.......I dunno. I'm rambling, instead of cleaning.

Guess I need to go clean something.....

Comments

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

I suspect that DRM has a lot less to do with authors' royalties than it does with publishers' profits.

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

You are probably right. I like what Baen is doing - they put out CD's occasionally with at least 20 novels on them. COMPLETE novels. There's a site (can't remember it, sorry - but google "1635 The Eastern Front CD" and it should come up) that has ALL the CDs uploaded - with Baen's permission!. I nabbed a TON of books today from there - now I need to go thru and get them in Calibre so I can put them on the Kobo.

Wish more publishers thought that way - in the long run, they'd sell more books! I know which publisher will get *my* $$$ when I buy new books!

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

Was it this one? http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/

There's a huge amount of free stuff. A lot of David Weber and John Ringo which is good if you like military SF. There's also a huge chunk of the Vokosigan Saga there too.

I've bought more books because I read the freebies by the authors on the Baen site than any other medium.

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

That's the one! Thanks for the link - I'll bookmark it so I can go back!

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

There are ways to get around the DRM. I strip the DRM off all the books I buy so I can move them between devices and computers--I have no intention of ever sharing them outside my household. Because, yeah, some of these books I've already bought once or twice and I'm reluctant to buy them if I get a new device. I am all for authors getting paid and am fully aware of how many people it takes to make a readable book and bring it to market, so I don't mind paying for e-books but there's a point at which I am unwilling to purchase a book for a third time.

And just so you know--those library e-books can only be checked out by one person at a time and they self-destruct from the patron's computer/device at the end of the check out period. And there are publishers/authors who haaaaaaate used bookstores (although those folks are generally considered to be cranks by the majority who think used books are great because most folks do recognize that everyone is not made of money).

I assume you're aware of Project Gutenberg? Lots of free stuff there, but mostly older. Good for the "classics", though.

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

Yeah - Project Gutenberg has a lot of good books - I've been hanging out there a lot!

I have heard (on some of the forums) that some feel that publishers are putting the price-point of e-books up so as to have them not catch on. Not sure about that...but it's true that I can't see any reason to pay $12.99 for Auel's latest in digital, when the paperback will probably come out at $8.99 (or so) - and pricing them the same as paperbacks also doesn't make sense to me, because the costs are less for digital (no ink, no paper, etc).......I don't know.

I didn't know that about library e-books; I was actually talking about printed books (but didn't make that clear). I wish we had a decent library around here....until then, I get to browse Gutenburg and Manybooks. And Baen.....:lol:

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Well, I take anything on a dedicated e-book forum with a gigantic grain of salt--there are a lot of people who believe that they are entitled to get books extremely cheaply and who have no idea of the costs involved to get a book to the point where they can buy it. About the only cost that is absent from an e-book is the cost of creating a physical copy and warehousing that copy--all the other front end costs are still present.

When Amazon introduced the Kindle and up through the introduction of the agency pricing model last year, they were selling e-books at a loss in order to drive sales of their device. That is something that is, IMO, absolutely essential to keep in mind when looking at prices. Generally, the only publishers whose prices will consistently be in the sub-$5 range are those which are e-book only--and those are small presses which pay smaller advances and royalties to their authors. There are a lot of e-presses in the romance genre, nearly none in SF/F, and I don't know about other genres because I only follow the two in any detail.

With regards to new releases--of course the e-book edition of the Auel is $12.99--the hardback is what? $26.99? The reason you'll see it listed on Amazon for less is because the agreements between Amazon & the publisher is different between print & electronic. I fully expect that when the paperback comes out in a year, the price of the e-book will drop to either the paperback price or a dollar or two below it--which, to me, is a fair price. I don't mind paying up to the list price of the cheapest paper edition of a title. So, to me, $12.99 is a good price for an e-book because I'm not going to buy that sucker in hardback *anyhow* and if I want to read it *now*, I'm willing to pay a premium. Otherwise, I'll wait a year for the price to come down (the other Auel titles are priced in the $6.99 range electronically, IIRC) and buy it then (I will buy it eventually, I need to find out if Ayla invents Pop-Tarts and swimming pools!).

ANYHOW. I have Opinions about this whole thing, obviously. I think it's a tremendously complicated issue, more complicated than it appears on the surface and I think publishing is going through something similar to what happened in the music industry 10 years ago. I think in 10 years, publishing is going to look very different. I hope that the traditional publishers are still around, because I think they serve as quality control in a lot of ways, but I think there will be a tremendous amount of choice outside of that, too. And hopefully they'll realize that DRM does nothing more than make your legitimate customers feel like potential thieves.

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm entitled to totally *free* books - that's not my point. (But I think you knew that!) I didn't know Amazon was selling at a loss at first - that ups them a little in my opinion. :grin:

Re: Auel - yeah, I'll be buying this one. (I have a Kobo coupon, so it's not a biggie. :lol:) Ayla hasn't invented the wheel yet, or the internal combustion engine, or domesticated cows (for when she invents the latte!), and I want to find out what leads to it. :lol:

I just wish they weren't making it SO hard for people to switch to ebooks (yup. I'm firmly on the e-book bandwagon, now!) - in the long run, ebooks are better for the environment (I think, anyway), and a *little* cheaper (as you said). I don't know that I'll give up hard copies, though...there's something about the heft of a good book.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to imply that you thought you were entitled to free books! Selling e-books at a loss was a good business decision for Amazon to make line because it really drove sales of the Kindle--however, it has also made a very vocal segment of the e-book buying market believe that the prices Amazon was selling the books at was the "right" price when it was probably artificially low, if that makes sense.

I like my hard copies, too, but the genius in e-books is that if I want to, I can buy backlist titles the instant I want them (assuming they've been converted to e-books; there's a fair bit of work involved in doing that, it's not just a matter of pushing a button and getting a clean epub file) whereas I can't go to my local bookstore and do the same.