Lois’s answer to “Have you considered selling "Flowers of Vashoni" on https://www.smashwords.com/ or some other site …” > Likes and Comments

In the case of Kindle, it's DRM-locked to Amazon's platforms. As a Kobo user, my choice is either to crack and convert it to epub (my Kobo can read a cracked mobi, but it displays better in epub), or read it on my phone/monitor with Amazon's cloudreader, which fatigues my eyes rather badly. So I don't buy Kindle e-books. Others do, and put in the effort to be able to read them the way they want to.
Also, some ebook formats take up less space for the same content than others, so ebook hoarders might convert to save bytes.

There's not that much you're saving in converting formats, and storage is cheap. Agree with the other reasons though.

For me (and leaving aside the religious issues) it's because I don't have an E-reader, don't plan on getting one, and do plan on being able to read my books in 30 years on a computer with the operating system I chose, which means I have to go through a lot of hassle if I get a Kindle and even worse for Nook or itunes.

As for Bean, I think I have every one of your books published through Baen, I'm going to have to think if this story is worth the hassle (and religious guilt :) ) of dealing with Kindle.

I don't like Kindle reader, and cannot read their ebooks with other software / devices because of the DRM. Nothing religious about it :)

I reread books. A lot. Sometimes decades after the original read. And I have ebooks going back to before the Kindle existed. They were also locked with DRM. If I had not taken the effort to strip the DRM back then, those books would have been lost to me, once those platforms (e.g. the old Sony Reader LRF books) went away. As it is, I can re-read all my ebooks on any platform I choose. If the Amazon and the Kindle went away tomorrow, I would not have any problems.

I hate to help Amazon, but not all Kindle books are DRM locked. The phrase you should look for is "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited", if that appears in the product details the book isn't DRM locked, although it's still a hassle to download it if you don't have an e-reader.

Not always. It might have this instead: "At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied."

I bought FOV on BN.COM in ePub format. You don't have to buy from Amazon.

I bought FOV from Barnes&Noble for my Nook. Since that is the only e-reader I own (it was a gift), I'm stuck with that format. I have no idea what this DRM stuff is - are Nook book locked, too? If my Nook dies, I will have lost hundreds of books, many of which I haven't read yet! Should I be worrying about this?

If your Nook dies, you'll still be able to access and transfer your books to another device through your B&N account. But many Nook e-books are DRM protected, so that device can't be say, a Kobo or a Kindle (unless you break that DRM, which takes effort and sometimes messes up the book).

Good to know I can still access them on another Nook. Thanks for the info!

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management it means that copying the books you thought you bought (you didn't you just bought a license to read them on certain devices) to a device you didn't tell the owner of the books about (in the case of Nook devices B&N) is illegal. If B&N goes out of business, or some hacker messes up their account information, or you lost your account information for B&N or just you have trouble registering a new device with them it's illegal for you to copy the books you got a license for, and which B&N owns.

Well, none of those things will occur - I sincerely hope! So I should be okay. I wouldn't know how to copy them anyway....

I've been reading ebooks for over a decade longer than kindle existed (I have thousands, all legally bought or PD). I like to reread some of them, if I can. I bought Palm reader books, the software to read them no longer installs. I bought books from Fictionwise - they went out of business, and transferred the books I'd bought to either B&N or Kobo (I forget), who don't operate in my country, so I'm out of luck. I bought Microsoft Reader books, thinking they'd not go out of business - they didn't, but they did shut down the book section. There's a couple of other formats as well. I've learned that if I might want to reread a book, don't trust a company that locks you into one format.

What a pain for you! I'm hoping B&N won't go out of business for a while yet. The Nook was a gift, which is why I do B&N. I don't usually read on my Nook (I really prefer paper books!) but when FOV came out, of course I had to have it, and that got me started back on the Nook again.

I want to read whatever you write! For eBooks, I have a Kobo, so need ePub format to be able to read a book (or novella) on it. I put up with having to read your recent novellas on my iPad or iPhone using the Kindle app, which I dislike. Because of the backlit format, I can't read on my iPad or iPhone at bedtime, I stick to paper books or my Kobo, which is not backlit and so doesn't disrupt my sleep. Nothing "religious" about it.

I much prefer paper books, and I have the entire Vorkosigan series in hardback, so I can reread them again and again with no worries. I'm still hoping FOV will be available on paper one of these days....

All of you people who don't have an e-reader, look into your public library. Overdrive is a common free reader that takes epub, and will let you read downloaded books as well as library books. You can also use kindle in the chrome browser and all of this works on android tablets.

I now have a tablet with both the Nook and Kindle apps on it. (My Nook was starting to die, so my kids got me the tablet for Christmas.) So I still have access to all my Nook books, and have started (somewhat reluctantly) buying Kindle books, too. I usually try to stick to the freebies or the 99 cent-ers. But if I like a free book and want to continue with the series, sometimes I'll splash out a bit more. It has to be pretty good, though!

"I will note that nobody is going to want your books after you die"

I think I have never read a more depressing sentence. Of course, I live in a house that was purchased with the specific idea of being able to house all our books, so I know I'm an outlier, but the thought of unwanted books... :-(

I am going to want to reread my e-books before I die, so I want to assure myself that I’ll be able to do so. That requires converting the e-books to an open format.