Aussie Readers discussion
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Which source for eBooks?
I've just written a blog post about how Australian publishers are profiteering in the book industry http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2010/11...
4190574 Sandra wrote: "Speaking of ebooks and world publishing rights, I've never had a problem buying ebooks from USA & UK.
More likely because you are buying books that an Australian publisher does not hold rights on
Shelleyrae wrote: "I've just written a blog post about how Australian publishers are profiteering in the book industry.."I read your article Shelleyrae. It's excellent. Thanks for doing the research and putting it into words we lay people can easily understand. I also was fascinated by the article you linked to by Adrian Hon in the Daily Telegraph... Very controversial!!
I have been downloading ebooks for about 2 years now. Initially I spent a lot of time writing to authors asking them to make their ebooks available in Australia. Pretty much in every case I either received no reply or a terse one telling me to contact the publisher. The article you mentioned from Dear Author explains perfectly how difficult it is for consumers to trace down the correct publisher for a book in Australia. On the few occasions I was able to identify the publisher I never received a reply to my questions.
Again I urge everyone to make use of the lost book sales website to express their frustration at geographical restrictions imposed by draconian publishing companies.
http://lostbooksales.com/
Thanks Mandy - I'm glad you found it useful
Mandy wrote: "Shelleyrae wrote: "I've just written a blog post about how Australian publishers are profiteering in the book industry.."I read your article Shelleyrae. It's excellent. Thanks for doing the res..."
Mandy, I haven't read the lostbooksales post yet, but I did want everyone to see some information I read recently in either a writers blog or yahoo group, maybe even a newspaper. So frustrated I didn't make note of it straight away!
BUT, apparently someone has gone into an agreement/partnership/whatever with Lightning Source, who print on demand the e-books over a certain word count from my publisher The Wild Rose Press and many others. The thing is, the article/post/whatever said they were going to establish a Lightning Source branch in Australia!
That would be so wonderful for those of us who find awful difficulty in getting our work onto Australian bookshop shelves. Gosh, I do hope it's right!
Monya,Details of LS opening in Oz listed below
Geoff
The Lightning Source plant in Australia will be Ingram Content Group’s fifth networked book manufacturing facility. Lightning Source North American facilities include its headquarters in La Vergne, Tennessee, and a plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Lightning Source international locations include a large-scale operation in Milton Keynes, UK, central to London that serves the European region and a facility in Maurepas, France, a joint-venture with Hachette Book Group.
The new operation in Australia will manufacture both paperback and hardcover black and white interior books. With a digital library of over 4.4 million books, Lightning Source has printed and delivered over 99 million books on behalf of publishers around the world.
Ingram Content Group’s Lightning Source facility in Australia is expected to begin operation in June 2011.
Geoff wrote: "Monya,Details of LS opening in Oz listed below
Geoff..."
Thanks for that info Monya and Geoff. I'm not familiar with Lightning Source. I'm not really sure what it means for the consumer. Does it mean we can get one-off books printed if they are out of print? What does it mean for eBook sales? Does it have any impact on current geographical restrictions of ebooks?
Mandy, LS supply a printing service in the UK & USA. They also do fulfilment for publishers / authors. Online book sellers (Amazon, Book Depository etc)work with LS for small run productions for publishers & authors. If you wish to buy an out of print book from Amazon and it is listed in the LS catalogue you can obtain that book - but if the publisher / author of the out of print book is not a customer of LS then LS can not print the book. Recently LS have moved in to e-books - I looked at turning 'Ice King' in to an e-book via LS, but ended up doing it with Smashwords as I found their system much simpler - on the other hand it could have been my fault :-o)
If you have an account to print in the UK you can open an American account (for free)and have the book printed in America, and posted to the consignee from LS America - saves on postage from the UK.
There is a lot more to dealing with LS than meets the eye, but with perseverance everything can fall in to place. A small Oz publisher can gain access to the UK/US market without massive storage costs or longhaul shipping costs.
The LS opening next year will allow small run UK & US books to be on our market at the same time as the N. Hemisphere. LS Oz will be able to produce POD and mail out to the Oz customer - I am sure the postage costs will be cheaper than the current rate for a single book. My book costs $7.05 postage around Oz, but I only buy postage intermittently they would be spending heaps and due a large discount, which discount they do pass to an extent.
Hope this helps - if not just ask & I'll try and answer
cheers
Geoff
www.geoffwoodland.com
Geoff wrote: "Mandy, LS supply a printing service in the UK & USA. They also do fulfilment for publishers / authors. Online book sellers (Amazon, Book Depository etc)work with LS for small run productions for p..."
Geoff - thanks so much for filling in the information. It has to work out for the good of us all. I knew that when anyone ordered a book online from Amazon etc etc., LS printed it quickly. In this day and age I expect all they need is a master CD, not a huge printing press. So at least it might take the uncertainty out of the publishers' eternal question, "How many copies of this one do we print?"
Do you know any of the technical details?
Not that I care, I just feel Australia will now share modern methods with the bigger-population countries.
Thanks again!
Monya
http://monyamaryclayton.blogspot.com/
Monya,I'm dead jealous of your book cases - I have a very small room to myself with one wall of books, a book case in the dining room and several cartons in the garage to accommodate the rest :-o)
As for LS - once you have an account and you have uploaded the print file and the cover file you just fill in the blanks to order a copy to be sent to a customer. You pay for their service at the time of order (via credit card) and obviously you invoice the customer - LS do not handle cash from your customer. At the time of uploading the two files (print & cover) LS run off a proof copy and send it to you (included in the set up fee) and after you are happy with the result you click a field on your account and you are 'live'. As I said yesterday you can also have a US account and order from this account, but the file sits in the UK and it is all computer controlled. The US order is printed (& posted)in the US from the file in the UK. Again you collect from your customer and pay LS on ordering.
Not sure what else I can say - but happy to try and answer any question :-o)
cheers
Geoff
Geoff wrote: "Monya,Details of LS opening in Oz listed below
Geoff
The Lightning Source plant in Australia will be Ingram Content Group’s fifth networked book manufacturing facility. Lightning Source North Ame..."
Thanks for this extra information, Geoff. I did hear that Lightning Source will print books in Oz. My books published by You write On in the UK publishes with Lightning Source and I have to pay the postage from the UK. So this will save the huge postage from overseas. Laurel
My publisher, Bewrite Books, use Lightning Source, and LS have definitely said they're setting up an operation here in Australia in June 2011. This will mean that printing and distribution thru Ingrams will make a huge difference to Australian authors and consumers. It is impossible for small publishers, let alone non-Australian ones, to fix any affordable distribution deal here. I hope LS reallly do go thru with their plans.
Lightning Source are the biggest POD printer and used exclusively by Amazon (although there is a court case running on that as some publishers resent Amazon dictating which POD printer they use). It will be interesting to see what impact they have on the Australian market - they may even drive printing costs down -- wishful thinking!At the end of the day, they are printers, no more. Australia alreay has POD printers, so I don't suppose they will make a great deal of difference to what is available. POD is good for online purchases of individual books because distribution costs are minimal, but hopeless for selling through book shops because the production costs are too high.
What we are all interested in is publishing - the act of getting books onto the shelves where customers can touch them (and hopefully hand over some cash). This is the complete chain that starts with the author and ends with the reader walking out of the shop book in hand. POD only helps here if the reader already knows what he/she wants and places a special order.
You'll find some answers to some of these questions about ebook readers here, including info on which readers read which files http://tahlianewland.com/2010/10/31/c...
Tahlia wrote: "You'll find some answers to some of these questions about ebook readers here, including info on which readers read which files http://tahlianewland.com/2010/10/31/c..."thanks, Talhia. You have a great blogsite. Laurel
This site pixel of ink came to my notice for obtaining cheap books for kindle users. Has anyone else used it. Jacqueline made me a little nervous about purchasing any books outside Amazon. What do you think, is this okay?
http://www.pixelofink.com/
http://www.pixelofink.com/
Gail, if you follow the site through, you'll find that it simply links to bargains on Amazon and you buy from them. The site doesn't sell anything itself. It just saves you from trawling through Amazon looking for cheap books yourself.
Ahhhh. Thanks Murray, I hadn't had time to really explore it yet.
Gail "cyborg" wrote: "This site pixel of ink came to my notice for obtaining cheap books for kindle users. Has anyone else used it. Jacqueline made me a little nervous about purchasing any books outside Amazon. What do ..."Gail you can buy books for kindles anywhere they sell the mobipocket/prc format. I buy them all the time from other retailers esp Fictionwise and Diesel ebook store (2 of the biggest online ebook retailers). Plus I have bought scores of ebooks from up to 10 other boutique online retailers that also provide the m/prc format. It's completely safe. I'm not sure where this persistent statement that kindle owners have to buy from amazon is perpetuated but it's just not true.
Smashwords sells mobi. files too. In the future everyone will publish in all files if they're smart.I have had trouble getting ebooks, not because they are one or other file, but because the author or publisher hasn't arranged international copyright.See this post on my blog.
http://tahlianewland.com/2010/12/15/w...
Murray wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Speaking of ebooks and world publishing rights, I've never had a problem buying ebooks from USA & UK. Never been knocked back from any source - but maybe because I don't have .COM...."
Or maybe you haven't wanted to buy a book that didn't have international rights
I am starting to use iBooks on the iPad for e-reading, though I will always prefer real books!
Mandy wrote: "I'm not sure where this persistent statement that kindle owners have to buy from amazon is perpetuated but it's just not true. "I'm always hoping to be proved wrong Mandy, but I still haven't heard of a site that sells books in Kindle format with DRM. Diesel doesn't that I can see. I haven't managed to determine whether Fictionwise does or not, but my understanding of the .mobi format is that it doesn't support DRM. Can you show me an example of a new book you downloaded (usually with DRM) in the native Kindle format from somewhere other than Amazon?
Smashwords sells .mobi, though I think they aren't DMR protected. I'm pretty sure that Harlequin sells all formats too. I don't have a kindle so I don't know about others.
Tahlia wrote: "Murray wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Speaking of ebooks and world publishing rights, I've never had a problem buying ebooks from USA & UK. Never been knocked back from any source - but maybe because I..."
That may be so, but I've got well over 1300 ebooks.
Murray wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Speaking of ebooks and world publishing rights, I've never had a problem buying ebooks from USA & UK. Never been knocked back from any source - but maybe because I don't have .COM...."
Sorry, no American Credit Card - I usually pay by Paypal, which has an Aussie address, but the publishers don't know that.
Sandra wrote: "Sorry, no American Credit Card - I usually pay by Paypal, which has an Aussie address, but the publishers don't know that. "
I suspect it's the places you're buying from Sandra. Most of the mainstream stores simply don't offer paypal as an option - Borders in the US for example - to buy from there you have to have a credit card registered to a US address. And as for the UK since October this year all but one of the mainstream stores has stopped selling to anyone with a registered address outside the UK so, again you'd have to have a UK-registered credit card to shop at Waterstones, WH Smith etc. I had bought eBooks from both places before October and now can't.
I suspect it's the places you're buying from Sandra. Most of the mainstream stores simply don't offer paypal as an option - Borders in the US for example - to buy from there you have to have a credit card registered to a US address. And as for the UK since October this year all but one of the mainstream stores has stopped selling to anyone with a registered address outside the UK so, again you'd have to have a UK-registered credit card to shop at Waterstones, WH Smith etc. I had bought eBooks from both places before October and now can't.
I usually buy direct from publisher or Omnilit/ARE (allromanceebooks.com) or similar.
I have a Kindle and have no problems buying books from Amazon. However there are a huge range of books that are free or very innexpensive. Here is a link for the best places: http://onlykindle.com/free_kindle_boo... - whilst this is a Kindle based site the links for free books contain books in a number of formats so don't be put off.I have to say that I have not found the Kindle format limiting in any way I know that the epub format is the argument that is bandied around often but after my research I still found that the Kindle was the most user friendly and I am quite addicted.
Recently I noticed the huge price tag in Australia for eBook readers - the Kindle really is much more affordable than most and the array of reading material is more than I will read in a lifetime.
I've been lusting over the Kindle ever since I first saw them on Amazon a few years ago. As they were not available to us Aussies and also had a hefty price tag I tried to put them out of my mind but not very successfully. Yeah, I love new gadgets. Then about a year ago, I picked up a Chinese brand ereader. Ehh, it's ok but never really thrilled me like I thought it would. However it is colour LCD so backlit and frankly, feels like reading from my 'puter. I can store photo's and movies on it along with many formats of books as well. I do use it a little but not all that much. I had wondered about the joys of the iPad as I love my iPhone and iPod. Mum was given and iPad for Christmas and frankly, I just don't see the point of it however as I said, I have an iPhone and combine that with my lovely new-ish laptop, the iPad seems totally unecessary and quite heavy if it is to be considered for book reading.So, after a lot of research and with Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I went ahead and ordered a Kindle on Christmas eve. The more I look into it and the more I think about it, I know this is the perfect choice for me. I've downloaded wayyyy too many books from Amazon and Project Gutenberg already and I still don't have the device in my hot little hand. Ha ha! I doubt I'll ever feel restricted by it. There's just too many books available for it. Besides if I desperately need a book in .epub format, I do have my 'other' ereader. ;o)
Go Dot!!! I have a kindle. It's too easy to buy books. I have had to stop myself buying them as I think I already have a years supply. Buying new books is addictive.
Just to put the whole good Amazon/bad Amazon thing into perspective a little, I first noticed the problem a few years back when they stopped selling ebooks. Definitely bad for me because up to that point they accounted for 1/3-1/2 of my sales.Then they brought out the first Kindle (in the US only)and started selling ebooks again - just to Kindle owners. This was a simple monopolistic grab for the market. They wanted to be the major seller of ebooks and ereaders by tying the two together and use their market power to take over. There was a lot of protest at that time, but nothing was illegal.
Their next step probably was illegal, and they certainly got taken to court over it. They would only sell POD books printed by their in-house prineter. Meaning all small POD publishers had to do a deal with them or face not selling through the world's largest web retailer. I don't know the exact outcome of this, but i believe they backed down.
Their next step was to buy Mobipocket, one of the first dedicated ebook providers. The purchase came with the Mobipocket program. Doesn't affect most of us as we can still download the free reading program, but it did affect the manufacturers of other ereaders, who can no longer economically include the ability to read Mobipocket on their products.
So, most of the squeaking against Amazon and the Kindle has been the result of their use of muscle to push for a lion's share of the ebook market. In fact, if you take the plunge and join the Kindle flock, you will probably be very happy. It's just crabby old farts like me who are resentful (and even I could be bought off if they would only take my ebooks directly from me rather than my US publisher).
Jacqueline I like the fact that I can't buy all the books I want to read on my kindle. I love reading books in the paper verson. If it isn't available on the kindle I don't mind spending a bit more money on a paper verson, I save so much money on the electronic verson it really has reduced my spending over all. I could be alone on this, I am a bit weird.
I have down loaded the Mac version but don't own a kindle. I have not tried to down load any yet for my Macbook. I will I guess when I run out of Christmas Books/Presents from my daughter. The dollars saved are a big incentive for me.
Here's a really informative article by John Schember from the Telereads website which clearly explains why the different ebook formats exist and how to convert them. It also gives a great explanation of DRM (Digital Rights Management):The ABCs of e-book format conversion: Easy Calibre tips for the Kindle, Sony and Nook
"E-book readers are becoming more and more common. Two of the most popular today are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader line.
Unfortunately the two different brands don’t read the same kinds of e-books. This mess is like the one in the music world where you might find such formats as WMA, MP3, and AAC. In e-books, the same confusion exists—the Tower of eBabel, as some call it.
If you are only buying from the store designed for your reader—for example, Amazon’s Kindle Store or Sony’s Reader Store—you don’t need to worry about any of this.
But there are a very good reasons why you should know about the major formats, what you reader supports and how to convert between formats." Read more.
Wow thanks for that Mandy. I have a very limited collection of ebooks and use calibre at the moment. My new kindle is arriving soon (!!!!!:)) and i just love free stuff so i'll be using calibre alot more ;D Gave me a better understanding of the whole mess they call DRM as well..
I was lucky enough to get a Sony Pocket eReader as a present this year. After battling with the awful Sony Library software that comes with it I recommend any Sony buyers go straight to Calibre and don't bother loading up the Sony software. It is really bad, hangs all the time and is so slow!! Calibre seems to work really well.
Interesting article with links to discussions currently being held in Europe over Digital Territorial Rights (we've been calling it geographic restrictions).Digital Territorial Rights A Hot Issue In Europe
"FutureBook has a look at the Digital Book World’s Digital territorial rights panel that Paul also covered earlier today, going into a little more detail on some of the discussions between the posters and also bringing in some comments earlier in the day from Mike Shatzkin about the globalization of e-books (though, oddly, entirely leaving out any mention of Jean Arache’s part in the panel).
The discussion between American publisher Carolyn Savarese and UK publisher Andrew Franklin is interesting to me, as it presents a sort of microcosm of the positions of the US and UK publishing industries as a whole. The larger US industry could readily serve the 1.4 billion English readers worldwide, and the smaller UK industry seems to be feeling threatened. European readers have been slower to move to e-books than American readers, but once they catch up there is going to be even more demand for books that are currently being restricted by region.
Readers from all over are still being extremely frustrated by this issue, and Shatzkin expects that this globalization may well be next year’s Digital Book World’s dominant theme. As I’ve said before, this is an issue that really needs to be fixed somehow. If they can’t find a way to give consumers what they want legally, many consumers will take it illegally, depriving the publisher and author of money the reader would otherwise have been happy to pay them."
If the UK publishing industry feels threatened, how do you think ours feels? Mmmmh...
It has finally happened, folks. In the last quarter, Amazon in the USA sold more ebooks than paper copies (in a ratio of 115 vs 100). The Kindle is by far the most popular ereader, and Amazon is increasingly reaping the benefit of its hardware+content strategy.I wonder when ebooks will start outselling hard copies in Australia? I hope we don't have to wait the traditional 20 years to catch up.
As an aside, I have a theory that Australia avoided the worst of the GFC not because our bankers are so brilliant and reliable, but because they are so fat, old-fashioned and lazy that they had not caught up with all the damaging ideas that caused the havoc elsewhere. Admit it - they were on the beach barbecuing at the time...
It wasn't that our bankers were brilliant, it was because in the past our government had placed far tighter regulations on our bankers preventing them from extending too far into the practices of the megalomaniacs overseas. Believe me they wanted to. I think you are being far too kind suggestion they were just plain lazy. Sorry I get a bit soap boxie when it comes to bankers particularly those leeches on society - merchant bankers.
Gail "cyborg" wrote: "It wasn't that our bankers were brilliant, it was because in the past our government had placed far tighter regulations on our bankers preventing them from extending too far into the practices of t..."Interesting Gail! I don't know much about banking practices so feel free to get on your soapbox whenever you want. I appreciate other people's opinions.
@ Jacqueline, Thanks for that. Sign of the times, hey!
I have just received a Kindle and I have won a free book from the library thing, I have downloaded it to my computer using mobi (kindle) it said but my computer won't read it and I don't know how to get the book onto my Kindle. Can someone please help?Thanks
Thanks I have been reading some of the posts in this forum and I worked it out.
See you didn't even need us Bronwyn!;)
Hopefully it doesn't shut down publishing industries, the way its success is growing and growing. I will always prefer read an actual book. I just cant enjoy reading it on the ipad as much :(
Gail "cyborg" wrote: "It wasn't that our bankers were brilliant, it was because in the past our government had placed far tighter regulations on our bankers preventing them from extending too far into the practices of t..."As a former bankie I agree entirely Gail. Thank God I wasn't a merchant bankie, just a regular one. LOL.
And Jacqueline our big bankies are just as ruthless and cutthroat as o/s bankies but even the deregulation of 1983 didn't allow them to run amok.
★ Jessica ★ wrote: "Hopefully it doesn't shut down publishing industries, the way its success is growing and growing. I will always prefer read an actual book. I just cant enjoy reading it on the ipad as much :("
I agree, Jessica. If I had lots of space and didn't plan on moving much, I'd have a room full of paper books. Don't judge ereaders by the ipad though. Try to find someone with an eink reader like a Sony, Kobo or a Kindle. They make a huge difference.
Yeah, good point. Another reason I prefer actual books is-like you said-to have a room full of books. You can display all of your stories proudly on an e-reader. Well, at least not in the same fantastic way :)
Very interesting blog posts from the ifBook website. Their writer is attending the 'O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing' Conference in New York City. Apparently publishers have been caught on the hop by the enormous jump in ebook sales and are furiously trying to do some market research on the demographic that buys ebooks. The session is called: 'What Do eReading Customers Really, Really Want? An In-depth, Research, and Data-driven Exploration of Reading Behavior, Content Consumption, and Consumer Attitudes Toward eReaders and Multifunction Devices'.
Some interesting points are the different purchasing patterns between people who buy dedicated ereaders and iPads. I also like the new (to me) terms '“freegans” and “paygans”, used to differentiate between those who pay for ebooks and those who download free content. Lots more to come from this conference by the looks of it but you can read what's written so far here.
Never been knocked back from any source - but maybe because I don't have .COM.AU on the end o..."
Do you have an American credit card?