Amazon Kindle discussion
The horns of a dilemma
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Ultimately that has to be your call. Personally if I was jumping between devices that much the sync feature would be well worth it. I have never manually loaded books to a cell phone/tablet so you may want to make sure it is easy to do before making the decision.
My guess is that Mike would just appreciate the sale either way, and probably gets a decent percentage of the Amazon price. Given the way you use your devices, Amazon seems like the way to go to me.
On the other hand, I'm pretty pissed at the way Amazon is acting about state sales taxes. Cutting off California affiliates because they might have to pay sales tax hurts Goodreads and similar California services. They're doing it in other states too. See Slate article.
I would consider an Amazon boycott, but I don't think I could survive.
If it makes you feel better, he "only" loses 30% to Amazon. As an author, I make more money if people purchase my book from Smashwords, but the reality is that most purchases come through Amazon and increased sales on Amazon can affect the book's ranking, which in turn can drive more sales. Go with the Amazon versions. He won't mind. ;)
Just got news that my favorite author, Mike Resnick, is now selling some of his ebooks electronically on his own site. I can already buy them off Amazon and I've been thinking about doing that. I already own them in paper form, but I really want them in electronic format, and the prices are low enough I do not mind a second purchase, especially since I enjoy his books so much. But here's my problem:
Because I have a job that involves a lot of travel, I have three Kindle reading devices: a DX, an iPad, and an iPhone. I prefer my Kindle, but if my wife wants to read on it, I move to the iPad/iPhone (if iPad isn't with me). Because of my schedule, most every book I read jumps and gets whispersynced between devices at least once while I'm reading it. Also, I sometimes redownload books and read them when I finish one. I've reread a few books in my "archives" earlier this year and intend to do that again in the future.
Mike is selling his books for the same price on Amazon and his website, so I won't be paying more one way or the other. If I re-buy Mike Resnick's books from Amazon, I get the whistersync feature, which is very important and useful to me. If I buy the books straight from him, I lose the sync feature, but I get to give him all the money for the book, something I WANT to do.
Is it more important to give the author a larger cut of the book price, something I believe they are entitled to? Or is it more important for me to be able to access and use content I purchase in a way that is more convenient and utilitarian to my lifestyle?