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O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

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Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#11

Post by michaelmrose »

In case it might help anyone many libraries pay for a subscription to safari books. For example the Seattle library system provides free access to safari books to all card holders.

Seattle library cards are available not only to anyone in who works, lives or owns property in seattle/king county but also those who have a card in one of several surrounding county library systems. Further non-resident cards may be had for $85 a year.

Unlike having a personal account you cannot download items for offline viewing, can't access video training, and can't access books in progress.

Still this provides access to the bulk of the material you may want to read.

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#12

Post by torstenvl »

Deeply disappointing. O'Reilly had some really good things going for it, and it just decided to flush it down the drain.

This is on par with Apple moving to butterfly switch keyboards across its entire laptop line, or Netscape deciding to ditch its browser and rewrite it from scratch. Tragic, user-hostile blunders. And it wouldn't completely surprise me if this marked the beginning of the end for O'Reilly.

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#15

Post by ocdtrekkie »

dawnerd wrote: post #9

Lots of outrage but the important thing here is they'll still be available from other retailers. They're not forcing you to buy a subscription to get the books.

The problem is other retailers don't offer the DRM-free ebooks that O'Reilly was. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. all DRM them to heck.

Going forward, the only time I'm gonna be buying O'Reilly ebooks is when they're on Humble Bundle.

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#16

Post by throwaway2016a »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #7

This is devastating ... I don't have the income to justify $399/yr for Safari subscription. "the growth of membership on Safari far exceeds the individual units previously purchased on oreilly.com" ... that doesn't explain why the two options couldn't co-exist. "In addition to giving our customers the choice and convenience they expect" ... no, they just took away the choice and convenience I expect. Over time, I've…

They aren't stopping all retail. Just direct to consumer sales. Amazon and brick and mortar stores will still sell O'Reilly books.

Edit: I am uncertain of the eBook / PDF offering at other retailers.

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#17

Post by ilamont »

One other thing worth mentioning: Publishers (and authors) were notified of the change today. It's akin to an app store suddenly announcing a major shift in the business model and payouts to app developers, effective immediately.

For my company, the single-title sales are often greater than Safari subscription income, and I am not sure sending visitors to Amazon is going to make up for the lost sales on O'Reilly. I would have much preferred if O'Reilly sent customers directly to my publisher's website, for people who want to purchase PDFs or ebooks from other vendors besides Amazon.

Reading utility nonfiction/technical titles are not the same as binge-watching Netflix or plugging into a Spotify playlist all day. Readers have very specific needs and learning priorities, and the all-you-can-eat model doesn't work for everyone.

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#18

Post by detaro »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #16
clumsysmurf wrote: post #7

This is devastating ... I don't have the income to justify $399/yr for Safari subscription. "the growth of membership on Safari far exceeds the individual units previously purchased on oreilly.com" ... that doesn't explain why the two options couldn't co-exist. "In addition to giving our customers the choice and convenience they expect" ... no, they just took away the choice and convenience I expect. Over time, I've…

They aren't stopping all retail. Just direct to consumer sales. Amazon and brick and mortar stores will still sell O'Reilly books. Edit: I am uncertain of the eBook / PDF offering at other retailers.

Amazon selling PDFs? Brick and mortar selling PDFs?

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#19

Post by kin »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #7

This is devastating ... I don't have the income to justify $399/yr for Safari subscription. "the growth of membership on Safari far exceeds the individual units previously purchased on oreilly.com" ... that doesn't explain why the two options couldn't co-exist. "In addition to giving our customers the choice and convenience they expect" ... no, they just took away the choice and convenience I expect. Over time, I've…

But you can still buy their digital copies elsewhere like on Amazon or eBooks or Google Play.

Re: O’Reilly Media has stopped retailing books directly on its ecommerce store

#20

Post by kin »

detaro wrote: post #18
throwaway2016a wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't stopping all retail. Just direct to consumer sales. Amazon and brick and mortar stores will still sell O'Reilly books. Edit: I am uncertain of the eBook / PDF offering at other retailers.

Amazon selling PDFs? Brick and mortar selling PDFs?

Amazon sells Kindle versions so there's DRM. But, Google Play store offers PDF and ePub versions of O'Reilly books.
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