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Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

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Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#221

Post by JW_00000 »

jjsz wrote: post #220
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #40

It'll be fascinating to see how our relationship with books plays out over the next 10-20 years. On one hand, unlike music, books are very physical objects, their content very much associated with their form, used by many as decoration within their home. On the other hand, most of us only read most of our books once. I suspect that many, like me, then hang onto those books primarily for sentimental reasons (along wit…

Hurricane season and electrical outages will still exist in 15 years and paper has proved to be the only storage medium that doesn't change every 20 years.

Hurricane season and electrical outages won't wipe out your Amazon library (stored in the cloud), while a hurricane might wipe out your paper library. Also, it might actually be easier to find a 30 year old book on Amazon than a paper version.

On the other hand, Amazon going bankrupt will wipe out your cloud library.

BTW, 20 years ago was 1994, and PDF was initially released in 1993.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#222

Post by pango »

JunkDNA wrote: post #51

Lots of people in this thread are talking about this being scary for authors. When I was a kid, I got to read a ton of books any time I wanted. I got them at this place called a "library" where they let people come in and take books home with them to read for free . People have always had the option to read books without buying them. In those days, going to the library was effectively the same effort as going to a bo…

The biggest concern for me actually is that in making this move, amazon is putting itself in direct competition with libraries' ebook/audiobook lending services. Many of those even use the kindle network!

Will amazon continue to allow books to reach those services as soon after release? Do they have the power to stop it in the first place? I think it will be interesting to see how the company, which it is clear has a lot of leverage in the book publishing community, handles competing with a free alternative.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#223

Post by adamc »

chubot wrote: post #78
JunkDNA wrote: post #51

Lots of people in this thread are talking about this being scary for authors. When I was a kid, I got to read a ton of books any time I wanted. I got them at this place called a "library" where they let people come in and take books home with them to read for free . People have always had the option to read books without buying them. In those days, going to the library was effectively the same effort as going to a bo…

I'm a regular user of the local library, but I notice that most people in my "class" (i.e. tech people earning a lot) don't go there. It's easier to buy it on your Kindle for $10-$15 than to make a trip to the library. I'm gonna be a jerk and say that most people also like to hang out in expensive coffee shops with other members of their class, and not in the library where there are lots of poor people. It's a little…

I don't think it has much to do with "class" (I don't see many poor people in our library). The library is OK for fiction but poor for things like up-to-date technical books.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#224

Post by Splendor »

ericdykstra wrote: post #148
mavrc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things look a lot rosier for audiobook listeners, though, because audiobooks are significantly more expensive than textbooks. Even the cheapest Audible subscription is $15. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they mean by "thousands of audiobooks;" if they're incorporating the Audible library, then this is an easy decision.

I'm an Audible subscriber (all of my book-reading comes via audiobook), and I would obviously jump over immediately if the entire library was available. Audible has many more than "thousands" of books, though, so I think it will be a gradual process.

I'm very confused by all of this since Amazon owns Audible.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#225

Post by deong »

MBCook wrote: post #199
threedaymonk wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time Amazon gave me a free trial of Prime, I tried out the free rental. As best as I could make out, it was only possible to use it by browsing on my Kindle, which was a rather suboptimal experience, allowing only specific search or a paginated list of about 50,000 pages. I couldn't actually find anything I wanted to read.

If you know how to use Amazon's interface it's possible to see the list of books online so you don't have to do all the browsing on the Kindle, but you still have to 'buy' it from the Kindle. It's sort of a hidden link or a special way of narrowing search results with the criteria on the left side of the page. If you google I'm sure you can find instructions.

Here's the super-secret password for the clubhouse.

In the search box on the main amazon.com page, there's a drop-down list on the left hand side of the text entry. Click that and change it to "Books". Now just hit search (you can leave the text field blank). That will bring up a search results screen with a bunch of filter groups on the left. Scroll down and select "Kindle Edition" under "Format". After the page reloads, scroll down even further and you'll have a checkbox for "Prime Eligible". Select that, and you'll have only the books you can rent with Prime. You can then further refine by genre, search term, whatever.

The selection is generally pretty awful though.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#226

Post by [deleted] »

MBCook wrote: post #202
ewzimm wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you can only read them on a Kindle device, not the app.

Oh, that's right, that's what really killed it for me. I'm used to reading on my kindle and picking up my progress on my phone when I'm stuck somewhere with some free time. Losing the sync ability basically killed the main utility I get from eBooks. If I have to carry the Kindle around, I can carry a library book around.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#227

Post by caractacus »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #145

Most people don't spend $9.99 on books every month on average. If Amazon encourages people who are infrequent readers to devote more of their time/entertainment-dollars on reading, then this service will be a win-win for Amazon and authors. Also, if my service is all-you-can-eat, I'm definitely going to take more risks with authors I haven't heard about. That is a definite win for unknown and unpromoted authors. Some…

One of the great things about the Kindle is that I can sample a chapter or two of any book in the catalogue. This is a massive benefit to me and I'm quite happy to shell out five bucks to buy something if the first couple of chapters hook me. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but a free reading of the start of the book is an enormous benefit. It's a qualitatively different experience than hearing a track or a sample from a music service. So I'm not sure it really will help unknown authors become more widely read - it's free to try them already.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#228

Post by NegativeK »

cypherpnks wrote: post #194

Amazon is the new socialism. There are basic services which the government ought to provide -- access to unlimited books, movies, music, software, and similar. It's dramatically more economically efficient that way. The governments won't, for a whole range of reasons. Amazon seems to be stepping up. You pay a private tax, and you join a private government.

Um.

Libraries.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#229

Post by pillowpants2 »

res0nat0r wrote: post #180
pillowpants2 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the music industry, I think more writers are going to become acclimated to the book-signing aspect of the industry in order to support their themselves financially. Subscription based models and piracy that originated from the disruptive nature of new technology sounds like it would discencetivize writers from creating new works, but I think if you model the economics of future distributions, it will eventu…

Well known artists with a fanbase I'm sure are ok with charging $5, but authors spending years researching need that upfront money, and hopefully 25.99$ hardcover sales, followed by 7$ paperback sales. If they want to do this for a living I should say.

I'm curious to know how much of that $25.99 hardcover goes to the writer.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#230

Post by j_s »

WalterBright wrote: post #211
walterbell wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Turning the sheets sideways makes it go much faster. Great tip, thanks - presumably it also reduces misfeeds. Would you recommend a particular scanner? How does pdftk help with rescanned pages, does it magically know where to reinsert?

My scanner is old and not sold anymore, but it's a Fujitsu and presumably their newer models are as good. You have to explicitly tell pdftk what to do. http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/

Ff you want some help using pdftk, check out the free 'PDF Succinctly' ebook from Syncfusion:

https://www.syncfusion.com/resources/techportal/ebooks/pdf

It explains use of iTextSharp, a C# library.

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