Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a great quote from Jon Evans, and it fits well with Steve Yegge's perspective on Jeff Bezos: "I mean, imagine what it would be like to start off as an incredibly smart person, arguably a first-class genius, and then somehow wind up in a situation where you have a general’s view of the industry battlefield for ten years. Not only do you have more time than anyone else, and access to more information than anyone…
do you have a link to that quote? i'd like to read more
Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
91–100 of 240 posts
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#92Lots 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 was thinking this sounds strangely like a library card you pay $120 a year for.
You might be surprised to hear that some libraries have an ebook section. My hometown has a "digital library" that it shares with other libraries in the region.
It works the same as a regular book (only one person per copy) but you can pick it up on your Kindle or other appropriate device.
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#93Nothing different than O'Reilly Safari for tech books. At least I sometimes need to reference old tech books. But do I need to do it for novels?
Shouldn't you buy the tech books, and rent the novels then?
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#94Interesting. I wonder what this implies for authors. Amazon might take a cut currently, but the lion's share ends up with the author -- a royalty based scheme significantly changes the playing field, and I worry that it could be for the worse ( http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25217353 ). EDIT -- and what it implies for publishers.
It'll definitely be interesting to watch. The article you linked talks about the effects of Spotify on making a living as a musician. Spotify economics are, as you've pointed out, much tougher for authors than for songwriters. Books take a lot longer to create than songs. Also, people listen to the same songs hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of times before getting sick of them. People generally read books once. M…
Há you just re-invented the Feuilleton! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuilleton
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#95Most of these books are available through your local library for free.
Actually, I bet most of these books are published by Amazon and are Kindle exclusives. Then they manually add in a few hundred or thousand well-known books to make it look like a grand selection.
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#96Awesome. This is a nail in the coffin for Oyster or whatever that other app was. You can't beat Amazon's selection or prices, and this just makes the Netflix comparison even better. Oof. Sucks for competition, good for my Kindle and my wallet.
Not true.
Oyster knew Amazon was going to end up trying this eventually. It's the obvious move. But Oyster also knows that the publishers do not like working with Amazon, which puts Oyster in a much better position to get good deals and get the publisher support necessary to have good books available.
So we'll see how well this works. If Amazon can't get the big 5 on board, but Oyster can, then I think they'll do just fine.
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, you will almost always want access to an enormous music library (few $ per month), but might not always need a new book. With used paperbacks only a few bucks each, you can collect (or cycle through) a lot of books for $120/year.
True. But we're not talking about used paperbacks anymore more than we're talking about used CDs. Digital copies of books are not discounted once they're "used" so you aren't going to collect as many ebooks for $120/year. It really just depends on the usage patterns. My kids could probably put a $10/month book service out of business. I would probably be their best customer with like 1 book a quarter. :)
>Digital copies of books are not discounted once they're "used"
Well this is a whole different issue entirely, and could start another entire discussion.
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of libraries are starting hackerspaces. You should see if you can mentor at one. I mentor at a program at my library every week, and it's been really awesome.
I would love to see a national scale project to convert libraries to hackerspaces/coworking spaces.. Digital media should still be available (Kindles, iPads, etc with access to libraries through Amazon for copyright material and Library Of Congress/Internet Archive for public domain material), but its time they evolve.
You don't need a national scale project. You can start with your own, local library. Help make it into the best library around, and others will follow.
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Wow... I don't know what libraries you go to but libraries are generally not full of poor people...
Where do you live? In the midwest, where I grew up, the library was full of everyone. Now I live in Berkeley, it is full of families and homeless people.
I have a family and we love the library. But it can be uncomfortable to have address the issues of homelessness to use the library. Such as shopping carts blocking the entrance, people masturbating on the public computers, or sleeping on the soft chairs in the children's area. They don't also don't put comfy chairs in the other areas to discourage people from sleeping there, which is unfortunate for adults who might like a nice spot to read.
Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited
#100Here in California, libraries are offering bigger selections of e-books on-line, which usually come with two restrictions: limited time of readability on your device, and limited number of copies available (and a waiting list to manage access). Amazon has historically appeared to support these library programs, presumably because they make kindles more appealing to the core "book purchasing" demographic as well.
In the near future I hope to have limited access to all these books for free, or unlimited access for $9.99 a month, and the ability to easily switch between the two consumption models. That, for me, would be an easy sell. This is pretty much how i consume Hulu - most of the time, I just want to watch recent episodes of the Daily Show and am satisfied with the free tier. And when I want to get after specific content, I bump up to the paid tier for a bit.
I don't understand why "some content is always free" model isn't more popular in the content world. If Netflix offered something like three free movies a month, I would never "cancel" my account. They would get better brand loyalty, better app lock-in, and lower customer churn. Instead, I get annoyed at the always-on subscription model and cycle between subscribed and unsubscribed.
Digitization of content changed distribution patterns, which changed pricing patterns, and the combination of both changed consumption patterns. It feels like there is a feedback loop where now it makes sense for pricing and user management (acquisition, retention) strategies to adapt once again, this time to changes in user behavior and consumption patterns.