Comments on: The Last Colony, Now In Readable Electron Form http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/ I FORGET WHAT EIGHT WAS FOR Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:11:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Mike Cane http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47777 Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:15:20 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47777 Get with the revolution, Scalzi:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/sony-reader-revolution-campaign/

Although I’d wait to see what they announce on Oct 2.
(I’d include that link but promptly wind up in the spam filter, if this single link doesn’t already do that. My blog has Search. “Confirmed! New Sony Reader October 2008″ is the title.)

]]> By: Gary Gibson http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47756 Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:34:05 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47756 Ghost Brigades, at least, is published in the UK by Tor UK and is also available directly from the publisher’s website (http://tinyurl.com/panebooks) without DRM, as are all the UK Pan Macmillan ebooks *if* purchased directly from that website. If purchased anywhere else, they have DRM.

]]> By: JimR http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47755 Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:15:31 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47755 I say a hearty YES to eBooks. But only in PDF or HTML (or, of course, good old Text).
I use my Zaurus PDA to read them, and man, is it nice. You can carry TONS of books with you, and if publishers are nice (*cough cough* Tor’s free ebooks *cough cough* Baen’s entire library*coughcough*) they are quite pleasurable to read.
DRM is bad, of course, but soon enough publishers will learn that no DRM is unbreakable, and they only hurt themselves in the long run.
When I, for example, buy the DRM’d LIT or Mobipocket version of a book, it takes approximately 5 seconds to convert it to nonDRMed PDF, HTML, or RTF, which I can read anytime, anywhere, on all kinds of platforms.
And, of course, eBook readers open up Project Gutenberg’s archives in all kinds of good ways.

]]> By: Tamara http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47757 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:05:22 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47757 I can’t decide if I hate you or Kindle or both. I have been a whatever reader for many months. Finally decided to try one of your books (even though Sci-Fi isn’t normally my genre). I purchased “Old Man’s War” on Kindle last night and then did not sleep AT ALL because I could not put it down. Deciding it really should be “lights out” I sat the Kindle aside only to pick it up again when I COULD NOT SLEEP AT ALL WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!

Good news is that I did not feel “worthy” to comment on your blog when I had not even read any of your books. Well, that line has now been crossed.

Great book, by the way. I will be “kindling” more. Just not at bedtime!

]]> By: John Scalzi http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47774 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:33:47 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47774 I’d have to check my contract about that. I think it’s all pretty much the same in the long run.

]]> By: Dillenger69 http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47776 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:09:06 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47776 It’s too bad it costs so much.
I read the entire Honor Harrington series as ebooks from Baen … but all were $6 or less. Paperback price.
I have no fundamental problem with DRM.DRM can be taken care of.
What I do have a problem with is paying hardcover prices for something that costs only server maintenance to reproduce.

The final decision as to whether I’d pay a high ebook price or not is what percentage of that goes to the author? Since there’s zero materials cost and little to no distribution cost it’s almost all profit. If the author gets most of that profit I’d happily pay for a good story.

Do you (John Scalzi) get more money per unit from ebook sales than normal sales?

]]> By: Christopher Davis http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47775 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:25:38 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47775 Skar: Stanza doesn’t do DRM, there’s no Mobipocket Reader port for the iPhone/iPod touch platform, and Fictionwise only has the Secure Mobipocket format versions of John’s books[1]. (Well, some of them. At the moment, they only list Old Man’s War and Zoe’s Tale.)

The eReader app for the iPhone, which will handle Secure eReader files but not Secure Mobipocket, works quite well and already has a bunch of my previously purchased ebooks loaded into it.

[1] It looks like all of the Macmillan-published books that Fictionwise carries are only available in Secure Mobipocket. I won’t buy any of them, since the only thing I have that’ll run Mobipocket Reader is my old Palm TX, which I’m trying to retire. If they were in eReader format, or non-DRM Mobipocket format a la Baen, it’d be different.

]]> By: ryber http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47773 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:20:31 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47773 And well and truly glad to see the 3rd book out, even if it did come out after the 4th. Wanted to wait to read Zoe until after TLC, and I have too many paper books already. Glad the E version is finally here!

]]> By: Madrocketscientist http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47772 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:19:27 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47772 Why is Sony charging $12 for a pack of electrons? The book is out in paperback already, isn’t it?

]]> By: georgmi http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/17/the-last-colony-now-in-readable-electron-form/#comment-47771 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:16:16 +0000 http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1770#comment-47771 Why? Don’t you already know what happens?

]]>