Cher

As for the thousands of books you bought, you had only one Kindle. The way it works is that you can have any of your books on up to 6 devices at any given time.

If you buy a new Kindle, they set up a new ID for the new Kindle, your books are ALL eligible for the new Kindle because they were only on the old Kindle and the PC if you’ve been using that. The manageyourpage listing would say which Kindle you wanted any of them sent to.

You can bring back just the few you want because at any given time, on the street or anywhere, you can download from what is seen on your Kindle as “the Archives” where all the Amazon-purchased books you own but which are not on your Kindle are shown. Click on one and it’ll be downloaded.

There is no limit on downloads of a book. Only on how many devices a book can be on simultaneously.

Whatever, you probably don’t want to go through any hassle like this, but I thought you might want to know.

Andrys

By the way, the reference to the LIBRARY by the publisher is interesting, but the fact they don’t license their e-book versions to libraries is strange. By the way, libraries buy those licenses and they buy the books. Suddenly after years of being the ugly step-child of the book business, libraries are brought into the fold.

Amazon is a business, and they’ll do what they need to in order to sell product. If one supplier decides they have the right to control their business, then they don’t have to use that retail outlet.

There are plenty of books available in all sorts of formats. But book publishers should take note of what happened when Apple wanted to control all content for their iPod.

Seen any music stores in your neighborhood lately?

As for the thousands of books you bought, you had only one Kindle. The way it works is that you can have any of your books on up to 6 devices at any given time.

If you buy a new Kindle, they set up a new ID for the new Kindle, your books are ALL eligible for the new Kindle because they were only on the old Kindle and the PC if you’ve been using that. The manageyourpage listing would say which Kindle you wanted any of them sent to.

You can bring back just the few you want because at any given time, on the street or anywhere, you can download from what is seen on your Kindle as “the Archives” where all the Amazon-purchased books you own but which are not on your Kindle are shown. Click on one and it’ll be downloaded.

There is no limit on downloads of a book. Only on how many devices a book can be on simultaneously.

Whatever, you probably don’t want to go through any hassle like this, but I thought you might want to know.

– Andrys

It has to start somewhere. Has anyone had decent book-buying success with Book Depository? Any favorite independent online stores?

I’ve completely stopped ordering books from Amazon and now place all my orders at bookdepository. With the current exchange rate (I’m Canadian), it’s actually cheaper than buying from amazon.ca (my last order cost me CAD$35 for 6 mmpb, and the same order at amz would have cost me about 55-60$, plus taxes). And the shipping’s free, too. The only downside is the delivery of the books takes longer, since everything is shipped from the UK. They also have a great customer service.

I keep my book wishlist in Amazon. I buy my books from B&N, Borders or Sony Reader library. I stopped buying anything from Amazon over two years ago. I resisted buying a Kindle and kept using my Pocket PC for ebook reading. After that, I bought a Sony. Why? both allow me to read in multi formats, not just Microsoft reader (in the case of the Pocket PC) or whatever the proprietary format is for the Sony.

Anyway, I am sure many others don’t buy from Amazon anymore. However, Amazon has customers in the millions, so I seriously doubt that we are making any dents in the big scheme of things.

I did stop ordering from Amazon for a while, and then they recently placed several 2010 hardcovers at 46% – 53% off. I pre-ordered 6. Amazon has also been my go-to store for household/food/office/DVD items I can’t find locally.

But I’m seriously thinking about canceling my pre-orders (that don’t have items that have already shipped) and finding a new online store. I am not an e-book reader, but Jeff Bezos/Amazon is scary. I believe, like Karen Scott, that Bezos isn’t pro-reader/author. He wants to dominate the retail industry, not just books. (My state started paying tax on Amazon purchases last year after small businesses complained that Amazon was hurting sales – not just for books.)

I also agree with: I'm just glad I've not dropped hundreds of dollars on an e-reader. If the market is so unstable that the biggest retailer of ebooks can just stop selling ebooks from some publisher that pisses them off Or vice versa then my $ investment is better put in some other form of entertainment whose access isn't so easily denied to me.

Regardless of whether MacMillan is wrong, I can’t side with Amazon for trying to send a message to publishers that says: If you do not go along with me, you will be shut out. That’s just dangerous and a totalitarian mindset. I think this is bigger than ebooks costing too much money so I think we should all choose sides wisely on this.

After what Bezos/Amazon did to gay/lesbian literature last year, shame on me for still giving this company my money!

It has to start somewhere. Has anyone had decent book-buying success with Book Depository? Any favorite independent online stores?

Edited to Add: I ordered and received a mass market copy of Julia Spencer Fleming’s In the Bleak Midwinter from Amazon last week. I see the mass markets of this series are no longer available. I will now be purchasing the rest of the series from BN.com since my local stores do not have copies.

I will be shopping at B&N.com, Borders, and The Book Depository from now on, Amazon has lost my business with this move.
Blogging friends of mine who share my print book preference seem to be feeling the same way as me.

Talk is cheap.

I would love it, if for once people who threatened to stop buying from Amazon actually stopped buying from Amazon. It never seems to happen though.

Amazon aren’t on the side of the readers, they just want to own the publishing world and make lots of money doing it. This is more about them than the readers.

Macmillan are acting like arseholes though.

Furthermore, the arguments about writers needing to make a profit seem to forget a very important point. The author won’t MAKE as much money if the price point is so high that most readers won’t purchase their books. I can’t count the number of people I’ve heard say they wanted to buy an ebook but didn’t due to the pricing.

And like I said, I don’t have an eReader, so perhaps that colors my views. Well, I’m sure it does. So I don’t understand the higher pricepoint on an eBook when the hardcover comes out, then dropping it when the paperback is released. I would think they’d withhold the eBook until the paperback came out, then price them within an small percentage of each other.

I really do understand. I don’t buy hardcovers. I can’t afford them. I wait for the paperback. If I owned an eReader, I’d wait for the lower pricepoint. But I also understand that right now, there really isn’t one.

I guess what I’m saying is that innocent parties are who gets hurt by this. The reader as well as the author. But to say one doesn’t care who gets paid and who doesn’t also hurts those innocent parties.

Drive the people with the money from one venue to another instead of letting them mill about all confused and such. (Of course, that would assume that MacMillan thinks of the people who read as customers, but one can dream, right?)

THAT would be a decent MacMillan lobby to Amazon’s salvo. (I bet they’d even make a buck or two.)

PS (I’ve heard awesome things about bookdepository.com.)

And it’s not that I don’t agree with you! We can all learn to live without our favorite author, but eventually, it *could* affect enough favorite authors with enough publishers that the dreck on romfail night might be our only viable reading alternative. :o)

Just saying. Not agreeing or disagreeing. I just think it’s a much bigger picture than what we’re seeing here. This is the tip of the problem and I think it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.

That’s just me though.