Jul 5 2010
Monday Midday Links: Sony Drops eBook Reader Prices
Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh is available at Kobo Books for $5.49. I’m not sure how they are discounting it and no one else is but who am I to question a decent price for a much desired book?
*****
To celebrate the release of MOUSE AND DRAGON, their thirteenth Liaden Universe novel, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller are holding a contest for readers and bloggers.
The contest is geared to attract readers who have yet to read a Liaden novel. They can enter for a chance to win an ebook edition of The Dragon Variation, an omnibus that includes the novels CONFLICT OF HONORS, LOCAL CUSTOM, and SCOUT'S PROGRESS. 36 winners will be picked.
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller are the author team behind the classic and ever-popular Liaden Universe ®. This series of "adventurous romantic space opera" holds cross-over appeal for both romance and science fiction readers.
In celebration of the publication of Mouse and Dragon, the thirteenth novel set in their Liaden Universe ®, authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are holding an Expanding Universe Contest! Yes! No less than thirty-six electronic copies of The Dragon Variation will be given away.
The Dragon Variation is an omnibus edition of three Liaden Universe ® novels -’ Conflict of Honors, one of the first modern SFRomances; Local Custom, second place winner of the Prism Award for best Futuristic of 2002; and Scout's Progress, the first place winner of the Prism Award for best Futuristic of 2002, Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice for Best SF Novel of its year, and the prequel to Mouse and Dragon.
That’s three complete novels under one cover. No prior knowledge of the Liaden Universe ® required. Electronic! In Baen Books' DRM-free, multiplatform style. This omnibus can be read on your Kindle, your phone, your iPad, your desktop, or other ereader.
To enter the contest, visit Sharon Lee's blog and follow the instructions you see there (it's easy). Winners will be announced on Saturday, July 17, 2010.
*****
When many news sites are closing off access with pay walls and registration walls, Guardian UK is going the complete opposite direction. It has developed a wordpress plugin that will allow bloggers to embed searches and entire articles from the Guardian on their blog.
******
Sydney Morning Herald reviewed the BeBook Neo. The advantages of the Neo over the Kindle, say Adam Turner, is the built in wifi, a web browser and ability to download eBooks via the web. It also supports un encrypted MOBI and DRM protected ePub and PDF. The Neo also has tablet technology which allows you to take notes on the screen much like the Sony Touch.
The disadvantages is that it is double the cost of the Kindle and triple the cost of the Kobo and downloading ebooks from the web is cumbersome.
*******
Sony has dropped the prices of its devices in response to the BN and Kindle price drops. The Pocket is $150, the Touch is $170 and the Daily Edition is $300.
*******
Send to Kindle
Jul 05, 2010 @ 10:07:00
It won’t let us get Bond’s of Justice here in Canada yet. I checked through my link and yours… it’s not available to international readers.
Tweets that mention Monday Midday Links: Sony Drops eBook Reader Prices | Dear Author -- Topsy.com
Jul 05, 2010 @ 10:15:43
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Hasna Saadani. Hasna Saadani said: RT @dearauthor: New post: Monday Midday Links: Sony Drops eBook Reader Prices http://bit.ly/bD25pY [...]
Jul 05, 2010 @ 10:30:20
I recently bought a BeBook Neo and I’m very happy with it. As I live outside the US, the price difference wasn’t that dramatic. Plus I figured that if I was going to be limited by geographical restrictions, I didn’t want to be limited to purchasing my ebooks exclusively at Amazon.
The BeBook Neo is the same device as the Onyx Boox 60 (6″ screen).
The pros: no glare; wide choice of formats; WIFI; the touchscreen rocks; very fast pageturn; extremely easy to use; option to make notes; doesn’t limit user to any particular ebook store.
The cons: the price (probably not the cheapest option for people in the US, although the prices at the Onyx Boox site might be more dollar-friendly); WIFI connection is slow – I’d only use it instead of laptop if I were travelling; the battery life is not bad but it’s definitely NOT the 7,000 pageturns promised on their website; the black leather cover I bought with it is gorgeous, but it really should be included in the base price as I consider it an essential item rather than an optional accessory.
On balance, though, I’m impressed with the Neo.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 11:28:41
From $299 to $170 in less than a year. That’s a pretty big price cut.
I’d say I feel like a dope for paying $299 in October, but I’ve used it so much that I feel like I got my money’s worth.
At that price, I’m going to recommend the PRS-600 to everyone now.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 11:32:19
Jane, thanks so much for sharing the news about the Expanding Universe contest!
Jul 05, 2010 @ 12:36:49
I’m so glad I haven’t gotten an ereader yet. The price war and resulting drops are exactly what I was waiting for. I’m going to wait until the fall for holiday deals, but I think this might finally be the year I get an ereader!
I entered the Expanding Universe contest. I’d never heard of the series before I read this post. I love SFR, so it’s certainly worth a shot.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 14:11:11
@CourtneyLee: ooooooooooooh, you’ll love it ^^. Have fun! Intense sf action adventures, but also very strong love stories.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 14:20:09
Thanks so much for the tip on Kobo having Bonds of Justice discounted. I’ve been wanting to buy it, but I’m trying to restrict new book buying until I use up my Fictionwise micropay balance, which is not easy these days. It would be silly not to buy it at that discount though, right? Total justification…Kobo, here I come!
Jul 05, 2010 @ 14:41:10
Yay price drop. I haven’t gotten an ereader yet because there are so expensive but with the all the competitive price drops, I should be getting one soon.
Is this also in Canada? I was thinking of getting the nook, but they don’t send it here.
And I’m definitely entering the free ebooks contest. I love free books. I hope they are good.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 16:00:15
@Statch I wanted to tell you that I read the Kelly Hunter(?) books and dearly loved Jacob and Ji’s story. It’s for sale over at Mills & Boon.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 16:00:43
@CourtneyLee I’ve never read them either. I’m a bit intimidated by the number of books in the series.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 16:01:01
@Heather Massey Thanks for sending it to me!
Jul 05, 2010 @ 16:38:29
Jane @10 – don’t be intimidated by the number of books in the Liaden universe: they tend to go in groups of 3 or so that are connected, and then only loosely connected to other sub-series (rather like the Pratchett books have sub-series). Liaden books are really great! Wish I could afford them all in e-format for my new Kindle.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 19:43:20
@Jane, thank you! For some reason, I didn’t realize Kelly Hunter’s Red-Hot Renegade was going to be out so soon. I read Untameable Rogue and really wanted to read Jacob’s story. I just went to Mills & Boon and downloaded it. I LOVE technology…
Jul 05, 2010 @ 23:42:39
The little copyright symbol at the end of Liaden Universe was a huge turn-off. Looks like the kind of thing that will be coming out with a line of clothes, some dolls and a Happy Meal toy set. Blech!
To me, it was obvious that e-reader prices were going to drop dramatically. The prices were way too high compared to similar bits of technology/computing.
Jul 06, 2010 @ 02:07:49
I wonder if the Guardian’s move is a response to the Times’ paywall going live. It’s interesting to see the different conglomerates start fighting over the internet. Your move, Murdoch.
Jul 06, 2010 @ 03:17:03
That price drop sounded quite nice… but for the moment, the European stores seem to be offering the old price. I am waiting to see if the price drop applies to European stores or not before ordering.
Any one has any information about it?
Jul 06, 2010 @ 06:46:29
@sao: ?? What are you talking about regarding the “Liaden Universe copyright symbol”? Admittedly I own all the books in print, but I don’t remember them having an off-putting copyright notice…
*feelings of having overlooked something*
*has read the post again* oh, you mean the registered trademark bit? I wouldn’t be surprised if its because a good lot of small publishers died on Lee & Miller and they self-published the books for so long in between getting picked up by genre specialist BAEN again. They even published other out of print authors: They’re SRM Publishing.