I’ve bought books from Fictionwise, Books on Board, etc. but have found that Diesel has been getting most of my e-book bucks these days. I like their books bundles (up to six books selected by author, theme, etc. at a discount price), and I like their reward point system. I’m also liking the no club thing at Diesel. Thrifty (read beyond cheap) consumer that I am, it is against my religion to pay extra cash to get a good deal.

Rode Hard, Put Up Wet BOB: $4.35 ARe: $5.50
Ready or Not BOB: $2.77 ARe: $3.50
View to a Kill BOB: $2.77 ARe: $3.50
Anticipation BOB: $2.77 ARe: $3.50
Daisy Dooly Does Divorce BOB: $7.89 ARe: $9.99
It’s Been Awhile BOB: $4.04 ARe: $5.11
The Enchanted Inn BOB: $2.77 ARe: $3.50
Incognito BOB:$5.66 ARe: $7.16
Twin Temptations BOB: $4.84 ARe: $6.13
Let’s Talk About Love Baby BOB: $4.79 ARe: $6.13
____________________________________________________
Total for 10: BOB: $42.65 ARe: $54.02
Stephanie Laurens Rogues’ Reform Bundle BOB: $14.18 ARe: FREE
____________________________________________________
Total for 11: BOB: $56.83 ARe: $54.02

I’m Steve Pendergrast, one of the founders of Fictionwise.com, and I think you’re not calculating the full benefits of the Buywise club here. You are only including the 15% discount which is applied after all other discounts or sale prices. You’re not including the other benefits.

Just to look at one of those benefits, consider the “large transaction rebate”. You get a 10% rebate on any credit or paypal transaction over $100.

In your example, you concluded that it would take 27 books at $6 a pop to break even, including one free $6 book, and that’s because buywise membership costs $30 (in round numbers).

But, you do far better than break even if you do things slightly differently.

Let’s say you purchase 15 books plus the buywise membership as your very first transaction. That will be $90 for the books and $29.95 for the Buywise membership. However, the Buywise membership starts to apply in the very same transaction you purchase the club membership. So you will save 15% on the book part of this very first transaction, a savings of $13.50. You have now paid for nearly half the buywise membership.

Since your transaction is still over $100, you now get a $10.20 rebate which is enough to buy another book with some left over. And you get a coupon good for one free book up to $10 value.

So right there, you have value of over $20, which combined with the prior $13.50 savings more than covers the cost of the buywise membership! Even if you do use your free book coupon for a $6 book instead of a $10 book, you have gotten $16.20 + $13.50 = $29.70 in value for your $29.95 Buywise club membership in this single transaction.

As you can see from this example, it only took 15 books, not 27, to recoup the buywise membership, due to the large transaction rebate which you did not consider.

And large transaction rebates are even higher for larger transactions, 15% for transactions over $200.

Note that many people start their membership by buying a few books plus maybe $50 to $100 in micropay plus the buywise membership in a single transaction, then spend the micropay over time. This way they get the large transaction rebate money on both the micropay, the books, and the buywise membership itself, then can decide on the other titles later.

It’s true that the buywise club is meant for people who are bulk purchasers. We have many members who purchase literally hundreds of books per year, and it’s a huge savings for them.

But the savings do kick in well before 27 books even for a one year membership.

Multiyear memberships are even more cost effective since they offer one free book per year of membership, and multiyear memberships are cheaper per year.

Prices are 29.95,54.95 and 124.95 respectively.

So I suppose once you are in and if you stay in, the throw you basically an extra $5 book, on top of the freebie you get for the membership, as well.

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I’ll take a look at BoB (egads, I snicker every time I see that acronym!), but if it’s navigation proves as frustrating to me as it does to some of you, then I’ll stick with Fictionwise because I think finding and buying books already takes enough time away from my actual READING of them. Fictionwise even saves me time with the downloads through their bulk download feature- no more multiple clicks for each book!

Phyl

Hey, Jane!

Did you look at Fictionwise this week! They’re offering “pre-orders� for book due to come out Tuesday or Thursday! So you don’t have to wait that extra week and drool over the books at eReader.

Miki

I just saw this myself, Miki! Isn’t that great news? I was already a die hard Fictionwise user. Like others, I’ve used the micropay rebates to try things I might otherwise have passed on. So despite Jane’s analysis I wasn’t too tempted to switch, other than that nagging release delay. But if FW is doing away with the delay I think I’ll just stay where I am.

Phyl

Did you look at Fictionwise this week! They’re offering “pre-orders” for book due to come out Tuesday or Thursday! So you don’t have to wait that extra week and drool over the books at eReader. :wink:

Miki

Jane: I didn’t count on the Micropay rebate since that is kind of “funny money� meaning that isn’t a true savings but a discount toward a future book.

I looked at the funny money for this week. I want 10 books newly released on Fictionwise (Lian Hearn, Judith Ivory, Stephanie Meyer, Jennifer Crusie, Scott Lynch, Susan Carroll, …) Usually I only have one or two books on my want list so this week is abnormal (which is a good thing).

Let’s say I have $100 to spend. I can buy them from BoB for $94.65 leaving me $5.35 to spend on another book next week.

Or I can put $100 in a micropay account on FW which gives me $110 dollars to spend on books. The books I want will cost $102.64 but will give a micropay rebate of $27.18 leaving me with $34.54 to spend on books next week.

Gee, $5.35 in my pocket or $34.54 in funny money? I’m already making a list.

What? We Texans are like that… lol. Emailing with one of the owners over the weekend I think they have a lot of nifty plans in the works and seem to be VERY VERY customer friendly.

Downside ALL their books are secure. As a computer stupid person who spent over 2 hours trying to open a book on Sunday and never getting it open – not that I would have read it cuz I would have hated it me think. But I think ‘my’ issues with DRM are just that… mine. My computer is older than dirt, slow and I have the memory of err I don’t have one. I will try again to figure out what the fuck my window’s live log on is today.

NOTE: it wasn’t a book bought from BoB – otherwise I could have gotten customer support right then and their by very helpful people. On a Sunday!

Saying that… I do think fictionwise can be a good? deal or better deal. And go back to what I said up top…. it comes down to what do you have more of – Time or Money?

And to add on to that I would say just where would you rate your OCD. If you can play it. If you can wait for a book, wait for a sale, wait for a coupon, wishlist your wants and keep to your ‘budget’. You can make Fictionwise work for you. And this is for the hardcore ebook buyer, the person who can drop at least 200 up front.

That person isn’t me. But I dont’ know if I can make BoB work for me either or if I want to let someone know just how computer stupid I can be. Other than Jane, oh and all of you. Either way I do plan to register at BoB, buy something and try and download it. If I can anyone can.

But GAD look at their FAQ (which has nifty helpful info on how to search and get around the site) when you add DRM and secure shit to the mix it really really really makes everything sooooooooooo much harder.

I understand the why of it but I don’t see ebooks ever becoming THE choice for the everyday person until that secure shit is worked out.