Comments on: Free Giveaway Poll

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:11:18 +0000

I just get the freebies, for the simple reason that I have yet to have an ebook work with Linux, even though PDFs are strongly supported.

I just tried again with another freebie. No dice.

Both my laptop and my portable internet tablet run Linux.

If any “industry” people are reading this: Linux has over 30 million users worldwide, and is growing. Yes, it’s mostly a freeware platform on the desktop, but people do buy software for it, and certainly buy content that works on it.

A lot of Linux users would certainly buy ebooks… if we could open the files. Even if (when) ebooks become the norm, all that means is that eventually someone will write an ebook reader for Linux, with or without the help of the content providers. Since the content providers are providing the content, not the software, I don’t see why they would care, but they seem to.

Any no, I’m not going to switch from my operating system and all the applications I’ve come to rely upon just for something I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather buy on paper anyhow.

By: ms bookjunkie

ms bookjunkie — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:38:32 +0000

I just get the freebies. For a couple of reasons.

Reason one: Paying for non-freebie stuff. How to do it? Don’t have a credit card, or Paypal account or whatever.

Reason B: Figuring out what works on my MacBook is a headache. I’m a bit (!) technically challenged and none on my nerd relatives is Mac-literate (except the husband of a cousin and since he’s pretty much a stranger to me, the idea of calling him with stupid questions doesn’t appeal – unless I screw up really badly, and I really, really try not to do that).

In case I ever get it together, I have a list of authors I want to try.

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:35:41 +0000

For me, it depends what site I’m on. In the case of Harlequin, I don’t even go for the freebies. :/ I’m not into category books, but the first time I saw they were giving something away I figured what the heck and went and got it. I couldn’t get it to work, though — I forget whether it wouldn’t download, or I couldn’t open it, or whatever the problem was, but I futzed with it for half an hour or so, then shrugged and walked away. I was willing to try one of their books for free, but if it was going to fight with me, I wasn’t interested enough to fight back.

On other sites, if they have books I actually want and assuming I can download and open them to actually read [cough] I might or might not grab some books to buy while I get the freebie. I’ve done it on Fictionwise, and maybe one or two other places. Even if I don’t buy anything right then, though, if I like the freebie a lot I’m likely to go back looking for more by the same author later, which is the point of giving away a freebie, right?

Angie

By: joanne

joanne — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:06:18 +0000

I take the download to read later and then have gone back to look at the author’s other titles if I enjoyed the freebie.

I also try to pass the freebie site on to someone I know who reads the kind of fiction with a note that they said they were looking for a new m/m or sci-fi or fantasy or whatever author.

By: cecilia

cecilia — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:42:40 +0000

I usually will just take the freebie, but I generally hope it’s going to be good so that I’ll want to go back and buy something by that author.

By: A Romance Reviewer

A Romance Reviewer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:09:00 +0000

Honestly, even if the Ebook is free, I don’t take part in the offer as I still like to hold something in my hand….turning the pages, flag an important message in the book.

By: Bev Stephans

Bev Stephans — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:59:04 +0000

The only freebies I have downloaded have been from author’s websites so there
weren’t any books for sale.

As far as the other freebies, none of them have appealed to me.

By: Mireya

Mireya — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:44:08 +0000

I went in search of Rhyannon Byrd’s books heh

By: theo

theo — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:25:57 +0000

I didn’t vote, only because there’s no “None, because the ebook listed didn’t appeal to me”. I think it depends on where the ebook leads me (genre) as to whether or not I would buy more. So far, none of the ebook giveaways anywhere have really caught my eye. *sigh*

And I love free things!

By: Anne Douglas

Anne Douglas — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:17:44 +0000

Just the freebies.

But now that I have a handle on how to deal with the drm issues (Digital editions/how it creates a pdf which I can then swap to my eReader) and the Sony Reader I will download more. I used to have a Blaze monthly subscription, but it went by the wayside when I swapped banks/didn’t change card details. Now that I’ve got the digital thing sorted, and won’t have to read on my screen, I’ll start picking them back up again I think.