Simon & Schuster offers "A Free eBook for You" via Bookshout.com

[darryl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This is from the Bookshout forum.



In plain English, don't bother with Bookshout as you won't get an eBook usable outside of their specialized apps.

Exactly. This is one reason why I laughed at the article I linked to above trumpeting a way for Amazon customers to escapte the Amazon walled garden. To use a new analogy and to borrow (and mangle) a quote from a friend in another context, to move from Amazon to Bookshout would be like going from Holiday Camp to Maximum Security. Bookshout is focussed on Publishers to the detriment of customers.

I will go further and say that the only way sites like this will have a glimmer of hope is for Hachette and the other BWM to withdraw their books from Amazon or at least make them significantly more expensive on Amazon. So, if you want to read the latest John Grisham or Stephen King the only way to do so will be via this type of publisher-centric site. Or even better yet, go back to buying paper books! I do suspect that the BWM are considering some such strategy, but do not rate its prospects of success highly for many reasons.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Froide

Received the following email today:

I got that too I grabbed The Silver Star I read the first chapter in a magazine during spring and it was pretty good.

I don't mind reading on a app. I belong to Scribd however I would never purchase a book I couldn't back up but free books I'll read them however I can.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I got that too I grabbed The Silver Star I read the first chapter in a magazine during spring and it was pretty good.

I don't mind reading on a app. I belong to Scribd however I would never purchase a book I couldn't back up but free books I'll read them however I can.

Exactly. No good cutting off your nose to spite your face. If there was anything there I particlarly wanted to read I too would take advantage of the offer. Apart from the wider issues, I chose e-ink readers because they are much easier on my eyes. My vision is not improving with age. Also, I like to use larger fonts, and some of the reading apps can be hit or miss on this. In my case I could install their Android app on my T68, and just hope the reading experience is acceptable. There is a real risk it may not be at the moment as not many Android apps take account of en e-ink screen. But if it is not, I won't have the option of opening the book in Moon Reader or Mantano or Aldiko or, in fact, any alternative. A free ebook, of course, means I would lose only my time. I think I will stick with Amazon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by darryl

I will go further and say that the only way sites like this will have a glimmer of hope is for Hachette and the other BWM to withdraw their books from Amazon or at least make them significantly more expensive on Amazon.

If Hatchette was to charge Amazon more then say B&N or Bookshout, there would be law suits going on big time. I don't see this happening. After the mess the last time, doing something like this would not be a smart move at all.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If Hatchette was to charge Amazon more then say B&N or Bookshout, there would be law suits going on big time. I don't see this happening. After the mess the last time, doing something like this would not be a smart move at all.

I agree with you, but I do have in the back of my mind that our esteemed large publishers have not been noted for their smart moves in recent years. Refusal to supply and or price discrimination cause tremendous problems from an anti-trust viewpoint, but then again so does a price-fixing cartel. I'm sure there are many pretixts which look very attractive from a highly subjective point of view. What happens, for instance, if there is no agreement reached between Amazon and the BWM Publishers? I'm sure books would still be supplied to Amazon, but at a higher price than to those retailers with an agreement in place? Is this necessarily unreasonable?

Let us hope we do not have to find out.

[ATDrake]

This still seems to be active, and although the selection is not really to my taste, I think I'll pick something out to hopefully encourage Simon & Schuster and BookShout to offer more such promos in the future.

Thanks to the OP for posting!

ETA: Went and chose "Tuscan Rose" by Belinda Alexandra, since apparently that one's not available in e-edition in Canada and apparently the plot has good historical and political grounding according to the reader reviews.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by darryl

Thanks to the OP. Prompted me to have a look at Bookshout and decide I'm not interested. To quote from https://bookshout.com/third-party-sales/:

In each program, partners have direct access to the user data and the ability to communicate, market, and promote to their readers.

Buy a book and get spam from the publisher at no extra charge.

[murg]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Buy a book and get spam from the publisher at no extra charge.

Don't worry. The publishers won't know how to effectively use the data...

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by murg

Don't worry. The publishers won't know how to effectively use the data...

I don't think we'd mind too much if they used it effectively. Getting targeted E-mails from them about books you'd actually want, especially if they were offering you a good discount would be awesome.

Instead they'll just bombard you with announcements about over-priced books that you'd never read even if it was the last book left on Earth. Oh, and by the time they bother announcing them, the whole world+dog will have already heard about the release.

Sadly, even when you sign up for E-mail lists about your favorite author they manage to screw it up. I signed up for HarperCollins' AuthorTracker for Terry Pratchett... And I find out about his new releases (US ones, not just UK) from the Discworld Monthly mailing list (fan run, not official) months before HarperCollins deigns to inform me.