06-24-2018, 09:31 AM | #31 | |
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Also, by splitting out the part of the DRM that is individual to each customer into a separate, small voucher file thay are able to make the rest of the files identical for all users. That is not true of the other Kindle formats. Glad to hear that you got it sorted out. Last edited by jhowell; 06-24-2018 at 09:38 AM. |
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06-24-2018, 11:04 AM | #32 | |||
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Amazon may measure the time I spend looking at a page on a website, but this isn't the same thing as looking at a page in a book on my laptop. Quote:
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Let me stipulate very clearly, though, that I am NOT a techy type, so I have zero legs to stand on when I disparage KFX's multi-file format. All I can justifiably say is that I'd rather deal with one file in my library than five or ten, and things like SD images instead of HD images aren't gonna change my mind on that. Last edited by Amazondoc; 06-24-2018 at 11:13 AM. |
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06-24-2018, 03:32 PM | #33 |
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Who knows how much / what information is passed while syncing Amazon books
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06-24-2018, 08:29 PM | #34 |
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It is absolutely possible and they almost definitely do it. For their e-ink devices, they are recording the time since the last tap to decide if the device should go to sleep. Extending that and recording the time between taps to turn the page would be easy. It is likely they aren't actually reporting the time spent on each page, but an average time, or a number of page turns and duration for a reading session. Or maybe a simple count of the number of pages displayed for long enough to be counted as "read". But, as theducks said, we don't really know what information Amazon is syncing. Or for that matter what the other ereader companies or apps sync.
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06-26-2018, 12:22 PM | #35 | ||
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Remember, ebooks are not necessarily read on Kindle devices -- and even when they are read on Kindles, they are not necessarily read on devices that are dedicated to reading. For example, I read ebooks either on my laptop or on one of my Fires. On the laptop, the Kindle app never "sleeps" as such, and I never have to "tap" at all to advance through a book -- I can scroll continuously. And when I read on a Fire (which I can also scroll instead of tap), my "tap" may be either a tap to advance a page, or it may be a tap to switch to another app, or any of a multitude of other things. Quote:
An additional problem: Would you report total time to advance to the end of the book, or average time per page, or what? For instance, if I opened a book and left it open on the first page, then went off to do something else for a few hours, then came back and scrolled quickly through the rest of the book, how would that be tallied? And another problem: If you are trying to count time spent on each and every page (or each and every given percentage point), wouldn't that require a lot of complicated record-keeping? Those files that accompany, for instance, azw-format books (mbp, phl, apnx) are small files. I'm not educated enough to know what's in them, but is there really room there for such granular timekeeping records? It's an interesting puzzle -- and yes, a bit pointless to ponder, given that Amazon is unlikely to tell us what method it actually uses. OTOH, IMHO their very reluctance tells us that their methods are not all that impressive; there would be no need to hide them if they were. Last edited by Amazondoc; 06-26-2018 at 12:37 PM. |
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06-26-2018, 12:49 PM | #36 | |||
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06-26-2018, 07:35 PM | #37 | |
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06-26-2018, 08:13 PM | #38 | |||
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But, I don't know much about the Kindles, I do know a lot about Kobos. They do keep a record of these things. They have a table in their database that includes a page turn count for each book that has been opened. And it keeps records of the reading sessions. It counts each time a book is opened or closed and when. And separate counts for starting and finishing books. Luckily for my free time, I don't have any real details on how this data is stored, so I'm not to tempted to try and read it. Quote:
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06-27-2018, 01:30 PM | #39 | |||||||
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But as I mentioned previously, lots of Kindle books get read on non-Kindle devices.
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But let's go with your interpretation -- you know a helluva lot more on the computer front than I do, so you can help educate me. How many bits to record a start time for each page? How many bits to record a stop time for the same page? How many bits to calculate overall time spent on each page? Then multiply that by however many hundred pages a book has. How many bits total to contain that record? As you quoted from Amazon: "We use KENPC to measure the number of pages customers read in your book, starting with the Start Reading Location (SRL) to the end of your book. " I think this is the real answer on how Amazon pays authors -- based solely on the "number of pages customers read in your book". It's Occam's Razor. Quote:
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06-27-2018, 05:05 PM | #40 | |||
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In any case I doubt that Amazon is doing anything this complicated. More likely they just use the highest page reached, as they did before, but also apply a sanity check based on the total time the book was open for reading to make sure that the user did not skip over to many pages to get there. Or they could be doing something else entirely. I don’t know. |
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06-27-2018, 07:13 PM | #41 |
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Hey folks, how does the current wordy and protracted discussion about how Amazon counts the number 'pages' read relate to converting KFX files with Calibre?
If it's to be continued, perhaps it should be in the Kindle forum. If that's true, one of the other moderators who has participated in the discussion could move the relevant posts to a new thread in that forum. Not all Kindle users use calibre, some of them may have insights into the matter being discussed. If it does directly relate to converting KFX files with calibre, could someone enlighten me BR Last edited by BetterRed; 06-27-2018 at 07:18 PM. |
06-27-2018, 07:21 PM | #42 |
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Whilst we do not know exactly what Amazon is doing we do know how KU works and we do know what Amazon claims to be able to do, albeit without details. We cannot be at all certain that an author will be paid if the book is read on a non-Amazon device or app. I'm not even certain an author will be paid if DRM is removed and the version without DRM is read on a Kindle device or App. I think it is far more probable than not that Amazon has measures in place to detect page-flipping, whether it is accomplished by flipping, scrolling or black magic.
The only way at the moment to be sure a KU author is paid is to read the author's book on a Kindle device or app without removing the DRM infection. |
06-27-2018, 07:27 PM | #43 | |
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06-27-2018, 07:41 PM | #44 |
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@darryl - no worries, and thanks for the explanation, but what's KU? Google says it's Kansas University - does Bezos own that too
It's up to td and DrO to do what they think is best. BR |
06-27-2018, 09:45 PM | #45 |
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KU is Kindle Unlimited, an Amazon subscription service that lets you borrow an unlimited number of books (ten at a time) from a large selection of mostly self-published books. Authors are paid based on actual number of pages read by customers.
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