No more Nookie for Blighty as Barnes & Noble pulls out

Re: Another white flag is raised

This is not the tablet market, it is the content market.

The way large publishing houses have set-up their digital content agreements prices, discounts, etc are applicable _ONLY_ if you sell X amount per year in a geography. If you do not, you no longer get discounted prices and in the worst cases you do not even get content licensed for that geography.

Nook failed to get its numbers. So it effectively lost its content source.

That is not surprising - the Amazon juggernaut is now unstoppable and effectively unsinkable. I originally started with Kobo. I have now got rid of all the devices (thankfully, only a couple of books on them were paid for) and switched to Kindle. So have most users. All other eBook content distributors in Eu are now effectively dead. The only content is Kindle or pirated (for Kindle).

Re: Another white flag is raised

A letterbox sized screen is not ideal for reading books which, lets face it are more suited to a 4:3 screen ratio

Well, the first bit is true, but all the books I usually read have a portrait aspect ratio. The usual small size paperbacks in the UK are 198x128mm - an aspect ratio of ~3:2 in portrait. So you just turn the tablet on its side?

As for Nook, I bought one of these in preference to a Kindle as it could read a wider range of e-book file formats. I suppose I half expected some problems further down the line - the history of DRM content is littered with content lock-outs due to businesses going bust or getting out of the market. Perhaps B&N don't want to pay the publishers to licence content for the UK. I shall be royally pissed off though if any of the books I currently have get wiped by Sainsbury's because they haven't licensed it.

"I've come to prefer them over paper books for pure convenience,"

Ditto.

I also continue to buy real books, because I like books - but my pile of unread books is just growing bigger and bigger, because my ebook reader is massively more convenient. In some cases, I do have both the paper and ebook - usually where I've decided I want to read an old book I have once again, but my library is generally different in e and paper forms.

What I'd like to see happen is a repeat of what Amazon did with CDs/MP3s, where if you buy the physical version, you also get to download the digital version. I suspect that's a lot less likely to happen with books, though.

I've come to prefer them over paper books for pure convenience, even though I still buy books because I like books,

I tend to go the other way. I prefer the paper and given the way the market is, ebooks have a habit of disappearing or changing formats. I want my reading material to be mine, not some profit based company that's renting me the book for only as long as they are in business.

I note from the article that hard copy sales are up but the ebooks business is what's killing them. It makes me think that there's a lot of folks who feel the way I do...

Re: They never ever got it, did they?

"they never had an inkling"

I see what you did there.

Agree that the e-book hardware was (is) nice, buy they also failed because went for stores like John Lewis and Argos instead of Smiths and Boots.

Re: They never ever got it, did they?

I bought a Nook because it was cheap, and I knew that Calibre would mean all my Kindle books would work.

I did look at using the Nook store (because why help Amazon develop their monopoly?), but it took me so long to work out which site I was supposed to go to in order to pay in pounds that I just went back to buying books from Amazon and stripping the DRM.

I've started using the Kobo store a bit now though, Calibre can cope.

And "piracy" will continue to flourish

because of dumbassery like this. Far better to strip the DRM out of your books, convert your library using Calibre and tell the publishing industry to shove the latest 21 volume edition of the Oxford English Dictionary up their cloacas.

Re: Paper books

True but I've got only so much shelf space. That's the biggest advantage digital has. There are ebook websites (such as TOR) that sell books DRM free. I feel obliged to mention Black Library as well but given they've jacked the price of their ebooks up higher than the hard backs in many cases my advice would be to avoid them.

Re: Paper books

My problem is failing eyesight. As much as I like the paper version, an e-reader has considerable advantages for those of us cursed with crappy eyeballs.

Re: Paper books

My house looks much like a library at this point. While I love physical books, it's getting to be more of a problem storing them. I've been paring my collection down to very unique volumes that will never get digitized and reference volumes for my engineering work. Having everything else in digital format would be great.

What is needed is legislation that treats digitally distributed content just like content delivered by printed books and CD/DVD. Once purchased, it cannot be taken back by the seller for any reason. I've held back on purchasing an e-reader because of these issues.

Remember when Disney blacked out their movies during the Christmas holidays so people would have to watch their films on the Disney Channel and more importantly, the commercials? Major DRM fail. It was all legal and in the fine print. I've read enough fine print to remain a neo-trogladite.

Re: March with your wallet - buy only open formats

"MP3 for you Music"

MP3 is patented and not an open format. You need a license if you sell a certain amount. FLAC is an open format.

Re: March with your wallet - buy only open formats

FWIW, AAC is an open format, as is Apple Lossless since they released the codec as open source.

The old iTunes DRM isn't open, natch, but as they haven't sold DRMed music since 2009, that's not much of an issue.

Re: As so many folk above said - get Calibre

And I'm gonna be on the look out for Nook close-out sale bargains

It's a nice piece of kit. A *little* laggy to respond occasionally, but that's only a minor annoyance.

Do inspect it carefully, though - there seems to be a manufacturing issue where the screen material tears slightly. That won't stop you reading - but it is unsightly. John Lewis replaced mine without quibble...

Vic.

Re: a bitter laugh

Upvoted with a heavy heart.

I have never knowingly retrieved pirated content but there are times . . . e.g. sitting through the 'Don't pirate DVDs!' 'feature', for the x^nth time, when I COULD be watching the content I actually paid for that I do wonder . . .

Kobo and Calibre + DRM removal

I too prefer paper books. I have some that I bought over forty years ago that have never run out of batteries, failed certificate expiration tests or become obsolete/unreadable formats.

Unfortunately I too have run out of space and resorted to the Kobo because of its multiple format support and the ability to bypass DRM using Calibre. Battery life is excellent, the screen light is superb and the ability to carry dozens of books in a small form factor is brilliant.

I have NEVER paid more for an ebook than for a paperback and bookbub is good if you want notifications of offers that are available.

Re: I have a local library ...

I have a local library

Can you get it in your suitcase for an extended vacation?

Re: I have a local library ...

That's not really true though, is it? Probably for bestsellers, classics and so on but for the smaller titles, niche interest and out of print books ebooks do have an advantage. Also not everyone lives within walking distance of a library, certainly not a main library, and . . . . you have to give them back (that bit actually looks very like the Nook now I think about it).

Re: I have a local library ...

I use my local library online (Suffolk). Just about all the books I've read on my Kobo Touch came from there, in ePub format.

Calibre is overkill for me as I only need a small utility to strip DRM. How else can you read LOTR (>1300 pages) or GOT (>4000 pages), single volume editions in the three week loan period.

...and you bought in again?