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Can anyone recommend any (legal) free eBook download sites, other than Amazon, Gutenburg and Many Books please?
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Do you have an ipod or ipad? There are apps for "ibooks" "Freebooks" and search for books within free apps. Most of the free stuff seems to be out of copyright material - Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe, Dickens etc
Last edited by: Meldrew on Sat 4 Feb 12 at 16:13
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Mmmmm...
ebookstack.com
But it is a LOT of scifi
otherwise, i'm sure a bit of hint-dropping here could get you a nice little parcel of DVDs through the epost!
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drabber, you don't say what ebook reader you intend using them on. Has some bearing on what is recommended. Probably more ebooks in epub format - you'd need to convert those to mobi format if you had an Amazon Kindle.
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www.calibre-ebook.com FTW!
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Borrow them from your library
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library? mmm, most of those are DRMed.
However, that can be fixed...
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E books are charged for at our local library.
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Fairly minimal fees though. Nobody who loves reading should expect to get copyright works for nothing.
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>> Nobody who loves reading should expect to get copyright works for
>> nothing.
One of the great joys of getting some 'open source/pirate' stuff was being able to clean out a few hundred duplicated books from my shelves, and donate them to local charities.
The other great thing about eBooks is that if/when you 'lend' them to somebody, as I would with a normal book, you still have a copy anyways!
So there's no problem with the bloke saying 'but I gave it back to you' when you ask if he might see his way clear to actually return it, 6 months later.
(Or if he does, it is in poor condition, and "it was like that when I got it")
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 5 Feb 12 at 00:39
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The problem I have with pirated copy is that it deprives authors of their legitimate income. Contrary to what many people think apart from a few best selling authors most authors make precious little as it is. Paper copies can of course be passed on but not endlessly copied like digital pirated copies. I believe that anyone who loves to read and wants to read current works in digital form should be prepared to pay a small sum for the privilege.
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Ignoring the VAT on ebooks difference. I think an ebook should be priced around the price of the real cost, i.e. something for digital distribution (a tiny amount) and the royalties of the author and then a profit/cut for the seller.
A real book has a cost and part of that is printing, physical distribution to a warehouse, distribution to the shop, profit of the shop, cost of the facilities (the shop) including staff, rates, heating, electric etc. Except an ebook does not have all the same cost and yet often cost a similar amount to a paperback book.
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A quick check of the top 20 best sellers available on Amazon reveals that of the 14 available for Kindle 12 were cheaper than the paperback version, often significantly so. Two were marginally more expensive. I believe that as the ebook market expands, and it is expanding fast, prices will fall further as publishers begin to realise the advantages.
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I believe that the public lending fee for an author is 6p per time borrowed.
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>> I believe that as the ebook market expands
It's pretty well established already. The Kindle came to the UK in 2009 I think. A lot earlier in the States.
The company making the biggest cut on an ebook on Amazon is of course Amazon (there are alternatives). The T&Cs for a publisher means they can even offer if they want your book at a reduced price (even free)... depends what you sign up to.
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"The company making the biggest cut on an ebook on Amazon is of course Amazon (there are alternatives). The T&Cs for a publisher means they can even offer if they want your book at a reduced price (even free)... depends what you sign up to."
Actually they don't seem to make a huge percentage on sales of books published by the established publishers where they work on an agency system. Probably around 5% - 10% but Amazon keep the figure very close to their chest. Where their true potential for huge profits lies is in acting as the publisher themselves, and taking a 30% cut of sales. They can then adopt a "pile them high and sell them cheap" marketing philosophy. This strategy has already proved successful, with some authors already becoming millionaires. The existing publishing houses are extremely worried as they claim reducing margins reduces their ability to nurture new talent in the form of advances.
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Copyright reservations are why I said "(legal)" in my original posting. I paid some money to Gutenburg, which is staffed mostly by volunteers. I am using Kindle and mostly interested in literary fiction. "Free" usually implies "out of copyright" which in turn means over 50 years old in the USA.This is not too much of a problem in itself except that A) conversions to eBook format tend mostly to the more popular works, as one might expect and B) old translations into English of foreign works often use terms that are virtually archaic now and sometimes not even in the dictionary.
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Lots of classics already on Amazon for free.
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Thanks for the squidoo link, CG.
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Talking of free stuff - btjunkie (one of the best torrent listing sites) has closed down with no prior warning.
Pirate Bay, ISOHunt, EZTv are still there.
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Android Market (there are also ones for iPhones) offers a number of free apps to allow downloading many thousands of books free.
market.android.com/search?q=books+apps&c=apps
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Free eBooks - Meldrew
