Two new ebookstores have been launched in Australia. Exciting news for readers, but they come with a price—dollars and DRM (see price comparison below).
Sony Reader Store
Earlier this month, Sony finally launched the Reader Store in Australia. For a limited time, when you sign up to the Reader Store, you’ll get a free ebook (I got Friendship Bread by Darien Gee, but I’m not sure if everyone gets the same title). Sign up is relatively painless: enter your email address, choose a password, and active the account when you get the confirmation email.
You can sort the catalogue by date, relevance and price. I’m not sure how relevance is evaluated, but the first page using this sorting method didn’t produce many titles that I cared about, to be honest. Sort by price and you’ll find some free ebooks. It’s worth checking before you download because some of them are only excerpts rather than the entire book. Sort by date, and again, I’m not sure what it means—I’m assuming date of release—but out of curiosity I navigated to the last page. Don’t do this unless you want to read dodgy sounding books about what sound to me like dirty old men. Definitely not romance.
Navigation within the romance category is, frankly, a bit of a pain. There are no subcategories and when you look at the page number links, it only lists all the pages before the one you’re on, the next page, and the last page. This makes it difficult for me—I like to skip around and jump 2-4 pages at a time.
JB Hi-Fi NOW Books
Last month, electronics store JB Hi-Fi also launched an ebooktore, which you can find here. According to trade magazine Books+Publishing:
The store, which went live on 22 April, is part of the retailer’s NOW platform, which also sells digital music. Among the local publishers with titles in the ebookstore are HarperCollins, Penguin, Random House, Allen & Unwin, Hachette, Lonely Planet, Pan Macmillan and Text Publishing.
Again, there’s no escaping DRM.
I only had a quick play with this store, but searching for titles seems faster than in the Reader Store and, with the exception of the cluttered and confusing first page, the interface seems more inviting to me.
Price comparison
I’ve listed a random sample of romance titles and their prices (AUD), along with corresponding prices from Diesel (USD) and the publisher (AUD unless otherwise noted). Ebook files have DRM unless otherwise noted.
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For those looking to purchase a new ebook reader, Sony has released the PRS-T2 in Australia, retailing for $179.
You guys may have noticed that I haven’t posted much on my ebook reading device or reviewed any ebooks lately. This is because I’m a little disillusioned with ebook readers. I find my Sony PRS-T1 slow (relative to all my other gadgets), and I’ve found that my reading style isn’t exactly suited to ebook readers.
For one, it’s an effort to kill a fairy. I also remember passages and plot events based on how they look on a page—in print. I lose that visual reference when reading ebooks and, together with the slow speed of skimming, the experience can get frustrating, particularly if I’m not totally sold on the story I’m reading.
So I’ve been thinking that I need to buy a new ebook reader, and given that I’ve had two Sony models, I’m leaning towards the Kindle. Most people I know who read ebooks have one, and most of them are happy with it.
But then I saw the new Sony and I have to admit…I’m tempted! The Evernote integration would fit in very well with my main use of an ebook reader—to read ebook review copies. The note-taking capability of the Sony was what ultimately sold me on the device, but I’ve found it cumbersome to use—in fact, I found that the T1 was more awkward to use for note-taking than the smaller, earlier model PRS-350 (Pocket Edition). I’m wondering if using Evernote on an eInk device would improve the experience significantly.
I also prefer touchscreen, but again, eInk is relatively slow to respond compared with every other gadgety thing I have, so I’m not sure it’s much of an advantage over a keyboard or trackball or whatever. Sony also supports library lending, but unfortunately, my library still hasn’t implemented this service, so it’s pretty useless to me at the moment.
Anyway, I wanted to ask you guys if you’ve tried the Sony PRS-T2 and what you thought of it? And for those of you who have tried different ebook readers, which do you prefer between the Kindle and the Sony, and why?
Anna Campbell has once again been voted Favourite Australian Romance Author at the 2011 Australian Romance Readers Awards, held last night at Cello’s Restaurant in Sydney.
Campbell also retains her undefeated status in the Favourite Historical Romance section, the award going to her Avon Regency book Midnight’s Wild Passion. A representative from HarperCollins accepted the awards on Campbell’s behalf, reading a prepared acceptance speech that, in true Campbell style, had the audience smiling.
New Zealand author Nalini Singh picked up the most awards, winning Favourite Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Futuristic Romance for Archangel’s Blade and Favourite Paranormal Romance for the much-anticipated Kiss of Snow, the latest book in the Psy/Changeling series, for which Singh was awarded the prize for Favourite Continuing Romance series for the third year in a row. Singh’s awards were received on her behalf by selected ARRA members. Singh had also pre-recorded her acceptance speech, which was shown to the audience after her final award was announced.
Helene Young (photo by Kat)
Shattered Sky was named Favourite Romantic Suspense. Queensland author Helene Young was the only winner who was able to personally accepted her award. Young’s next book, Burning Lies, with be released in July by Penguin Australia.
Australian authors Kelly Hunter and Denise Rossetti won Favourite Short Category Romance for With This Fling… (see Kat’s review here) and Favourite Erotic Romance for The Lone Warrior, respectively. Julie James won Favourite Contemporary Romance for A Lot Like Love.
The Member of the Year award when to Amy and the Bling Off culminated in a mini-parade, with authors Melissa Craig and Travey O’Hara sharing this year’s Queen of Bling title. They will be time-sharing the tiara.
Guest speaker Paula Roe spoke about the the books that shaped her love of romance reading and, eventually, led her to try her hand at writing romance fiction. Her passion and enthusiasm for the genre had the audience smiling, at times laughing, as she described some of the earlier novels she loved (and loved to read out loud to her friends in high school).
The annual Australian Romance Readers Awards are managed by the Australian Romance Readers Association. Nominees are shortlisted from member nominations and winners are decided by popular vote among ARRA members.
The event was sponsored by Australian online bookshop Booktopia. The awards were sponsored by Galaxy Bookshop, Carina Press, Harlequin Australia, Rosemary’s Romance Books and Temptation the Romance Bookstore, Romantic Reflections, Romance Direct, Penguin Books Australia and Booktopia.
Check out the photos from the event via Flickr. I plan to write up a longer post on my observations from the night, so watch this space.
Last weekend, I lost my Sony Pocket Reader. I keep my ebook library synced with Calibre, so I didn’t lose any books, but I did lose my annotations and review notes.
Yesterday I went shopping for…something not an ebook reader.
And I came home with this:
What can I say? I fell in lust. (And yes, it levitates. So awesome.)
Source: Amazon
Amazon announces new Kindle range, including touch screen and colour devices. Too bad we’re in Australia.
Today, Amazon announced its latest line-up of Kindle devices. For the first time, Kindle will be offering touch screen eInk devices (Kindle Touch), as well as an iPad competitor, the Kindle Fire.
The most attractive features? The budget prices.
The latest generation Kindles start from as low as US$79. The touch screen Kindles start at US$99, and the Kindle Fire will set you back a measly US$199. (See the update below for pricing differences for Australian customers.)
When you think about the entry-level Kindle, it’s hard to see how anyone even remotely interested in trying ebooks can pass it up at that price. It’s convenient, integrated and, at that price, pretty much disposable if you end up hating the thing.
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I wrote this article last year for the ARRA newsletter. I’ve updated it to reflect current prices and to remove outdated information.
Many readers considering buying an ebook reader end up trying to decide between the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a quick rundown.
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My new pretty, shiny thing. An early Christmas present for myself.
If you think this post is an attempt to make up for having skived off reviewing yet again, you’d be right.
But come on—how can I not show off my shiny new ebook reader (reviewed by CNET)? With a pink cover!
Okay, it’s been unboxed for a few weeks now, and some off the gloss has come off after I’ve struggled with the more unfriendly bits of the software, but overall I’m loving this device.
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Bookseller+Publisher reports that the local iBookstore has today launched the sale of Australian ebooks.
Publishers include Hachette Australia (finally!), HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan. (Penguin and Random House seem to be missing from the list.) Hachette Australia has indicated that they will release ebooks simultaneously for new releases. Here’s a sample of some titles and prices (categories in brackets as per iBookstore):
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Fiction & Literature) — Free
Where Angels Fear To Tread and Other Stories of the Sea by Morgan Robertson (Classics) — $1.99
Hell Island by Matthew Reilly (Fiction & Literature) — $5.99 (#1 in the top paid books list)
Untouched by Anna Campbell (Romance) — $9.99
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If, like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for news that the Sony Reader has landed on our shores, wait no more—it’s here!
This afternoon I got a call from Sony World Square confirming that they’ve received some stock. They have the PRS-650 in black or red and the PRS-350 in silver. And if you click on those links you’ll notice that the purchase links are now working on the Sony website. If you buy online, shipping is free until December 31st. According to other readers on Twitter, Melbourne stores expect stock early next week.
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Yesterday I was so excited; today not so much.
Update: Some lovely Sony people on Twitter followed this up for me. The Sony store in World Square (Sydney) should have the Reader on sale on September 8. Maybe.
Further to yesterday’s news that Sony has launched the Reader in Australia, according to CNET Australia the Readers will be priced from $229 to $299. The Readers will have touch screen and the ability for users to take notes and annotate ebooks using a stylus—a key selling point for me.
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