eBooks - Enjoy Effortless Entertainment

I love ebooks! 

Hey Lorie,

Do you know if they will be offering the Challenge coupon for ebook subscriptions next year?

 Also, I was wondering if they would offer the One-Click bundles of Present, Desires, and Blazes, a month in advance in the ebook boutique, like they do the single titles? Currently, they only offer the One-Click bundles during the actual release month.  Does that make any sense?

Do you know if they will be offering ebook subscriptions for other lines as well?

Enough questions for one morning?  I would ask these questions over at the main site, but since I am here kicking tires anyways...it seems convenient

Thanks, Lorie!

I love ebooks too!

Ahh, thanks, my misunderstanding Penn's misunderstanding led to more misunderstandings!

No worries, Lorie, I won't be deciding on my purchases yet for another couple of days...thanks   I didn't mean to be adding another to-do to your list!

Hi Lori, I apologize if this has been covered or I'm just missing it, but I was wondering if the Medical stories are going to be in ebook format?  I'm not seeing them on any of the lists.  I would really like it if they were as buying them in paper format from oveseas is expensive(not happening for me).  Ebook format would seem a viable option opening the series up to a lot more people. 

Thanks!

Cole 

Hi Cole,

 I know I'm being nosy, but because I am so deeply involved in eBooks I am just so curious -- what kind of Reader did you get? Was is a Christmas present? Did you pick it out?

I have both the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle -- but they are being passed through many hands here at Harlequin so I haven't had much time to read on them -- and I just bought a pile of books for the Sony. That reminds me that I need to find it and reclaim it!

I have converted over to just about all ebook reading since I bought the Axim -- love it.

I did recently goof when I bought Wendy Robert's Remains of the Dead, not a Harlequin, but I didn't check around and the ebook price I bought it for was $3 more than the print price at Amazon! I loved the book, but will never shop at that store again (ebooks) and also would be hard pressed to pay more than a print book costs for an ebook -- I would pay the same, but not more. Getting books here at Harlequin is easy, but when you go out in the world I find I need to do more research and find better sellers (with easy downloads, too -- one seller wanted me to wait up to 24 hours to get the book -- this defeats the purpose, to my mind...)

I don't buy packages, bundles or subscriptions, just individual books, but it's nice that they offer them...

Sam 

Hi Everyone!

I was skimming over comments on my way down and had to add that one of the things I like about ebooks is the fact that my hubby doesn't have to take a running jump to get into bed. Thought that was real cute Lori.

Hi Malle!

I don't mind answering questions on this... have been yaking to anyone who would listen I just bought a MyPal PDA. And a note on this, it wasn't an easy process for me to have gotten to this point once I'd decided I wanted to get into this whole deal with ebooks for I quickly discovered things were not compatible. I went from reader to reader... searching, thinking I'd found the one I wanted, that fit my needs, only to discover that it wasn't compatible with something else---I had in fact purchased the Kindle but then discovered the books I'd specifically bought directly from you guys at your rates(a big draw for me) could not be transferred onto the kindle. I blogged about this process as I went through it and the gals here on the different loops at Harlequin were wonderful with ideas. The thing I found the most frustrating was the compatibility issue (the PDA by the way does NOT appear when one googles ereaders--I was pointed that way by a friend on the loops) That alone blows my mind. People these days want things to be easy.

But I won't get into all of that other than to say, I do believe that once a company comes out with a product that has a screen like the Sony/Kindle and the capabilities of a PDA, ebooks will not be such a iffy issue. Right now I'm the only one I 'personally' know outside the net that has a reader of any type. And I am positive this is because none of them would have spent two weeks trying to learn all aout ebooks so that all that money was spent in the right place... they just would have said forget it and gone out to buy a paper back. I personally came to that point several times(but I'm stubborn)

Your 'one-click' bundles is a perfect example to my way of thinking of how everyone thinks--quick and easy(yes I know that was a generalization but I do believe that to the overall picture of things it does apply). This is also something to consider for presents... my hubby knows nothing of the world of reading and doesn't want to... if he coudln't have gotten on and simply googled things, and clicked and bought... I would have ended up with a wonderful present... probably a Sony or the Kindle but I wouldn't have been as happy because of the restrictions which apply to both. Something for the companies out there to consider.

I bought the pda because I could buy from whomever, where ever, whenever. I could buy from you guys and then turn around and buy from Amazon. I could upload all the books I'd already bought and I could use any reader. The screen size does not bother me when I'm reading---only when I 'think' about the size of the actual 'ereaders'. So I try not to think about them.

I love the mobi reader the most and am now trying to get all my books that way. Brava though and a couple others don't offer them that way--another plus to being able to have several readers all on one system.

As others have already said, I second or third the points on being able to carry several books and read at a drop of hate without acutally standing there in line looking like I'm 'reading' a book. Somehow that just comes across totally different. I have also been able to upload work and read on the readers too... so I'm finding the product I bought to be perfect for me.

I have also found that I'm buying more because the books are not visually stacking up. Not that I couldn't have bought more before, it was just that having that pile... okay endless piles lying around the house wasn't going over real well. I was always having to try and find someone/someplace to dispose of the books before getting more. Now that is not an issue.

Okay I've rambled long enough! Have fun reading everyone!

Cole

As I've mentioned several places before, I have a Palm TX PDA, which I bought last October. Most of my ebooks are Mobi but I also have Palm eReader. I was poking around the internet and found the eReader.com site. And WOW, they have a version for the Mac (and lots of other devices). I thought it was only for Palms. I don't particularly want to read fiction on my lap top but I thought it would be good for dictionaries, and other reference books. The eReader software is free, but I opted for the Pro version for a whopping $4.95.

IT IS SO COOL! You can fill your screen with a double page layout, or make it smaller. You can change the font to any font already on your system. You can change the page color. The default is nice, a sort of parchment look. You can change the font color and size, and the leading (newspaper talk for space between lines), and the justification, and margins and on and on. The page number and book title appear at the top of the page. Bookmarks are ribbons that lengthen when you choose to mark a page. There are so many controls and settings. Graphics are included but not hi res. Covers are not included—at least on the few books I bought (their bad).

One of the free books you get is a sampler which includes first chapters of some of their latest books and includes a Stephen King and a Presents. For fiction I can copy the book to my Palm or read it on the laptop. Like I said, I prefer fiction on the Palm. The store has a good choice of Harlequin books, though I didn't look through the whole vast catalog. They state on their web site that they are the world's largest ebook store. 

Under Romance, New Releases, all four featured books are Harlequin imprints. 

So, just wanted to let those of you who don’t know about eReader, that it’s another option. I like having my elibrary in different formats. That way if one flunks out, I haven’t lost my whole library. 

I also am buying more ebooks than paperback because of the storage issue, and, I’m finding, I really like ‘em.

>1. I really don't like it when blurbs and titles are geared towards the ending of the book, rather then the conflict through most of the book. 2. I really want ebooks to have the back cover blurbs included!

I HATE when a cover blurb has absolutely nothing to do with the story until the last quarter or so of the book. Or worse, doesn't seem to match the story at all, even when you get to the end becasue it talks about such obscure parts of the story.

I read one of the Hotel Marchand books last year for the challenge that was like that. The back cover copy was only about the final three or four chapters of the book. The cover copy talks about the hero and heroine meeting on a blind date their families put them up to but the actual date referenced in the cover copy is like 50-60 pages from the end. Heck they don't even meet till a few chapters in to the story. Then it talks on the cover copy about an art theft and this happens right around the same time as their date, And the theft had so little bearing on the actual romance it was ridiculous to even mention it on the cover copy!