As Prop Joe would say in The Wire: "Let me understand you." So I buy an ebook from Amazon. They decide, for whatever reason, that it's being withdrawn. So it then disappears from my Kindle without so much as a by your leave. Oh yes, they refund my dosh, but that's not quite the point, is it?
I blogged a while back about Amazon's unerring ability to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to PR, and I haven't bought from them since the row over GLBT books suddenly disappearing from the rankings. This latest mystery of the disappearing ebooks doesn't make me inclined to return.
There's a distinct sense of irony here that the books immediately affected are 1984 and Animal Farm. George Orwell is presumably performing stall turns in his grave.
Amazon are claiming that the editions of both books were unauthorised. I'd say that was a case of 'caveat seller'. You sold it, someone paid for it, transaction over. Remove the books from the catalogues, not from people's hardware. Otherwise, where does it end? "Ugh, that idiot's got no taste – they've just bought the new Patricia Cornwell. Quick, erase it while they're asleep."
OK, so that's being a tad silly. But if my local bookshop sells me a book at the wrong price, that's their problem. As others have pointed out, they can hardly break into my house, take the book back and leave the money on the table (not least because they'd never find the book or the table buried beneath my avalanche of books).
Amazon have, up 'til now, done a slick PR job (makes a change) by turning the Kindle into a must-have gadget. There's no sign of it in the UK yet, and I shan't be rushing to buy one if and when it does. And before I get yelled at for being a grumpy old Luddite, it's not because I'm against ebook readers, because I'm not. I actually rather like the idea of storing all these books electronically and saving myself from being crushed by the books piled all around the house. And just think of being able to go on long train journeys with just one electronic device and not a pile of paperback.
My understanding of the Kindle – and someone correct me if I'm wrong – is that when it's full, you start deleting books to make space for new ones. Yep, fine, but what happens to the deleted ones? Presumably once it's gone, it's gone (rather like the Orwells). Or do you have a little repository on Amazon where you can go and reload later if you want to?
I want an electronic device that holds the equivalent of the British Library, can be read in dull light, in bright sunlight and in the bath. I want to be able to mark my place without resorting to shopping receipts and old rail tickets. And I want this device to be mine and well away from retailers' sticky mitts. I don't want to feel that Big Brother really is watching me.
Yes, you can always reload the books from Amazon. If you paid for it, Amazon will let you download it to your kindle as many times as you like (so if you accidentally deleted it, you just download again.) If you get a new kindle, you just re-register it to the account, and you can download the books you already bought. There's some sort of archiving feature as well, but I don't understand it well enough to talk about it.
You can also share the books between two owned kindles (say you and your hubby both have kindles). I think you have to have the same account for that--again, not my area of expertise, but from the forums I know people are doing it.
They are also apparently using Kindles with some success in the UK, but I think they preload before going there because the whispernet only works in the US (I think Amazon is working on connectivity before selling it over there.)
Kindle also keeps your place when you're reading, as well as provides bookmarks (in case you read more than one book.) I think most ereaders have bookmarks. They have to because "page numbers" are kind of...well, they don't apply all that well since you can change the font and that sort of thing.
That said, the whole "deleting" off a personal device was a HUGE mistake (which they admit was a huge mistake.) There are calls for them to take such functionality away (guessing that won't happen.)
Posted by: Maria | July 23, 2009 at 09:19 AM
Thanks, Maria, this is very helpful. I've been wondering for ages what happened to the books you deleted off the Kindle.
I don't know what the delay is over it appearing in the UK. And I'm sure (or as sure as I can be, given Amazon's track record) that they won't try the deleting stunt again.
Posted by: Lartonmedia | July 23, 2009 at 11:55 AM
No problem. :>) I know people in the UK that are using the Sony reader that seem mighty happy with that.
Biggest complaint about the kindle here (other than deletions) seems to be lack of "folders." You can't organize the books well at this stage (you can list them alphabetically, reverse alpha, and things like that). LOTS of requests for folders so that you can put things into categories like "mystery" or "favorites" or...yanno.
Posted by: Maria | July 23, 2009 at 12:07 PM
If you leave your Kindle on sleep mode rather than turning it off, your book will automatically open at the correct spot without having to set a bookmark. The Amazon techs recommend sleep mode rather than turning off. Mine hasn't been off in months. Re the Orwell brouhaha, Amazon is conceding they made a mistake and won't do it again. BTW, I think they say the Kindle will hold 1500 books.
Posted by: KathleenH | July 23, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Having folders would be brilliant -- I'm very anally retentive about these things and would want to have separate ones for crime fic and sport and media and archaeology and theatre!
Posted by: Lartonmedia | July 23, 2009 at 06:41 PM
Thanks for the info, Kathleen! 1500's pretty good -- for some reason I thought I'd read that it was far fewer than that.
I think Amazon realise what a faux pas it was and won't do it again.
Posted by: Lartonmedia | July 23, 2009 at 06:42 PM