[Henry F. Potter]

Apologies if this isn't the correct subforum; it didn't seem to fit in any of the other ones. Just have to vent.

Why on earth is Orlando Figes' "A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924" not available on Kindle in the US in English - but it is available in German??

And why are J K Rowling, Robert Caro, and the heirs of William Shirer and Alexander Solzhenitsyn such Luddites that they refuse to sell any of their books on Kindle? (Except for "Master of the Senate" for some reason.)

So I can't reread my favorite engrossing 1000-page bricks (the Red Wheel series in Solzhenitsyn's case and "Collapse of the Third Republic" in Shirer's) without hauling an enormous weight around wherever I go.

 

[Linjeakel]

It isn't always the author who holds the rights to publish the book and many of the larger publishers have resisted as long as they could against the onslaught of the electronic revolution. Even those willing to go down that route often seem to be going backwards through their catalogue and it's not unusual for the last book in a series to come out as an ebook before the first. They are also inevitably going to publish their bestsellers first.

 

[Jan Strnad]

I'm dying to re-read John D. MacDonald's entire Travis McGee series, but dang if I'm going to buy all of the print books. Why isn't that series available on Kindle?

 

[Cardinal]

JK Rowling's books will be released in October on her website www.pottermore.

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

I'm dying to re-read John D. MacDonald's entire Travis McGee series, but dang if I'm going to buy all of the print books. Why isn't that series available on Kindle?

I'd like to read his earlier SF novels again.

I think the answer to your question is that there are millions of books to convert and not very many people to do it. Publishers seem to be going with ones that are the easiest to convert and provide the most return. Eventually the others will come, but you just can't do everything at once. It's going to take many years.

I regard all the whinging about publishers trying to sabotage ebooks as the ravings of paranoid conspiracy enthusiasts.

Mike

 

[Me and My Kindle]

I think of it as the price we pay for being "early adopters." In five years, I'm sure nearly every book will be available in e-book format.

As I see it, right now there's just a few authors (and publishers) that think of e-books as an exotic novelty -- but that'll change!

 

[DYB]

A couple of Solzhenitsyn's books were available on the Kindle briefly.  I bought "The Gulag Archipelago 1" a couple of years ago, but it quickly vanished.  I didn't buy "Cancer Ward" in time and it's gone now as well.

 

[Pirate]

A couple of Solzhenitsyn's books were available on the Kindle briefly. I bought "The Gulag Archipelago 1" a couple of years ago, but it quickly vanished. I didn't buy "Cancer Ward" in time and it's gone now as well.

When I find a series that I become interested in, I look to see it the whole series is available and if it is I buy all of them right off...for just that very reason. I will even mix ebook, new and used just to make sure I have the complete series.

 

[JRTomlin]

I'd like to read his earlier SF novels again.

I think the answer to your question is that there are millions of books to convert and not very many people to do it. Publishers seem to be going with ones that are the easiest to convert and provide the most return. Eventually the others will come, but you just can't do everything at once. It's going to take many years.

I regard all the whinging about publishers trying to sabotage ebooks as the ravings of paranoid conspiracy enthusiasts.

Mike

It has nothing to do with "conspiracy". The term is "price fixing" and if you think it does't go on, isn't going on maybe you want to tell the cops in the EU who have seized publishers' records in their ongoing investigation of price fixing how crazed they are.

Maybe YOU have a better term and explanation for the "Agency Model". I don't.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

All of a sudden, they started releasing the Nero Wolfe books and I thought they never would. All of a sudden, they released a six book series by my favorite author and I grabbed them. Now even JKR is going digital.

It doesn't hurt to click on the request button on Amazon and it doesn't hurt to write the publisher.

It seems to me in my very unscientific view that Random House and it's subsidiaries are in the forefront of ebooks and at a reasonable price.

And what happened to our tell the publisher thread where we all clicked on each other's requests? I haven't seen it in ages.

 

[JRTomlin]

All of a sudden, they started releasing the Nero Wolfe books and I thought they never would. All of a sudden, they released a six book series by my favorite author and I grabbed them. Now even JKR is going digital.

It doesn't hurt to click on the request button on Amazon and it doesn't hurt to write the publisher.

It seems to me in my very unscientific view that Random House and it's subsidiaries are in the forefront of ebooks and at a reasonable price.

And what happened to our tell the publisher thread where we all clicked on each other's requests? I haven't seen it in ages.

The question is often who has the publishing rights to these older novels and whether they're interested in eBook publication. It isn't always the publisher's decision in the case of older or classic novels, of course.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

The question is often who has the publishing rights to these older novels and whether they're interested in eBook publication. It isn't always the publisher's decision in the case of older or classic novels, of course.

Very true. We'll probably never see To Kill a Mockingbird because Harper Lee is still alive and won't allow it.

 

[JRTomlin]

Very true. We'll probably never see To Kill a Mockingbird because Harper Lee is still alive and won't allow it.

To be brutally frank, even after her death, it may be a very long time before it's in eBook form, depending on the attitude of whoever controls her estate. I tend to blame earthquakes and hurricanes on evil publishers, but even I can't blame them in this case. Often, it really isn't that simple and they don't necessarily still have publishing rights to backlist titles.

 

[Dr. Laurence Brown]

It is frustrating when you come across books that you want but can't download. I still have a small handful of print books on my shelf for that reason.

 

[TiffanyLovering]

JKR is going digital by October 2011 but will only be available through her site I believe.  It's pottermore.com.  I know that most Scholastic books are not available as an ebook because the publisher does not have digital rights in any of their contracts.

 

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

Very true. We'll probably never see To Kill a Mockingbird because Harper Lee is still alive and won't allow it.

Well she's got to die sometime.

Sorry, that just struck me as an odd reason. Has it been made public why? A licensing issue in general or e-books more particularly?

 

[Henry F. Potter]

JKR is going digital by October 2011 but will only be available through her site I believe. It's pottermore.com. I know that most Scholastic books are not available as an ebook because the publisher does not have digital rights in any of their contracts.

But will it be in Kindle format though? I'm not buying two e-readers.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

Well she's got to die sometime.

Sorry, that just struck me as an odd reason. Has it been made public why? A licensing issue in general or e-books more particularly?

Don't know why. The copyright holds for 75 years after the author's death. It would depend on her estate and if she specified no digital books even after death.

But will it be in Kindle format though? I'm not buying two e-readers.

They'll be formatted for all ereaders. There's going to be one watermarked format that will work on all ereaders. This could be terrible but I'll hope for the best. I'm especially hoping the price will be reasonable.

 

[TiffanyLovering]

But will it be in Kindle format though? I'm not buying two e-readers.

Yes, she just selling it through her own personal website. I'm assuming it will be formatted similar to Smashwords where they make it available for more than one e-reader.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

When I bought my Kindle in August of 2008, there were about 50K books in the Kindle Store. There are over a million now. Some are different editions of public domain books and some are indie books. You probably have about 750K books by fairly well-known and very well-known authors.

It isn't just the publishers. Many authors are taking back their digital rights and reissuing their out of print books. In the past three years, I've watched the number of books available grow by leaps and bounds. Who knows how many will be available in the next three years.

We all have favorite authors and books we're hoping for, but be patient. We never thought JKR would join the ranks, but she has. So there's always hope.