Why oh whyyyyy? The New York Times Editors’ Choice iPad app

I know a lot of people have already expressed their disappointment with this app, but the bits I've read have focused on the content: the fact that the app only contains a selection of articles from the paper (which is why it's called "Editors' Choice"). I wasn't thrilled about that, either. It's annoying that my iPod Touch app has more NYT content. But whatever. I can kind of understand the decision--I might not agree with it, but I can at least see a reason behind it. Also, a paid app is said to be forthcoming and if it's reasonably priced (not $20.00 a month!) I'll consider paying for it (but only if they address my concern below).

Here is where we get to the "Why oh whyyyyy?" part of my complaints:

Why oh whyyyyy have they taken away my ability to tweet stories? It makes no sense. Email as the only sharing option is downright archaic. Twitter and Facebook are by far my preferred ways to share articles (or blog posts). I find myself using this app less and less. Just last night I decided to give it another try, immediately found an article I wanted to share, became frustrated and gave up. And have obviously been stewing about it ever since.

Yes, I realize that I can go to their main website and tweet articles from there. I probably will end up doing just that (and deleting the app). But the app could actually be useful as (I think) it was intended: as a selection, a little snippet of the paper to read when you just have a few minutes (or are too lazy to read the whole thing). It just makes me angry that they came so close to making something useful then blew it by removing a key feature (and one that already exists! They didn't have to invent it or figure it out or anything! Gah).

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration, redux

Lifehacker has a poll up asking How Much Would You Pay for an E-Book? I chose the answer, "Like dead-tree books, it completely depends on the book." Sure, I like paying less for books, but I'm not stuck on the $9.99 price. The way I think about it is if it's a book that I would be willing to pay hardback prices for in print, I'm willing to pay more for the e-book. If it's something I'd read as mass market in print, I want to pay less. Other things that matter to me are quality (I hate to see a badly formatted e-book, no matter what I paid for it) and I'd love to be able to lend e-books.

The availability thing really annoys me, though. Here's what happens if a book that I want as a e-book isn't available in that format: I find one that is. And who knows if I will remember to check again later to see if that book is now available? There are a lot of books out there, and I want most of them. So you're going to make it harder for me to get yours? Fine. There are plenty of others.

My frustration with availability isn't just about publishers holding e-book releases of new titles. It's also very frustrating when a couple of titles in a series are available as e-books and the rest aren't. Please, publishers, pay attention to this sort of thing. If I like an author, I'll happily blaze through an entire series. But so many ridiculous obstacles get in my path. My advice:

• somewhere, somehow, on your site (and within the books, whether print or e-) make it so that I can see the books in a series listed in order (and make it clear that they are listed in order).
• make all of the titles in the series available in the same formats. And when moving to a new format (such as e-book), consider starting with the first one. I guess I could see why you'd want to publicize the new format for the latest one, but when you do it would be great if the previous titles were also available.

What do you think? Is it $9.99 or nothing for you? Any book-buying (e-book or print) pet peeves you'd care to share?

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration

Here. Amazon wants its publishers to continue to offer all new e-books for $9.99. Macmillan decided it needed to charge more, from 12.99 to 14.99. Initially, Amazon took Macmillan titles off its site and stated that it would stay the course and not raise its prices--but ultimately, Amazon capitulated.

I am not going to lie. One big reason I went with Kindle over nook was because I preferred the lower prices offered by the Kindle. It is very frustrating to me when new books (such as The Swan Thieves, as I mentioned before), are not available electronically on their pub dates. (You have to wait three mos. or around there for some new titles to be available.)

But would I pay more to get a new e-book title on time? I don't want to. It depends on the book. Maybe. If I have to, I guess I will, but it makes me angry. It's frustrating as a user to see a good deal slipping away, whether or not it's a good thing for publishing as a whole.

Finally, in preparation for the future, I am trying to fight instinctive revulsion response to the name "iPad," but the struggle is a hard one.

I've got a beef

I recently decided to read Ian Rankin's John Rebus series. I know there are a bunch of them because I've been hearing good things about them for forever. Obviously, I'd like to read them in order.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I purchased the ebook version of Resurrection Men and while I was enjoying it, I wasn't exactly keeping up with all that was going on. I told this to my pal/nemesis Td over lunch on Friday. He then informs me that of course I can't follow it—Resurrection Men is one of the later books in the series.

Which brings me to my point: for the love of all that is holy, why is it so hard to find a list of titles by an author that is sorted in chronological order?

Amazon doesn't do it (Oh, don't get me started on Amazon's search results. Or how hard they make it to figure out which edition you're seeing). You can't even count on the publisher to list them all in the book in the right order without mixing in titles not in the series. Ian Rankin's website doesn't appear to do it, either. It looks like the wikipedia page for DI John Rebus lists them at the bottom. And later on Friday, the ever-helpful Td sent me a link to someone's listmania page at Amazon that lists them in order.

So, yes, the information is available. But wouldn't it make more sense for the seller (whether Amazon or eReader or whoever) to provide it to me? Think how much more money I'd be willing to spend if I weren't so busy being annoyed.