Thanks for the offer. I said what I said because I was under the impression that Amazon owned Audible.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Friedman" <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 6:53 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library
Hi, Gary, if you get a subscription to audible.com, you won't be downloadingyour books from Amazon.com but rather from the audible.com web site.Amazon.com is fine if you wish to pay for your books on CD, but if you go to the audible.com web site and join a plan, you'll be charged a certain amount per month plus you'll have credits (depending on the plan you choose) which you can apply to purchase your audio book for download. Granted the site isfrustrating at first (or at least I found it so), but if you need a hand,I'd be glad to help you out. One thing you'll definitely need and that's theaudible manager software downloaded to your computer. Also, it helps toregister your device (if any) and save your settings. What screen reader areyou running? Also, if you have a VR Stream, you can register and activate your device by connecting it to your computer. Also, the customer service people at audible.com are very helpful. When I first started downloadingbooks from audible.com, they did it for me by connecting to my computer, but now I know how to download and transfer books, thanks to somebody on the VR Stream users list who let me know what keystrokes should be used. Again, I'dbe happy to help you out. Regards, Kim Friedman. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gary Petraccaro Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 1:54 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library Nicely done. I'm thinking about getting an Audible subscription, buthesitate precisely because of Amazon's behavior vis a vis the Kindle access.I have not made up my mind. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Monica Willyard" <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:35 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Publishers and Bookshare As a LibraryDenise, you're right. I see the logic in your point in that Bookshare doesn't work like a local public library. There is an inequity here. Yet Bookshare's existence was created by another inequity that publishers knowingly chose not to rectify. Bookshare stands in the gap, providing a service we cannot get elsewhere, even if we are prepared to pay for it. It costs us over $1,000 for equipment to scan and read a book for ourselves, not even counting the cost of the book and the time taken to scan it. Yetany person who can read normally can walk into a library, get a book, readit, and return it with ease. All they have to pay for is the gas to get there or for someone to drive them. My dad has read 54 novels this year, all bestsellers, without paying a dime. The library is 10 minutes from our house, near our grocery store. He pops in for a book, and he's happy as a clam. We generally don't have that option, except for the small amount of booksavailable with NLS. There are over 35 million books out there, and the NLSonly has around 65,000 of them, half of which have been retired due to age. The NLS has destroyed thousands of our books, against our will, because they were supposedly too old or not recorded well enough. We actually have a total catalog now of about 40,000 books through the NLS. Out of 35 million! Is Bookshare totally fair to publishers? Probably not. Then again, is it fair that we have to pay dearly for a scanner and software just to read one book when they already have that book in electronic form? I'd say no. So there is unfairness on both sides. I think the person with the deeper pockets, greater muscle, and the clout to act should be the party to take a step forward. Then I'm ready to meet them halfway. This is an issue where I feel a lot of frustration. To me, this whole thing boils down to one issue, business 101. You sell what customers want to buy, and they pay you for it. Your customers show you what they want by their spending actions and feedback. That's not happening here, and it's notBookshare or any of us causing it. The publishers will not sell us what we want to buy. And when Amazon started making it possible on the Kindle, the publishers stepped on us like we were little black ants under their boots.If I treated my customers that way, I'd go out of business right now. I'd be happy to pay for books if publishers would make fully accessible versions of their books available. My Audible account reflects this in abundance. All publishers need to do is give us access to TTS on the Kindle and a secure Braille converter for their e-pub format. Both actions are simple to do at a very low cost to the book industry as a whole. They canstill use DRM, and they would find that print disabled people read a greatdeal more than the general public. Since they're not willing to address this issue, I'm not willing to give up Bookshare to possibly prevent them from losing money. When they treat me like a customer worth something, I'll become one, and a loyal one at that. Publishers don't seem to remember that their customer matters and that if you treat a person like a non-customer, you will lose money. This is economics 101, what every kid learns in high school. Action comes first, than comes the reward of a sale. Finally, since I need to buy and scan books for Bookshare if I want to read them, I am annoyed that I have to find a home for the print book when I'm done with it. It's of no use to me since I can't see it or read its contents myself. I use a free site to swap it for something else, and the publishers scream bloody murder for not getting a royalty from that swap. If they want me to stop doing this, they need to treat me like a customer, let me buy books I can read, and enjoy their profits. I'll enjoy not needing to scan and can spend that time doing something with my family. Ok, climbing off my soap box now. (smile) Monica Willyard "The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. 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