It can be terrible!
I am a completely convinced user of eReaders, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this blog, but on occasion I am almost driven to despair by the clumsiness involved in actually getting eBooks into my various eReaders.
Most websites that sell eBooks have given a lot of thought to the matter of downloading and installing your eBooks on your eReader, but others seem to have almost ignored this aspect of it all, and left us to our own devices to a large degree, or devised astonishingly complex systems for this function, which causes all manner of totally infuriating problems for anyone who isn’t a complete computer freak.
Waterstones. a cautionary tale………
Waterstones, a British book seller have evolved an interesting and totally confusing method for getting your eBooks from them, as my wife discovered a couple of days ago. She selected three eBooks she wished to read, and went through the entire Check Out business reasonably well, only having to repeat the process twice owing to some internal (Waterstone’s internal) problem, but finally got to the point when a screen appeared with the three books she had ordered, each with its own comforting little button next to it, labeled “Download”.
She duly pressed the first one, and after the normal hesitation as her computer decided which download system to use, it came in….. But instead of a download of about 300 KB as she expected, it was about 248 Bytes. She didn’t notice this curiosity, and happily downloaded the remaining two eBooks… Each of which were also in the 200 Bytes range.
The download screen also informed her that an email confirming her order would be sent to her email address… all quite normal. Out of interest, she checked for this email, but it hadn’t come in… But this didn’t seem to be important, so she then went about the normal process of moving her eBooks into her eReader (a Sony), and that is when the real troubles began.
She had downloaded the three eBooks into the correct directory (My Digital Editions), as always. She then opened the software that Sony supply to get your eBooks into the eReader (eReader Library) and looked for her new eBooks….. Not a sign of them.
After a lot of fiddling around, we both gave up and she decided to send Waterstones an email asking for help. When she opened Outlook, the promised email popped up, and it turned out to include detailed instructions on how to get your eBooks into your Sony eReader.
It turns out that what she had downloaded were not the eBooks themselves, but licenses specific to those particular eBooks, and if she now followed a lot of remarkably complex instructions, the actual eBooks would be downloaded onto her computer and she would be able to install them on her eReader. But it was too late, in our futile attempts to install the eBooks, we had somehow damaged them (beats me how, but we had), and so the whole process ground to a dismal halt.
We none the less emailed Waterstones, explained as best we could what had happened, and asked for help. The following day we received a standard reply, with reams of instructions on how to do this (obviously a lot of other folk have had the same experiences).
So, I sat down and set to work….. total failure.
I have been using computers since about the mid 80′s so I am reasonably competent, but I was completely lost in no time, and simply gave up after a couple of wasted hours.
Luckily, we had paid for these eBooks with “points’ that we had accrued about a year ago, at which point it was simple to download books from them, so we didn’t lose any money on this farrago, but all the same……………………………..
If instead of sending all those instructions in that email, which we received about an hour after we had downloaded what we thought were the books, but had placed them next to the Download buttons, all these problems would probably not have arisen.
The net result of all of this idiocy is that we two will certainly never attempt to purchase any more eBooks from Waterstones, which is a pity for them, and as I mentioned above, our experiences were obviously not unique to us, so there are probably many potential clients out there who will also avoid Waterstones like the plague from now on.
In order for eReaders that are not tied to a particular online book shop to succeed, it has to be simple to get your eBooks into your eReader obviously. Companies such as Amazon have taken this into account, and designed an extremely easy method of doing all of this, as have Apple and a number of other companies, but this is aimed at their own eReaders, not any of the many eReaders not tied to a particular store.
Happily, most online eBook suppliers have also thought this through, so in general it all works fine… But when it doesn’t… Hoo Boy you have problems!
Share with us:
If you have had similar experiences with any particular eBook shop, please let us know about them here, so we can put pressure on those shops to get their acts together properly.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brian Smith and Sarah Spinoza, eBookAnoid.com. eBookAnoid.com said: eBooks – The problems of actually getting them into you eReader http://goo.gl/fb/dsO2b [...]
July 30th, 2010 at 5:52 am
I have similar problems with the online library I use to borrow ebooks from (which is great otherwise!). When downloading a book, I actually get a link only readable by Adobe Digital Editions on my computer. Sadly, it makes having WIFI on my ereader totally useless (since I don’t use my ereader to read my emails or browse the internet). Same story when the ebook downloaded is in a zip file. Shame…
July 30th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I have no brief for Waterstones – they are the main reason I stopped using my Sony Touch Edition – but what you experienced is the normal way of doing things. What your wife downloaded initially is simply a URL to a secure download page. The way to do it is to move this downloaded URL into Digital Editions and the book then downloads automatically. It is actually quite straightforward when you get the hang of it. There is also a section (well hidden, I remember) on the Waterstones site where you can see all the books you’ve bought and redownload them if necessary. Nevertheless, if you do have any queries you’re unlikely to get a sensible answer. Waterstones (part of HMV) have missed the boat in a big way and I now doubt they will ever compete with Amazon and other on-line stores because their bookstore and method of selling is so clunky. Unless you own a Sony already, buying a new Kindle and enjoying instant wireless downloads, is my recommended route.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Thanks Michael, I shall go hunting for that hidden link,and see if I can start all over again somehow….. But my experiences with Waterstones over the several years I have had an eBook have not been good, and basically I shall in future buy my eBooks from Books on Board, Kobo and other sites that actually work.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Yes, there are quite a few problems and stupidities that need to be addressed before eReaders become the easy to use, non techie devices they need to be. The great majority of people who would like to use an eReader are absolutely not computer nerds (this is obvious if one reads the hordes of comments on various eReader websites), and the foolish mix of over complicated DRM systems and special software needed to install eBooks on most eReaders could well prove extremely damaging to the development of eReaders.
I hope that the upcoming conference in Beijing might be able to cut away some of the dross,and get those who make decisions on all of this sit up and create systems that work for us all.
March 15th, 2011 at 2:28 am
I have had the same problem with trying to transfer Waterstones ebooks onto my ereader. I had a full head of hair when I started. How about the words [download onto my ereader]visible on my computer screen.Then all that is required is one click on the sentence in brackets. Or is that too simple?.We are not all Computer Whiz Kids. By the way I am an oap.
March 16th, 2011 at 9:13 am
@ John,
I sympathise with your problem, and have to say that I gave up on Waterstones long before they started to refuse to sell me any ebooks as I lived outside the UK -Daft idiots!
They have a truly stupid and needlessly complex system for getting ebooks you buy from them into your ereader.
If you read the comment above by Michael Evans that might help you to deal with their system. Otherwise I would recommend you to keep well away from them, they are not really a very useful or relevant shop in fact.
If you own a Sony ereader, you can better use their ebook store, which works very well, and has a considerable range of ebooks as well.
Further, you might like to contact your local library, there is a very good chance that they will have ebooks for you to borrow, and also will be able to explain to you how to get those ebooks into your ereader.
In any event, good luck!
October 1st, 2011 at 9:58 pm
HELP! My daughter bought my husband and i an gear to go ereader each and i cannot load books.
I have downloaded abode digital edition and need help in plain english to go further. I cannot get
information anywhere.
January 19th, 2012 at 5:53 am
I have been using a Kindle for about 2 years and have been downloading eBooks with no problems. Recently I purchased an eBook from Waterstones – a name I trusted and assumed would be a good source for any type of literature.
When, after wasting a lot of time, I found that I could not load the eBook onto my Kindle I sent them an email….Their reply was that the eBook would not work on a Kindle and that I could read it on my computer.
I have sent them a reply telling them what I think of their sales methods (there was no warning that the book would not work on Kindle) and that I would never buy anything from them again.
My advice – keep away from Waterstones.
January 19th, 2012 at 6:06 am
@ Alan,
You have fallenn foul of one of the other chief idiocies of the ereader world – ereader makers who use their own private ebook formats.. You will need to be aware of the type of format your ereader will work with, and make sure that any ebook you buy online is in that particular format for it to work.
So, if you happen to have a Sony, then any ePub formatted ebook will work OK (except ePub ebooks from Barnes and Noble – who have thier own version of DRM protection and ebook formating)…. For kindles, you need to have ebooks in Mobi format.
All very tedious and stupid but reality, sadly
January 30th, 2012 at 6:13 pm
we have had sony ereader books for years and never had problems until now… when we contacted waterstones re the problem down loading we were told adobe and computer time and date were not right. we checked and the time and date was right… we then thought as we couldnt down load it could be something wrong with our computer, so, we took our lap top to a computer expert who did a complete check for us and found nothing wrong…. we kept trying to down load went bk to waterstones and tried for soooo many hours still no luck.. then in frustration we took our ereaders complete with lap top back to the computer engineer to down load them for us ( so more cost) he told us that the fault wasnt with us we had all we needed but, still couldnt down load them… got back on to waterstones and i explained we couldnt down load,,, they told me the same thing over and over its a time and date issue… THEY ALSO TOLD ME THEY HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE PROBLEM I HAD.. they have now issued us a refund for the 6 books we purchased…. we will try another company to purchase off in future… we were made to feel as if we didnt know what we were doing and yet had previously down loaded with no problems…