
Oyster is launching an e-book store - robgibbons
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/netflix-books-just-invaded-amazons-turf/
======
tw04
"The Netflix for books" \- you mean the public library? I'm astounded how few
young people seem to have any clue what their libraries offer.

FFS, our local library lets you "borrow" e-books and audiobooks online, you
never have to set foot in the building.

~~~
joshuapants
I'm a big fan of my local library, unfortunately their ebook system is very
annoying. They've partnered with some service that only allows you to access
books through an iOS app (so I can't read on e-ink) and it seems that each
book is just a pdf delivered to the app, so you can't change font size or the
way the words flow. On top of that, if they even have the book you want you
often have to wait several weeks before it's available for you to actually
download.

~~~
bduerst
That could be a manufacturer problem - i.e. Amazon being uncooperative with
allowing kindle users to read books from sources other than the kindle store.

If you can get an epub or mobi version of the book you borrowed, you can use
Calibre [1] to put it on your e-ink device. You can also email books to your
kindle, but I've had mixed success with that.

[1] [http://calibre-ebook.com/](http://calibre-ebook.com/)

~~~
joshuapants
Unfortunately, on this end it's entirely a software issue. No way to get
anything downloaded except through the app. I wonder if I had a jailbroken
iPad if I could somehow extract the PDFs it downloads, but even then it
wouldn't be a pleasant experience on the Kindle.

I do like Calibre, which I've used to get Project Gutenberg books among others
onto it.

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jasode
Speaking as someone who is not familiar with Oyster… The journalist (Davey
Alba) has left out some critical context to drive home the significance of
Oyster’s foray into "ebook retail".

After doing some research, here’s the part that the Wired article doesn’t make
explicit:

Yes, the Oyster subscription service is has titles from "all 5 big publishers"
and yes, it is "unlimited" but the catch is that the content is mostly the
publishers’ _back catalogs_. In other words, a brand new book release would
not have been available on the $9.95 subscription service on the first day.
This is similar to Amazon Prime Instant Video where the old seasons of TV
shows are free but the latest/last/current season costs $$$. Spotify for music
also works like that for some artists; Adele has her old songs available in
the subscription but her brand new song might only be available from iTunes
for $1.29.

It looks like a common industry pattern of segmentation whether it's books,
videos, or songs: the old stuff can be packaged into cheap subscriptions but
the new stuff will command a separate premium.

With Oyster adding the ebook retail component, members can get access to the
very latest books without waiting months (or years) for the title to show up
as a subscription option. The members simply buy the ebook as a separate
additional charge from the $9.95 subscription.

Since Jeff Bezos’ seems to have a very antagonistic relationship with the book
publishers, it gives Oyster a chance for significant ebook sales.

What’s odd is that Jeff Bezos studied Walmart and he surely knows that the
brick&morter stores share analytics sales data with their vendors. That way,
the vendors can maximize efficiency of their supply chains and in turn, offer
lower prices to Walmart. The article implies that amazon.com does not share
analytics with the publishers (unlike Oyster) . I don’t know why Bezos would
be so guarded about it since it can help publishers fine tune their offerings
which in turn should help Jeff sell more ebooks and Kindle devices. Maybe he
thinks he needs that proprietary data as a comparative advantage for his own
publishing house[1]. However, it seems unrealistic to think many major authors
would jump to Amazon Publishing because amazon has better analytics.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Publishing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Publishing)

~~~
mklim
Adding to this, from going through their website, it's not as simple as "old"
books are free and "new" books are a premium. I did a cursory look through
their catalog and it looks like any book that is still selling well and under
copyright has a price on top of the subscription fee. The DaVinci Code came
out 12 years ago and is still $10 on top of a subscription, Storm Front (15
years old) is still $10 as well, A Game of Thrones (19 years old now) is $10
on top of a subscription fee, etc. Ten, twenty years is a relatively short
period of time for a book to have existed, granted, but it's still a lot
longer than the one year wait you'd get from Netflix.

~~~
smackfu
That's bizarre, since those prices are basically the same as buying them
retail.

~~~
higherpurpose
Yes, I don't like that. They should at least be say 20 percent cheaper.

------
mortenjorck
I'm seeing lots of threads here making the facile "you mean the public
library?" comparison, but have any of you ever actually tried using the
"digital lending" features at your local library?

It's _nothing at all_ like a Netflix for books! Limited selections that make
Netflix's streaming library look vast, tight restrictions on the number of
"digital copies" that can be lent out at once, leading to months-long
waitlists for popular titles, and lastly, the one thing Netflix abolished at
the outset, _due dates._

Public libraries are a great treasure, but they are emphatically _not_ a
"Netflix for books."

~~~
stinkytaco
To be fair, it's not like Netflix's digital library is exactly "Netflix for
movies" either. That's also true with Oyster and their limited front list
titles. For broad access, physical is still where it's at.

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M8
Modern russian literature has an interesting phenomenon. There is a huge old-
school website where authors post their books before being published chapter
by chapter for free to get feedback and corrections. For example this is one
of my favourites:

[http://samlib.ru/t/tahion](http://samlib.ru/t/tahion)

[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=h...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsamlib.ru%2Ft%2Ftahion)

It's like Steam early access for books. Is there something like that in
english-speaking internet?

~~~
falcolas
I don't know of any clearinghouse for this, but I know a few authors who do
this on their own. One such example: [http://demo.ilona-
andrews.com](http://demo.ilona-andrews.com)

~~~
LukeShu
Another example is Andy Weir's "The Martian", which he originally published
chapter-by-chapter on his personal site
[http://www.galactanet.com/](http://www.galactanet.com/) .

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normloman
"Netflix for Books" sounds like the perfect description of a library.

~~~
kenbellows
Except for the digital part. Though actually I've heard rumors of ebook
sharing/trading sites similar to a digital library, though I'm unsure exactly
how that would work; heavily DRM-based, I would guess

~~~
shaggy
Even the digital part. There is a thing called the Sails Library Network
([http://www.sailsinc.org](http://www.sailsinc.org)) that offers full digital
catalogs for libraries. They have mobile apps and it works with Kindles or
Kindle apps. It's also not back catalog stuff only as is the case with Oyster.
Libraries have been the "Netflix for Books" for centuries before there was a
"Netflix". Maybe people should use them more, they are wonderful things _and_
you're already paying for them to exist and serve you.

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alberth
Why not the Public Library?

My parents are in their late 70s, they both use a Kindle Paperwhite, and they
figured out on their own that US Public Libraries allow you to digitally check
out books to your Kindle for FREE.

I had no idea of this, yet my 70+ year old parent figured it out ... and you
don't even need to go into the physical library, it's all down over the web or
via an app.

Which is why I suspect most companies have not tried this "Netflix for books"
business because it already exist for FREE and it's called the US Public
Library.

~~~
mark_l_watson
I tried my local library for eBooks, but it was enough of a hassle that I went
back to buying Kindle books.

My wife uses the library for audio books on CDs, consuming several a month. I
spend a little money at Audible and have a more convenient experience.

That said, I really like my local library not only as a source of physical
books, but also because of talks and other events.

~~~
stinkytaco
If your library is an Overdrive subscriber I would encourage you to try again,
they have improved their service immensely. eBooks on Kindle or tablet devices
are now very easy and even include syncing between devices. Audiobooks have
switched entirely to the MP3 format for near universal compatibility. The only
annoying holdout is if you have an e-ink epub device like a nook or a kobo.
You obviously continue to deal with limited availability, but the service has
come a long way.

Quick disclaimer: I am a librarian.

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cwyers
Oyster looks like an interesting service, but my interested in them is
severely limited until they either come out with an e-ink device of their own
or partner up with someone else who has an e-ink device like B&N or Kobo. I
can't read books on a phone or tablet display, and I know I'm not the only one
(or Kindle sales would've died out years ago).

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publicfig
Almost every article I read about this company involves the term "Netflix for
Books" in the headline. Very few involve the name of the company, Oyster. I
legitimately wonder if that hurts or helps them as a brand. It does imply the
depth of library that Netflix has in video, which Oyster does not have given
my experience. I also assume if you search for "netflix books", they'll pretty
much own the front page of results because of it.

In terms of the company, I have to wonder whether or not a number of the
subscriptions are paid for but never used. I could see this falling in line
with gym meberships, where you're paying for something you feel like you
should be doing, and canceling just admits defeat.

~~~
jjoonathan
> Oyster does not have ... the depth of library that Netflix has in video ...
> given my experience.

Given that Netflix's catalog has a reputation for providing frequently
underwhelming selection, ouch.

~~~
publicfig
The difference is that Netflix selection actually does have quite a bit in my
experience, it's just that as time goes on, I've already watched all of the
best things. Netflix is a product that people use often and in ways rarely
before seen in media consumption. It's like eating at the same restaurant
every day for years. No matter how much they offer, you're going to get tired
of eating the things you like all the time.

Oyster, on the other hand, just doesn't have the collection to start with. It
has a bunch of books that are either public domain (therefore free through
many services) or not incredibly well known (which is fine, but hard to find
things to read when people tend to already have so many items on their "to
read" list). Once again, this was only my experience with the product.

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HelloMcFly
For what it's worth to anyone interested in Oyster, I've found Scribd to be
the better product. I like the UI better, it's cheaper, and the access to
audiobooks and comics is nice. Maybe Oyster does those latter things since
I've tried it.

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Frostbeard
Another digital service that's only available in the US. Content licensing is
just plain broken.

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kolev
There's Kindle Unlimited and FreeTime Unlimited for kids' books by Amazon, but
neither Kindle Unlimited, nor Oyster had the books I needed.

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heckubadu
Wonder how extensive is their tech book collection. Far as I can tell they
don't have Real World Haskell.

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omg_ketchup
So... it's a library, but you have to pay for it?

