|
True, the DRM for the Kindle is tightly tied to Amazon, but the reader can read un-DRMed mobi formats, of which I have many. Also, I've seen that there's a trick/hack/whatever that will allow you to read the DRMed purchases from mobipocket.com. I haven't had a reason to explore that yet. Maybe once I actually get my Kindle I'll think about trying it.
Baen is just a genius when it comes to e-books. They've got a great philosophy and I think a pretty smart business model for it. It will be interesting to see what they do or how it changes if the e-book market takes off thanks to the new devices, but at the moment I don't think it's a big enough market for it to be an issue. I love their free library. I've started reading several authors (Bujold, Weber, Ringo, and Flint) just because I was able to get a taste out of the library. And I think I've done what they really wanted, which was sample electronically and purchase a dead tree version. I'm hoping that when TOR finally finishes rolling out their new e-book plan that they take the same route.
Speaking of TOR, have you gotten on their mailing list yet? It started 8 (I think) weeks ago and they're sending out one free book in pdf, mobi and rtf each week. The first week was Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (he who is completing the last book of the Wheel of Time) which was brilliant. The next week was Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Both were books that I might not have picked up in dead tree and both were books that I got thoroughly into once I started reading them.
|