#kindle problems

[wuxiaphoenix]

On Reading: When Kindle Samples Don’t

Here’s a problem I never expected to run into; Kindle samples where you can’t even read the first page of the story, so there’s no way to judge the quality of the writing.

Long story short. Like most of us book fiends, my “want to read” list far exceeds my wallet. So I often download a bunch of Kindle samples to have bits to check out and just have something new to read.

Sometimes said bits are from paranormal/alien romance novels. The good ones have interesting settings, fleshed-out characters, and a neat plot twist or three. I’ll take good writing anywhere I can find it.

Which makes it frustrating when the sample will not let me read the writing.

Four factors combine to create this problem. First, most romances are short books, meant to be read in two hours or less. Meaning the standard Kindle 10% doesn’t grab many pages to begin with.

Second, romance novel covers seem to be data-hogs; they often take about 20-44% of the sample all by themselves.

Third - Table of Contents. Also apparently greedy for data, especially if there are a large number of short chapters.

Fourth is the most bemusing factor. Though potentially the most fixable. “Also written by.”

Customarily, right after the copyright page, many writers will put a list of other books they’ve written. And romance writers, like no other genre, tend to be prolific. Titles by the dozens. Pages and pages.

...All of which combined mean that you open the sample, get through the also-written and the TOC... and there’s nothing left of the actual text of the story.

You’d think a romance writer would know better than to interrupt just as we’re getting to the good bits.

Thing is, unless you’re an author I already love to bits writing a series I can’t wait for more of, there is no way I’m buying an ebook without the chance to read at least one page and see if I like your writing.

(Very few things have made that cut. C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series. P.M. Griffin’s Star Commandos. Andre Norton’s Witch World. Very little else.)

I can’t be the only one frustrated by samples-that-don’t. And it would be simple to solve by just moving the “also written by” list to the end. I know that’s not a traditional book format. But if someone’s looking at your ebook in the first place, they should have access to the internet, and thus to your author page. They should be able to see everything else you’ve written, if they want to.

Consider the format of your media. Consider what your poor reader can see. Otherwise, you miss intriguing readers - and that means they miss out on your story!

[woodentrain]

Hey folks so I wrote a haiku about the difficulties I had with downloading the latest (brilliant, brilliant) chapter of The Boyfriend Experience by cryingoverspilledvodka / @victorsporosya.

Woodentrain is lost in deepest darkest Surrey looking for wifi

You’re welcome, guys, you’re welcome.

(I’m not lost any more, we didn’t get run over whilst walking along a slip road, we even made it back in time for school pick up.  I have read the chapter but I had to do it on my tiny crappy phone and in 4 separate sections because I went on 3 different trains, so it was all a bit disjointed and I will probably sit down and read it properly later)

[eviscer-8]

It sucks how the kindle paperwhite I bought in 2021 is already starting to get laggy and erratic.

I only have 3 library books, 11 samples, and 5847 fan fics downloaded.

smdh

Maybe I should switch to kobo?

[the-knitting-witch]

Editing errors strike again! The scene was specifically set with only two people in the room, Simon and Elise. When the hell did Giles slip in to help out?!? Lol, maybe this scene just got a lot more interesting?

The Giles in my head for this scene:

[magusness-blog]

"you're still alive."

[xandariathepink]

My kindle fire is not charging. I keep all my appointments and phone numbers and notes in it and it’s the only thing I have to read on. It’s only three months old, and every time I plug it in I have to jiggle the cord to get the charging indicator to come on, but it’s not charging, it’s still losing charge. 

[serenereading]

tfw a lot of the books you own are on kindle so you can’t take aesthetic pictures of them 

[littleroma]

So I worked out today that I may have lost marks in my last assignment because I hadn't shown a page number when I was referencing. Which is fine but I was using the Kindle version to reference from and it had no page numbers. I'm using a kindle because it actually causes me pain and frustration when I try to hold open a regular book. Does my teacher even know that I'm disabled? Hope the email I sent him earlier this evening referencing my spinal problems will make it clear I'm really not fond of the Harvard System of Referencing