I know two of the people from Chizine who come to Readercon every year. I know this system is legit since they were selling some of their own books with these notices on the cover, but they either datamine or get money from the publishers to be part of the system.
I found this whole e-mailing to you, etc, suspect. I'm not sure why, I was just like wigged out so I haven't used it.
Yeah it set off my Suspicion Sense, which I can never tell is because I'm being rightfully hesitant (because something is questionable) or because I'm in an overly cynical mood. They do seem to be selling data to publishers though - now that I've read more of their blog.
Annoying thing is that this would be great if they ever got the publisher for this one monster 850pg 20lb hardback that is never going to be something I can carry in a purse. So I could actually use this service.
Ah ha, may have answered my question - last Q of the FAQ:
"Spread the word about BitLit! Publishers have long considered bundling as a business model, but many aren’t sure that customers really want it. The more people who want to bundle their books, the more likely we’ll be able to bring publishers (and your favourite books) on board!"
But the cynic in me then wonders how they'd end up using all my book data and attached email address. Hmmm.
Yeah, that's my biggest halting point, too. I was just wondering whether there's a clear temp sticker I could use multiple times or something. I especially don't want to mark up my signed books with my name.
Hey, I thought I'd jump in here because I'm the app's developer... Some great questions and concerns both re: privacy and about having to write in your books.
First about privacy: If you download a publisher's bundled ebook through the app then we DO give your name and email address to that publisher... That's the deal, you get a free/cheap ebook and the publisher gets to add you to their newsletter. We DO require that publishers let you unsubscribe with one-click. And we DON'T allow the publisher to sell / transfer / lease / / etc your info to anybody. Period. If the publisher (e.g. ChiZine) offers a bundled ebook for free through BitLit then it's totally free for readers AND publishers. We don't make any money on free bundled ebooks, but that's ok, because delivering a bundled ebook costs us about $0.000006 in server time (seriously... I've calculated it and it's 6 one-thousandths of a cent).
Second about having to write your name in the book... The idea is that bundling should be 1:1 print:digital, and we don't want people returning a book to a bookshop (or claiming bundled ebooks in a bookshop). So that's why we ask you to make the page. Writing your name on the copyright page is an easy way to mark it, but it's not the only way. If you have an ex-libris stamp you can stamp the page, or if you want to use a bookplate sticker that also works. Although for the record a post-it-note is not a bookplate sticker ;)
I found this whole e-mailing to you, etc, suspect. I'm not sure why, I was just like wigged out so I haven't used it.
Annoying thing is that this would be great if they ever got the publisher for this one monster 850pg 20lb hardback that is never going to be something I can carry in a purse. So I could actually use this service.
"Spread the word about BitLit! Publishers have long considered bundling as a business model, but many aren’t sure that customers really want it. The more people who want to bundle their books, the more likely we’ll be able to bring publishers (and your favourite books) on board!"
But the cynic in me then wonders how they'd end up using all my book data and attached email address. Hmmm.
First about privacy: If you download a publisher's bundled ebook through the app then we DO give your name and email address to that publisher... That's the deal, you get a free/cheap ebook and the publisher gets to add you to their newsletter. We DO require that publishers let you unsubscribe with one-click. And we DON'T allow the publisher to sell / transfer / lease / / etc your info to anybody. Period. If the publisher (e.g. ChiZine) offers a bundled ebook for free through BitLit then it's totally free for readers AND publishers. We don't make any money on free bundled ebooks, but that's ok, because delivering a bundled ebook costs us about $0.000006 in server time (seriously... I've calculated it and it's 6 one-thousandths of a cent).
Second about having to write your name in the book... The idea is that bundling should be 1:1 print:digital, and we don't want people returning a book to a bookshop (or claiming bundled ebooks in a bookshop). So that's why we ask you to make the page. Writing your name on the copyright page is an easy way to mark it, but it's not the only way. If you have an ex-libris stamp you can stamp the page, or if you want to use a bookplate sticker that also works. Although for the record a post-it-note is not a bookplate sticker ;)