Need help with downloading e-books onto Kindle...

[Little Star]

If I could have found a correct forum for this kind of "I'm stupid" questions I would have asked them there. I couldn't even find the right forum. So I guess I'll ask my questions here.


I just got a Kindle. It is charging. I am very afraid of it, lol. Yet I'm excited. I've been putting my Amazon 99 cent book shopping list together and think I can manage downloading them when the charge is done.

However, I want Tony Hillerman's 22 Leaphorn and Chee novels but will not pay $7.99 for each one through Amazon!

I found this Ebookee.org site. I think it says that I can register for free and then download a UseNet down-loader, then I can download freely from UseNet. (that kinda talk is all greek to me)

Here is the link:
http://ebookee.org/search.php?q=Tony+Hillerman%2BLeaphorn+%26+Chee+on+to+kindle&sa=Search


Has anyone ever done this with a Kindle before? Should I just buy the paperbacks in a used cook store? I don't want to take a chance on screwing up my new Kindle.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, LS

[ananda]

1. You don't download books on Kindle.

You just get them through Amazon and they're whisked over to
your Kindle automatically.

[a la izquierda]

2. I can't help you even though I own a kindle.

I only use Amazon. And I'd be careful stating on a website that you're downloading stuff for free...just FYI. Not trying to be harsh, just a heads up.

[The Straight Story]

4. piratebay.org is the best one

I mean, uh, just heard people say that.... (wanders off whistling)

[The Straight Story]

3. I have about 900 books on my kindle

1. Get Calibre -> http://calibre-ebook.com/
2. There is a Kindle Book manager program (no link off hand) but if you aren't going to mass import 900 books at once probably won't need it off hand....

3. With Calibre you can take the book(s) you download and convert them to .mobi which is much better than .pdf (shows up more like a regular book, pdf's can be hard to read at times).

4. Email with any questions/problems (Heading home soon and have 3 phone interviews tonight so might not see it for a spell)

[nomb]

17. You beat me to it, sorry I duped it below - but it is unbeatable. :)

[Speck Tater]

5. You can easily download books to Kindle. I've downloaded dozens from Gutenberg.

And I love my Kindle for reading the old classics.

Go to Project Gutenberg (google it if you don't already have it bookmarked.)
Find the book you want to download. Click on the link to download it in Kindle format.
Download it to YOUR COMPUTER.
Use your Kindle cable to open the Kindle as a folder.
Drag and drop the book from your computer into your Kindle folder.

That's all there is too it.

Good luck.

[ThatPoetGuy]

6. That site is links to pirated books.

I've used pirated books, on occasion, for instance to find out what insanity Glenn Beck is spouting in a book, without giving his evil ass a damn penny from my pocket.

To do that, I download the pirated book, and then I can email it to my kindle address ([e-mail]), which costs 15 cents per megabyte, rounded up, or if the book is in the right format, I can transfer the data through the cable. (Right now your cable is charging your device, but if you look at the plug later, you'll see the end of the plug can be pulled off, and voila! there's a USB connection at the end of it, which you can hook to your computer.)

But the problem here, in this case, is that you apparently LIKE Tony Hillerman, and you want to get his books without paying for them. If I like an author, I want them to get paid for producing good work.

[Little Star]

10. Tony Hillerman has passed on in 2008. His books are not....

new books and I guess maybe you don't think much of used book stores either.

I have never used anything that is pirated in my life that I know of. I was thinking of this in the same way so many others offer free classics and people down load them all the time. I must admit that I think Amazon could be more fair in their pricing of older books.

Maybe I just think like a crook and never realized it before! :shrug:

[emulatorloo]

12. His books are still copyrighted. The free classics are free because the copyright has expired.

Those books are in the public domain.

[alfredo]

19. My favorite free book was "The Downfall" by Emil Zola.

[ThatPoetGuy]

21. I also find prices frustrating.

I do think a lot of used book stores. They're part of the industry. When people buy a new book, they know it has resale value; if they don't like it, they can sell it at a used bookstore for about 20% of its price in cash, or 40% of its price in store credit. Knowing the book has resale value helps people decide to buy the book in the first place.

I'm not arguing "obey the law," I'm saying make sure you have enough information to make ethical choices you'll be proud of. I have ZERO guilt for illegally downloading copies of Ann Coulter. I'm proud to keep money out of her hands. I'd have a hard time with authors I like. It's up to you how you want to proceed.

I don't know Hillerman, his work, or his family. He wrote his books with the knowledge that his heirs would inherit the rights and receive income that way. How much income? I don't know. Will his kids be able to afford college? As I said, I don't know anything about them. But an author you admire wrote books you enjoy, and he intended certain things to happen with his rights and his money after he died.

Complaining about the price of ebooks is sort of a cottage industry. I stopped complaining when I read the electronic version of Ilona Andrews' new book, which contained passages such as, "the vampire attacked 36 ILONA ANDREWS MAGIC SLAYS 37 her." Work does need to be done on ebooks; they do need editors and formatting, and people do need to be paid for that work, and I want money to go into the hands of writers I love, and the editors who helped tighten their books, and the agents who discovered them, the publishers who took a chance on them, and so on.

[MineralMan]

27. The copyright outlasts the lifetime of the author. After death,

royalties earned go to the heirs of the author. It's like passing on an investment or a home or a car to your relatives to support them after you're gone. When you steal copyright-protected material, you're stealing from the survivors of the author. Does that sound like a good idea to you?

When the owner of a business dies, do people get to come into that business and haul off the inventory without paying for it? No? Well it's the same thing. Just as the business owner invested money and time into building that business, the author of a book invested time and talent into creating that book. Stealing from the author's heirs is the same as stealing from the business of person who has died. Exactly the same.

[seabeyond]

7. dont forget the free books, too. i dont buy the higher price books. i get them at library. BUT

in oct our library is going to be using kindle so i will be able to get the books thru the library instead of paying for them. check out your library. everything else, i am clueless and gonna read your thread to see if i learn anything new. working on 250 books.... i LOVE my kindle.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Any file offered in MOBI or Plain Text is a perfect format for the Kindle

If you can't find it in anything but PDF (which will work, but sucks) I suggest you download Calibre. Link: http://calibre-ebook.com/

Have fun with your Kindle. I hope it helps you to be able to read more often like it did for me. :)

Edit to add a couple more free book sites for you:

http://www.feedbooks.com/help/kindle

http://www.gutenberg.org/

[Little Star]

11. Thanks

[yawnmaster]

9. I believe you are wanting to download copyrighted materials for free (pirated);

Is this true??

[Little Star]

14. Read my post #10.

I had no idea that was what I was attempting to do. I won't be buying from used book stores any more either cause that's the same thing!

[ohheckyeah]

18. No it's not.

The book was originally paid for.

[yawnmaster]

20. Buying a used book is not the same as nothing is being copied. If his work is...

out of copyright, then there is absolutely no problem getting a copy off the web.
If someone does still own a valid copyright, then downloading it would be violating the copyright
(according, at least, to the argument that downloading copyrighted music is violating copyright).
Most of us like to get things of value for free, so you are not alone in your thinking.

[wryter2000]

23. Feel free to buy used books

Someone's already paid the author for that one. Used books are a great way to get new readers for your new books.

[valerief]

13. And get these while you're at it!

http://www.amazon.com/Vivian-Davenport/e/B0039SP442/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

[nomb]

15. Calibre. http://calibre-ebook.com/ It's brilliant and indispensable, accept no substitute.

http://calibre-ebook.com/

[nomb]

16. also see its wikipedia entry linked here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibre_(software)

[wryter2000]

22. Hi, I'm an author

I have google set to send me every new mention of my pen name. Half of them are notices that someone is pirating my work. It's not a good feeling.

Tony Hillerman and his heirs don't need your money, but 99% of authors do. Most of us make very little money. I still have my day job and will probably only be able to quit it when I retire and then only if Social Security is there for me.

Please, don't frequent piracy sites. There are real human beings who need to be paid for their work. If you made hammocks for a living and someone busted into your garage and stole your hammocks, you'd be pretty darned mad and depressed.

[pipi_k]

24. I've downloaded the free books

Using "Calibre" after searching for them using "ebook3600".

My Kindle didn't blow up.


:7


PS...another site you might want to try is Pixel of Ink

They have daily deals that link directly to Amazon...you have to get them fast, though, because they're often very limited time deals.

Some are free, some are 99 cents, some are 5.00 and under

You can sign up for daily email notifications

[DeschutesRiver]

25. Another idea - I signed up with Ereader News

at ereadernewstoday.com. I got an email from them today, listing 53 new free ebooks. True, some are garbage; some are subjects that have zero interest, but even if I get one I don't like, I just delete it later. Downloaded about 25 of them just now - today all were new fiction/non-fiction from Amazon (sometimes they are from other sources, like smashword, etc), and Amazon delivered them straight to my kindle, with a confirming email. In the last week, I've gotten 2 Ereader emails, and from that I now have around 40 new ebooks to read. You have to make sure they are still offered for $0.00, as some books are start free but for just a few hours, or a day...others indefinitely, so when I get the email, I whip through the list right away (okay, as fast as stinking dialup allows:).

I have hundreds of books on my Kindle now (and a section for dh's books) and haven't paid for one yet. I went through all the free classics at Amazon, signed up for E-readern news today, which gives me current fiction and non-fiction, went to Project Gutenberg, to a few other sites like manybooks.net. When I use manybooks.net, it is downloaded to my computer into a file I set up; then I plug my Kindle into my computer, and transfer books from that file to the device. I had this figured out and was downloading both directly and via my computer within the first hour after charging it up, and so will you (I am a dinosaur who is techno challenged and still did it).

Have fun with your Kindle! Mine just went on a 10,000 mile trip with me, and it was a dream to have so much to read in such a tiny package - nothing like the old days when I traveled. Okay, I did buy some actual books on the trip - they were real specialty stuff in museums, national parks, or local books with local stories that I'd never be able to get for the Kindle, plus quite a few had interesting photos. But the boy, did I notice the difference between lugging a few of those around vs. my Kindle.

[MineralMan]

26. I'm not going to help you steal books that are protected

under the copyright laws. Someone else might, but not me. If you want free books, visit www.gutenberg.org. They have tons of them. All are in the public domain.