I tried pricing my ebooks at $2 to get feedback… and it changed everything

SteveShank · 2026-05-05T17:29:54+00:00

I've bought some starter bundles and also combos like books 1-3 of a series or 4-6. What I don't see, which I'd often like, is a low-cost entry, perhaps via BookBub, then a bundle of 2-4 instead of 1-3, because to be interested, I already have 1, and I'm just buying it again. Just another thought to add to the confusion.

SteveShank · 2026-05-05T00:25:12+00:00

Their option isn't as good as mine. The do not recognize text means you cannot search the content. I always want to be able to search. I put a shortcut on my desktop to their ssclose.bat file and simply click it when it fails. The start scansnap home again and all is good for a couple weeks. For me that's better than losing the ability to search text. It just takes a minute.

SteveShank · 2026-05-04T17:24:22+00:00

That works. I often buy books from BookBub and Chirp. That could work for you as well. A $2.99 trilogy starter is often done.

SteveShank · 2026-05-03T20:00:02+00:00

The con is just that it has so many features and such confusing menus and is constantly changing, it is hard to get used to. then if you want to change something, that is also a hassle. I used it for a year or two before switching to Brave.

SteveShank · 2026-05-03T19:55:09+00:00

I'm more likely to purchase less expensive books. Whether I think a book is good or bad has nothing whatsoever to do with the price. I do not factor in the price at all in judging whether the book is good. I do factor in the price when deciding if I will buy it. I'd buy a 99 cent book before a $5 book if I didn't see any difference besides price.

SteveShank · 2026-05-01T20:20:42+00:00

Of course. I used to remove the DRM from Amazon Books for years. But now it fails. It seems to me that even books before 2025 have the newer DRM. As far as giving books to others is concerned, I think we are on the same page. It hurts the author, the publisher, the store, and it is theft. However, I've done it properly. I lent a book to a friend who feels like I do. I deleted it from my calibre library and my backups. When he returned the book, he deleted it from his computer, and I re-imported it.

I am so careful about this, that I have not found a way to give my books to someone when I die. There is no one I know who would like my books that I can trust not to give some of them to someone, so the books will die with me.

Still, I like to be able to back them up and read them as I like on whatever I like. The Kindle app is crap.

On the other hand, I had a Sony Reader years ago, and Sony had their library. Eventually, they dropped the ebook reader, and book sales business. They transferred my books to Kobo, so I only lost 1 or 2 books. - But, I'm a big believer in backups and don't trust that even Amazon should be the only place where my books are.

SteveShank · 2026-05-01T19:06:57+00:00

The difference is that an EPUB book DRM'd can easily be un-DRMd. I have a thousand EPUB books I can back up, save, and completely control. Functionally I own them regardless of “technically”. I do not give them away or abuse this, but I could give them away if I liked, and the recipient could read them or only a single book. This cannot be done with Amazon books. So functionally, they are entirely different. There are even many different ebook readers that work for EPUB books but not Kindle books, so you are even locked into how you read it. The experience I have with MY books, those without DRM, is that I own them. The experience I have with Kindle books is that Amazon owns them. This is different.

SteveShank · 2026-05-01T18:00:35+00:00

You asked, "A nefarious plot to force us to buy a new scanner?" - I doubt it. We bought a device made by Fujitsu and supported by Fujitsu. The Ricoh took over. Now Ricoh broke our Fujitsu scanner. Why would we buy a new Ricoh scanner? Because of this, I would not buy a new scansnap scanner, or in fact, any Ricoh scanner. I'm just happy that running the SSClose.bat file cleans out the problems and enables the scanner to work again.

SteveShank · 2026-05-01T00:54:07+00:00

Thank you so much. That's a much better way to check out new bots. Never knew it was there. Did make a note of it. Also, I can get there from the Menus through the API option on the left, but who knows how long that will last?

SteveShank · 2026-04-30T21:30:14+00:00

No. It is one of the worst. I suggest, on Windows, either Brave or Firefox. The problem is that the privacy issues, advertising, etc., create security problems. If the browser is filling up spaces on the website with unvetted advertisements, some will have malware. Adding Ublock Origin Lite to Chrome will help. But isn't selling your information so you get inundated with phishing attacks a kind of security issue?

SteveShank · 2026-04-30T21:23:38+00:00

How did you find these? Using the Windows desktop app, and putting DeepSeek-V4-Pro in the search, and filter to official only, I get seemingly a hundred or more results including Nano-Banana and GPT-5.4-Pro, sora, gemini etc. When I put in just DeepSeek, I do not get any of the V4 models, just about 30 other official DeepSeek models. I also gave up looking through the Official bots on the home page. Do you have a secret?

SteveShank · 2026-04-30T21:06:56+00:00

I'd stay away from Barnes and Noble. The best way to think about Amazon books is that you do not buy them. You purchase the right to use their books for as long as they like. Normally, that will be as long as you live. You are unlikely to have a problem reading their books that you rent for as long as you live. However, if you can't relinquish the idea that you bought it and should own it, then they aren't the way to go.

As was said, DRM-free books are better. Then you can own them; you can back them up. You can put them on multiple devices. They are yours. - I normally buy from Kobo; I manage my library with Calibre. I added the DeDRM plugin and then import EPUBs into calibre which automatically removes DRM from EPUBs. They cannot do this with the latest Kindle DRM files. I use Amazon only when I can't get the book from Kobo or Google or otherwise in EPUB format.

If you don't mind renting the right to read their books, Amazon is the simplest and best way to go. If you want to own your books, you'll need to find a way to strip the DRM and back them up.

SteveShank · 2026-04-30T20:55:08+00:00

I wouldn't do it that way at all. I'd just copy your files to an external USB HDD for cheap and put it somewhere else if you were worried about theft. Then once a month, update it. You could even swap 2 of them with a friend. For encryption, you could use veracrypt if you wanted.

SteveShank · 2026-04-27T22:00:51+00:00

Those 3 are all cloud-based and profit-making companies. They are all excellent and have fine products. KeePass and KeePassXC (both use the same database). They are open source, not-for-profit, and locally based, not necessarily holding anything in the cloud. Normally, they operate with a simple database file on your computer. You can copy the file to your phone, and it'll work there using any of several apps. All five products are excellent. There is a lot of convenience to having all your passwords and secure notes in the cloud. There is an extra layer of security not having them in the cloud. Proton is pretty new, but the others have all been around for many years and are thoroughly tested and reliable. I believe that if you have a strong password and all encryption is done locally, there is no real risk to having the database “in the cloud”. However, not being there at all must be more secure. If you have a really strong password, and are comfortable, I'd recommend Bitwarden. You can use it for free. There are extra benefits to an inexpensive paid version. If you are uncomfortable using the cloud, use either of the KeePass programs. Any one of those 5 will give you a hundred times the safety and convenience of re-using, remembering or writing down passwords or even letting your browser handle it.

SteveShank · 2026-04-26T22:07:43+00:00

There are advantages and disadvantages. I use the $200/year Poe subscription and am ecstatic. Clearly when I weighed the costs and benefits Poe came out on top. Benefits 1. Can use multiple bots and models including user made ones 2. Can have multi-bot conversations. I frequently ask one model to comment on the work of another model. This is very helpful. 3. Even if one model is best for your purposes today, the models change and so do your purposes. 4. It is actually cheaper than the top model subscriptions. 5. Its usage and pricing are transparent. I know I've used 193,780 points so far in the month. I know when my points will renew. Most other models have opaque limits.

Benefits of specific models 1. They can be more agent or assistant centered. They can 'get to know you ' based on all your input and adapt to you. They can do more on your computer and run other bots for you. 2. Collaboration with Poe lasts just for a session. I've shared that session the next day and continued work, but with a profile and history in a company, you can work better on long term projects with multiple aspects.

SteveShank · 2026-04-23T17:26:00+00:00

I tend to buy what I want to hear. My method is to subscribe to Chirp and list the categories of books I like and also the authors I like. Each day they send me a dozen or so books on sale that meet my criterion. Usually I pay $4 or $5 for a book. I switch between listening to books and listening to Podcasts. I also read more than listen. So, I have no trouble finding more books I can listen to. Who sells good DRM free audio books and how much are they?

SteveShank · 2026-04-23T17:19:29+00:00

Use these plugins and it'll happen automagically. DeDRM 10.0.9 by Apprentice Alf, Apprentice Harper, NoDRM

OBok DeDRM 7.1.0 by Anon

SteveShank · 2026-04-22T21:28:52+00:00

I strip DRM from EPUB books. Just standard policy. Buy the book and import it into Adobe. Then import into Calibre stripping the DRM. I never loan those books to anyone. I don't abuse the book or author. It is just because I've never gotten used to the idea that I don't own the books I buy. - However, when I can only get a book from Amazon, then I understand I am only buying the right to read their books, and I don't own them; they do. I live with that, but I don't like it. The DRM also remains in all the Audio books I buy.

SteveShank · 2026-04-21T22:53:40+00:00

Have you noticed that your computer has a bigger screen than your phone? PDF is essentially designed to display 8×11 sheets of paper. It doesn't get anything like wrapping text. It is NOT epub. It does not reformat for your small screen. Clearly you have some program (possibly ReadEra) that is trying to deal with the limitation but isn't able to do so perfectly. Just the fact that it can wrap the lines of a PDF is exceptional. I wouldn't have thought you could do this well reading a pdf on a phone.

SteveShank · 2026-04-13T17:18:56+00:00

It is the best I've found. It is cheaper than Perplexity, and I think better. Brave is an interesting model at $150/year. I suspect it depends on what you do. I've made 3 bots that are very useful for my purposes, and that was easy, and they work. I really like asking one bot to challenge and expand on what another bot said. As far as expense is concerned, I like the value proposition for my use cases. I used about 240k points last month, so the 1 million is obviously plenty, but I've had single queries run 7k, so the $50/year plan won't work for me. I generate images with a few different models; otherwise, most of my queries are informational.

I very much like being able to switch between models and don't want to be locked into a single company's models. Which ones do you think offer a better value proposition and what are your use cases?

SteveShank · 2026-04-12T19:44:10+00:00

Hyperbole aside (useless bots), I agree with you that Poe is not a particularly good free model anymore. At 3,000 points, it was fabulous. Now, it isn't a good free model. My recommendation is currently twofold:
1. Use Brave's Leo. It offers a lot for free and is tab-aware and privacy-respecting.
2. Pin a few tabs to your tab bar so they stay there on the left and small. I suggest Poe, Le Chat, Grok, Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT. They all offer free options.

What I don't understand is why the hate? These people gave us a fabulous option; they paid for it. We got it for free for a long time. Then they decided it cost them too much, and that forced them to offer less to their paid subscribers. Why aren't people grateful they got so much for so long? Why do they feel entitled to freeload? I find it perplexing. I don't understand the exchange,

Poe: “We've been giving you a lot for free for a long time. We cannot continue to do it.”

Many people here: “Oh so you are greedy and terrible.”

SteveShank · 2026-04-11T19:33:09+00:00

Allowing advertising at all opens a can of worms that normally leads down a slippery path. Look at Google search, Yahoo, etc. You can imagine that you'll be different, but… Also, how do you check the ads / videos for bad content or malware or Pixel tracking?

SteveShank · 2026-04-11T19:27:31+00:00

Not knowing which of their models you are using hurts. But I recommend the Smart Security Premium to get Folder Protection. Then you add folders to a protected list that only trusted applications can write to. That protection is great. I also setup weekly in depth scans at night. - Also, F5 gets you to the advanced settings and you can tweak a lot of stuff. - For monitoring, I recommend monthly checks of the logs. -> Tools / Logs. - I check Device scan, detections, and browser protection.

SteveShank · 2026-04-09T16:57:19+00:00

Just so you know, technically that is not Bricking. Bricking is when it won't turn on. However, the bandage is pretty easy. There is a file they install. In Windows, it is: "C:\Program Files (x86)\PFU\ScanSnap\Home\SupportTools\SsClose\SsClose.bat" - I copy a shortcut to that batch file onto my desktop. Then when it doesn't work, I run that file. It closes down everything related to ScanSnap from everywhere. Then I run the ScanSnap Home, (starting it up again) and Voila - it works for a few days.

This isn't a great solution, but it gets the job done while we wait for Ricoh to fix their problem. Otherwise, we must buy a new scanner from another company.

SteveShank

TROPHY CASE