A collector's view on Premium Editions
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@sam-pinansky Woohoo! That's great. Looking forward to that. I hope there's gonna be a feature for saving the series you're reading, your progress and a notification when the next part comes out on the website itself at least. It seems pretty essential to me but I've had to use an external tool someone else wrote to help me track the releases easier. Also, please provide a vertical reading mode. The current reader doesn't work well for landscape monitors...
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@alexchaplinskikh yeah pretty much all of those features are planned. We will focus mainly on redesigning the ui flow however. And rearranging the design. New features will come after we make things smoother.
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@sam-pinansky Hm... I'll refrain from being too stubborn, so I'll agree that my view as a collector is in the minority. I just hate the way these things are done as if to make my life harder... The Premium Editions seem to be good collection material. It's just a shame the printed ones aren't.
But you're doing a good job bringing light novels to the English market so I reckon you know what you're doing by now so just keep at it. Thank you for all your hard work.
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@alexchaplinskikh if you ask me, I think you are looking at this the wrong way. It is not the Amazon versions that have been cut down but the JNC version that has been added more. This will not change you mind or anything, I just thought you were looking at it the wrong way is all.
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@drone205 true, but he is thinking in terms of collector's perspective. Even in Japan they release normal LNs and then premium LNs. Also, these premium LNs are available only in selected stores which makes it harder to be get hold of. The point Alex is making is valid though. I mean if someone is paying for premium membership and then they decide to buy a LN (physical copy) from Amazon there should at least be a way for them to access bonus stuff.
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@drone205 You might be right, but it's a matter of perspective. I see that printed version as one without any value as someone who has the Premium Edition already and just wants to but it again to add it to my physical book library. But Sam brought up a fair point, that those printed editions are for people who don't buy ebooks.
I can definitely see that, but still wonder what the Venn diagram is like on people who don't buy ebooks, only buy physical books, know about light novels and actually buy physical light novels. Though I guess it's still better that the Venn diagram I'm part of. :D
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@smiley_101 Thank you for posting practically the same comment as me at the same time. I don't feel so alone in my opinion now. :D
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@alexchaplinskikh I only own a handful of e-books, just some JNC ones for series I want to support, but will definitely buy JNC's physical books and currently buy the Seven Seas prints for Grimgar and Realist Hero.
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I've reached the point where saving space means more to me than having another physical thing. I'll buy ebooks for my Kindle rather than cheaper used paperback editions just because I can fit literally 50,000 of them on one hard drive (and no space at all for Amazon purchases since they store the books).
My disappointment was discovering JNC had bonus content that was exclusive to the Premium Editions after I'd bought a couple of dozen JNC books from Amazon.
I started a thread here wishing for a "catch-up" / collected book of just the bonus content (vs. paying $54 to re-buy Smartphone, $42 for Daughter, etc.) but the consensus was that will never happen :(
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@harmlessdave Indeed. Exactly because real world space is precious, I will only buy physical items that are worthwhile. If the eBook version is superior to the physical one, then there's no point in buying it for collection purposes. That's just how convenient eBooks are that it made buying physical books pointless. But at the same time it means that having a well managed real life library is that much more important. From a collector's viewpoint, anyway.
I think I'd have more fun collecting books before the digital age came. All the marketing bollocks just makes it harder...
