The Sword and Laser discussion

This question came up while I was discussing the Kindle and self-publishing with my wife, who is breaking into the writing business.

She says many writers are finding good fortune self-publishing ebooks for the various book formats without having to go through Amazon, B&N, Fictionwise, iBooks, etc. They are making their own books available in the various formats directly from their own websites, and that is a good thing. I told her I'd have problems buying those books outside of Amazon's own website because I'd lose my Whispersync capabilities.

I have a job that takes me over 100+ miles from home several days in a week (I'm about 200 miles south of where I live as I write this). If I buy a book on my Kindle, I can read it on my Kindle (preferred method), but if I'm a passenger in a car at night, which is often the case, I continue reading through my iPad, since it it dark outside. Have a short break or have a few minutes to myself, or just forgot the Kindle? I pick up my reading on the iPhone. This is all possible because of the syncing and the plethora of devices I can sync to through Amazon (or Nook, or Kobo, if I had those).

So that syncing technology is the reason I will always try to buy a book from Amazon's website first (heck, I'd go there before I go get a paper book, for that reason). My question is, am I unique to this particular need? Or are there others like me who have come to depend on the syncing capabilities of the various ebook services as one of the primary reasons to use those particular stores?

I've used whispersync a couple times. Mostly when I forgot my kindle and wanted to read at work, so I'll use the kindle app for the desktop.

I generally keep the wireless on my kindle off to increase battery life, so that kinda limits the usefulness of the sync unless I go out of my way to sync things up.

I usually have Whispernet on, since even with the decreased battery life I find I tend to just find enough opportunity to charge my Kindle without running into battery problems. But that's mostly laziness.

I totally get the advantages of synching books to different devices and I love that it works so effortlessly for the Kindle. However, truth be told I use the Kindle for reading about 99% of the time, so while it's a cool feature and probably useful for other people, I don't really use it, so it doesn't really make that big a difference to me whether I load books from Amazon directly or from somewhere else.

And, yeah, since I got it, the Kindle has been my constant companion, so I rarely go anywhere without it and don't really have to use other devices.

I read ebooks on an iPad and iPhone, whichever I have with me at the moment. I do use whispersync when reading a Kindle book... but that said, any non-amazon books I buy or download get loaded into iBooks, which auto-syncs any book, including simple epubs from Gutenberg.

I pull books over from my PC so I have never used the whisper sync

Not sure if it's representative but, on one of the recent TWITs, Jerry Pournelle discusses his daughter self-publishing via Amazon vs simply offering the book on her website as a couple orders of magnitude difference.

This one I think: http://twit.tv/296

I absolutely "whisper," often reading the Kindle at home and on a phone when out.

One option with non-Amazon books is to load them on both devices. It means you'll have to find your place the old-fashioned manual way, but it's a feasible option if you have no other choice.

That said, if a book is offered on a personal website and Amazon for the same price, I'd very likely buy from Amazon.

I have a Nook, iPad and an android phone. I do sync between all of them. Sometimes my Nook is too low on battery and freezes up (the only thing that annoys me about it), so then I just jump to my iPad to read it or if it is night and I'm reading in bed and won't keep my husband up. If I get caught without either and I'm stuck at a doctor's office or on a long line I pull out my android phone (t-mobile's myTouch). I was so glad when they were able to do this.