I was having the same error as Richard above, and finally figured it out. There is a section on fictionwise where is says “update my profile” on the left side column. Under there is a place to enter a credit card number for the “secure ereader key” which apparently you must do in order to download any books. They don’t actually charge anything to your card and as soon as I entered my info, I went to my iphone and was able to download the 2 books I purchased over the weekend. Hope this helps!

Has anyone successfully downloaded an eBook to their iPhone from fictionwise.com? I am able to connect to my fictionwise account, view my bookshelf, select a book to download, but after a while get an “Error downloading bookid xxxxx, please contact support@ereader.com” … and yes, I am downloading eReader format books, not Mobipocket, MS Reader, etc..

Anyone else?

If you load the new version of iTunes (7.7) and perform a search in the iTunes Store for eReader the software is/will be available for download and installation! WooHoo!

Lexcycle just announced that their Stanza eBook reader will be available at the App Store on (or shortly after) the opening. So no more need to jailbreak phones to read your books!

Any news on if/when the ereader will be available?

I’ve got 2 words for anyone who has trouble seeing the benefit of putting novels on smartphones:

Public Transportation

Steve is right, nobody reads anymore. Schools kill your love of fiction by making it tedious, and television, the internet, video games, ipods, etc all now compete, and usually beat, the appeal of reading at home.

But on the subway, bus or train, nothing else comes close. First, you frequently need to keep your hands free – you’re carrying something, strap hanging, whatever. A book or newspaper can’t be read with one hand, nor can it be put away quickly when you need both hands free. Listening to music over headphones prevents you from hearing important announcements, and usually has to be played so loud to hear it over the noise that you both annoy other riders and damage your hearing. Gameboys have the same problem, plus they require both your hands. Making phone calls bothers other riders even more because you have to speak loudly, and you frequently lose your signal. Signal loss also makes surfing the web dicey, plus it’s usually slow, or eats up your minutes; and web pages don’t translate to tiny screens nearly as easily as novels do.

I started reading programming books on the subway because waiting for a subway is the only time when there’s nothing more exciting to do than read programming books. Then I got a PDA because it was just much smaller, and doubled as my address book so it was one less thing to remember to bring. When I was done reading programming books on it (which is tougher than reading them on a bigger screen or page because there’s graphics or large chunks of text that need to be seen at once), I got a novel from Peanut Press. Which became eReader, then Motricity, now Fiction-wise (that’s how long I’ve been doing it).

I *loved* it! Before I knew it, I’d read more novels in 6 months than I had in my entire adult life – all time that otherwise would have been wasted stewing about how boring taking the subway was.

EBooks on the iPhone are a no brainer for anyone using public transportation. And Fiction-wise has the model all worked out already. Yeah, the software interface could use some new features, but the whole “Unlocking code is your name and credit card number” approach is the most brilliant way to prevent piracy ever invented. Software pirates have no qualms about posting their serial numbers online, but their names and credit card numbers? I think not! Plus, each book comes with an updated version of the reader software, so even if any one cracked it, it’s obsolete inside of a month.

I really hope they do this. And if they do, I hope the skeptics try it if they use public transportation – or do anything which involves being stuck somewhere where you have to wait quietly for long periods of time – like doctors or dentist appointments. Believe me, it’s a lot more enjoyable than reading a 6 month old copy of “People” that a good four hundred sick people have thumbed through before you got to it :-).

Just thought I’d mention that textReader http://code.google.com/p/iphonetextreader/ already handles non-DRM eReader, Mobipocket, Palm Doc, Text, Html, and FB2 eBooks.

-Jim

I use ruBooks reader on the iPhone (development of Books.app, needs jailbreak..). Works a charm with autoscrolling and, very nicely, white text on black background..

I’ve been using dBelement’s reader (http://dbelement.com/apps/reader.php) the last few months and to be honest I love it. The only thing it’s missing is PDB support. We’ll see, if eReader can stack up to what dbelement team made I’ll definitely give it a try.

Finally. I love to read books. Lugging books during my business trips is not what I like to do. To have them all in my iPhone would be nice.

It is great news. What many don’t understand is that many of us like our phone to be secondary ebook readers. I often get stuck in line at the store, waiting rooms, etc and always have my phone with me. Being able to pop open a book and read for 20 minuets is such a luxury.

I don’t understand why many people have to deride the concept. No, it is not a Kindle or a real book. It is a convenient alternative when on the go. Someday people on the internet will stop making universal pronouncements based on their individual usage needs.

Jack, the email I quote was sent to me personally yesterday.

Great news, but rather stale. The email you quote is from May 7th on the Fictionwise Yahoo group. The subject came up again this week, but no new info is available. Looking forward to it, though.

Put the best on the best.

It’s nice to see 3rd party vendors interested in ebooks, since Jobs clearly is not. Speaking of the amazon kindle ebook reader, Jobs said “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

A back-lit, tiny screen will not make a good ebook reader anyway – I’ve tried.