Thanks to the fine people at Sony and the very savvy folks at Harlequin, I’m announcing a very cool and unique opportunity. For those of you who have expressed an interest in the Sony Reader 505 and the Sony Reader 700, but were wary of the pricetag, it’s Test Drive Time.
Sony has given me 30 refurbished models – twenty 505’s and ten 700’s – for the Smart Bitches Sony Reader Test Drive. I’ll select 30 Test Drivers, and those folks will have 60 days to use and experiment with their Sony Reader.
But wait, there’s more! We interrupt the awesomeness for a special message from Harlequin: Harlequin invites you to try out our eBooks along with the Sony Reader. To get you started, we’re giving a you an exclusive gift of $25 off Harlequin titles. We’d love for you to enjoy some of the series and authors that you already read and perhaps try out some new series or authors – on us. We’d love to hear your feedback on some of the eBooks you read!
Harlequin and Sony: bringing new meaning to the words, “Damn, you’re swell.”
Want more info? Keep Reading!
I get a Sony Reader?
If you are selected, yes, you’ll get a Sony Reader, either a 505 or a 700, to use for 60 days.
What’s the catch?
Catch? Like I want your kidneys or something? No, no catch. I want to spread the word about digital reading, and allow people the chance to experiment with the Sony Reader without having to spend what for many of us is a huge amount of money. The Test Drive is open to residents of the United States and Canada – sorry, folks. I fully expect hatemail from Europe, Australia and New Zealand. I still love you and think you are fab.
For those chosen for the Test Drive, I will ask for the following:
1. Two reviews of the Sony, in any web-friendly format. An essay? Epic poem? Limerick series? A video? Photo essay? Collage? Hideously obnoxious Flash animation? (Oh, yes, that!) Your choice, but I’d like two pieces of review, reaction and feedback.
2. One book review. Because Harlequin has been so generous as to hook Test Drivers up with the free books, I ask that you review one of them.
3. A credit card number on file with Smart Bitches Trashy Books LLC (that’s us) as deposit against loss or damage to the Reader.
4. Return postage at the end of the Test Drive.
Really, that’s it.
So how do I get in on this EPIC PILE OF DIGITAL AWESOME?
Easy: Send an email to testdrive@smartbitchestrashybooks.com with the following information:
Your Name:
Your Location: (city, state or province or territory)
In 250 words or less: Why do you want to Test Drive a Sony?
Email entries are due by midnight Eastern Time on 27 June 2009. I’ll be selecting 30 Test Drivers from the pool of applicants. You can flirt with or harrass me over Twitter (@SmartBitches) to pick your application, if you like – the hashtag is #sbtd – Smart Bitches Test Drive.
Those selected will be sent a PDF contract outlining all the terms of the Test Drive to be signed and sent back to me (digitally, please). The contract is all formal and contains words like “whereas” and “hereunto” and “monkeybutt’ (ok not so much that last one) and spells out the terms for the Test Drive for both the Driver and me.
The program begins 1 July (or as soon as the Test Drivers receive the Sony Reader) and the Test Drive will run for 60 days. Two months of summer in which to vrrrread, vrrrread, vrrrread.
For additional details, please feel free to ask questions in the comments. I’ll answer as quickly as I can. Happy Test Driving!
I would love to give one a whirl. I’m a tenacious reader and love gadgets, so it goes without saying that I’ve been extremely interested in the readers. Pretty please pick me.
We took the train to FL last year and hubby and I just sat and read and read the entire time and didn’t have to worry about having a ton of books to carry to do it. It was the best investment ever.
No matter what certain people at RWA say.
Living in the “Great White Kindle-free North” I closed my eyes and handed over my credit card for the Sony 700 when Sarah first began the squeeing about it. I was up against my love of gadgets and my commitment to the printed word – the feel of paper, the ease of flipping back and forth, etc. A few free e-books had me reading on my laptop and I didn’t have a long commute to justify the purchase. But let me step up and testify – I looooove my e-reader. The adjustable font, the built in light (on the 700 only and well worth it to compensate for glare), books on the go. I find it so much easier on my eyes than the computer screen – hardly any eye fatigue. I had to go back and pony up for the adapter because I was forever having to charge it through my lap top and you can’t read when it’s in that mode. I whip it out at every chance I get – and always have someone comment about it. I tell you I should be on Sony’s payroll for all the promotion I do. My only complaint is about the software. The synchronization is manual and it doesn’t recognize if you have the same title in twice. The Sony store has many of the same promotions that are announced for the other vendors. When ever I hear something that appeals, I just wander over to check and see if they have the same deal. Most times they do. Now if we could just see a drop in the regular retail price of e-books, my life would be complete…
TY. I knew the 60th dls were working but i did them from Sony. Will give it a shot.
For those of you that have the Sony… how many books can it hold? Can you download email onto it or your own documents? I guess what I am asking is … What do you like about it? :).
Say What? The last time I asked they would only let you use one device. Did they change it? Spill the details please!!
Laura- it will hold as many books as you like since you can use SD cards to store them on. It’s unfillable basically.
Hubby does dl pdf files to it, but I haven’t done so.
Sarah can tell you how to get it to work with the Mac. At least she was bragging about it earlier!! 😉
Um, Sarah, did you not have Sir Kindle in all his fine glory until you tried the Sony? Just sayin
I am work and it’s quiet. Can you tell I am bored???
Yes, I do still have Sir Kindle I: Baron Fusspot. His battery is dead. He’s under a stack of paperbacks on my bedstand. So sad.
And yes, I will endeavor to get all the deets on working with Mac + Sony.
Thanks ev! I want to see what kind of books are available. I have a lot of re-reads I need to replace… and I am on the lookout for new romance authors to read. I am finding some real gems lately—that make me ask—where the heck have I been? lol. I’d love to try some new and old favorites on ebook. must get a sony or kindle though.. don’t like reading from the computer screen~!
Another Mac user here, unwilling to jump through the (illegal) hoops to use a Sony. I keep thinking Sony will wise up one of these days and go to a multi-platform model, but no joy yet. I’ll keep reading my ebooks on my iPod Touch, or on my old Palm. And researching the Mac-compliant dedicated readers….
Found the Sony page with free Harlequins!
The 60th anniversary titles are all here:
http://ebookstore.sony.com/harlequin-16free/
So no need to get the pdfs
What a wonderful idea to get readers to try the ebook readers without spending an arm and a leg first – and to get some feedback about ease of downloading, reading, storing, etc., etc.
Count me in. I’ve already sent my groveling email. Yippee!
Wow, this sure is a great opportunity. I’ve been dithering mainly because I don’t have real world experience with a reader compared to, say, my Palm, and I’ve been trained (by that horrible boss myself) to only do work (critting/editing) on the Palm. I’ve been trying hard to read ebooks and recently had some great successes (one of which was a Harlequin :D). The Kindle is out because of the megalomania, but I do so want to try the Sony :D.
Any idea on the shipping costs for the return?
Thanks for this amazing opportunity. Oh, and I loved the panel about ereaders and DRM. Social DRM makes a heck of a lot of sense to me.
@Delia, I have a Mac, a Sony Reader (the 505) and tons of downloads from eHarlequin. I use Calibre, which lets me transfer my books just fine. No DRM cracking needed.
You can get it here: http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/
I also love that I can tag all my books and sort them by category. Makes finding stuff a whole heck of a lot easier.
ev,
Your point is well-taken, but I’m in a horribly co-dependent relationship with Amazon, and I love the ease of clicking one little button and having it delivered to me. The only time I sway from that is ePubs—I tend to buy directly from EC, which ya pretty much have to, and Samhain.
I’m in Vine, so I spend a lot of time on the site anyhow. I’m unwilling to call Amazon my master, and yet, I’m thinking I have to go because the Vine freebies will be posted in a couple minutes. Okay, master is a fair word.
That’s not to disparage Sony—I did consider them at one point, and played around with it at the Sony store—but my Kindle serves my needs best, particularly when it comes to instant gratification. If Amazon “fails” again, I might have to make a change, but other than that…
I am thrilled for others though, because I know how much I really enjoy my reader. I read more and I read longer. I love taking it with me to read during Sunday brunch—my DH has his own. No matter where I am, there’s a library. I use it every single day, and it’s replaced print books in a way I never thought possible. The only things I miss are the covers and the ease of flipping through a book to find a certain passage.
I look forward to reading the happy reports from others!
Finally a way to get my greedy lil hands on a Sony Reader.
@ev – I’m at work and bored, too. Let’s not tell my boss because they have been laying people off and I don’t want to be next.
I use an SD card in my 505 and right now I have 367 books loaded to it. I love carrying a library around with me at all times.
I read books on my computer at work and then can continue where I left off on my e-reader at home. It’s the perfect combo.
No matter where I am using it, someone always asks me about it. Sony will really benefit from having people use them in public. They sell themselves (except for the price).
Well, whatever it is, it’s working.. you’ve got me going to the Sony eReader Store… 😉
Wow. Awesome promotion, thanks for the opportunity.
Can we get a sound clip of the vrooooming?
This opportunity is made of that-old-Cars-song-Just-What-I-Needed-Awesome.
Sent in my application. Consider this my unprofessional follow up letter.
I felt up someone’s KindleII at a bookclub meeting a few weeks ago, but have been lusting after some alone time with a Sony…this is an SB’s dream come true.
Oh—I have a 505 (which I love), but if there’s a way to make it work with my Mac, I’d love to hear more about it. I’ve looked at the Calibre website, but I’m hesitant to just jump in with that not knowing how everything works. As of right now I have to sync it through my husband’s laptop, which is only slightly inconvenient compared to how much I love being able to load up one device with all the books I need (which is on my to-do list for next week, since we’ll be at the beach the first full week in July and I don’t want to haul along a whole bag of books!)
And yes, you can authorize multiple machines to access your books from the Sony store—I’ve got two laptops and my reader authorized at the moment, and I know I can still authorize more. The Sony literature says it holds up to 160 books on just the internal memory, but since you can add and switch out SD cards, you can easily push that to as many SD cards as you care to keep up with, I expect.
Wish I could justify test driving a 700, since I’ve heard so many good things about them—but I’m perfectly happy with my 505 and shouldn’t tempt myself with an upgrade, 🙂
I love my Sony and frequently buy from Sony and MBaM, love the Sony pdf format their Samhain books come in, but I still buy print books as well.
I’m going to be taking a trip soon and will be sitting idle for something like 12 hours. I will then be spending a week with people I have very little in common with and then the 12 hour trip home. In the past I’ve packed a tote bag with several and then had to deal with the bag in my floorboard and making sure I didn’t leave any of my books behind. Right now I have 161 books, in 6 collections, loaded onto my eReader. The eReader is slimmer than any of my books and it fits comfortably in my purse, so I can carry along hundreds of books without taking up as much space as even one of my paperbacks.
Apparently my 700 holds about 419 MB and my 161 books are taking up 136 MB of that, so theoretically, I could hold over 400 books on it without resorting to memory cards. I don’t have any audio books on it. I’m not a big fan of the audio book, funny considering I’m a member of LibriVox, but they are usually something like 25 MB on average. So you could fit a few on there without cards. I think I have one that I got free from Audible, but my Sony doesn’t do Audible. I have found several sites that not only sell audio books in mp3 and acc, but they rent them … sort of like a netflix for books.
I still like to get cozy with a printed book, but since I got the eReader, I only buy my favorites books in print. Even if I’ve already got them in digital.
I think Madd just sold me on buying one… but I’ll wait and see if I can test drive one first… I think it will be hard to give it back.. (I have to go to the in-laws a lot—(a great place to read about 400 books in one weekend… :))… hopefully there will be an option to buy it at the end of the test drive? :).
I would love to try one of these reading devices; they sound like fun.
I love Harlequin and have been reading them since 5th grade, my first one cost 15 cents, and I’ve been out of school for 30 years. In high school I used to get 3 from the library and start it in first period (study hall) and be finished with it by the time I got home where I would read the other two, then I’d start again the next day.
The ones nowdays is nothing like those I started on; I look forward to finding a new way to read the books I love.
I adore my Sony PRS-505, bought after I wore out my PRS-500. I encourage all who are interested in the reader to try for this test drive. The PRS-700 has quite a few more bells and whistles, more suited for those who would use it for business purposes.
There is a hundred dollar difference in price between the two ereaders, but for those who try and feel inclined to buy a reader, check out your local buying club megastores (such as Sam’s, B.J.‘s or Costco). Our local B.J.s has the PRS-505 for $50 off list price. Other than the special Father’s Day discount at Borders, this is the cheapest that I’ve found one.
I truly would not trade my Sony for a free Kindle.
*subject54* is my code. This was definitely a good subject.
I love a good Harlequin romance to get my juices flowing. You know what I mean bitches?! Hey!
oh well done on this 🙂 Next you need to convince sony that they want to push out to australia and new zealand and do the same thing here lol
great promotion and I’d LOVE to participate, but sadly I can’t because I don’t have any type of credit/charge card. 🙁
Hope everyone who gets chosen has fun “test driving” them… you lucky ducks u! 😀
I’m a librarian and I just sent in an entry with my work email about how great it would be for us to have one of these, especially as we start offering access to the neighboring library district’s Overdrive collection in about a week. Of course I forgot to mention that those two reader reviews, I could have them written by different people and/or share lots of stories of how patrons react to seeing it.
Question, can I do a personal entry too?
I would love to participate! I have never used an e-reader but have been very curious about them. I usually use my laptop but I can’t fit it in my purse.
I’m drooling over the possibility of test driving a Sony Reader. My cheapskate self hasn’t been willing to shell out for an e-reader since the pb is available. The ability to see if I’d like it would be heaven.
spamword: didnt22. Didn’t at least 22 others enter this little drawing?
What a great opportunity!
I can’t enter as I’m in Australia but it’s okay because I already have a Sony 700. I highly recommend them to all and sundry.
But, SB Sarah, if you haz any of teh influence at all with Sony, could you please ask them to open their Sony bookstore to Australians? I’d love to be able to take advantage of specials Sony offer but they won’t let me 🙁
This sounds like a fantastic opportunity. I use an iPod Touch now but am ready for something bigger if you know what I mean.
I have a question, though: You say you need 2 reviews:
– Do you mean 1 review posted in 2 places, like on my eharl blog and then the same review posted on my personal blog?
– Or do you mean 2 different reviews? (Although I can’t imagine this one because my review would be so conclusive I don’t think there’d be anything left to say.)
How do you official volunteer to be a test driver? I’ve lurked here for a while (discovered you all during the black footed ferret brouhaha). I’ve been holding out in the hope that Asus would come out with their much fabled tablet netbook soon and so I’ve held off on an e-reader, but the Sony’s have been quietly calling, pointing out that Asus is nothing but a cad that’s been stringing me along since Jan. I’d love to test drive one, but if not, I’m happy to read eagerly to see other users feedback on them.
I would LOVE to be entered. I read Harlequin Desire & NASCAR. I also read most of their Kamini line. Right now I read my books in print & Microsoft Reader on my PC. I have looked at all the readers and just haven’t made that leap. I would love to try. I do have a credit card.
I’m LOVING my new 505, which I use on my Mac via Calibre. I’m having trouble with any kind of format besides .pdf because I’m technologically dumb, and am a kinesthetic learner. So any kind of tutorial you post would be wonderful, and then my ebook shopping will really take off.
This is a FABULOUS project, and yay on you, Sony, and Harlequin for putting it together.
Thank you so much for doing what you do, Sarah. I honestly can’t understand how you do it all. Husband, kids, full-time job, write a book, volunteer for RWA, and just your presence at and support of SBTB strikes me as such a time commitment, I can’t imagine. Do you sleep at all?
I have been toying around with the idea of buying a reader for traveling if nothing else, but which one to buy? Such a dilemma. Maybe if I get one of the trial Sony readers, I’ll have my answer. Thanks for the chance.