I recently discovered the author Fiona McIntosh as a result of a HarperCollins free ebook from last summer that I finally got around to reading. So now I want to buy more of her books and went to the HarperCollins website. I can buy the 3 books I am interested in for $19.17 ($6.39 each) and download in one of these formats: Adobe ePub, Adobe PDF, Mobi, and LIT.

We know we can scratch the PDF and Mobi formats for my Sony Reader 505, especially as the it is clear that ebooks are DRMed. So My choice is between ePub and LIT, and I'm asking advice.

Today I'm using the Sony 505 to read ebooks, but i don't know what I will use 2 years from now. My thought is to download the ePub versions, thinking that ePub is the standard for the future for reading devices (at least as best as we can guess). OTOH, if I download the LIT versions, I can run ConvertLIT and Calibre.

So I would like some advice:


Would you download the ePub versions or the LIT versions if you wanted to be able to read the books on future devices?

Do I understand correctly that if I download the ePub versions I cannot share the books with my son who uses another device, but I can if I download the LIT versions and ran ConvertLIT and Calibre?


I've not purchased an ePub version of an ebook before so this would be my first experience with DRMed ePub, thus my questions and caution.

Thanks.

We know we can scratch the PDF and Mobi formats for my Sony Reader 505, especially as the it is clear that ebooks are DRMed. So My choice is between ePub and LIT, and I'm asking advice.


No true. Sony will read the PDF. But certainly not the best choice. ePub would be the choice to go with if you want a DRMed format.


My thought is to download the ePub versions, thinking that ePub is the standard for the future for reading devices (at least as best as we can guess). OTOH, if I download the LIT versions, I can run ConvertLIT and Calibre.


ePub may be the future, but wrapped with Adobe DRM it is pretty crippled.

Your best bet is to buy the LIT version, deDRM it and convert it to LRF or ePUB for your Sony. This would also make it much more future proof.

BOb

I guess if it was me I'd buy the LIT and go from there. I know there are big hopes, but I haven't really seen any indications that it's going to turn into a format that's standard across devices. I'm not really up on ePub DRM, but AFAIK it's similar to/the same as PDF DRM and controlled by an Adobe ID. Might want to check BoB and FW to see it they have to books you want too, the price might be better.

To answer your questions...
1) If it was me LIT
2) Correct

Hi

I would say you have two problems: format to read now and guarantee the future.

I will attack the “future” part first as the rest will come together:

1 – protecting the future

Get the Lit version.
Take out the DRM with ConvertLit (if it’s legal in your country to do so).
The result is a bunch of files, one (at least) is a html file, this with the images is the “open” file format of your eBook, with it you can now – and I think in the future too – convert it to any format you want;

2 – getting it into the format you want to read now and share with your son

Once you have the html file and the rest of the files I talk in (1), convert it to the format you want (hell if you want to go into the ePub road, just do that with Calibre).
Your result file has no DRM so you can share it with your son too.

Once again: take good care that what you are doing in (1) is legal in your country.

Good reading,

Do I understand correctly that if I download the ePub versions I cannot share the books with my son who uses another device, but I can if I download the LIT versions and ran ConvertLIT and Calibre?



If the other device is NOT a Sony, then yes. If the other device is a Sony then you can register them both to the same AdobeID.

BOb

Thanks all for the advice. I think I'll go the LIT route as I have been doing. I had hoped that ePub might be -- finally -- the one format I can always go to.

LIT is the only choice.

My apologies for raising this old thread to life but now that you can remove the DRM from LIT and EPUB files, what would the current advice be? LIT or EPUB?

Since the Sony can read ePub directly, I suggest buying the ePub. Calibre's ePub support is very good and if you want to convert the ePub to LRF (after stripping the DRM) Calibre should be able to do that for you. It will also convert ePub to MOBI if you need that for some other device.