03-09-2009, 03:28 PM | #31 |
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Sign me up, because I'm reading an ebook this week. Where's the cake and icecream to celebrate with?
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03-09-2009, 05:21 PM | #32 |
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03-09-2009, 06:16 PM | #33 |
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One other problem is some of the free eBooks. I downloaded Mis_Staked and found major problems with it that should have been sorted well before eBook Week. The Mobipocket edition is not a proper Mobipocket edition. It has no table of contents and there are two cover images. Plus the font is fixed at sans-serif instead of the default so you can change it yourself depending on the reader software.
Also the PDF copy is a major issue. We find out that Adobe Reader has a JavaScript vulnerability and this PDF is full of JavaScript. |
03-09-2009, 08:49 PM | #34 |
Rita Y. Toews
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The Mobipocket edition is not a proper Mobipocket edition.
Which goes to show how important the work of the IDPF is. If there was a universal format there wouldn't be these issues. I don't have to buy a new radio to listen to each radio station, or a new tv to watch CBS, or CTV. One e-book reader should be able to read all e-books with ease. Rita |
03-09-2009, 09:35 PM | #35 | |
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But regardless of that, you would think that for Read an eBook Week, that care would be taken with the free eBooks. But it wasn't and it makes eBooks look bad. |
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03-09-2009, 10:13 PM | #36 | |
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Those things happen to organizations big and small. But what's important is how they respond when something goes wrong. For example, when Lexcycle found out a few books weren't downloading properly from the REBW catalog, they fixed the problem pretty quickly. Some of my site's free links weren't right, but once I was informed, I had them fixed in minutes. And I've already released a revision of The Lens, a week after the initial. How many industries can work that fast? Please advise the publisher that you found a problem with Mis_Staked, and see how they respond. Hopefully they'll fix this quickly, and help to make e-books look good. |
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03-09-2009, 10:21 PM | #37 |
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I think you guys did good. It's a first time deal. Next year you'll have more time, more kinks worked out and things will be better. It's easy to sit back and say you should have done this or that. Maybe a banner or icon saying click here for free ebooks or something since that's going to be the biggest traffic motivator for a project like this. Hopefully by next year more authors will be offering more formats than just PDF, I mean free is good and I'm always thankful for a free book, but realistically I'm not going to go to the trouble of converting a PDF book unless I'm extremely interested in it.
Steve does it right. Offer a lot of major formats with easy to find links. I downloaded his book no prob and since I didn't have to do anything to it read it right away, thought it was great and went and bought the sequel the next day. |
03-09-2009, 10:24 PM | #38 | |
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I will try to email the publisher tomorrow and see what sort of response I get. I will let everyone know what happens and how long it takes. |
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03-09-2009, 10:39 PM | #39 | |
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Anyway, make sure you tell them about the JS problem, too. And cut these vendors some slack, guys... after all, they didn't have to bother giving consumers free anything. |
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03-09-2009, 10:41 PM | #40 |
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Message sent to Champagne Books. I hope to hear from them tomorrow. And I also hope that they can fix these and repost them. And from looking at their site, Mis-Staked is being sold and I an hoping that what they gave us for free is not what they are selling. The formatting is not nice and the use of JavaScript in the PDF is ridiculous. Why even have it in there?
I did tell them that I appreciated the free eBooks and was hoping they could fix them in time to be read in a nicer format. And if they got them fixed, I would post on MR about the new editions for everyone who signed up to download them again. Last edited by JSWolf; 03-09-2009 at 10:43 PM. |
03-10-2009, 10:05 AM | #41 |
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FYI: Some changes have been made to the REBW home page, to make it easier to find some of the things you've been searching for. I particularly recommend the Partners page, with a HUGE list of REBW participants and deals for e-book readers.
How's that for service? Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 03-10-2009 at 10:07 AM. |
03-10-2009, 10:58 AM | #42 |
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03-10-2009, 11:19 AM | #43 |
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03-12-2009, 09:18 AM | #44 |
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Note: New Berserker Mobi file out
It's been brought to my attention that there were some problems with the Mobipocket (PRC) version of Berserker on my site, causing it to render improperly on Mobi readers and Kindles. The problem has been fixed, so please re-download Berserker in the Mobipocket format for a clean copy.
Thanks to Ian who flagged me on this one! |
03-15-2009, 09:39 AM | #45 |
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Read an E-Book Week is done for another year (next year will be March 14-20... write it down now!). It turned out to be a banner week for e-books, as well as a banner year, even with the hornet's nest that is Amazon stirring things up periodically. But I'm happy to say that the free copy of Berserker was very popular, as was a lot of the free material online at various booksellers, rivalling all of the e-book material that is always free on the web, the classics and public domain e-books on sites like Project Gutenburg and at MR.
(By the way, the REBW site won't be going down, so you've got a great resource for e-books just waiting there for you. Continue to use it!) At any rate, I hope that if you (hopefully) discovered some new sources of e-books during the week, I hope you'll continue to support them with your business, too. Remember, if not for your support, they might not be there to continue serving books to the public. E-books represent the future of publishing... eventually, they won't even be referred to as "e-books," suggesting something special about them, but simply as electronic or digital versions of "books." When that day comes, we may no longer have a need for Read an E-Book Week. But until then, we'll keep promoting, and you keep enjoying, and we'll all see each other on the other side. |
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e ink, promotion, read an e-book week, sony, stevejordanbooks |
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