FREE PDF file of Hamish MacDonald's dystopian novel of future climate chaos in UK

[desertgrandma]

To go here. Start with post 179 or so.....and read forward.

We're not totally awful.............

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60737

[danbloom]

I've sent out copies to about 35 people so far, let me know if any copies did not arrrive.

[ghostyjack]

Yay! I've got it!

Thanks Dan and hope you get better soon.

[koland]

Originally Posted by danbloom

Thanks for all the pictures that Mobile readers you of the book on their e-readers cool, , and I hope this version works better. The file is also available at: Free!

http://www.hamishmacdonald.com/Finitude.epub


...or as an HTML file if anyone wants to try converting it further (with the proviso that I'd really prefer it wasn't rendered down into raw text):

http://www.hamishmacdonald.com/Finitude.html

- Hamish MacDonald

The links don't work. If I send you another email, could you send me the epub version (assuming you got more than a 1K file)?

[codeMonkey]

Yeah, I'm getting a 404 for both the epub and the html.

[banjomike]

Try these for the epub & html, right-click and save the file

http://www.hamishmacdonald.com/novels/Finitude.epub

http://www.hamishmacdonald.com/novels/Finitude.html

Hope I'm not treading on anyones toes

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by danbloom

Most conversion software strips out all the styling and formatting of a novel's text. As someone who not only writes these books but also typesets and publishes them, these are far more than cosmetic considerations to me. (For instance, I use italics to show when someone is thinking as opposed to speaking; when that's removed, the passage no longer makes sense.)


By converting the text to HTML, running it through Sigil, then fixing up the metadata in Calibre, I think I've finally managed to create an e-book that preserves my intended formatting but will re-flow on the reader. Unfortunately, Calibre was unable to create e-books in the MOBI and LRF formats, so it looks like I'll just be offering the book in ePub format -- which suits me, since it's a free and open format.

Hi Dan, i'm so glad to hear you're recoving well and feeling better already. get lots of rest so soon you'll be at 100% again.

it's great also to know that the author is taking ebook formatting seriously ! he is completely right when he says that formatting is important and it's brilliant that he's learning how to do things right.

just one tip you might pass along to him, if he is using sigil already (which is definitely the best tool for this particular job !), no need to "fix" the metadata in calibre ; on the contrary, sigil has an incredibly complete meta-data editor which will allow you to do much more than you could ever do in calibre. just go to menu > tools > meta editor to add all the information you need.

also tell him we'd be very happy to answer any questions he might have, and to feel very welcome to stop by the forum any time.

best wishes for a speedy recovery to you !

[hamishmacdonald]

Just dropping by to say hello, and to say thanks to Dan (be well!) for all he's doing to get Finitude out to potential readers. The novel is just intended to be a fun adventure story, but hopefully, several layers beneath that, addresses some of the important questions about our approach to the possibility of a climate crisis -- instead of debating the science, which we get more than enough of already. And the science, as I see it, isn't the real issue.

As for the technicalities of presenting it as an e-book, I recognise the importance of this as a distribution channel, but as a publisher I'd also like to present the book as well as possible -- partly because I care, and partly because "poor attention to detail" seems to be corporate publishing's main attack on indie work. So I respectfully request that, if you'd like the book in another format, we work together to create that. If you've converted the book for your own purposes, that's fine, but please don't distribute that file.

As has been said here, most conversion processes strip away important formatting/typesetting work -- and I realise (from my Palm and Pocket PC days) that some formats like .PDB only allow for raw text. I'm not sure how to proceed in those cases, because in raw text, some passages in the book will simply not make sense. I realise I could probably rework the whole text to make allowances for that, but, honestly, I'd rather spend that time writing something new.

Hm...

Meanwhile, there are .PDF, .ePub, and HTML versions of the book to download. Apologies for the bad links I provided earlier; I've put files at those addresses, so they will work now.

Thanks, everyone, for your time. If you do download the book, I hope you enjoy your time in that world.

All the best,

- Hamish MacDonald
http://www.hamishmacdonald.com

[kpfeifle]

Hi All:

Not sure if it's just me, but the epub version I just downloaded has no ability to change the font size on my Sony Reader.

Kevin

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by hamishmacdonald

Just dropping by to say hello, and to say thanks to Dan (be well!) for all he's doing to get Finitude out to potential readers. The novel is just intended to be a fun adventure story, but hopefully, several layers beneath that, addresses some of the important questions about our approach to the possibility of a climate crisis -- instead of debating the science, which we get more than enough of already. And the science, as I see it, isn't the real issue.

As for the technicalities of presenting it as an e-book, I recognise the importance of this as a distribution channel, but as a publisher I'd also like to present the book as well as possible -- partly because I care, and partly because "poor attention to detail" seems to be corporate publishing's main attack on indie work. So I respectfully request that, if you'd like the book in another format, we work together to create that. If you've converted the book for your own purposes, that's fine, but please don't distribute that file.

As has been said here, most conversion processes strip away important formatting/typesetting work -- and I realise (from my Palm and Pocket PC days) that some formats like .PDB only allow for raw text. I'm not sure how to proceed in those cases, because in raw text, some passages in the book will simply not make sense. I realise I could probably rework the whole text to make allowances for that, but, honestly, I'd rather spend that time writing something new.

Hm...

Meanwhile, there are .PDF, .ePub, and HTML versions of the book to download. Apologies for the bad links I provided earlier; I've put files at those addresses, so they will work now.

Thanks, everyone, for your time. If you do download the book, I hope you enjoy your time in that world.

All the best,

- Hamish MacDonald
http://www.hamishmacdonald.com

Hi Hamish, welcome to the forum ! thanks for sharing your book and for all your efforts to make a really nice digital edition ; attention to details makes all the difference.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have about ebook creation here in the forum ; we've got some really friendly and knowledgeable people who would be glad to help you with anything.

Creating ebooks is not actually difficult once you understand how to do it, but it can be very tricky when you first get started. And depending on the format of your source file, it can require a lot of work to make the result look good. This is particularly true if you start from a pdf for instance. Starting from an xml flow or html or even a .doc file will give much better results with less cleanup work.

It sounds like you are off to a good start ; Sigil is definitely the best tool for the job and although it's fairly minimalist for the moment (still in alpha release) it's already very powerful and promises to get much better in the future. i recommend you take a quick look at the code view to see how your text is formatted and make sure there isn't extraneous, unnecessary code cluttering it up. if you've got any questions, you know who to ask !

it's great to see you here !