MobileRead Free Ebook Section Reaches 8,000

[RWood]

From the first upload on March 27, 2007 until yesterday, MobileRead members have posted over 8,000 free, well crafted e-books in multiple formats.

The milestones (as compiled by Zelda) are:

• March 27, 2007: First upload
• September 04, 2007: 1,000 uploads
• November 02, 2007: 2,000 uploads
• January 08, 2008: 3,000 uploads
• February 19, 2008: 4,000 uploads
• May 16, 2008: 5,000 uploads
• December 10, 2008: 7,000 uploads
• January 09, 2009: 8,000 uploads

Most of the e-books are in the "big 3" e-book formats of Sony BBeB, Mobipocket PRC, and eBookwise IMP; there is a growing collection of ePub books available. There is also a light assortment of other thinly used e-book formats including:

• FB (Fiction Book)
• RB2 (Rocket Book)
• PDF (A4, Letter, and 6" e-ink screen formats)
• Psion
• IMP (for the REB 1200)
• Hiebook
• MS Lit

I have been fortunate enough to be part of the members posting e-books that also include (in no particular order):

• Patricia
• HarryT
• Madam Broshkina
• nrapallo
• vivaldirules
• Dr. Drib
• mtravellerh
• Jellby
• crutledge
• Roy White
• tsgreer
• ravenne
• ProDigit
• mjh215

There are many more and I am sorry that AI cannot recall all of the names at the moment. On behalf of the rest of the MobileRead community I say, "Thank You."

Let the celebration begin, download a new e-book today.

[mjh215]

Thank you for including me, though I've only uploaded 3 books in LRF and Mobi so far. I'm simply amazed by those that have posted hundreds. My deepest thanks to all of them. Through guilt you inspired me to upload.

One thing that fascinated me was that it appears we got 1k new ebooks in one month. What caused that huge spike?

-MJ

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by mjh215

Thank you for including me, though I've only uploaded 3 books in LRF and Mobi so far. I'm simply amazed by those that have posted hundreds. My deepest thanks to all of them. Through guilt you inspired me to upload.

One thing that fascinated me was that it appears we got 1k new ebooks in one month. What caused that huge spike?

-MJ

I think there's a credit race going on between 3-5 users on the top.
They press e-text files through a program,that outputs in all formats (mobi, LRF, lit, prc,...).

Though my concern is that many books that are been automatically formatted, usually also have lousy formatting.
I much prefer books that have been hand created, and tested on a device.
My reason for saying is that many users will find current automatic formatting not sufficiently professional looking (e.g.: chapter titles beginning in the middle or end of a page; or pictures/book covers that just don't really match it's content..etc..),and will want to redo the books.

Something already happening is,that many books exist multiple times in the ebook upload section, each with their own user-variations;many which are pretty lousy, and few that really look good!

Anyways,it is something that should be thought about when counting the 8000 books.
I guess 4000-5000 books are just different format uploads of the same book (eg: prc,lrf, moni, ...), and probably a little less than 300 books are uploaded by more then one user; so that more then one version exist of the specific ebook and format.

[Seabound]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I think there's a credit race going on between 3-5 users on the top.

I hope not. I don't think book uploading should be a "contest". I'd personally be disappointed if that's what this is all about--I'm strange that way (and in many other ways).

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I think there's a credit race going on between 3-5 users on the top.
They press e-text files through a program,that outputs in all formats (mobi, LRF, lit, prc,...).

Though my concern is that many books that are been automatically formatted, usually also have lousy formatting.

This is absolutely not true and I am deeply offended by this statement.

Don (Dr.Drib), Patricia, Crutledge, nrapallo and Harry T are my friends (and I do not count that many in this community yet) All of our books are handmade and with great love for those books. We make books in multiple formats, that's true. But we do that because YOU people want and use different formats.

As I see it, there is not one of our books that is "lousy" formatted (gr!!). Nobody that I know is doing this for any "credits", that is absolutely sure and certain (perhaps YOU should check your motivation). There is no gain in this, neither financially nor is there any fame to be gained. If there really is a problem with us posting in multiple formats or too many books, there may be a simple solution for that, at least for me.

Whenever I have a book to upload, I check if this has been uploaded before. If it has been uploaded and mine does not have a real plus value, I won't post it in that format. Basta. And most of my "colleagues" do the same.

PS: If you download a book with "lousy" formatting, just delete it, it hasn't costed you anything at all. Make a new, better version.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by mjh215

One thing that fascinated me was that it appears we got 1k new ebooks in one month. What caused that huge spike?

Mtravellerh's frenzy, mainly

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

You people, all of you, have managed to collect so many of literary historys international treasures, in one place.

You may think to yourselves you are just having fun, and wanting to share with others books you enjoy.

You need to know, you are doing so much more.

Because of you, others are discovering works that could have become lost due to lack of interest, and perhaps lack of easy availability.

Because of you, people are reading more.

Because of you, all of our book readers are 'treasures', not just another tech device.

I, no, we all, thank you!

that was beautifully said, desertgrandma. and very true.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Mtravellerh's frenzy, mainly

Thanks. I take that as a compliment.

I Do want to explain why I have that frenzy as some seem to misunderstand my motivation: First, I love books. Second, there were and there are not a lot of books in French or German here. I like to make people happy and I like to make books.

As, for reasons I don't want to insist on, it is quite impossible for me to be outside for a longer period of time and I have to live in controlled conditions, I do have lots of time on my hands. So I make books.

As these books are mostly nicely formatted to begin with (Athelstane for instance) creating those books is a rather straightforward thing that does not take too much time. As furthermore, I prefer my books to have a nice but not too fancy interface and ravenne is creating fantastic covers in a flash, making a few books a day is not a big thing.

I do not want to be in any Top Ten posters or anything the like and I wish those charts wouldn't be there. I was, in fact, made aware of their presence a few days ago.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

A very big to everyone who posts books

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RWood

The milestones (as compiled by Zelda) are:

actually, alex compiled the milestones. but they are worth recapitulating.

8000 is truly impressive. thanks to everyone who has contributed !

[Leep]

Many, many thanks to all of the contributors. What a fabulous resource you've given us all.

cheers

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by Leep

Many, many thanks to all of the contributors. What a fabulous resource you've given us all.

cheers

Of which RWood's ebook contributions (if you haven't already noticed) are a HUGE reason MobileRead.com is THE place for free nicely-formatted ebooks.

About six months ago, I posted MobileRead-Top 100 ebook downloads by format-June2008 and RWood's .prc/.lrf ebooks contributions, collectively, have been downloaded Tens of Thousands of times.

Kudos to RWood as well!

[desertgrandma]

You people, all of you, have managed to collect so many of literary historys international treasures, in one place.

You may think to yourselves you are just having fun, and wanting to share with others books you enjoy.

You need to know, you are doing so much more.

Because of you, others are discovering works that could have become lost due to lack of interest, and perhaps lack of easy availability.

Because of you, people are reading more.

Because of you, all of our book readers are 'treasures', not just another tech device.

I, no, we all, thank you!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I, no, we all, thank you!

Here here!!!

(or is it Hear hear!!! ? I never know)

BOb

[RWood]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

Of which RWood's ebook contributions (if you haven't already noticed) are a HUGE reason MobileRead.com is THE place for free nicely-formatted ebooks.

About six months ago, I posted MobileRead-Top 100 ebook downloads by format-June2008 and RWood's .prc/.lrf ebooks contributions, collectively, have been downloaded Tens of Thousands of times.

Kudos to RWood as well!

Thank you Nick. For those that do not know, Nick has translated and posted most (all?) of the REB 1200 IMP books available including many books that I originally produced in other formats.

I am saddened to see that at least one of the members thinks there is a race b etween the top posters. Speaking as one of them, that is completely wrong. If it were true you would see only mechanical translations like ManyBooks provides with no human intervention, short stories would be extracted from collections and posted on their own to increase the post count, and no one would waste the time to create custom covers for the books.

Most books are available in one to three formats only. The rest of the formats are, at the moment, experimental. We have tested the water to see if there is any demand for that format. Some like FB2, RB, and Psion have garnered no interest. Others like ePub have attracted a growing following.