book available for Kindle but not mobipocket??

[rheostaticsfan]

I'm looking for
The Illuminator by Brenda Van Trease

I see it on amazon.com as available for Kindle, but I can't find it anywhere for mobipocket reader.

1) Does this indeed happen? Are there books available for Kindle but not other mobipocket readers?
2) If it doesn't happen: any suggestions where to look? I've tried booksonboard, fictionwise and mobipocket.


Thanks for any help!

[wallcraft]

The appears to be a TOPAZ ebook. TOPAZ is an Amazon-only format, and the conversion from the paper book is done by Amazon. Sometimes TOPAZ ebooks appear later in another format, but for now all you can do is use Kindle 4 PC (if you are in the US).

There are also MOBI (AZW) ebooks that are not available from the MobiPocket store. These include Amazon DTP titles and those from indie sites such as smashwords. These have some chance of being available at other sites.

[owl123]

TOPAZ books are sometimes of low quality: bad formatting, barely readable paragraphs, missing letters etc.

[osnova]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

There are also MOBI (AZW) ebooks that are not available from the MobiPocket store. These include Amazon DTP titles and those from indie sites such as smashwords. These have some chance of being available at other sites.

Some azw files from Amazon are sold without DRM (my titles). After you purchase it, you can rename the file to something.prc or something.mobi and open it with Mobipocket Reader.

[osnova]

Originally Posted by owl123

TOPAZ books are sometimes of low quality: bad formatting, barely readable paragraphs, missing letters etc.

According to my observations, the TOPAZ format itself allows for embedded fonts, much better images, more formatting options, etc. So, the best TOPAZ books are better then the best mobi books.

[owl123]

According to mine that's not the case ;-) At least John Maddox Roberts' SPQR Kindle-books are poorly scanned and formatted.

[osnova]

Originally Posted by owl123

According to mine that's not the case ;-) At least John Maddox Roberts' SPQR Kindle-books are poorly scanned and formatted.

It seems both of us can be right:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40945

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48211

[rheostaticsfan]

Originally Posted by osnova

Some azw files from Amazon are sold without DRM (my titles). After you purchase it, you can rename the file to something.prc or something.mobi and open it with Mobipocket Reader.

Thanks...but I have my desktop plus a Cybook Gen 3 (plus a Blackberry). So...I can't buy this book without a Kindle or at least a Kiindle PID, right? Unless this has no DRM. I don't know how to know in advance if it has DRM or not...


I appreciate your help. This format thing gets more complicated every time I turn around.

[owl123]

To check if a book is TOPAZ or AZW (mobi/prc), download book's sample and open it with Notepad. If first 3 letters are "TPZ" then it's TOPAZ and you can't remove the DRM protection.

If it's AZW there are tools to remove the DRM (which might legal or illegal depedning on where you live.)

If the book is in TOPAZ format then you might try making screenshots out of it. You can automate it with http://www.autohotkey.com/ macro player and a screencapture program like SnagIt.