MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Looking for more "Dresden Files" type books

KevinH · 12-07-2010, 05:39 PM

Hi,

*** not exactly on topic - but ***

I love Dresden Files so I went and purchased Sandman Slim based on everyone's recs here from the Sony bookstore for my Sony PRS-600 ebook reader (I had a gift certificate from Sony Store which I was trying to spend).

Of course, upon loading the book all I got was a page error! I double-checked and I had no other PDF or Library DRM books on the Reader so I figured they messed up when they created the ebook.

Sure enough once the DRM was removed, I opened the epub and found an over 600K png file that was the "cover", a 300k jpeg of that same cover and an over 300K "chapter" in one html file. Given the 300K max for chapter size recommended by Adobe for ADE books, I had at least 3 problem files.

So even Sony doesn't bother to see if the epub ebooks they sell form their own bookstore even work on Sony Readers!

Luckily with Sigil, I was able to split each of the html files into smaller pieces (less than 300k), remove the 600K png image of the cover, and the over 300K jpeg of the cover, and replace it with a nice crisp 140k jpeg of the cover (and fix the opf and manifest, etc) and recreate a "working" epub.

Sad isn't it. The state of ebooks is so very very poor. They are selling us crap and we are paying for it.

If I didn't have the tools to remove the DRM, and Sigil I would have been out of luck and would have had to call up and fight with Sony to get the book replaced (which would have cost me more in time alone waiting on the phone than the value of the book).

So if anyone else has a Sony reader and wants to get that book, don't buy it from the Sony ebook store!

12-07-2010, 05:39 PM	#76
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,848 Karma: 6120478 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Hi, * not exactly on topic - but * I love Dresden Files so I went and purchased Sandman Slim based on everyone's recs here from the Sony bookstore for my Sony PRS-600 ebook reader (I had a gift certificate from Sony Store which I was trying to spend). Of course, upon loading the book all I got was a page error! I double-checked and I had no other PDF or Library DRM books on the Reader so I figured they messed up when they created the ebook. Sure enough once the DRM was removed, I opened the epub and found an over 600K png file that was the "cover", a 300k jpeg of that same cover and an over 300K "chapter" in one html file. Given the 300K max for chapter size recommended by Adobe for ADE books, I had at least 3 problem files. So even Sony doesn't bother to see if the epub ebooks they sell form their own bookstore even work on Sony Readers! Luckily with Sigil, I was able to split each of the html files into smaller pieces (less than 300k), remove the 600K png image of the cover, and the over 300K jpeg of the cover, and replace it with a nice crisp 140k jpeg of the cover (and fix the opf and manifest, etc) and recreate a "working" epub. Sad isn't it. The state of ebooks is so very very poor. They are selling us crap and we are paying for it. If I didn't have the tools to remove the DRM, and Sigil I would have been out of luck and would have had to call up and fight with Sony to get the book replaced (which would have cost me more in time alone waiting on the phone than the value of the book). So if anyone else has a Sony reader and wants to get that book, don't buy it from the Sony ebook store!