Thread: Sony closes USA and Canada ebook store
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Old 02-08-2014, 07:30 AM   #134
Rev. Bob
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Quote:
Originally Posted by taming View Post
At least some of the books are designed to work only on tablets, not on eink devices. Some seem to be to be fairly graphics intensive books, often for kids. They were added to Kobo in this format by the publisher.
And some - even many - are not. My go-to example is Hachette's Orbit imprint, which is now published in EPUB 3.0 format rather than EPUB 2.0 format. It has nothing to do with the content, which is still basic fiction with the occasional illustration - they just started using a different formatting process which spits out EPUB 3.0 books that degrade gracefully for EPUB 2.0 readers. (For instance, instead of depending entirely on the XHTML table of contents that EPUB 3.0 requires and uses, they also include the NCX file that EPUB 3.0 permits specifically because EPUB 2.0 requires it.)

In other words, while it is true that some EPUB 3.0 books require features that EPUB 2.0 readers do not support, it is also true that anything that can be published as an EPUB 2.0 book can also be published in the EPUB 3.0 format. The way it displays won't change, but it'll comply with the newer version of the spec.

I was discussing this a couple of weeks ago with an author who also produces ebooks for other people as a sideline, and he confirmed that he publishes his own ebooks in EPUB 3.0 format, but there's a piece of software he uses that also vets them under the EPUB 2.0 standard. Before he releases those ebooks, he makes sure they work in both modes. Most relevantly to this discussion, he has not directed Kobo to flag his books as "tablet-only," and yet at least one of them is in Kobo's "no download button" purgatory.

But then, that's why I linked to the full thread and only provided a brief summary in this one. I figured that anyone interested in more detail would, y'know, look over there for it.
Last edited by Rev. Bob; 02-08-2014 at 07:33 AM.
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