@BetterRed: Thanks for the info. This would be helpful if a PDF was the only format in which the books that I want to read were available. However, in this particular case, it's simpler for me just to buy a pre-existing EPUB from a different source. I'd rather spend my time reading than converting
@JSWolf: Yes, I could contact the author. But I don't think it worth the effort when I can already just buy an EPUB elsewhere. I agree that selling only PDFs is a bad choice. But it's the author's choice to make.
@theducks: I'm talking about novels written for the general public in this case. Fixed layout is far from being a necessity.