Titles Not Available on Epub, but on Kindle

[aliciany]

I want to get 2 books for my Nook, but they are only available through Amazon for the Kindle. Is this some kind of exclusivity deal? Do these titles become available at some point? One in particular is a new release, Forgiving Ararat.

Thanks!
Alicia

[Terisa de morgan]

I don't know, you would have to look at the publisher. About being available, I'm afraid nobody can know it (if someone know, please, tell me , because I have some titles in this situation too).

[Bremen Cole]

Are you sure they are no where else? I check http://www.inkmesh.com to find books and get the best price...etc.....

[slm]

Amazon's books in Topaz format are done from scans, rather than electronic files. Some major publishers did a lot of scanning into Topaz. Those books are unlikely to have an epub equivalent, since they would have to be re-entered from scratch.

[Terisa de morgan]

Not exactly. I've purchased books that are only at Amazon and they aren't topaz.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by aliciany

I want to get 2 books for my Nook, but they are only available through Amazon for the Kindle. Is this some kind of exclusivity deal? Do these titles become available at some point? One in particular is a new release, Forgiving Ararat.

Thanks!
Alicia

That book is published by the mysterious Bette Press. Very little is known about them. I dont believe they have a website. Everything freelanced.

[J. Strnad]

Forgiving Ararat does not appear to be DRMed. You should be able to get the free Kindle for PC application and download the book to there. Then use the free "calibre" program to convert it to ePub for your nook.

I've done this with several Amazon/Kindle books.

I learned how to do this from MobileRead.

This is such a freakin' cool site!

[Trebro]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Forgiving Ararat does not appear to be DRMed. You should be able to get the free Kindle for PC application and download the book to there. Then use the free "calibre" program to convert it to ePub for your nook.

I've done this with several Amazon/Kindle books.

Is there a way to tell if an Amazon book has DRM at a glance? I'm getting pretty good at conversion in Cailbre so the idea intrigues me.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Trebro

Is there a way to tell if an Amazon book has DRM at a glance? I'm getting pretty good at conversion in Cailbre so the idea intrigues me.

Yes. Under "Product Details" just below the book blurb, if it says "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" right below the file size, that means no DRM.

If it says nothing at all, then you can assume it's copy-protected.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Yes. Under "Product Details" just below the book blurb, if it says "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" right below the file size, that means no DRM.

If it says nothing at all, then you can assume it's copy-protected.

Thank you ATD. I haven't looked at buying Amazon books because I was still under the impression that even the free ones were DRMed.

Check your Karma for extra points. Some should be taken away from me for being a dunce.

And welcom to mobileread.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by aliciany

One in particular is a new release, Forgiving Ararat

It looks like that particular title is from a small press of some kind. I've never heard of them so I don't know, but if I had to guess it's because Amazon makes it very easy for these small pubs to make their books available. With PubIt coming soon from B&N you'll probably start seeing titles from a lot of these small pubs on B&N as well.

I suppose you could always email the addy from the books website info@forgivingararat.com and ask them. Some pubs do seem to think ebook = Kindle book and don't know about places like Smashwords (which gets them on Sony, B&N, iBooks), etc.

[Teddman]

One such example is the Robin Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Teddman

One such example is the Robin Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Which is really weird. It's a Penguin Classic, you'd think it'd be available everywhere. The only version Penguin offers as an ebook everywhere else is the Signet version which is Abridged

[Clancy_s]

Originally Posted by Trebro

Is there a way to tell if an Amazon book has DRM at a glance? I'm getting pretty good at conversion in Cailbre so the idea intrigues me.

ATD is right about how to tell if it's without DRM.

It might also interest you to know that the drm on most Amazon books (the .azw ones) is very easy to remove, although doing so is illegal in some countries, for which reason I can't link to instructions here (google is your friend). They say it can also be done for .tpz files but that it's harder - I've never had to try.

Unfortunately with the Amazon drm stuff there's no easy way of telling if it's .azw or .tpz until you've downloaded it.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Clancy_s

Unfortunately with the Amazon drm stuff there's no easy way of telling if it's .azw or .tpz until you've downloaded it.

Rule of thumb for telling AZW from TPZ is again to look at the Product Details.

If there's a File Size in KB (possibly followed by a Print Length in pages carried over from any paper edition), then it's in Amazon's version of Mobipocket.

If it's only got the Print Length and no File Size whatsoever, then it's the dreaded Topaz format.

You can also download samples to try, and they'll be in the same format as the book itself, with the corresponding appropriate extension if you have an actual Kindle and select "Transfer via Computer" when sampling (doesn't work for Kindle for Mac; everything gets listed as .azw, regardless).