Strange encounter: An official ebook you can buy nowhere...

Katsunami · 10-14-2013, 09:14 PM

Today I was checking my bookshelf to see which books I still need to replace with ebook editions (and re-read) so I can give away/sell my paperbacks. I hit a book of which I immediately thought: This is going near the top of my TBR list. (This book I actually have as a hardcover, and wouldn't give it away.)

So, I went to some EPUB-shops... and didn't find it. I went to Amazon... and didn't find it. Jumped some geo-restriction hoops into different countries... and didn't find it.

Punched it into a search engine, and the first link was a *direct download* of an EPUB. I expected a crappy OCR version created 10 years ago or something, which is mostly the case with books that are unavailable as ebooks.

Imagine my surprise after I opened this download with Sigil. Everybody who ever opened an original book, nows the layout of a retail ebook of one of the big publishers.

Layout and markup: absolutely perfect.
Dropcaps, graphics: all there (and there are A LOT of them).
Metadata: complete, except publisher, and year of publication.

This is maybe one of the most perfectly put together ebooks I ever opened up in Sigil. It looks as if it is 100% retail, but it can not be acquired in ANY store I know of, while any search engine finds this book in several not-so-legal places, within mere seconds.

How is this possible; a retail ebook that can't actually be bought anywhere?! Could it be that this ebook was published, sold for some time, and later pulled because of some sort of a problem?

And now the big problem.... what has been seen, cannot be unseen. I could read the paper book I have on my shelf, but I do have a perfect ebook version that doesn't actually exist...

xendula · 10-16-2013, 09:30 PM

Maybe it was published in only one region, like New Zealand? What is the title (Strange encounter?) and who the author?

DiapDealer · 10-16-2013, 10:22 PM

Rights reverting, contracts changed/voided... any number of things can make an ebook that was once available somewhere, unavailable.

The one you're looking at is likely still available somewhere, though. You can't have jumped through every geo-restrictive hoop out there.

toddos · 10-17-2013, 12:03 AM

The metadata missing publisher information makes me think this might be a proof copy that leaked and maybe was never eventually published or will be published soon. That happens quite often, for example with the last Wheel of Time book where the ebook version had a windowed release ~3 months after the hardcover but the official retail ebook was leaked on pirate sites two days after the hardcover launched.

Istvan diVega · 10-17-2013, 12:16 AM

There is no shortage of pirate ebooks which far exceed their legal counterparts in quality in every respect. I should think what you've found is one of those.

GeoffR · 10-17-2013, 01:01 AM

I had The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh on my wishlist at Baen, but I was too slow to press the buy button. Now Baen seems to have lost the rights to sell it to me, and as far as I can tell it is not available for sale anywhere else.

Graham · 10-17-2013, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I had The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh on my wishlist at Baen, but I was too slow to press the buy button. Now Baen seems to have lost the rights to sell it to me, and as far as I can tell it is not available for sale anywhere else.

C. J. Cherryh seems to be getting back the rights to some of her books and is able to sell them direct from her shared site http://www.closed-circle.net/. Heavy Time, Hellburner, and her Russian folk tale novels are there, along with a rewrite of Faery in Shadow.

Maybe the same will happen to The Paladin?

Incidentally, for fans of her Foreigner series, there are also two prequel short stories available at the site that haven't been published elsewhere.

Graham

pwalker8 · 10-17-2013, 08:34 AM

I had high hopes when the closed-circle was announced. I thought that I might finally be able to get some of CJ Cherryh's early works such as the Morgaine series, but so far, no such luck. I'm not sure what the issue is.

cortman · 10-17-2013, 09:05 AM

Very odd! The leaked proof idea sounds like the most likely to me, I'd have to say. At any rate, congrats on the nice ebook, lol.

Katsunami · 10-17-2013, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xendula

Maybe it was published in only one region, like New Zealand? What is the title (Strange encounter?) and who the author?

I'm not going to post the title or author; MR could view that as facilitating illegal downloading.

The original book is from the 70's. The ebook was produced in 2011.

The copyright page says: "Published by X, ebook created by Y, 2011".

Both companies don't have any internet presence...

markom · 10-17-2013, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I had The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh on my wishlist at Baen, but I was too slow to press the buy button. Now Baen seems to have lost the rights to sell it to me, and as far as I can tell it is not available for sale anywhere else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I had high hopes when the closed-circle was announced. I thought that I might finally be able to get some of CJ Cherryh's early works such as the Morgaine series, but so far, no such luck. I'm not sure what the issue is.

google for "[site removed by moderator]" then enter Cherryh in the search boxes there.

Istvan diVega · 10-17-2013, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cortman

Very odd! The leaked proof idea sounds like the most likely to me, I'd have to say. At any rate, congrats on the nice ebook, lol.

I'd say a manual scan, OCR and manual edit and proofread by a dedicated pirate is far more likely. After all, there are thousands upon thousands of such books around.

Katsunami · 10-17-2013, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

I'd say a manual scan, OCR and manual edit and proofread by a dedicated pirate is far more likely. After all, there are thousands upon thousands of such books around.

Then he was actually dedicated enough to name the files "lastname_isbn_cvi.htm" and "lastname_isbn_r1.htm" like the publishers do, and use exactly the same names for CSS classes.

For all intents and purposes, this looks like a retail ebook.

Istvan diVega · 10-17-2013, 09:37 AM

I must have missed that, if it was already mentioned. In that case cortman's scenario is more likely to be correct.

Katsunami · 10-17-2013, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

I must have missed that, if it was already mentioned. In that case cortman's scenario is more likely to be correct.

I didn't mention this specifically, but I did say "Everybody who ever opened an original book, nows the layout of a retail ebook of one of the big publishers". Maybe you've never opened a book with Sigil

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The one you're looking at is likely still available somewhere, though. You can't have jumped through every geo-restrictive hoop out there.

Of course I didn't; Luzme.com also doesn't find the book, and Google knows nothing, except this not-so-legal version.

10-14-2013, 09:14 PM	#1
Katsunami Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,111 Karma: 34000001 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: KPW1, KA1	Strange encounter: An official ebook you can buy nowhere... Today I was checking my bookshelf to see which books I still need to replace with ebook editions (and re-read) so I can give away/sell my paperbacks. I hit a book of which I immediately thought: This is going near the top of my TBR list. (This book I actually have as a hardcover, and wouldn't give it away.) So, I went to some EPUB-shops... and didn't find it. I went to Amazon... and didn't find it. Jumped some geo-restriction hoops into different countries... and didn't find it. Punched it into a search engine, and the first link was a direct download of an EPUB. I expected a crappy OCR version created 10 years ago or something, which is mostly the case with books that are unavailable as ebooks. Imagine my surprise after I opened this download with Sigil. Everybody who ever opened an original book, nows the layout of a retail ebook of one of the big publishers. Layout and markup: absolutely perfect. Dropcaps, graphics: all there (and there are A LOT of them). Metadata: complete, except publisher, and year of publication. This is maybe one of the most perfectly put together ebooks I ever opened up in Sigil. It looks as if it is 100% retail, but it can not be acquired in ANY store I know of, while any search engine finds this book in several not-so-legal places, within mere seconds. How is this possible; a retail ebook that can't actually be bought anywhere?! Could it be that this ebook was published, sold for some time, and later pulled because of some sort of a problem? And now the big problem.... what has been seen, cannot be unseen. I could read the paper book I have on my shelf, but I do have a perfect ebook version that doesn't actually exist... Last edited by Katsunami; 10-14-2013 at 09:25 PM.

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10-16-2013, 09:30 PM	#2
xendula eBookworm Posts: 2,300 Karma: 4525746 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: East Coast brrrrr Device: Kindle 4B/K ~ Nexus 7 ~ Kindle Paperwhite 1&2 ~ iPad Air	Maybe it was published in only one region, like New Zealand? What is the title (Strange encounter?) and who the author?

10-16-2013, 10:22 PM	#3
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,570 Karma: 204127028 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Rights reverting, contracts changed/voided... any number of things can make an ebook that was once available somewhere, unavailable. The one you're looking at is likely still available somewhere, though. You can't have jumped through every geo-restrictive hoop out there.

10-17-2013, 12:03 AM	#4
toddos Guru Posts: 695 Karma: 822675 Join Date: May 2010 Device: Kobo Aura, Nokia Lumia 920 (Freda)	The metadata missing publisher information makes me think this might be a proof copy that leaked and maybe was never eventually published or will be published soon. That happens quite often, for example with the last Wheel of Time book where the ebook version had a windowed release ~3 months after the hardcover but the official retail ebook was leaked on pirate sites two days after the hardcover launched.

10-17-2013, 12:16 AM	#5
Istvan diVega Inharmonious Posts: 416 Karma: 2157616 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Sony PRS-950, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1	There is no shortage of pirate ebooks which far exceed their legal counterparts in quality in every respect. I should think what you've found is one of those.

10-17-2013, 01:01 AM	#6
GeoffR Wizard Posts: 3,821 Karma: 19162882 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Te Riu-a-Māui Device: Kobo Glo	I had The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh on my wishlist at Baen, but I was too slow to press the buy button. Now Baen seems to have lost the rights to sell it to me, and as far as I can tell it is not available for sale anywhere else.

10-17-2013, 08:34 AM	#8
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	I had high hopes when the closed-circle was announced. I thought that I might finally be able to get some of CJ Cherryh's early works such as the Morgaine series, but so far, no such luck. I'm not sure what the issue is.

10-17-2013, 09:05 AM	#9
cortman Zealot Posts: 138 Karma: 1025658 Join Date: Jun 2013 Device: Kobo Glo, Kindle 3 3g, Nook HD+, Nexus 4 (Mantano)	Very odd! The leaked proof idea sounds like the most likely to me, I'd have to say. At any rate, congrats on the nice ebook, lol.

10-17-2013, 09:37 AM	#14
Istvan diVega Inharmonious Posts: 416 Karma: 2157616 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Sony PRS-950, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1	I must have missed that, if it was already mentioned. In that case cortman's scenario is more likely to be correct.

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