how to check if a legit epub exists for a given title

[stumped]

apologies if this is not the best forum for the question

is there any simple way to find out of a given title exists as an legitimate, available to buy epub ( i.e. to exclude pirated scans etc from the search results)
googling " book title epub" gives mostly dodgy site hits

my proxy search is to see if amazon sell a Kindle version but is there a better way ?

if a title does not exist in any e-book format, what is the legality / ethics of owning both a paper version and a downloaded scan. as I'm not willing to scan & compile several hundred individual pages myself ?

an example test case: Julian Jay Savarin: Waiters on the Dance. I have the hardback in the attic somewhere. There is no Kindle version. google search results look well dodgy.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by stumped

apologies if this is not the best forum for the question

is there any simple way to find out of a given title exists as an legitimate, available to buy epub ( i.e. to exclude pirated scans etc from the search results)
googling " book title epub" gives mostly dodgy site hits

my proxy search is to see if amazon sell a Kindle version but is there a better way ?

if a title does not exist in any e-book format, what is the legality / ethics of owning both a paper version and a downloaded scan. as I'm not willing to scan & compile several hundred individual pages myself ?

an example test case: Julian Jay Savarin: Waiters on the Dance. I have the hardback in the attic somewhere. There is no Kindle version. google search results look well dodgy.

I think every country has a different way to see the legal issue.
In Italy you can not scan your book, because it is not "your book", you only have a right to read it. Also, scanning, you are creating a new version of the book, the digital version, and you can not.
Btw, you can digitalize a vinyl, for backup, but you can not download a digital copy made from another person.

[BetterRed]

@stumped - try Calibre Library Manager Get Books, sample attached

BR

[stumped]

thanks - tried that for the book in question - no joy
I had a faint hope that there might be some central registry that issued ISBNs or some such, and thus could be checked for the(theoretical) existence of an epub, rather than working through a list of stores. For Julian Jay Savarin - Amazon do have 4 titles in kindle format but he's written many more that appear to be paper/hard back only

[BetterRed]

Did you try isbndb.com - maybe that book has never been published in digital form - seems to me most books (over all time) haven't.

BR

[stumped]

ok - woitrh a try - so sticking with my original example. that site gives me
Waiters on the dance.
Savarin, Julian Jay
Publisher: Arlington Books
ISBN10: 0851401996 ISBN13: 9780851401997 DDC: 813 LCC: PZ4.S2663 Edition: ;

i can't see how that helps clarify if an ebook version exists
testing with another book by same author, which I have from Kindle lending ibrary- nothing in the isbndb entry below suggests that the kindle book exists ?
A cold rain in Berlin
Savarin, Julian Jay
Publisher: Severn House
ISBN10: 0727858920 ISBN13: 9780727858924 DDC: 823.914 Edition: �18.99
here's the amazon link to the kindle book
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...rain+in+berlin

[BetterRed]

My memory is that isbn.com lists the stores where the book can be had in a sidebar on the right of the book details. I've only used it to track down 2nd hand copies of print editions.

Overdrive is another possibility - other than that I can't think of anything else apart from the obvious.

BR

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by stumped

I had a faint hope that there might be some central registry that issued ISBNs or some such, and thus could be checked for the(theoretical) existence of an epub

There's no such central register. Indeed, there isn't even a central register of ISBNs - every country has it's own range of ISBNs and manages it locally.

But the practical approach is that if it isn't in one of the major stores, and doesn't turn up in an author-run store via a google search, then there isn't a legitimate ebook version.

[JSWolf]

You can always look on Goodreads to see if an eBook version might exist.

[stumped]

Ok thanks guys. I am pretty sure this specific book is still buried somethere in the attic. The question was partly a learning exercise, for future book hunts

[Krazykiwi]

Your two best possiblities are Worldcat and Goodreads.

Worldcat is populated by libraries, and it's a whole lot of libraries. So if the book you want has ever been in a library, anywhere, it's going to have a listing on Worldcat. Of course library access to ebooks is much more hit and miss, but Worldcat is pretty comprehensive. For instance, Stockholm University is hooked up (as are a lot, I'm just using that school because I'm familiar with it), and they are subscribers to a lot of publisher databases of ebooks directly. So a lot of books get in that way.

The reason Goodreads is a good possibility is because among all it's other data sources are the same Ingram ONIX data feeds that bookstores/libraries etc use to feed the catalogues they order from. Unlike bookstores, which are only interested in books currently for sale, GR keeps all the records even when something has been removed from the catalogues. So again, if it's ever been in the Ingram catalogues, it should be in Goodreads.

Finally if it's been released but only on Amazon, you're out of luck if it's no longer for sale, since they don't use ISBN's. But Amazon is always worth searching anyway, I guess. In particular, if you're in the US, try Amazon.com.au or .uk (or even .de) - publishing rights are sold on a territory basis, and it may only be available on one of the stores.

There's caveats of course. Just because it's in none of those places still doesn't mean it's never been released. Ebooks obviously aren't pre-ISBN, but it could still be on a small press etc, that has never been in a library or published in a way that got it into the Ingram feeds. And even then, there are libraries that aren't connected to Worldcat, and days when the ONIX feed is busted or doing weird things like assigning authorship of 100 novels to an obscure Finnish neuroscientist (I've really seen it do that!) It's a data feed, but it's populated by humans, probably interns working at the publishers, so it's prone to human error.

For anyone finding this and looking for info about paper books, I'd add Abebooks. It's by far the most complete second hand book place and since the data comes from sellers all over, and they also don't remove books that they currently have no stock of, if it's ever <i>been</i> sold, it's probably at least listed there.

[maddz]

According to the LibraryThing entry for that work, there are the following editions with ISBNs recorded:

Lemmus Volume 1: Waiters on the Dance/Savarin, Julian Jay/ISBN 0552101087 (paperback)
Waiters on the dance/Savarin, Julian Jay/ISBN 0312854161 (hardcover)

There are some editions with no ISBN recorded as well.

The internet speculative fiction database (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi) records two hardcovers and one paperback, so it looks like there is no legitimate ebook (epub or otherwise). (The ISFDB does record ebook versions - I've checked.)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There's no such central register. Indeed, there isn't even a central register of ISBNs - every country has it's own range of ISBNs and manages it locally.

But the practical approach is that if it isn't in one of the major stores, and doesn't turn up in an author-run store via a google search, then there isn't a legitimate ebook version.

This is the solution that I use, and even this isn't completely reliable since Amazon seem to operate on a trust system, i.e. they don't go out of their way to validate if the person uploading the ebook has the actual rights to the book. But the vast majority of times, dodgy ebooks get removed as soon as someone complains about it.

You pays your money, you take your chances.

[barryem]

I once wanted an ebook and after lots of searching I found a site, whose link I've since lost, that was willing to scan it for me and send me the PDF, formatted for the Kindle page size. I bought a paperback and sent it to them and they did return the PDF. It was full of page images, not flowing text, and some pages were just a bit crooked but it was entirely readable.

I wish I could give a link but I remember at the time finding a few such sites so it shouldn't be difficult to find. I don't recall the price either but I think it was about $5. I probably wouldn't have paid too much more than that, not being sure what I'd get back.

I realize I'm not giving any specific help here but it is another avenue to pursue.

By the way the one problem I had with that was that the page was formatted slightly large for the Kindle. I think they missed it by about half an inch. I was still able to read it easily. I could get a full page with smaller margins without having to reduce the text. It was far from perfect but I've gotten much worse from commercial ebooks.

Barry

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by barryem

I once wanted an ebook and after lots of searching I found a site, whose link I've since lost, that was willing to scan it for me and send me the PDF, formatted for the Kindle page size. I bought a paperback and sent it to them and they did return the PDF. It was full of page images, not flowing text, and some pages were just a bit crooked but it was entirely readable.

I wish I could give a link but I remember at the time finding a few such sites so it shouldn't be difficult to find. I don't recall the price either but I think it was about $5. I probably wouldn't have paid too much more than that, not being sure what I'd get back.

I realize I'm not giving any specific help here but it is another avenue to pursue.

By the way the one problem I had with that was that the page was formatted slightly large for the Kindle. I think they missed it by about half an inch. I was still able to read it easily. I could get a full page with smaller margins without having to reduce the text. It was far from perfect but I've gotten much worse from commercial ebooks.

Barry

I believe the site was/is 1dollarscan. That is a good way to go if you really want an electronic edition. Buy the papercopy, have it mailed to the scanners, they chop and scan and voila, you end up with an ecopy. If you search out 1dollarscan or Onedollarscan, I believe there were some threads that gave a lot of info about the whole process.