"If you purchased this book without a cover..."

[ownedbycats]

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

I usually get a chuckle when I purchase an eBook and see this warning at the beginning.

It's especially funny when the publisher hasn't bothered to embed the cover into the file.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I usually get a chuckle when I purchase an eBook and see this warning at the beginning.

It's especially funny when the publisher hasn't bothered to embed the cover into the file.

Contact the publisher and tell them that they may be selling an illegal eBook since it doesn't have a proper cover. I would love to find out what they have to say.

[Quoth]

It is of course the idea of tearing off covers or newspaper masts in the shop, sending those back, getting a refund and dumping the book or paper. So a book without an original cover might have been stolen trash or part of a scam.

Stupidity to leave it in the ebook version.

And of course it might not have the original cover because it came off. It's as stupid as the forced viewing of anti-piracy adverts on VHS, DVD and BD. I doubt either has any measurable impact on piracy.
There is nothing illegal about buying a book without a cover. If there was a refund, then the SELLER is committing fraud by selling or giving away the book, without or with a replacement cover. The buyer can't be expected to know in advance. So it's abusive.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It is of course the idea of tearing off covers or newspaper masts in the shop, sending those back, getting a refund and dumping the book or paper. So a book without an original cover might have been stolen trash or part of a scam.

Stupidity to leave it in the ebook version.

And of course it might not have the original cover because it came off. It's as stupid as the forced viewing of anti-piracy adverts on VHS, DVD and BD. I doubt either has any measurable impact on piracy.
There is nothing illegal about buying a book without a cover. If there was a refund, then the SELLER is committing fraud by selling or giving away the book, without or with a replacement cover. The buyer can't be expected to know in advance. So it's abusive.

Stripping (for refund) has been an industry practice for a long time. It avoids $hipping the books back. LP records had the practice of 'cut out' (they drilled a hole in the corner of the jacket and put them in the discount bin. Again, avoids expensive shipping of an item that would not sell .
The Notice (print version) informs the purchaser they have been warned that they might be an accessory to fraud.

I agree, just plain LAZY to not remove it from an e-version that never had a 'stripable cover'

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

Stripping (for refund) has been an industry practice for a long time. It avoids $hipping the books back. LP records had the practice of 'cut out' (they drilled a hole in the corner of the jacket and put them in the discount bin. Again, avoids expensive shipping of an item that would not sell .
The Notice (print version) informs the purchaser they have been warned that they might be an accessory to fraud.

I agree, just plain LAZY to not remove it from an e-version that never had a 'stripable cover'

The cover is a lot of cases has already been stripped. That's why there is no proper cover on a lot of eBooks. There's no reason a new book should not have a proper cover for the eBook version. It's just the publisher being a cheap shite.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The cover is a lot of cases has already been stripped. That's why there is no proper cover on a lot of eBooks. There's no reason a new book should not have a proper cover for the eBook version. It's just the publisher being a cheap shite.

With older books, it is a 'rights' issue to use the cover. The contract may not have included the non-existent format (e-book) at the time. Either the rights owner is unavailable or wants more $$$ (estates/heirs in many cases).
Hmmm they want another 1x for ebook rights. what they got is 0
But I agree. CHEAP factors in there

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

With older books, it is a 'rights' issue to use the cover. The contract may not have included the non-existent format (e-book) at the time. Either the rights owner is unavailable or wants more $$$ (estates/heirs in many cases).
Hmmm they want another 1x for ebook rights. what they got is 0
But I agree. CHEAP factors in there

I know the rights may not be there for the covers on older books when made into eBooks. But for current eBooks, there's no reason for not having the rights to use the cover.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Contact the publisher and tell them that they may be selling an illegal eBook since it doesn't have a proper cover. I would love to find out what they have to say.

I am tempted to, just to see what they say.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I am tempted to, just to see what they say.

Another thing I'd like to know is why do they try to format eBooks to look like pBooks when in most cases, it doesn't work because they are two different mediums and should be formatted for how they look best in each medium.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another thing I'd like to know is why do they try to format eBooks to look like pBooks when in most cases, it doesn't work because they are two different mediums and should be formatted for how they look best in each medium.

I used the word before: LAZY

They just convert their Print source with the least possible additional effort . MORE PROFIT

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

I used the word before: LAZY

They just convert their Print source with the least possible additional effort . MORE PROFIT

I forget which eBook,but I sometime in 2021, I removed unused CSS and had just over 500 classes removed. Now that's really lazy.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I forget which eBook,but I sometime in 2021, I removed unused CSS and had just over 500 classes removed. Now that's really lazy.

Yep: Many (self pub?) omnibus just used something like the EPUBMERGE plugin found in Calibre .
No attempt for a consistent style (FWIW it took me less than an hour to do that edit and I am not a PRO)

[ownedbycats]

I remember once opening an ePub i bought and finding that there was a undeclared thumbs.db inside it. Did they just zip it up and rename to ePub?

[haertig]

I change the covers on my eBooks all the time. They usually come with a cover embedded, but it may not be the one I want in the event of a series. Often times a particular book has multiple covers available. If possible, I want the entire series to have similar looking covers, so I can easily spot in Caliber that it is a series.

I often times search Google for "image book cover title_of_the_book" to bring up several choices, if the choice I wanted was not displayed when Caliber originally downloaded the metadata.

e.g., I recently re-skinned all my "Science Fiction Masterworks" books to have covers of this style:

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by haertig

I change the covers on my eBooks all the time. They usually come with a cover embedded, but it may not be the one I want in the event of a series. Often times a particular book has multiple covers available. If possible, I want the entire series to have similar looking covers, so I can easily spot in Caliber that it is a series.

I often times search Google for "image book cover title_of_the_book" to bring up several choices, if the choice I wanted was not displayed when Caliber originally downloaded the metadata.

e.g., I recently re-skinned all my "Science Fiction Masterworks" books to have covers of this style:

For series books where i have both physical books and eBooks with different cover styles (or even worse, generic publisher covers), I replace the eBook covers so they match better.