Omnibus editions or separate books for Reader content?

[mogui]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Hmm... I'm thinking about creating some really cool feature for Feedbooks in the future: the ability to create lists, like on Amazon, but with another feature too, the ability to turn these lists into a single e-book file.

This way people could create omnibus, reading list etc... Or download a single book if they don't need an omnibus edition.

Great idea! Feedbooks looks good. I like the filters.

Originally Posted by dhbailey

But one thing that the omnibus editions don't allow for is the removing of books already read, thus wasting available storage space, so if there's an omnibus edition of 4 or 5 large books and you're reading the final book, you're still stuck carrying around the first 3 or 4 needlessly.

I actually took my SD card out of my Reader because, though I carry about 20 books at any one time, I am not filling up the Reader's memory. Some day I hope to create a vast library to carry on a 2G SD card when I travel. But I won't insert it until I need it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would have to say though if they are not in order then no to an omnibus. Like say we have book 1,2,4,5 without 3, don't do it. It's ok though if we have 1,2,3,4 and not 5 since they are all in order.

I see nothing wrong with releasing an omnibus and noting that it is missing a book. That's what I did with the "Charlie Chan Omnibus" which was initially missing book 5 out of the 6-book series. When book 5 was released later, I added it into the omnibus and re-issued it. It doesn't really matter in a series like this, because the books, although forming a series, are completely "independent" as far as their stories go. It obviously would be a lot more important in a series where the story is on-going from one book to the next.

It's all down to personal choice, of course, at the end of the day.

[JSWolf]

Yes I agree. It is down to personal choice. And if I was to do an Omnibus, I'd want to do it in order. Of course, if I had 6 books with #5 missing, I could release 1-4 and 6 and if 5 was later obtained, it could be released as a seperate book by the whomever it was who obtained it. I would not have to be the one to get it to add it in.

[athlonkmf]

wow.... omnibus.. haven't heard that term in like 2 decades...

but if you can drop them as chapters in the toc, i don't see any problems with it (I don't know how many levels of chapters LRF can have)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

I don't know how many levels of chapters LRF can have

As many as you want - they are just "hyperlinks" within the file.

The way that I generally arrange my "omnibus" books is to have a "Book Index" at the start, with each book's name being a link to the "Title Page" of that book; the book then has its own contents page with links to its chapters.

That's all set up by hand.

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As many as you want - they are just "hyperlinks" within the file.

The way that I generally arrange my "omnibus" books is to have a "Book Index" at the start, with each book's name being a link to the "Title Page" of that book; the book then has its own contents page with links to its chapters.

That's all set up by hand.

i mean the levels of toc. I know the toc can get very long, but I don't know how LRF supports multivels and how much. (i know there is a "level"-attribute in lrs)

With this I mean something like this:

Collection
---Book 1
---------chapter1
---------chapter2
---------chapter3
---Book 2
---------chapter1
---------chapter2
---------chapter3

[HarryT]

I think we're talking somewhat at cross-purposes. The "Table of Contents" menu item on the Reader simply displays a linear list. That's not what I'm talking about - I'm meaning links WITHIN the book itself. Download one of my books and you'll see what I mean.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

wow.... omnibus.. haven't heard that term in like 2 decades....

The U.S. Congress loves to use the term -- they evidently think it means "as much garbage as can be crammed into a single package which is nominally about something the people actually want to have happen so that they won't squawk too much about all the other rubbish that we've crammed in because this way, at least they're getting one good thing in all the crap."

[Roy White]

I love the omnibuses. Especially on writers I've never heard of. If I read the first one and don't like his writing style I can dump them all at once. If I like the writer. I've got more all ready to go!

You can put a TOC anywhere in a file you want to. I'm currently creating a fully linked Bible. Its taking me a lomg time to say the least. So far I have the New Testament done. With the books on the first page linked. Go say, Ephesians and find the seperate chapters linked there. (I'm not OCD enough to link each verse but I was tempted to...)

I'm working on O.T. now.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

i mean the levels of toc. I know the toc can get very long, but I don't know how LRF supports multivels and how much. (i know there is a "level"-attribute in lrs)

With this I mean something like this:

Collection
---Book 1
---------chapter1
---------chapter2
---------chapter3
---Book 2
---------chapter1
---------chapter2
---------chapter3

Actually like this...

Book 1
Book 2
Book 3

Whatever is in between...

Book 1 ToC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

The actual book...

Book 2 ToC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

The actual book....

Book 3 Toc
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

The actual book...

So the book titles link to each Toc for that book.

[HarryT]

Thanks Jon - a much better explanation than mine!

I think the problem is that we've been talking about different things. The real "TOC" - the thing that the Reader displays on its "Table of Contents" menu item - is just a linear list. What we've been discussing isn't that, but using hyperlinks within the doc to create something like LOOKS like a "traditional" TOC in a paper book. We call it a TOC, but it's not one as far as the Reader is concerned - it's just a bunch of hyperlinks.

[JSWolf]

In the Reader's ToC you have ...
Book1
Book2
Book3
Which then links to the Toc in the book for the specific book's ToC.

[The Alternative]

I love the omnibus editions... as long as someone else does not post each of the separate books later on.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by The Alternative

I love the omnibus editions... as long as someone else does not post each of the separate books later on.

Why does it matter if they do?

If you prefer the omnibus edition, but someone else prefers a separate file, why does it matter to you if someone posts a file separately? You've already got the omnibus - just ignore the later file.

[The Alternative]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why does it matter if they do?

If you prefer the omnibus edition, but someone else prefers a separate file, why does it matter to you if someone posts a file separately? You've already got the omnibus - just ignore the later file.

Because keeping track of over 3000 volumes gets tedious and being a book hound I have the tendency to download EVERYTHING!

I end up with mulitple copies of the same work....
In the omnibus
As a separate lrf file
and sometimes as an illustrated version