Why are some "free" e-books not so free?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Amazon doesn't want people to know they can get free books from places like Project Gutenberg or MobileRead, because they might decide not to buy expensive books from Amazon -- and it's probable that they're selling their reader for, at best, their cost; possibly below cost. They're giving away the razor and selling the blades, and they don't want their users finding cheaper blades somewhere else.

Really?
Suprising they have a page like this then.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I would pay a buck or two for good formatting and proofreading of a public domain book. The problem is, how do you know before buying, if the book has good formatting and has been proofread?

Check out the mobileread ebooks section or the ones over at feedbooks. They tend to be very well formatted.

As far as Amazon goes, I'd recommend "sampling" the book before buying. But I always hit up mobileread and feedbooks first.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I would pay a buck or two for good formatting and proofreading of a public domain book. The problem is, how do you know before buying, if the book has good formatting and has been proofread?

Sampling aside, it might also help to get books from the same "line", if the re-packager makes a habit of adding proper formatting to the free texts as a value-add, like I've heard the MobileReference people who sell on Amazon do. It won't quite be a guarantee of quality, but probably the closest thing you'll get to one, provided the "publisher" is consistent.

As an example, B&N's Barnes and Noble Classics line is very good and mostly $1.99 each. They do these really nice annotated editions with lengthy bonus introductions and essays by university-type people. There was a major promotion over the summer where they gave away over 100 of them, and you can still get 12 free just for downloading and installing their NookStudy app if you'd like to try them out.

However, they're not immune to the occasional typo. I saw "hght" instead of "light" once in their version of Frankenstein. But most of their Classics editions that I've read have only had 3-4 visible typos, max, and B&N do have an official thread on their discussion boards for people to tell them about e-book errors so they can fix stuff.

And the B&N Classics selection is limited to some 200 books that are basically the ones by famous/critically-adored authors with commercial/literary-course appeal, so if the book you're looking for is not one of them, you're out of luck. Though the companion B&N Essential Reading series expands the selection somewhat, but without the nifty extras (although every volume is supposed to have a specially written introduction by some relevant person).

But aside from that, I think they probably make the best-formatted versions of the classics that you can get by paying the lowest price, if you're not relying purely on the kindness of strangers who take the time to hand-format stuff for free.

[boxcorner]

I have enjoyed reading all the interesting comments in this thread and I hope some others will contribute. Meanwhile ...

Originally Posted by ATDrake

... There was a major promotion over the summer where they gave away over 100 of them, and you can still get 12 free just for downloading and installing their NookStudy app if you'd like to try them out ...

... this looks interesting, but it's a pity they don't support Linux.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

... this looks interesting, but it's a pity they don't support Linux.

In which case, you're in luck if you're willing to do some minor hoop-jumping. The B&N DRM is the easiest of all to liberate and only requires Python; no extra software that needs to be installed on another platform, unlike the other types. You do not actually need to install NookStudy to get the 12 promo classics, only download the installer file so that they'll automatically send you to the "thanks for downloading, now here are the links to 'purchase' your free books on our website!" page afterwards.

The B&N website is slightly more unforgiving, and requires a US billing/shipping address (not necessarily yours) entered into the account, a credit card # (must be valid, but will not actually be charged) for their social DRM scheme which uses it and your name as the unlock code on the not-unreasonable assumption that you'd be less likely to pass it around, and a US-based IP-address, or VPN proxy thereby.

If the liberation process sounds like a bother or you do not feel comfortable with its questionable legality in your area, B&N give you an extra 3 B&N Classics DRM-free in the ePub format (Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Dracula) just for signing up an account with them, for which you probably only need the US IP-address when you download the files directly from their site.

They really are very nice editions and well worth it.

[elemenoP]

ATDrake, yes a "line" of them is exactly what I'm hoping for. I did snag a bunch of those B&N editions when they were free this summer. I confess, I haven't actually *read* any of them yet, but I took a look and they look good. Not sure if I love or hate all the footnotes (for definitions of words we don't use much anymore). They are well-formatted (you can easily jump to footnote and back to text) but there are so *many* of them, they seem like they would interrupt my reading. I won't know until I try to read one, maybe I will get used to it and my eyes will gloss over them. I can see where it would be great for students. I will give them a shot!

eP

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

In which case, you're in luck if you're willing to do some minor hoop-jumping ...

Thanks for the tip. Currently, I don't feel very inclined to spend time hoop-jumping, nor money obtaining e-books, no matter how good they are, all the while there are ones available that are genuinely freely available elsewhere. I might change my mind later, of course, if I find something that's particularly tempting. I have mostly read non-friction in the past - probably way too many technical/reference books - so now I'm retired and have bought my first e-book reader, I look forward to reading more fiction - especially some of the great classics that I've missed.