Tor offers free weekly books if you sign up - Page 5

JSWolf · 02-15-2008, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

Those are character pairs that "kern" together in some fonts (are replaced by special combined characters). Has anyone tried pdftohtml yet? I got my email but haven't had time to download and test conversion.

yes, I did try it. Didn't do all that nicely. It's the way they did the graphics that really messes this conversion up.

pdflrfwin works rather well actually.

Not sure if I am still going to continue with Book Designer.

DMcCunney · 02-15-2008, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

This is true, but at the same time I wish there was an easy way to give feedback on the files. I wouldn't really expect Sony files or anything, but I'm kinda surprised they aren't offering it in the four somewhat standard formats that everyone else offers (lit, pdf, Mobi & eReader).

Give them time. They're still in the process of getting a clue.

Quote:

That said I'm glad they're doing something & would love to see them hit the ebook market full force. Tor has many books I want to be able to buy. I just hope they handle things differently than MacMillan (they're parent company) has handled ebook releases for some of their other "labels".

Technically, Tor's parent company is the Holtzbrink Group in Germany, who bought Macmillan back in 1995.

Tor is at least trying -- they have a deal to offer electronic content over Baen's Webscriptions program.

That took a bit of doing. Tom Doherty, CEO and Publisher at Tor, was Jim Baen's former boss when both were at Ace Books, and they stayed in touch and stayed friends when Jim moved on to form Baen. Tom is one of the savviest guys in publishing, saw what Jim was doing, and realized there was an opportunity. Tor didn't have the infrastructure in place, so Tom cut a deal with Jim to offer Tor content through Baen's Webscriptions program. It got the the point where both Tor and Baen announced it. Then someone at Holtzbrink realized the offered content would not be protected by DRM, and pulled the plug. Cue much annoyance all around. (I know Tom Doherty a bit. I can just imagine his reaction, and am glad I wasn't in the area when it occurred...)

Holtzbrink eventually reversed its opposition, and the deal is up an running. I understand Holtzbrink got a new CEO who is against DRM, which doubtless helped.

But meanwhile, getting traditional publishers involved in ebooks is a "one step forward, two steps back" proposition. I'll take whatever progress I can get.
______
Dennis

IceHand · 02-15-2008, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gwynevans

I did the same & found that it seemed to drop a certain sequences of chars, so "fly" became, "y", "flat" became "at", "field" became "eld", etc - Odd...

Hm, I used Mobipocket Creator and it didn't drop the ligatures -- try again using the utf-8 encoding and use a font that has ligatures. I use Palatino Linotype on my Cybook (if you have Windows XP it should be in your fonts folder).
I spent an hour creating a nicely formatted Mobi file, but unfortunately it's not allowed to post it here, right?

gwynevans · 02-15-2008, 02:57 PM

That's probably it - I went with the default, which I think was one of the Windows encodings. I'll remember for next time, but I've found most of them by now, while adding other tweaks & have created a Sony file, but again, probably not a postable one (~1.3MB is the other reason, what with the graphics!)

JSWolf · 02-15-2008, 03:22 PM

Mobipocket Creator bungled up the paragraphs pretty good. The only thing that actually worked was using Adobe Acrobat to output it as HTML 4.01 with CSS. I have yet to format it though with Book Designer.

AnemicOak · 02-15-2008, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Tor is at least trying -- they have a deal to offer electronic content over Baen's Webscriptions program...

...Holtzbrink eventually reversed its opposition, and the deal is up an running...

So you're saying the old deal is for sure on again? I've read rumors over the past few months, but nothing concrete. Besides that first run of stuff they did in '06 (which I missed & you can't buy anymore darn it) and 'Off Armageddon Reef' (for $18) Webscriptions still has nothing from Tor & there's been no info on The Bar. Have you heard, are they planning new content through Webscriptions or will it be sold through Tor.com?

Kingston · 02-15-2008, 05:14 PM

A question about the second volume in this trilogy. Is it available in digital format? I don't see either 'The Final Empire' or 'The Well of Ascension' listed on Amazon except in tree-book format.

I don't want to get into reading volume one and have to read volume two in hardback.

Anybody got any news about volume two?

AnemicOak · 02-15-2008, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingston

A question about the second volume in this trilogy. Is it available in digital format? I don't see either 'The Final Empire' or 'The Well of Ascension' listed on Amazon except in tree-book format.

I don't want to get into reading volume one and have to read volume two in hardback.

Anybody got any news about volume two?

At this point, if it's from Tor it's more than likely not available in e-format. They have a few things out, but not much. This new website would seem to indicate things will be changing in the coming months, but not yet.

carandol · 02-15-2008, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

At this point, if it's from Tor it's more than likely not available in e-format. They have a few things out, but not much. This new website would seem to indicate things will be changing in the coming months, but not yet.

By the way they keep saying "Watch the Skies" I'd assumed their books are going to be projected onto clouds in my area sometime soon!

JSWolf · 02-15-2008, 08:09 PM

Has anyone yet made a decent conversion with proper paragraphs and graphics?

Lemurion · 02-15-2008, 08:49 PM

I haven't-- am more than a little disappointed at how it turned out-- I had really high hopes that were dashed as soon as I saw "PDF" in the email.

tobiasj · 02-15-2008, 08:58 PM

I opened it in Acrobat 8 pro and saved it as HTML and it looked great, no problem with the missing fl and fi and images worked well. From there it went right into Book Designer and will only take a little formating (of the images mostly) and a TOC. (this was due to the way BD handled the HTML because it looked perfect in IE before the import and the TOC worked in HTML)
(the trial version of 8 Pro works great for this as well as the full version which I have.)

-John

JSWolf · 02-15-2008, 09:31 PM

I'm now up to Chapter 11 in my formatting with Book Designer. I'm making this look as close to the PDF as I can.

Cthulhu · 02-16-2008, 01:51 AM

As one of the greedier and lazier members here, I'd like to ask a question:

Is it illegal or immoral for me to ask a more knowledgeable member for a more PRS-500 friendly copy of this file?

I'm on the list, so I have the .pdf, but my conversion skills are paltry (and my five year old likes to lock up with Acrobat) so I'm in the market for a tarted up copy of the freebies.

Sorry to be standing here with my tentacle out...

@ Dennis: do you happen to know anybody at McGraw-Hill? There are a number of International Marine reference texts I'd love to have in digital format.

DMcCunney · 02-16-2008, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

@ Dennis: do you happen to know anybody at McGraw-Hill? There are a number of International Marine reference texts I'd love to have in digital format.

I know a number of folks at Tor, and some folks at other houses, but my contacts are mainly in the SF/Fantasy sides of the houses. I don't think I know anyone at McGraw Hill in the reference area.

If I find out anything, or learn who to push the concept to, I'll see what I might do. What specifically did you have in mind?
______
Dennis

02-15-2008, 08:58 PM	#72
tobiasj surrounded by books Posts: 40 Karma: 11 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Michigan Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle HDX, PRS-500, PRS-505, Rocket e-book	I opened it in Acrobat 8 pro and saved it as HTML and it looked great, no problem with the missing fl and fi and images worked well. From there it went right into Book Designer and will only take a little formating (of the images mostly) and a TOC. (this was due to the way BD handled the HTML because it looked perfect in IE before the import and the TOC worked in HTML) (the trial version of 8 Pro works great for this as well as the full version which I have.) -John Last edited by tobiasj; 02-15-2008 at 09:02 PM.

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02-15-2008, 02:57 PM	#64
gwynevans Wizzard Posts: 1,402 Karma: 2000000 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: UK Device: iPad 2, iPhone 6s, Kindle Voyage & Kindle PaperWhite	That's probably it - I went with the default, which I think was one of the Windows encodings. I'll remember for next time, but I've found most of them by now, while adding other tweaks & have created a Sony file, but again, probably not a postable one (~1.3MB is the other reason, what with the graphics!)

02-15-2008, 03:22 PM	#65
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,782 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Mobipocket Creator bungled up the paragraphs pretty good. The only thing that actually worked was using Adobe Acrobat to output it as HTML 4.01 with CSS. I have yet to format it though with Book Designer.

02-15-2008, 05:14 PM	#67
Kingston Addict Posts: 238 Karma: 834 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: SW Tennessee Device: Kindle, Iliad v2 & v1,Gen 3 from NAEB, Sony PRS-505, Jetbook	A question about the second volume in this trilogy. Is it available in digital format? I don't see either 'The Final Empire' or 'The Well of Ascension' listed on Amazon except in tree-book format. I don't want to get into reading volume one and have to read volume two in hardback. Anybody got any news about volume two?

02-15-2008, 08:09 PM	#70
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,782 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Has anyone yet made a decent conversion with proper paragraphs and graphics?

02-15-2008, 08:49 PM	#71
Lemurion eReader Posts: 2,750 Karma: 4968470 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Note 5; PW3; Nook HD+; ChuWi Hi12; iPad	I haven't-- am more than a little disappointed at how it turned out-- I had really high hopes that were dashed as soon as I saw "PDF" in the email.

02-15-2008, 09:31 PM	#73
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,782 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I'm now up to Chapter 11 in my formatting with Book Designer. I'm making this look as close to the PDF as I can.

02-16-2008, 01:51 AM	#74
Cthulhu Technologist Posts: 488 Karma: 585237 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: I'm between Cities Device: SONY Reader PRS-500	As one of the greedier and lazier members here, I'd like to ask a question: Is it illegal or immoral for me to ask a more knowledgeable member for a more PRS-500 friendly copy of this file? I'm on the list, so I have the .pdf, but my conversion skills are paltry (and my five year old likes to lock up with Acrobat) so I'm in the market for a tarted up copy of the freebies. Sorry to be standing here with my tentacle out... @ Dennis: do you happen to know anybody at McGraw-Hill? There are a number of International Marine reference texts I'd love to have in digital format.