Very Happy with Baen (no longer disappointed)

[wmrawls]

Not sure if anyone else has commented on this but I was downloading some new items from Baen today and noticed they now offer the Kindle format.
I had sent a couple of e-mails to them asking if they were considering the Sony Format but never heard anything back from them....

[PamG]

Baen supplies DRM free ebooks only.

If you want a book for your Sony reader frpm Baen download it in RTF.

Kindle, when the DRM is unwrapped, is Mobipocket which Amazon bought about 2 years ago.

[wallcraft]

So far as I know, Baen's Kindle format is the same as their MOBI format (which was recently updated - partially in response to the Kindle). Given their existing infrastructure, supporting the Kindle is probably much easier than supporting Sony.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by PamG

Baen supplies DRM free ebooks only.

What's that got to do with the price of fish?

Baen could supply books in Sony's DRM-free format, LRF.

If you want a book for your Sony reader frpm Baen download it in RTF.

Not a very satisfactory solution, since that way you'd lose the pictures. Converting the LIT versions would be much better, but it would be nice if Baen did it for people.

[wmrawls]

HarryT you took the words right out of my fingers.....in fact I did get a response from Baen today.....and they indicated the same thing as PamG and I basically responded with the same comments as yours......RTF is like using MS Notepad instead of MS Word....It gets the job done but its not nearly a nice a ride. And I have been downloading the books in MS lit and converting as a work around to get the "Quality" I want. In the free download section I take what I can get, if I pay for the book I want all the bells and whistles.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by wmrawls

Not sure if anyone else has commented on this but I was downloading some new items from Baen today and noticed they now offer the Kindle format.
I had sent a couple of e-mails to them asking if they were considering the Sony Format but never heard anything back from them....

I personally have read through most of their Free e-books on my Sony Reader, and when I go shopping for some serious hardcore military Sci-Fi they are my first choice.

They have THE best format for Sony Reader.
Nice, plain, well formated rtf file *without* the DRM crap.
You see, the Reader can - unlike Kindle - read txt or rtf of pdf files directly, without conversion.
You can load rtf file directly to you reader, or, even better, you can load it into OpenOffice.org Writer or other word processor (like MS Word), format it to your taste and save as rtf file. That is what *I* personally like to do.

[NatCh]

If you don't want anything fancy, it's a simple matter to bounce the RTF file into BookDesigner (once you get BD set up the way you want it) and get an LRF file out of it, with pix, cover, meta-data, etc., and ~half the size of the RTF, to boot.

That's what I like to do with Baen books.

[bkilian]

Originally Posted by NatCh

If you don't want anything fancy, it's a simple matter to bounce the RTF file into BookDesigner (once you get BD set up the way you want it) and get an LRF file out of it, with pix, cover, meta-data, etc., and ~half the size of the RTF, to boot.

That's what I like to do with Baen books.

Book Designer just doesn't do it for me. It requires far too much tweaking per book. I just use libprs500's any2lrf feature, and download the .lit files. that way I get the right metadata, all the images, and I can automate the whole thing with some judicious batch file scripting.

When I convert other books, I do them in OEBPS style, with HTML and a .opf with the metadata.

I have to admit that every so often Baen screws up a book. The .LIT for "New Amsterdam" is full of line breaks in the middle of sentences, which drives me nuts. Sometimes I go in and fix their book in my archive.

[JSWolf]

The RTF should be fairly easy to convert with Book Designer for the ones that have a problem with the line endings.

[bkilian]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The RTF should be fairly easy to convert with Book Designer for the ones that have a problem with the line endings.

Sure, but it shouldn't be _my_ job to fix the formatting on an e-book I paid for. It's not my conversion either, all version of the book suffer the same nastiness.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kacir

I personally have read through most of their Free e-books on my Sony Reader, and when I go shopping for some serious hardcore military Sci-Fi they are my first choice.

They have THE best format for Sony Reader.
Nice, plain, well formated rtf file *without* the DRM crap.
You see, the Reader can - unlike Kindle - read txt or rtf of pdf files directly, without conversion.
You can load rtf file directly to you reader, or, even better, you can load it into OpenOffice.org Writer or other word processor (like MS Word), format it to your taste and save as rtf file. That is what *I* personally like to do.

The problem, however, with using RTF is that the Reader doesn't display the pictures. Many Baen books have things like maps in. IMHO you're losing significant content by losing them.

[astra]

I agree with those who think that RTF is a better choice for Sony Reader.

The only and most important reason is that you are not getting locked into a proprietary Sony format forever. The RTf you download from Baen will be your book for a very long time. If you decide to switch to a different reader in the future, all you have to do is convert RTF to anything your new reader can understand.
So, even if there is a logic behind

it shouldn't be _my_ job to fix the formatting on an e-book I paid for

I believe you get more value for your money when you download RTF instead of LRF.

As far as complexity of creating books in BD. It might as simple as:
1. Start BD
2. Open RTF file in BD.
3. Go to Make eBooks/Sony Reader (lrf).
3a. In a Make Sony Reader file go to styles tab and set paragraph font size (if you like the output you will skip this step in the future).
4. click on make button.

Done.

Anyone who has enough knowledge to log in to this forum, post and edit their own posts over here, will have no problems to follow the instructions above and it will take no more than 5 minutes and after that you have 3 things: RTF for future. Last File folder with html0 file for future as well and LRF file for today.

Just 5 additional minutes gives you so much more for let's say $5 you paid for RTF than if you paid the same $5 for LRF.

I am not mentioning that any lrf files they or anyone else are going to sell or are selling right now could have a terrible formating that you might hate, with huge margins, small font etc., however, when you create lrf in BD by yourself, an additional ...maybe 20-30 minutes just one time "set-and-forget" settings such as margins and a few other bits will make your reading experience so much more satisfactory! (although it is not necessary and even default BD settings are very good.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra

I agree with those who think that RTF is a better choice for Sony Reader.

It's an excellent choice for downloading for long-term storage, and for creating other reading formats from, I completely agree with you. I always download RTF Baen books myself for that purpose. It is best to convert to LRF from it, however, rather than reading it "raw". That way you get the benefits of pictures, table of contents, etc.

[igorsk]

IMO converting the LIT file to LRF with lit2lrf is much easier and faster. It also keeps the proper TOC and metadata.

[astra]

Originally Posted by igorsk

IMO converting the LIT file to LRF with lit2lrf is much easier and faster. It also keeps the proper TOC and metadata.

When you convert LIT with BD, BD sometimes assumes that verses or sign posts or shouting in capital letters are titles or subtitles and makes appropriate changes. It is easy to repair in BD. How does it work with lit2lrf? Is it "smarter" than BD?