Neptune Crossing - Jeffrey A. Carver

[JSWolf]

Jeffery, here is one of the pages of the book formatted for the Sony Reader with no margins. I think it looks good as is. But if you'd rather have some sort of smallish margin, I can do that too.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Jeffery, here is one of the pages of the book formatted for the Sony Reader with no margins. I think it looks good as is. But if you'd rather have some sort of smallish margin, I can do that too.

Jon, margins please. There is nothing more difficult for my old eyes than not having some margin around the text on my Sony Reader. I know people complain about the margins that Sony gives with its formatting, but I like it because it helps make the text readable. Smaller margins than what Sony does are fine, but please, not border to border of the screen.

[badgoodDeb]

Agreed -- I need margins, though small is fine.

Speaking as a Kindle user.

[Moe The Cat]

Another vote for margins, and another $5.00 for the tipjar.

Thanks, Jeffrey. Looking forward to the rest of the series being posted.

[JSWolf]

I'm attaching a sample of Neptune Crossing to show off the margins. How does it look now? The test sample is only the first 17 pages.

My idea is to have this offered in both a version with no margins and a version with some margins. That would satisfy most people. Then they can choose which edition they like better.

[Robotech_Master]

I spent my evening fine-tuning the conversion of the eReader version. Added the cover image, marked up the chapter headers, added smart quotes, added paragraph spacing for readability. I didn't quite anticipate how long it was going to take when I got started, and annoyingly often found myself having to go back and recompile for little glitches when I thought I was finished.

Still, I think it looks pretty awesome now.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm attaching a sample of Neptune Crossing to show off the margins. How does it look now? The test sample is only the first 17 pages.

My idea is to have this offered in both a version with no margins and a version with some margins. That would satisfy most people. Then they can choose which edition they like better.

With margins definitely looks better to me. Even on my tiny PDA screen, I need a little margin for readability. Will the chapter listing be clickable in the ToC?

Couple of other things:

Is there the option, as in Mobi, to have the text unjustified -- but the reader can select justification as desired? I find that preferable to forced justification. (If not, then the way you have it is fine. Except at the very end, where the "Continued in Book Two..." line got all squished out because of the justification. Those two lines should be centered.)

Finally, unless you find it too annoying, I've added in the other formats a reminder at the very very end that the reader could make a Paypal contribution. If you wouldn't mind adding that, you could take it from the most recent RTF or html version that I uploaded. (It includes a link.)

Thanks again for doing this.

I'm not sure about having two LRF versions up; my download page is already looking pretty cluttered, with a PDF for big screen and a PDF that reflows for small screen, and update info. (I made the extra effort with the two PDFs even though I dislike PDF--because PDF downloads are vastly outnumbering all other formats.)

Jeff

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

I spent my evening fine-tuning the conversion of the eReader version. Added the cover image, marked up the chapter headers, added smart quotes, added paragraph spacing for readability. I didn't quite anticipate how long it was going to take when I got started, and annoyingly often found myself having to go back and recompile for little glitches when I thought I was finished.

Your last sentence pretty well summarizes my last week.

I just got home, and will look at your version shortly and report back.

Oh, and--thank you, all of you who have been dropping tips in the tips jar! You really are giving ebook readers a good name!

[thianliongpatpoh]

I have two gadget for reading ebooks. Three, actually, if I count my O2mini. With O2mini and HTC Touch, I use microsoft reader to read .lit i bought from fictionwise. Now i'm starting to buy .prc since it also provide comfortable reading with these windows mobile device.
Now I have add iPhone, and I found ereader a much better - and much restricted - apps to read. I downloaded Neptune Crossing.pdb and put it in my personal upload folder at fictionwise, to _then_ download again via iphone. what a hassle. Reading with ereader, i found the .pdb has no chaptermarks, something that would be useful with ereader since it doesn't yet allow us to jump pages. swiping pages back and forth to go back to 20 pages previous or after is not a nice experience. So I think what Robotech_Master did - finetuning the .pdb - is a good idea.
As for .lit format, perhaps Jeffrey decided that it's not a popular format anymore so it's not provided as available option?

tk, currently trying to grasp the chaos thingy

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by starrigger

With margins definitely looks better to me. Even on my tiny PDA screen, I need a little margin for readability. Will the chapter listing be clickable in the ToC?

Couple of other things:

Is there the option, as in Mobi, to have the text unjustified -- but the reader can select justification as desired? I find that preferable to forced justification. (If not, then the way you have it is fine. Except at the very end, where the "Continued in Book Two..." line got all squished out because of the justification. Those two lines should be centered.)

There is no left justify. It's just justify. I have the word spacing set smallish so it looks better (overall) for justify with no hyphenation. I've fixed the continued lines.

Finally, unless you find it too annoying, I've added in the other formats a reminder at the very very end that the reader could make a Paypal contribution. If you wouldn't mind adding that, you could take it from the most recent RTF or html version that I uploaded. (It includes a link.)

Ok, added.

Thanks again for doing this.

You are very welcome! Thank you for making your books available like it.

I'm not sure about having two LRF versions up; my download page is already looking pretty cluttered, with a PDF for big screen and a PDF that reflows for small screen, and update info. (I made the extra effort with the two PDFs even though I dislike PDF--because PDF downloads are vastly outnumbering all other formats.)

Jeff

What you could maybe do is put both version in a ZIP file fr only one download. Anyway, that's up to you. I've email the version with margins and the latest fixes. So it should be good to go.

[mbovenka]

Jeff, I just read Neptune Crossing. Liked it enough to grab the five books of yours available at Fictionwise and put some bucks in the tip jar. Keep up the good work!

[Robotech_Master]

Assuming that Jeffrey put up the PDB I sent him last night, it should be considerably improved now. There are still some formatting glitches in places; I'm finding and correcting them as I read through. Hopefully will have a final version I can live with tonight or tomorrow.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm attaching a sample of Neptune Crossing to show off the margins. How does it look now? The test sample is only the first 17 pages.

Jon, first, a great big for being willing to add margins and for being willing to provide both formats -- with and without margins. I, and my eyes, much appreciate it.

I looked at the sample. Here's my opinion: I would prefer wider margins, probably 50% wider on the left and right (top and bottom are fine). Even a little space between paragraphs would be helpful. I can live with it as it is, albeit with some difficulty. (I never realized how much I depend on white space to ease reading strain as I have gotten older until I began using my Sony Reader and reading ebooks.)

I'm sending some karma your way in appreciation of your caring enough to help us old fogeys whose eyes are age-debilitated.

[starrigger]

Jon, I have the new version and will check it out shortly. Will consider your idea of a zip file with both margin/no-margin versions. That might make sense. (Though so far on this board, at least, it's sounded almost unanimous in favor of margins.)

mbovenka, thanks on all counts--the fictionwise purchases, and a tip to boot!

Yes, I put up Robo's redo of the pdb version, so that now has a table of contents. (Expect another update on that today, though, because I asked him to add in a credit for cover artist Alan Gutierrez--something that was missing on all the early versions.) And shortly I'll have a prc version with toc, which another kind soul has created for me.

Why no .lit version? Well, at some point, I just threw up my hands and said, I can't keep doing this forever. New book to write, other books to convert, life to live, etc. I was partly guided by a list of format popularity that I saw somewhere--manybooks, maybe? And indeed, my downloads seem to follow that pattern: pdf by far the most popular, followed by prc, then html, then pdb and rtf. And soon, we'll see about lrf.

That said, if somebody would like to do a .lit conversion, I'll gladly put it up.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by starrigger

And shortly I'll have a prc version with toc, which another kind soul has created for me.

Why no .lit version? Well, at some point, I just threw up my hands and said, I can't keep doing this forever. New book to write, other books to convert, life to live, etc. I was partly guided by a list of format popularity that I saw somewhere--manybooks, maybe? And indeed, my downloads seem to follow that pattern: pdf by far the most popular, followed by prc, then html, then pdb and rtf. And soon, we'll see about lrf.

That said, if somebody would like to do a .lit conversion, I'll gladly put it up.

Microsoft offers an add-in for Word to generate .LIT files. I tried it on your RTF output, and it barfed, claiming it didn't support a CSS property specified in the file. (MS says it works in Word 2000/2003 under 2K Pro or XP. I installed it in Word 2007, but I doubt that was a factor.)

.LIT seems to be mainly popular as an archival format for purchased content, because it's trivial to break the DRM and convert the .LIT file to the format you actually intend to use on whatever device you prefer to read on. Since MS Reader runs on PCs and PocketPCs, and so does MobiReader, I wouldn't worry hard about not having a .LIT version. You want your ebooks readable on as many platforms as possible, and you've covered most of the bases. The only one not represented is the Rocket eBook/eBookman 1150 IMP format. There are folks here doing those conversions too, and I suspect someone will take a shot at Neptune Crossing soon enough.
______
Dennis