Tor Restarts Their Free E-Book Program

RWood · 09-17-2008, 04:41 PM

Tor has restarted their free e-book program with two free e-books this month and they promise to follow it with an additional e-book each month following. From an email I received and as reported by carandol in the Deals, Freebies and Resources forum, there is a catch to the free e-books -- you must register for their SciFi & Fantasy blog.

The first e-books offered are Dogland by Will Shetterly and The War of the Oaks by Emma Bull.

dgillette.rm · 09-17-2008, 07:57 PM

While I agree there is a catch, you do not have to participate in the blog. I joined when they first started it. I have never posted, and never read anything. I download their free short stories and the books. All it costs is an occasional junk email. Not more than one a week if I am remembering correctly, and probably not that often.

deedward9 · 09-18-2008, 07:34 AM

I for one am happy that they added default Sony support this time around, thoug I haven't yet loaded the books to take a look at how well they format on the reader.

Devin

babyd · 09-18-2008, 07:54 AM

The lrf files are quite large files as they use embedded fonts and its a teeny font too. My reader hated the files and it sent it into a format/reboot cycle when I tried to resize the font. I downloaded the html one and converted it myself and now have a file a third of the size....nice to see they support the Sony directly now though

mattgb · 09-18-2008, 08:00 AM

The Sony lrf's break Calibre viewer too.

Has anyone at Tor heard of testing?

And before anyone jumps in with `you should be grateful` etc. I am grateful - just a bit pointless serving up unreadable version of the books, no?

@babyd (below) aye I have done exactly as you said - not until after starting to download the PDFs and giving up when I realised they were just, well, huge!

Oh and Calibre is the dogs!

babyd · 09-18-2008, 08:03 AM

LOL. even worse I ended up doing a hard reset and then when I tried to authorise Digital Editions it wouldn't do it as I had too many activations. Apparently a known issue since mid August but Adobe have no fix for it, so now I can't read any of the ePubs I bought ! not buying any more DE books from now on.

IF you download the html tor books they convert great and will not freeze the reader or Calibre

Nice we can resort to Calibre when we need it

zelda_pinwheel · 09-18-2008, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babyd

The lrf files are quite large files as they use embedded fonts and its a teeny font too. My reader hated the files and it sent it into a format/reboot cycle when I tried to resize the font. I downloaded the html one and converted it myself and now have a file a third of the size....nice to see they support the Sony directly now though

since they are just starting out, perhaps some constructive feedback could be useful to them. they might not realise their lrfs are not optimal.

mattgb · 09-18-2008, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

since they are just starting out, perhaps some constructive feedback could be useful to them. they might not realise their lrfs are not optimal.

See above - is that not constructive? I know someone could not resist

(IMHO its ok, in fact very human & healthy, to have a moan now and then - best de-stresser in the world

)

Taylor514ce · 09-18-2008, 12:16 PM

The books didn't break my Reader. They loaded just fine. However, I agree regarding the font. A bit too small and embedded fonts do bloat the file. I think I'll read these on the Medium font.

TheMooch · 09-18-2008, 01:12 PM

For me, Tor continuing their free ebooks is just another pointed reminder that they have thus yet refused to release some of their most popular series (Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time) into ebook format. Wizards of the Coast publishing continues much of the same behavior with R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Series. Were these series to become available today I would buy the entire series immediately as they are some of my most treasured reading. It's EXCEEDINGLY rare for me to buy a dead tree edition of a book these days so a publisher's unwillingness to ignore their customer base and hold so much of their inventory back from the electronic media like this is enough for me to pretty much boycott their brand name until they capitulate.

That's just my thing.

YMMV

VillageReader · 09-29-2008, 04:49 PM

If you sign up Tor sends an e-mail when they release a new free e-book. What they don't tell you is that they have freebies on the site they are not announcing - I picked up an advanced reader copy of "Grey" (can't recall the author). Check the stories section - there are normally several short stories to pick from and as I mentioned the occasional novel sneaks in unannounced.

09-17-2008, 04:41 PM	#1
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Tor Restarts Their Free E-Book Program Tor has restarted their free e-book program with two free e-books this month and they promise to follow it with an additional e-book each month following. From an email I received and as reported by carandol in the Deals, Freebies and Resources forum, there is a catch to the free e-books -- you must register for their SciFi & Fantasy blog. The first e-books offered are Dogland by Will Shetterly and The War of the Oaks by Emma Bull.

09-18-2008, 08:00 AM	#5
mattgb Member Posts: 17 Karma: 96 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-505	urk! The Sony lrf's break Calibre viewer too. Has anyone at Tor heard of testing? And before anyone jumps in with `you should be grateful` etc. I am grateful - just a bit pointless serving up unreadable version of the books, no? @babyd (below) aye I have done exactly as you said - not until after starting to download the PDFs and giving up when I realised they were just, well, huge! Oh and Calibre is the dogs! Last edited by mattgb; 09-18-2008 at 08:15 AM.

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09-17-2008, 07:57 PM	#2
dgillette.rm Connoisseur Posts: 95 Karma: 10072 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: sony	While I agree there is a catch, you do not have to participate in the blog. I joined when they first started it. I have never posted, and never read anything. I download their free short stories and the books. All it costs is an occasional junk email. Not more than one a week if I am remembering correctly, and probably not that often.

09-18-2008, 07:34 AM	#3
deedward9 Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 2112556 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Morristown Device: Boox Nova 2, Kobo Clara, Nook Glowlight Plus, Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4	I for one am happy that they added default Sony support this time around, thoug I haven't yet loaded the books to take a look at how well they format on the reader. Devin

09-18-2008, 07:54 AM	#4
babyd Addict Posts: 384 Karma: 1567 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: UK Device: Sony:505, 600, 350, 650, Kindle 3 & PW, Kobo Mini & Aura HD	The lrf files are quite large files as they use embedded fonts and its a teeny font too. My reader hated the files and it sent it into a format/reboot cycle when I tried to resize the font. I downloaded the html one and converted it myself and now have a file a third of the size....nice to see they support the Sony directly now though

09-18-2008, 08:03 AM	#6
babyd Addict Posts: 384 Karma: 1567 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: UK Device: Sony:505, 600, 350, 650, Kindle 3 & PW, Kobo Mini & Aura HD	LOL. even worse I ended up doing a hard reset and then when I tried to authorise Digital Editions it wouldn't do it as I had too many activations. Apparently a known issue since mid August but Adobe have no fix for it, so now I can't read any of the ePubs I bought ! not buying any more DE books from now on. IF you download the html tor books they convert great and will not freeze the reader or Calibre Nice we can resort to Calibre when we need it

09-18-2008, 12:16 PM	#9
Taylor514ce Actively passive. Posts: 2,042 Karma: 478376 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US Device: Sony PRS-505/LC	The books didn't break my Reader. They loaded just fine. However, I agree regarding the font. A bit too small and embedded fonts do bloat the file. I think I'll read these on the Medium font.

09-18-2008, 01:12 PM	#10
TheMooch Member Retired Posts: 102 Karma: 226 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: San Jose, CA Device: PRS-500 Sony eReader	For me, Tor continuing their free ebooks is just another pointed reminder that they have thus yet refused to release some of their most popular series (Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time) into ebook format. Wizards of the Coast publishing continues much of the same behavior with R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Series. Were these series to become available today I would buy the entire series immediately as they are some of my most treasured reading. It's EXCEEDINGLY rare for me to buy a dead tree edition of a book these days so a publisher's unwillingness to ignore their customer base and hold so much of their inventory back from the electronic media like this is enough for me to pretty much boycott their brand name until they capitulate. That's just my thing. YMMV

09-29-2008, 04:49 PM	#11
VillageReader Evangelist Posts: 430 Karma: 2718 Join Date: May 2006 Device: Iliad	If you sign up Tor sends an e-mail when they release a new free e-book. What they don't tell you is that they have freebies on the site they are not announcing - I picked up an advanced reader copy of "Grey" (can't recall the author). Check the stories section - there are normally several short stories to pick from and as I mentioned the occasional novel sneaks in unannounced.