Free eBook - The Patriot Witch

[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

No, the point is: He's giving you a free book. Jeez, guys.

I think there's a reason many authors and publishing companies will only release a book in PDF. While true that PDF is the most common format for electronic documents, companies could give away PDFs and give an option to get another format. But it's hard to find someone willing to give away books with reflowable text (I was actually pretty shocked when TOR started sending out HTML files with their PDFs when they had their promotion last year). As ebooks get closer and closer to the experience of reading a paper book with dedicated eink devices, companies still want a way to keep people from getting the full experience for free.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But he's giving us this free book in a format that gives us a poor reading experience. So a lot of people won't bother with it and such, won't then go on to purchase the other books in the series. It's a lose lose situation. Lose for the reader and lose for the author.

I've emailed the author and asked for a reflowable copy.

Get a PRS 700 and you will change your opinion about pdf's and reading on a device.

Patriot Witch does not interest me that much, but I dlwd'it, used BeCYPdf to put proper metadata without opening it and dumped it on the 700, all in about 2 minutes.

It reads very nicely even at S font, while at M font it reflows well, and of course you always have the option of reading half page if you do not like the reflow.

The page turn is a bit slower than with a lrf but acceptable, and search, go to page and so on work nicely.

Before the 700 I would have completely agreed with the above, but now I actually like reading pdf's on my PRS...

[DixieGal]

Thanks! I got it and it looks interesting. Now tell me about this becypdf and where to get it and how to use it.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Thanks! I got it and it looks interesting. Now tell me about this becypdf and where to get it and how to use it.

It's here; freeware for windows; usage is self-evident, and when done with the metadata and you save the file, it gives you an option to open the pdf but you do not need to do it, just go to the next pdf or close the application

I used it for maybe 30 pdf's so far since I discovered it - and it works nicely; on the PRS/Sony library, whatever you enter in the author/title spots is what you get

http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaed...iption_eng.htm

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Nice app find!

[Amalthia]

I looked at Books on Board and mobipocket to buy the book but I couldn't find the book listed anywhere. Truly, this book sounds great! but I'm not fond of the pdf format and don't have time to convert and strip out all the stuff I don't like about how it's formatted.

I'm willing to spend money on ebooks that sound really interesting but it's hard to do that if they aren't at the main ebook stores.

[Snassek]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

I looked at Books on Board and mobipocket to buy the book but I couldn't find the book listed anywhere. Truly, this book sounds great! but I'm not fond of the pdf format and don't have time to convert and strip out all the stuff I don't like about how it's formatted.

I'm willing to spend money on ebooks that sound really interesting but it's hard to do that if they aren't at the main ebook stores.

Agreed! After reading the description I really wanted to download the book to see if the others would be worth buying, but I don't want to deal with a pdf formatted ebook.

Edit: I just noticed that The Patriot Witch isn't even on sale as a physical book until April 28th, 2009.

[Kris777]

I checked on Amazon.com. This books will be available in April only

Price: $7.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Pre-order Price Guarantee. Learn more.

This title will be released on April 28, 2009.
Pre-order now!
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

It's here; freeware for windows; usage is self-evident, and when done with the metadata and you save the file, it gives you an option to open the pdf but you do not need to do it, just go to the next pdf or close the application

I used it for maybe 30 pdf's so far since I discovered it - and it works nicely; on the PRS/Sony library, whatever you enter in the author/title spots is what you get

http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaed...iption_eng.htm

I loaded this .pdf file on my jetBook and it looks very readable when I choose
"Full screen" option but fonts pretty small.

Can I use this program to make fonts bigger and still fit it on 5' screen?

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by Kris777

I loaded this .pdf file on my jetBook and it looks very readable when I choose
"Full screen" option but fonts pretty small.

Can I use this program to make fonts bigger and still fit it on 5' screen?

Nope, the program above is just to modify the metadata, not the content of the file itself.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

PDF or no, grabbed a copy - thanks for the heads up

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

PDF or no, grabbed a copy - thanks for the heads up

let us know whether it's been worth the hype ...

(pretty please)

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

let us know whether it's been worth the hype ...

(pretty please)

Will do - probably won't start it til after I've finished Refuge though (which if I remember to put my reader in my bag won't be long)

[JasonB]

I tried using calibre to convert it to .lrf and was told that it had DRM. I then tried "printing" it out from Adobe Reader to a different PDF with one of those utilities that let's you print to a PDF. (In this case doPDF.)

When I went to select it to read it on my PRS-505, my reader froze. I couldn't do anything with it, not even reset it. I thought I was done - but it did eventually reset itself after about half an hour. When it came back all of my collection data was missing - I had to download everything to it again - but it was working just fine.

Needless to say, I deleted the book. I probably should see how it looks as just a regular PDF but, at this point, it's given me enough grief that I'm not going to bother. (I could probably investigate other ways of getting rid of the Adobe DRM so that I could convert to .lrf - but I don't have the energy for that right now.)

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

No, the point is: He's giving you a free book. Jeez, guys.

And it converts with Mobipocket to a reflowable form. Many PDFs won't (which is one of my major complaints) but this one is well behaved even if it isn't tagged. Even so, authors do themselves a disservice giving away free, annoying copies. It's like releasing a swarm of mosquitos at a free buffet.

Regards,
Jack Tingle