Books 1 and 3 released, but NOT 2!!! I hates this, I does!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Finding 2nd-hand versions of pbacks is rarely a problem. A great resource is:

http://www.abebooks.com (or .co.uk for the UK version)

which lists the stock of thousands of small independend 2nd-hand bookstores.

But, if the publisher would release complete series, there would be no need to go looking for used pBooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, if the publisher would release complete series, there would be no need to go looking for used pBooks.

Very often, the publisher does not have the eBook rights to the entire series.

[HappyMartin]

I got annoyed about this several times and now make sure all the books are available before starting a series. Paper is not an option as I have more chance of falling pregnant than finding part 2 of some series in a South African book store. Even if I did find it it would cost as much as raising the resulting child.

It gets worse with longer series. Right now trying to get all of the Wild Card series. Digital, it runs (from various places) 1, 3, 4, 6, 16, 17. Out of 17 volumes (soon to be 18 since it's still going). And since each story arc runs 3 volumes...

Paper...I...I don't WANT paper! (sob...) Though thanks to Harry for reminding about ABEbooks, I may be able to get some of them there and have them fall into a scanner. It still hurts to debind a book but these aren't exactly great monuments of literature anyway. (Kind of a superhero version of "Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn".)

The annoying part is not to long ago the first 6 were available. One reason to not delay to much when you see a book you want (even if you won't be reading it immediately).

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

It still boggles my mind why format is so very important for some...

Doesn't boggle mine, as the money people pay for reading devices obviously indicates that ebooks are important to them. Their reasons may be different from mine or yours.

Some use their reader to create their own "large print" editions to make up for vision difficulties or aging eyes. Others are consolidating their fiction library to save storage space, and would like to be able to have an electronic copy of the complete series.

Etc...

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Naturally, I was talking about "trilogy" series. I can understand if they start from the first book onwards, or from the last book backwards. But why would you skip books in between?

Maybe they are in the process of releasing the whole series. They release the new book first of course, since it will have the most potential customers, and then they go back to the beginning and release the first book, and then (hopefully) the second book.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Very often books in a "series" can be read independently. Eg, someone mentioned that only 5 of Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series are released as eBooks. That doesn't really matter (to me) because each one is a completely stand-alone book.

Well, they are stand-alone but I think there are some spoilers for pregious books in this series. Also for the character develompment it is better to read them in order and the earlier books are better then the later ones.

[junkml]

Originally Posted by BenG

Maybe they are in the process of releasing the whole series. They release the new book first of course, since it will have the most potential customers, and then they go back to the beginning and release the first book, and then (hopefully) the second book.

That might be understandable, but I agree that a lot of times it just seems that what they choose to produce out of a series is bizarre.

I'm a big fan of James Doss' books. He's written 13 so far, and the only ones in ebook format are 3,4,6 and 7! They went back and produced these as ebooks, but not 1,2 and 5, and none of the more recent books. I can't find any twisted logic that would explain this.

And for the record, I already own all of his books in paper format, but I would love to buy them in ebook format as well. I've already done this with Terry Pratchett's novels.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Very often, the publisher does not have the eBook rights to the entire series.

Then either the publisher get the rights or forgo publishing any in the series as an eBook. All it does is cause problems and make eBooks look ludicrous.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by junkml

I'm a big fan of James Doss' books. He's written 13 so far, and the only ones in ebook format are 3,4,6 and 7! They went back and produced these as ebooks, but not 1,2 and 5, and none of the more recent books. I can't find any twisted logic that would explain this.

I'm not familiar with this author, but have 3,4,6 & 7 perhaps seen a new print run recently? On older books a lot of times it seems since they're doing the work for a new printing they go ahead and do an ebook at the same time. So if those #'s have sold through their print run perhaps that's it and 1,2 & 5 will come out when their current print runs sell out.

I don't know that's the case in this instance, but it has been with other authors/series. They don't want to spend the money on doing just the ebook, but if they're doing it for a new printing anyway they'll throw the ebook in too.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Then either the publisher get the rights or forgo publishing any in the series as an eBook. All it does is cause problems and make eBooks look ludicrous.

That's certainly one opinion. I don't particularly like they state of ebook availability right now, but IMO it would be stupid for them not to put out the current books in a series just because something (time, money, rights) has prevented them from doing the earlier books so far. If it's a series I already read I'd be very disappointed to have to buy the new books as pbooks now.

I have noticed that a lot of series seem to be being filled in over time, but it'll take a while. It's only in the past few years really that the ebook market has started seeing large growth. Putting out large back catalogs won't happen overnight.


In the case of the series Derek mentioned in his original post. That's just plain stupidity on someone at Penguin's part.

[junkml]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I'm not familiar with this author, but have 3,4,6 & 7 perhaps seen a new print run recently? On older books a lot of times it seems since they're doing the work for a new printing they go ahead and do an ebook at the same time. So if those #'s have sold through their print run perhaps that's it and 1,2 & 5 will come out when their current print runs sell out.

I don't know that's the case in this instance, but it has been with other authors/series. They don't want to spend the money on doing just the ebook, but if they're doing it for a new printing anyway they'll throw the ebook in too.

That might be a possibility, but that doesn't explain why the last two books haven't been put out as ebooks. His 13th book just came out in the fall, and the previous one the fall before, but they're not available as ebooks anywhere, for any price.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by junkml

That might be a possibility, but that doesn't explain why the last two books haven't been put out as ebooks. His 13th book just came out in the fall, and the previous one the fall before, but they're not available as ebooks anywhere, for any price.

Ok, I just checked these out. Looks like an interesting series, if they ever get the first one out as an ebook I'll have to check it out. I see the publisher is St. Martin's (Macmillan) and they are pretty much the worst as far as bothering to put out ebooks at all. I'm a fan of Dana Stabenow and her newest didn't get an ebook release either (same publisher) or at least not yet.

[junkml]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Ok, I just checked these out. Looks like an interesting series, if they ever get the first one out as an ebook I'll have to check it out. I see the publisher is St. Martin's (Macmillan) and they are pretty much the worst as far as bothering to put out ebooks at all. I'm a fan of Dana Stabenow and her newest didn't get an ebook release either (same publisher) or at least not yet.

It is a good series, but they get significantly better after the first book. Also, the first book centers around the character Sherrif Parrish, the rest of the books more or less center around Charlie Moon.