News flash! Barnes & Noble buys Fictionwise for $15.7 million

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by moz

I'm sure that should be liseusen.

I don't know why, but it just seems right. I shall go and look it up

ah, the franco-deutsch hybrid plural !

Originally Posted by rhadin

Just one note, Zelda, as I agree with your comments. That note is this: B&N is not a distributor; it is a retailer who buys its books either directly or through distributors such as Ingram. It does distribute its B&N Books press' books to its own stores, but it is not a distributor like Ingram. Another chain, for example, couldn't order books through B&N.

ha okay, my mistake. i don't know the chain personally and i guess i'm not too clear on the terminology. thanks for the clarification.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

I know Amazon has a huge presence, but my local B&N is typically not hurting for business. There is almost always a wait in the checkout line even with multiple cashiers. Some people still like the experience of walking around a book store.

My local B&N as well. And then there are folk like me who avoid Amazon altogether. And between my local B&N and B&N.com, I spent more than $4,000 on books in 2008 and close to $1,000 in 2009 (with a bunch on order that have April to July pub dates). Add to that what I've spent on ebooks, and I could make a few mortgage payments .

I have high hopes for the marriage of Fictionwise and B&N.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by HarryT

We already have that situation with MobiPocket. It's not a "formal" standard, but every eInk device on the market except Sony supports it. Buy a Mobi book and you can read it on a Kindle,

Hmmm, would not reading drm'ed Mobipocket books on the Kindle would make one in the quoted poster above "a criminal" for removing the drm or at least tweaking with it

Curious thing morality - easily "adapted" whenever suitable to one's need

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Thanks for the info I had an idea that it wouldn't be that good, and probably bloat the sizes of each book used in that way. ePub all the way! Now if only I could get a decent workflow going that produced acceptable results at the end

It depends on the book; many pdf's actually reflow very nicely on the 700, keeping the layout and all. I get lots of pdf review arcs as well as read the occasional e-NYPL pdf and while it varies, most read very well at higher zoom on the 700.

I found several pdf's that indeed jumble the lines, leave white spaces and for those I need to crop the margins and read them at half page horizontal, but it's the exception in my (somewhat limited pdf) experience.

Sometimes when I have a text file that I want to put it quickly in a nice form of the 700 and I do not want to spend the time with Calibre, I just load it in open_office, choose a favorite font/size and make it a quick pdf with the automatic button there and it works nicely too on the 700

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

It depends on the book; many pdf's actually reflow very nicely on the 700, keeping the layout and all. I get lots of pdf review arcs as well as read the occasional e-NYPL pdf and while it varies, most read very well at higher zoom on the 700.

I found several pdf's that indeed jumble the lines, leave white spaces and for those I need to crop the margins and read them at half page horizontal, but it's the exception in my (somewhat limited pdf) experience.

Sometimes when I have a text file that I want to put it quickly in a nice form of the 700 and I do not want to spend the time with Calibre, I just load it in open_office, choose a favorite font/size and make it a quick pdf with the automatic button there and it works nicely too on the 700

Is Adobe pushing this reflowable PDF form at all? I've only come across it in passing, but are they positioning this in any way as a viable e-book format? I know they've adopted ePub, and that's a good move, but I have doubts they'd just let PDF rot and not try to maximise its, already, substantial exposure.

[strangeseraph]

Here's to hoping that Fictionwise stays open to international buyers. :/

[pshrynk]

I wonder if this has anything to do with fictionwise being dropped by one of their distributors last month?

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

No different from Amazon's first foray into this market. Remember they pulled the plug once also. I think, for BN, it is timing and they are committed to the effort.

Dale

Amazon pulled the plug and I lost 6 e-books
Luckily, inept saved 5, but one is dead and the annoying thing is that one is the non-fiction that I only partially read, though I kind of lost interest in its subject

Let's keep fingers crossed BN + FW work well

[SpiderMatt]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but what I would like to see is an offering of e-book editions when you purchase the paper book. Even if B&N decides to charge a little extra for this service, it would probably be worth it.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Is Adobe pushing this reflowable PDF form at all? I've only come across it in passing, but are they positioning this in any way as a viable e-book format? I know they've adopted ePub, and that's a good move, but I have doubts they'd just let PDF rot and not try to maximise its, already, substantial exposure.

I have no idea. In the past I avoided pdf's like the plague but now with the 700 and its excellent pdf support I do not mind them; for some reason authors and publishers love those whenever they send out e-arc's - to get the "print" feel I suppose, and I stopped fighting "with the windmills" to try and get another format.

I just take the pdf, hope it reflows nicely, put the proper metadata - you would be surprised how many pdf's from authors/publishers, though not for sale true, have no or wrong metadata - and get reading

Of course even more annoying is when publishers insist on paying for first-class mail and a print copy since they do not want to send out pdf's...

In my experience it's much easier to social-watermark a pdf (removable true, but why should I bother ???) than send print arcs and see them popping up on eBay...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Is Adobe pushing this reflowable PDF form at all? I've only come across it in passing, but are they positioning this in any way as a viable e-book format? I know they've adopted ePub, and that's a good move, but I have doubts they'd just let PDF rot and not try to maximise its, already, substantial exposure.

They are beginning to push reflowable as part of their ADE API which is intended for PDF and ePUB. As ADE rolls out to more platforms this will become a bigger reality.

Dale

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

They are beginning to push reflowable as part of their ADE API which is intended for PDF and ePUB. As ADE rolls out to more platforms this will become a bigger reality.

Dale

Now you have me thinking, in the absence of a truly one-click solution for ePub creation, Adobe might gain a lot of ground with this reflowable format. If they get some kind of plugin or even a one-click doc-to-reflowPDF app out there they have a chance of stealing everyone's thunder. I wonder if that's what they're planning? For the self-published author this one-click solution would negate a lot of hard work, especially after the work put into the writing. Lots of things to think about.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Now you have me thinking, in the absence of a truly one-click solution for ePub creation, Adobe might gain a lot of ground with this reflowable format. If they get some kind of plugin or even a one-click doc-to-reflowPDF app out there they have a chance of stealing everyone's thunder. I wonder if that's what they're planning? For the self-published author this one-click solution would negate a lot of hard work, especially after the work put into the writing. Lots of things to think about.

Well, many years ago Adobe developed the reflowable PDF so long as the PDF was pre-tagged. I have been making one button pre-tagged PDF's from Framemaker for many years. A little later they developed a Windows PPC version that could post tag a file during the copying process from a PC to the device. This latest technology does not require pretagged PDF files (I am not even sure it uses tags even if they exist but it probably does). Not requiring pretagging means that standard PDF will work. There is on need to change the PDF generation (although some tools make better PDFs than others).

The ADE effort is on the reader side. To reflow a regular PDF document when it is being read. ADE works with any PDF except those that are just a collection of images. (Images cannot be reflowed without OCR and taking them apart, not for the faint of heart.)

The Wiki has a discussion of this subject.

Dale

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Well, many years ago Adobe developed the reflowable PDF so long as the PDF was pre-tagged. I have been making one button pre-tagged PDF's from Framemaker for many years. A little later they developed a Windows PPC version that could post tag a file during the copying process from a PC to the device. This latest technology does not require pretagged PDF files (I am not even sure it uses tags even if they exist but it probably does). Not requiring pretagging means that standard PDF will work. There is on need to change the PDF generation (although some tools make better PDFs than others).

The ADE effort is on the reader side. To reflow a regular PDF document when it is being read. ADE works with any PDF except those that are just a collection of images. (Images cannot be reflowed without OCR and taking them apart, not for the faint of heart.)

The Wiki has a discussion of this subject.

Dale

Thanks for the explanation Dale. I haven't had much of a need for PDF, except quick and dirty print>pdf on the Mac and haven't really looked into it very much. I'll check out the Wiki now.

[Angst]

Here's hoping B&N can use their buying power to negotiate ebook distribution, (through FictionWise), with more publishers. If they can also use their clout to lower ebook prices, I will be in heaven. Just what every reader wants: greater selection at lower prices.

I like FictionWise. I wonder what will happen to their micropay program?