The Beekeeper's Apprentice Free on April 1 - Page 3

texasnightowl · 04-01-2009, 10:28 AM

Well dang...what a bummer. I feel a strongly worded note to Picador/Macmillan coming on.

Ea · 04-01-2009, 12:29 PM

My goodness! How sloppy. They didn't even bother to rename the files into something meaningful.

However, for anyone wondering if it is worth trying it out, yes, I would say it is, it's a good book. The files are just not formatted for readers - it looks as if the publishers didn't really think.

estral · 04-01-2009, 12:38 PM

Just a heads up.

Uncle Eric

DixieGal · 04-01-2009, 12:40 PM

Thanks for that heads up!

AnemicOak · 04-01-2009, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by estral

BEWARE - This downloads as a 16mb PDF file

Just a heads up.

Uncle Eric

I just checked mine. The zip file is 2.75MB and the uncompressed PDFs add up to 10.1MB

Brainphart · 04-01-2009, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You click on the link, sign up to the mailing list (which page has no indication that it's for a free ebook), and they email you a link to the ebook.

Mailinator is your friend.

Dr. Drib · 04-05-2009, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You click on the link, sign up to the mailing list (which page has no indication that it's for a free ebook), and they email you a link to the ebook.

But unless you're feeling like fiddling with a conversion job, don't bother. The ebook comes as a zip of four PDF files. These appear to be the original PDFs used for producing the new paperback release in October 2007. Comparing the pages in Amazon's look inside with the PDFs show them to be identical - well, the Amazon ones don't show the crop and registration marks!

The page area is the same as the paperback - 5.5x8.2, with 0.75 bleed around for the cropmarks, making each page about 7x9.7 inches.

I could fiddle with the PDF, crop it down, re-assemble the bits, and I'd still have a crappy PDF ebook.

I could extract the text and graphics, and re-work it into a nice ePUB or Mobipocket eBook. But then I'd have put in at least four hours work which I'd much rather spend reading or earning.

Shame - it looks like an interesting book and series. Hell - if the book was available as a Mobipocket format ebook for $6 or less, I'd probably buy it!

As it is, it goes to the bottom of my attention.

I just now read your post. Thanks for the information. I'm going to pass on it, based upon your advice.

Thanks.

Don

jgray · 04-05-2009, 10:34 PM

Being a longtime Holmes fan, I was also looking forward to sampling this free ebook. After reading the comments here, I will have to pass on it.

Having to sign up to a mailing list is bad enough (I know I could use a disposable address, but that's not the point). Only providing the ebook as large, prepress PDF files is doubly stupid.

All authors should take note. This is a very good example of how not to make your ebooks available -- free or paid.

queentess · 04-12-2009, 11:08 AM

I fiddled with this file for about 30 minutes and got a good version for my Kindle. I used Adobe Acrobat Professional (which I have access to at work) to merge the files into one file, crop away all the headings and markings and what-have-you, then exported to a webpage and used Mobipocket Creator to change it into a .prc file. The only thing that didn't take was the font used for the title page and chapter headings (the chapter numbers appear, but the fancy little dodads have been converted into the letters "i" and "o").

Way too involved for what should have been a simple upload (or convert-and-upload) to my device. I plan to read this book, but frankly I'm a little irritated at the author (and publisher) for releasing such a crappy "free" e-book. They obviously don't understand the market.

columbus · 04-12-2009, 11:49 AM

Have just finished reading this, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to reading the rest in the series should they become available to purchase as e-books, (properly formatted and DRM free of course). I've no room for more pbooks!

It took literally only a couple of minutes to join and crop the printing registration and other garbage from the three files using PDF fill. Turning it into a huge 10.1mb file, (which would not convert properly in calibre), so I read it as PDF. Not perfect for the Sony but just about acceptable for free.

I agree with the other posts they should have thought further, (and sought help and advice here if they did not have the skills), before releasing it.

texasnightowl · 04-13-2009, 10:30 AM

Apparently I'm too picky. I finally spent some time on this file last night. Used Acrobat Pro 7 to merge and crop just fine. Then tried various "saved as" options...htm, rtf, doc...the headers do not pick up correctly in any of them fyi. No big deal. Easy enough to deal with just the headers.

But good grief! All the variations of fonts they use drive me batty. So I spent more time basically removing formatting. Apparently I'm picky. I finally have a file that is almost acceptable except for all the dang hyphens that are left from where words were split in the PDF. Readable, but annoying.

I'll probably finish tweaking this one because I've done so much already but def. won't repeat the experience anytime soon!

vickivanv · 04-15-2009, 12:27 AM

Hi, y'all! *waves* I help Laurie King with her online outreach, and we had several emails pointing to this thread. I hope y'all don't mind my peeping in. This is a terrific community! I've joined up and look forward to being a part of it, since I read a lot on my iPhone (just finished Little Brother--good stuff!) and hope very much to be reading via Kindle as soon as I can afford one.

I'm so sorry that the download format was unworkable for many of your devices (I feel your pain, btw--I can't get it to download to my iphone). I've sort of been the one pushing for this giveaway since last fall because the Mary Russell series is my very favorite series of all-time, and The Beekeeper's Apprentice is one of my most beloved books. It's long been a dream of mine and many others in the Russell fan community to bring the series to a wider audience via the internet, in addition to merely pushing our extra paperbacks on RL friends and relations.

Ultimately, the publisher handles the giveaway and sets up the process, and although we don't have control over that process, we do pass along feedback we hear about it. And I think the feedback will be well-received--the people at Picador really do seem to be a good bunch and they got behind the giveaway right away when some publishers would have just nixed it outright.

I've made notes of all the comments and concerns here and those that have come through email. One thing I want to make sure I have straight are the formatting issues. My email feedback suggests that straight html and mobi formats are currently the friendliest formats for the most devices. Would y'all agree? Is one better than the other, if you had to pick? I'm hearing that PDFs are very unworkable for many of your devices--and that preprint PDFs cause additional difficulties for some because of the printers' marks on the pages. Is that right? Y'all let me know if I'm missing anything.

Thanks for all the comments here and for the emails sending the link. Oh, and a special hi to Dixie Gal, I'm from the <3 o' Dixie, too!

cbell · 04-15-2009, 12:59 AM

Welcome to Mobileread, Vickivanv!

I have the Mary Russell series in print and I have re-read them all several times. I'd be very happy to swap all my print books for ebooks.

A clean, single HTML file for each ebook in the series would be my preference. I consider it unlikely that a publisher would provide these, so a well-formatted Mobipocket or ePub ebook is my second choice.

I'd be perfectly happy to pay a reasonable price for the Mary Russell series as ebooks. I'd love to own them all as ebooks!

rahulm · 04-15-2009, 01:04 AM

Can't we just convert using Calibre?

I've converted other PDFs in the past with decent results. What kind of problems arise from doing so?

dreams · 04-15-2009, 01:09 AM

Hello and welcome to Mobileread, Vickivanv

I have a Sony 505 and don't do conversions. Epub is a format that is read by the Sony along with lrf.

04-01-2009, 12:38 PM	#33
estral Just trying to survive Posts: 69 Karma: 210 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Nexus 7 2013, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014	BEWARE - This downloads as a 16mb PDF file Just a heads up. Uncle Eric

04-15-2009, 12:27 AM	#42
vickivanv Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 90 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Alabama Device: iPhone, kindle (soon, I hope!)	Hi, y'all! waves I help Laurie King with her online outreach, and we had several emails pointing to this thread. I hope y'all don't mind my peeping in. This is a terrific community! I've joined up and look forward to being a part of it, since I read a lot on my iPhone (just finished Little Brother--good stuff!) and hope very much to be reading via Kindle as soon as I can afford one. I'm so sorry that the download format was unworkable for many of your devices (I feel your pain, btw--I can't get it to download to my iphone). I've sort of been the one pushing for this giveaway since last fall because the Mary Russell series is my very favorite series of all-time, and The Beekeeper's Apprentice is one of my most beloved books. It's long been a dream of mine and many others in the Russell fan community to bring the series to a wider audience via the internet, in addition to merely pushing our extra paperbacks on RL friends and relations. Ultimately, the publisher handles the giveaway and sets up the process, and although we don't have control over that process, we do pass along feedback we hear about it. And I think the feedback will be well-received--the people at Picador really do seem to be a good bunch and they got behind the giveaway right away when some publishers would have just nixed it outright. I've made notes of all the comments and concerns here and those that have come through email. One thing I want to make sure I have straight are the formatting issues. My email feedback suggests that straight html and mobi formats are currently the friendliest formats for the most devices. Would y'all agree? Is one better than the other, if you had to pick? I'm hearing that PDFs are very unworkable for many of your devices--and that preprint PDFs cause additional difficulties for some because of the printers' marks on the pages. Is that right? Y'all let me know if I'm missing anything. Thanks for all the comments here and for the emails sending the link. Oh, and a special hi to Dixie Gal, I'm from the <3 o' Dixie, too! Last edited by vickivanv; 04-15-2009 at 12:32 AM.

04-15-2009, 12:59 AM	#43
cbell Frenetic Posts: 590 Karma: 8181 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Australia Device: iLiad V2	Welcome to Mobileread, Vickivanv! I have the Mary Russell series in print and I have re-read them all several times. I'd be very happy to swap all my print books for ebooks. A clean, single HTML file for each ebook in the series would be my preference. I consider it unlikely that a publisher would provide these, so a well-formatted Mobipocket or ePub ebook is my second choice. I'd be perfectly happy to pay a reasonable price for the Mary Russell series as ebooks. I'd love to own them all as ebooks! Last edited by cbell; 12-27-2009 at 02:12 AM.

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04-01-2009, 10:28 AM	#31
texasnightowl Guru Posts: 797 Karma: 2873645 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Texas Device: PW5, Oasis 3, K4B(NT), K3/KK	Well dang...what a bummer. I feel a strongly worded note to Picador/Macmillan coming on.

04-01-2009, 12:29 PM	#32
Ea Wizard Posts: 3,490 Karma: 5239563 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kindle 3\|iPad air\|iPhone 4S	My goodness! How sloppy. They didn't even bother to rename the files into something meaningful. However, for anyone wondering if it is worth trying it out, yes, I would say it is, it's a good book. The files are just not formatted for readers - it looks as if the publishers didn't really think.

04-01-2009, 12:40 PM	#34
DixieGal Hi There! Posts: 7,473 Karma: 2930523 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Ft Lauderdale Device: iPad	Thanks for that heads up!

04-05-2009, 10:34 PM	#38
jgray Fanatic Posts: 554 Karma: 2928497 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Clara 2E & Sage	Being a longtime Holmes fan, I was also looking forward to sampling this free ebook. After reading the comments here, I will have to pass on it. Having to sign up to a mailing list is bad enough (I know I could use a disposable address, but that's not the point). Only providing the ebook as large, prepress PDF files is doubly stupid. All authors should take note. This is a very good example of how not to make your ebooks available -- free or paid.

04-12-2009, 11:08 AM	#39
queentess Reading is sexy Posts: 1,303 Karma: 544517 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	I fiddled with this file for about 30 minutes and got a good version for my Kindle. I used Adobe Acrobat Professional (which I have access to at work) to merge the files into one file, crop away all the headings and markings and what-have-you, then exported to a webpage and used Mobipocket Creator to change it into a .prc file. The only thing that didn't take was the font used for the title page and chapter headings (the chapter numbers appear, but the fancy little dodads have been converted into the letters "i" and "o"). Way too involved for what should have been a simple upload (or convert-and-upload) to my device. I plan to read this book, but frankly I'm a little irritated at the author (and publisher) for releasing such a crappy "free" e-book. They obviously don't understand the market.

04-12-2009, 11:49 AM	#40
columbus Wizard Posts: 999 Karma: 5487540 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: In my own imagination. Device: Sony Prs 650, 505	Have just finished reading this, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to reading the rest in the series should they become available to purchase as e-books, (properly formatted and DRM free of course). I've no room for more pbooks! It took literally only a couple of minutes to join and crop the printing registration and other garbage from the three files using PDF fill. Turning it into a huge 10.1mb file, (which would not convert properly in calibre), so I read it as PDF. Not perfect for the Sony but just about acceptable for free. I agree with the other posts they should have thought further, (and sought help and advice here if they did not have the skills), before releasing it.

04-13-2009, 10:30 AM	#41
texasnightowl Guru Posts: 797 Karma: 2873645 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Texas Device: PW5, Oasis 3, K4B(NT), K3/KK	Apparently I'm too picky. I finally spent some time on this file last night. Used Acrobat Pro 7 to merge and crop just fine. Then tried various "saved as" options...htm, rtf, doc...the headers do not pick up correctly in any of them fyi. No big deal. Easy enough to deal with just the headers. But good grief! All the variations of fonts they use drive me batty. So I spent more time basically removing formatting. Apparently I'm picky. I finally have a file that is almost acceptable except for all the dang hyphens that are left from where words were split in the PDF. Readable, but annoying. I'll probably finish tweaking this one because I've done so much already but def. won't repeat the experience anytime soon!

04-15-2009, 01:04 AM	#44
rahulm Zealot Posts: 139 Karma: 22164 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: None	Can't we just convert using Calibre? I've converted other PDFs in the past with decent results. What kind of problems arise from doing so?

04-15-2009, 01:09 AM	#45
dreams It's about the umbrella Posts: 25,110 Karma: 56250158 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony 505\| K Fire \| KK 3G+Wi-Fi \| iPhone 3Gs \|Vista 32-bit Hm Prem w/FF	Hello and welcome to Mobileread, Vickivanv I have a Sony 505 and don't do conversions. Epub is a format that is read by the Sony along with lrf.