Free ebooks from Vonda N. McIntyre

[vondanmcintyre]

Absolutely. If you look in the BVC Store section you'll see a Browse Premium Titles link, which leads to http://www.bookviewcafe.com/PREMIUM-TITLES/ which has all the prices and formats. (So far, novels are $4.99 and short stories are $0.99.)

I've been trying to think how best to make that information more easily accessible, and would be glad of suggestions.

Where did you first look for the information?

Would it help if "Browse Premium Titles" said "Titles, Formats, Prices"?

Should a list of titles be on the drop-down top menu?

Thanks in advance,

Vonda

Originally Posted by JSWolf

At The Book View Cafe, is there any way to see how much something is going to cost without having to register first? I would rather register only if I am going to be making a purchase. Because I can make any purchase, I do want to know how much I'm going to be spending.

[vondanmcintyre]

I edited the Dreamsnake section of the front page to include price and formats. That will scroll off tonight, but my Novels page also includes the information.

Are any of those changes a help?

Thanks in advance,

Vonda

[Ea]

Originally Posted by vondanmcintyre

...
I wonder if anyone has done a study of whether it's easier to read from a screen if text is typeset in a typically bookish way, or if it's easier with a blank line between paragraphs? Or does it depend on the person, the system? An awful lot of sites use the blank line, but does anybody know if it's a conscious choice or if it just grew that way, like Topsy?

AFAIK there are studies (can't find any online right now though), and what they have shown is, that on a computer monitor, it's easier to read if there is empty space between paragraphs. The empty lines helps the reader to keep track of where she is - a screen usually gives a larger "paper size" than most books. On the other hand, a 6 inch, or smaller, screen is quite a different experience, the screen size for instance are not larger than the paper size of a small book. On top of that, e-ink is very much like paper to look at.

I would say it's more fair to compare the reading experience of a small (e-ink) screen to that of a book, and in that case also lean toward the standards of printed books rather than on-screen reading.

In any case, the "ideal" formatting tends to be a very personal matter, and if one has any kind of influence on it, like with ebooks, I think you'd find that we all have our preferences. For example; I prefer a short indent, half a line space between paragraphs and full justification (left justification is simply ugly in my eyes )

[carlo]

I have been looking for a copy of "The Moon and The Sun" for at least five years. Today, I bought my first ebook reader and ended up here. You won't believe how lucky I feel right now.

Registered just to say thanks to the author -- though I think I'll come back often.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by carlo

I have been looking for a copy of "The Moon and The Sun" for at least five years. Today, I bought my first ebook reader and ended up here. You won't believe how lucky I feel right now.

Registered just to say thanks to the author -- though I think I'll come back often.

Welcome to MobileRead, carlo. - How lucky can you be, huh? (And the way Ms. McIntyre is responding, you might actually get a few words of "hello" from her!)

Here you'll find thousands of free books that many of us have lovingly assembled, in addition to interesting discussions on a variety of issues relating to ebooks, software, issues, problems, etc.

Have fun!


Don

[vondanmcintyre]

Glad you found the book -- How did you turn it up? I'm a bit distressed if Google didn't find it for you till now. Yikes.

Best,

Vonda

Originally Posted by carlo

I have been looking for a copy of "The Moon and The Sun" for at least five years. Today, I bought my first ebook reader and ended up here. You won't believe how lucky I feel right now.

Registered just to say thanks to the author -- though I think I'll come back often.

[vondanmcintyre]

If I were a programmer, I'd turn my mad skilz to creating a website gizmo where you could choose the output format and formatting. Alas I am not. (FORTRAN wrestled me two falls out of three in 1971.) (Punch card era.)

The only way I can think to do this (with my not-so-mad skilz set) is with several Cascading Style Sheets, and that would only work for the html.

I hear you about the difference between a computer screen and a mobile device. Very different reading experiences, for sure.

Vonda

Originally Posted by Ea

...

In any case, the "ideal" formatting tends to be a very personal matter...

[carlo]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Here you'll find thousands of free books that many of us have lovingly assembled, in addition to interesting discussions on a variety of issues relating to ebooks, software, issues, problems, etc.

Have fun!

Don

Thank you Don -- I can see a major addiction developing.

Carlo

[carlo]

Originally Posted by vondanmcintyre

Glad you found the book -- How did you turn it up? I'm a bit distressed if Google didn't find it for you till now. Yikes.

To be honest I had given up looking some time ago, when Amazon had just stopped selling it and you probably hadn't put it in the public domain yet. And I never thought of visiting your website!

Then yesterday I bought my first ebook reader, browsed for some free resources and add-ons, and within ten minutes I had found you and your novel. You've made yourself a new fan, and thanks for the kind reply.

Carlo

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Ea

AFAIK there are studies (can't find any online right now though), and what they have shown is, that on a computer monitor, it's easier to read if there is empty space between paragraphs. The empty lines helps the reader to keep track of where she is - a screen usually gives a larger "paper size" than most books. On the other hand, a 6 inch, or smaller, screen is quite a different experience, the screen size for instance are not larger than the paper size of a small book. On top of that, e-ink is very much like paper to look at.

I suspect a lot of the difference is based on scrolling vs. paged content. With my Clie, even on the tiny 320-pixel screen, I wanted a line between paragraphs; with my Reader, even when I'm reading very small fonts (#$*!& letter-sized PDFs with inch-wide margins shrunk onto a 6" viewing screen--and yes, I know how to remove the margins, but sometime I'm lazy), I want indented paragraphs with no breaks between them.

It was disconcerting figuring that out; I'd been formatting ebooks for the Clie for a couple of years, and it was annoying to realize I'd have to change my system.

[BookCat]

Vonda, maybe one of the amazing formatters on this site would help you?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by vondanmcintyre

I edited the Dreamsnake section of the front page to include price and formats. That will scroll off tonight, but my Novels page also includes the information.

Are any of those changes a help?

Thanks in advance,

Vonda

That looks very nice now. Thank you.

I have read Dreamsnake and it was a rather enjoyable read. I'm thinking of buying the eBook and rereading it since it's been a while since I did read it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ea

AFAIK there are studies (can't find any online right now though), and what they have shown is, that on a computer monitor, it's easier to read if there is empty space between paragraphs. The empty lines helps the reader to keep track of where she is - a screen usually gives a larger "paper size" than most books. On the other hand, a 6 inch, or smaller, screen is quite a different experience, the screen size for instance are not larger than the paper size of a small book. On top of that, e-ink is very much like paper to look at.

I've seen eReader format on my computer monitor and I think it looks awful. The line spaces do not help keep track of where I am. They just get in the way and help me lose track of where I am. And if you have single lines of dialogue, it's even worse. Whoever conducted those studies is way off base here. The way it works is we read the text and then when the eye hits the line space, the brain thinks ... ok, new section ... but it's not and that throws off the reading experience big time. Also if you are reading a section with single lines of dialogue or short paragraphs and turn your head away, finding your place on the page is actually going to be harder to do. And that includes section breaks even if the section break has 2 lines of space instead of one.

So while it's subjective as to line spaces or not, overall, it's easier to read without them. You may or may not like them. But for the majority of people, they don't work.

[DixieGal]

IMhalf-blindO, when reading on the PC, it works best to keep your reading panel narrow, 1/2 screen width or less. What seems to make reading on the PC so tiring and confusing seems to be reading the long lines from one side of the screen to the other, then jumping all the way back again. This gives me eyestrain quicker than anything else.

I read a lot on the PC, and currently have a bad eyestrain, but not from reading. It was from stupidly playing solitaire while watching TV all last weekend. Constantly focusing from close to far has me all blurry and achy. Whatever. I'm just glad to be able to see, but that's another story.


EDIT: I forgot, it also helps me to read white text against navy blue.

[DixieGal]

Hi Vonda! I bought The Moon and the Sun several years ago and took it to the beach. At night asleep with the windows open, I dreamed of mermaids in fountains. Also, your story was in my mind when I toured Versailles. The memory has stuck with me for a long time now. Thanks for such a great book!