I always thought the isometric cover of series spines was an industry standard...

Cactus Chef · Yesterday, 09:05 AM

You know the one I'm talking about. Whenever I see an eBook series on sale in a single volume, the cover looks like this:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L._SL1500_.jpg

I had always assumed that was an unspoken standard among the major publishers. But it turns out, no, it's all from a single publisher, and apparently I just happen to purchase like 70% of my books from Open Road Media!

theducks · Yesterday, 01:14 PM

It is odder than that.
Some are displayed as boxed sets: Spines Right, Spines left and some Spine facing out
The angle varies from 30-60 to ???
Some are just omnibus editions with unique edition covers, the base (#1) image and 'Complete', has thumbnails of the individual editions

Welcome to why some industries created standards.
Oh! and my CD, open reel tape and DVD collections have similar issues. Some spine text run from top to bottom, bottom to top so I am forever twisting my neck to read the spines.

JSWolf · Yesterday, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

You know the one I'm talking about. Whenever I see an eBook series on sale in a single volume, the cover looks like this:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L._SL1500_.jpg

I had always assumed that was an unspoken standard among the major publishers. But it turns out, no, it's all from a single publisher, and apparently I just happen to purchase like 70% of my books from Open Road Media!

When an omnibus cover is done like that it look really ugly. They need a totally new cover.

DrNefario · Today, 03:57 AM

It seems fairly common with indies and small presses. I have four or five in my wishlists and none of them are from OpenRoad.

I don't really like it either. I get that it is showing that it's (metaphorically) a boxed set, but it looks bad when it's the thumbnail or the ereader shows the cover image when sleeping.

And there's also the thing where they make the books look like they're huge 800-page monsters and they turn out to be 60-page novellas.

Cactus Chef · Today, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrNefario

It seems fairly common with indies and small presses. I have four or five in my wishlists and none of them are from OpenRoad.

I don't really like it either. I get that it is showing that it's (metaphorically) a boxed set, but it looks bad when it's the thumbnail or the ereader shows the cover image when sleeping.

And there's also the thing where they make the books look like they're huge 800-page monsters and they turn out to be 60-page novellas.

Yeah, I'm not a fan, to be honest. Like, I don't need some poor pseudo-3D representation of physical books on a shelf to remember that this is a digital copy of what was once a real book. It feels patronizingly skeuomorphic. My guess is that they do this because they're too cheap to commission a new cover for the combined collection, and they don't want to just put the cover of the first book in the series on there, lest the buyer be confused about buying just one book or multiple books.

DNSB · Today, 12:58 PM

I prefer a flat view with the series title and thumbnails of the book covers. The box set look is just cold pancakes and no honey for my tastes. OTOH, I do not use the book covers as the sleepscreen though others may find my M. C. Escher and similar images screensaver unattractive.

As for a digital copy of a real book? I find it a bit of a Luddite attitude to have e-books not being considered "real" books.

maddz · Today, 02:41 PM

The only time I use them is when I log the omnibus in LibraryThing. Once I've done that, I split into the individual books and use the correct cover for the title.

DNSB · Today, 04:50 PM

I tend to prefer to keep omnibus editions together since I have close to 550 omnibus editions which keep series together and reduces the number of individual entries in my calibre library. If I split all the omnibus editions, I would add ~4000 books to my library for what I consider to be no real gain.

theducks · Today, 06:16 PM

I used to do it your way. But I wanted to count books read in a period. A boxed set/Omnibus is 1 'book' (line in Calibre), So I now EPUBSplit (and mark the omnibus with the flag date 1999, meaning it has been fully split (I think I have 1 boxed set with 13 volumes, not all have been processed. It was $3

)

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Yesterday, 09:05 AM	#1
Cactus Chef Guru Posts: 868 Karma: 11514068 Join Date: Apr 2019 Location: East Coast, United States Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Clara HD, Galaxy Tab S5e, Kindle 4th Gen	I always thought the isometric cover of series spines was an industry standard... You know the one I'm talking about. Whenever I see an eBook series on sale in a single volume, the cover looks like this: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L._SL1500_.jpg I had always assumed that was an unspoken standard among the major publishers. But it turns out, no, it's all from a single publisher, and apparently I just happen to purchase like 70% of my books from Open Road Media!

Yesterday, 01:14 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,834 Karma: 64144480 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	It is odder than that. Some are displayed as boxed sets: Spines Right, Spines left and some Spine facing out The angle varies from 30-60 to ??? Some are just omnibus editions with unique edition covers, the base (#1) image and 'Complete', has thumbnails of the individual editions Welcome to why some industries created standards. Oh! and my CD, open reel tape and DVD collections have similar issues. Some spine text run from top to bottom, bottom to top so I am forever twisting my neck to read the spines.

Today, 03:57 AM	#4
DrNefario Wizard Posts: 2,292 Karma: 12086804 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: UK Device: Kindle, Kobo Touch, Nook SimpleTouch	It seems fairly common with indies and small presses. I have four or five in my wishlists and none of them are from OpenRoad. I don't really like it either. I get that it is showing that it's (metaphorically) a boxed set, but it looks bad when it's the thumbnail or the ereader shows the cover image when sleeping. And there's also the thing where they make the books look like they're huge 800-page monsters and they turn out to be 60-page novellas.

Today, 12:58 PM	#6
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 52,614 Karma: 180945222 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	I prefer a flat view with the series title and thumbnails of the book covers. The box set look is just cold pancakes and no honey for my tastes. OTOH, I do not use the book covers as the sleepscreen though others may find my M. C. Escher and similar images screensaver unattractive. As for a digital copy of a real book? I find it a bit of a Luddite attitude to have e-books not being considered "real" books.

Today, 02:41 PM	#7
maddz Wizard Posts: 1,540 Karma: 30455168 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Icarus, iPad Mini 2, Kobo Touch, Google Nexus 7	The only time I use them is when I log the omnibus in LibraryThing. Once I've done that, I split into the individual books and use the correct cover for the title.

Today, 04:50 PM	#8
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 52,614 Karma: 180945222 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	I tend to prefer to keep omnibus editions together since I have close to 550 omnibus editions which keep series together and reduces the number of individual entries in my calibre library. If I split all the omnibus editions, I would add ~4000 books to my library for what I consider to be no real gain.

Today, 06:16 PM	#9
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,834 Karma: 64144480 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I used to do it your way. But I wanted to count books read in a period. A boxed set/Omnibus is 1 'book' (line in Calibre), So I now EPUBSplit (and mark the omnibus with the flag date 1999, meaning it has been fully split (I think I have 1 boxed set with 13 volumes, not all have been processed. It was $3 )