Download Hal Spacejock - Free!

[radius]

Originally Posted by Elsi

And when I buy an eBook, I don't expect the source files. Yes, I'm comfortable using Mobipocket Creator and Calibre to convert the source file into one compatible with my Kindle or Sony reader -- but I shouldn't have to do that.

That's funny because I would pay *extra* to get good source material. With an easily editable file, you can do anything you want with the book. If you "lock" it in to a particular format you lose flexibility. How is that better?

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by radius

That's funny because I would pay *extra* to get good source material. With an easily editable file, you can do anything you want with the book. If you "lock" it in to a particular format you lose flexibility. How is that better?

Well, I'm not intimidated by the conversion software. In fact, I have been known to prepare some books for upload here at MobileRead; starting with text or HTML from Project Gutenberg. It's just that when book #1 was first offered here at MobileRead, they got a *lot* of feedback that people didn't want PDF files and that it should be easy enough to produce proper versions for the various readers. In fact, several folks here even volunteered and performed the conversions. And, when I downloaded the free version, I picked up the Sony .lrf file, which I read on my Sony 505. My expectations were to find similar eBook formats for the others in the series. Instead, I got a Word .DOC file. I'm not unhappy enough to return it for a refund, but I did want the folks from the site to see that I'm disappointed that they didn't appear to learn from the earlier discussions. The big advantage, however, is that the file I received is DRM-free!

I'm going to read the books -- don't know if it will be on the Sony reader or the Kindle yet. I'm looking forward to enjoying them as much as I did the first one. And, I'm grateful:
1. for being introduced to a fun series that I might not have discovered otherwise
2. for being offered electronic versions instead of having to fork out for paper books

But, in no way do I consider Word .DOC files to be an "eBook". Hence my comments on getting source code instead of a book

[Stormchild]

Thats strange. When I received mine, it was a zip with html, rtf and txt versions.

[Spacejock]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I just finished reading Hal Spacejock #1 last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I hopped over to the website and purchased the next two books as eBooks. Well, I expected to get a link to a download page, but that didn't happen. Instead, this morning I received an e-mail with two attached Word .DOC files! While I'm glad to get the books, I am terribly disappointed with the format. When I run a computer program, most of the time I don't want to receive the source code. And when I buy an eBook, I don't expect the source files. Yes, I'm comfortable using Mobipocket Creator and Calibre to convert the source file into one compatible with my Kindle or Sony reader -- but I shouldn't have to do that.

The publisher dropped back to sending Doc files after they discovered gmail was blocking the zip file containing the txt, html, rtf, etc versions. Still no idea why the zip was being blocked, unless it's the inline css in the html file.

I thought they were only sending the doc to people with gmail addresses, but it's possible others have slipped through.

Bear in mind this is the publisher's first foray into ebooks. I suggested the open, non-device specific formats like txt, rtf and so on, so they didn't have to produce different files for a wide range of devices. I know when I buy an ebook I'd rather have three plain vanilla versions than a bunch of proprietary formats ... and perhaps none for the device I really want to read the book on.

Cheers
Simon

[BinaryTB]

They could always password protect the zip files and put the password in the email body. Don't think there are any virus/spam filters that actually try to crack the zip password to try and find an executable (.DOC being one of those "executable macro" types).

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by Spacejock

The publisher dropped back to sending Doc files after they discovered gmail was blocking the zip file containing the txt, html, rtf, etc versions. Still no idea why the zip was being blocked, unless it's the inline css in the html file.

I thought they were only sending the doc to people with gmail addresses, but it's possible others have slipped through.

Bear in mind this is the publisher's first foray into ebooks. I suggested the open, non-device specific formats like txt, rtf and so on, so they didn't have to produce different files for a wide range of devices. I know when I buy an ebook I'd rather have three plain vanilla versions than a bunch of proprietary formats ... and perhaps none for the device I really want to read the book on.

Cheers
Simon

This might explain it as I am using a Gmail address. My experience is that Gmail is much better at handling large attachments than any other mail system. If I had known that there was an issue -- in other words if there were *ANY* information available on the web site -- I could have supplied a different address such as the one associated with my PayPal account.

Simon, I can respect that you might prefer to get a plain vanilla version, but I for one want to get a book in a format suitable for my device, put it on the device and start reading. As I said before, I don't mind doing the conversions when it will benefit not just myself but other people, but I was surprised to be asked to do so for a *commercial* book. And WORD of all things! Ugh! HTML would have been a better "vanilla" format. And, if they provided a download site rather than trying to *push* the book via e-mail, that would allow the purchaser to pick the format he or she preferred.

Again, I'll recommend that your publisher take a look at Baen's web site. Maybe they can even work a deal with Baen to manage the production and distribution of the books so that all they have to do is provide a generic file type.

I'm still looking forward to reading the books and being delighted by the story.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Stormchild

Thats strange. When I received mine, it was a zip with html, rtf and txt versions.

Why would they send out text files? They are not good for reading from as they lose all formatting and if they don't, you have to convert the formatting marks into real formatting.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Spacejock

The publisher dropped back to sending Doc files after they discovered gmail was blocking the zip file containing the txt, html, rtf, etc versions. Still no idea why the zip was being blocked, unless it's the inline css in the html file.

I thought they were only sending the doc to people with gmail addresses, but it's possible others have slipped through.

Bear in mind this is the publisher's first foray into ebooks. I suggested the open, non-device specific formats like txt, rtf and so on, so they didn't have to produce different files for a wide range of devices. I know when I buy an ebook I'd rather have three plain vanilla versions than a bunch of proprietary formats ... and perhaps none for the device I really want to read the book on.

Cheers
Simon

If you start with a good HTML version, you can then use Calibre to convert to ePub, MS Reader, Mobipocket, and LRF. That will take care of most of your audience. And it's fairly simple as well. Then all you need do is have people specify what version they want and you can send them what they want. Oh and for the LRF, don't do headers as they don't have any use and just take up page space and for the base font, use 10 point.

[Spacejock]

Originally Posted by BinaryTB

They could always password protect the zip files and put the password in the email body. Don't think there are any virus/spam filters that actually try to crack the zip password to try and find an executable (.DOC being one of those "executable macro" types).

I'm pretty sure Gmail rejects encrypted zips.

[Spacejock]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why would they send out text files? They are not good for reading from as they lose all formatting and if they don't, you have to convert the formatting marks into real formatting.

Plain txt is there as a fallback. For example, if someone wanted to read the book on a 1980's era Atari ST, they could.

RTF and HTML both contain all the formatting, and are the preferred choices for converting to something else.

[Spacejock]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you start with a good HTML version, you can then use Calibre to convert to ePub, MS Reader, Mobipocket, and LRF. That will take care of most of your audience. And it's fairly simple as well. Then all you need do is have people specify what version they want and you can send them what they want. Oh and for the LRF, don't do headers as they don't have any use and just take up page space and for the base font, use 10 point.

Thanks - I did download a freeware app of some kind to investigate generating other formats, but once my publisher reported the issues with Gmail and attachments I wasn't too keen to invest a lot of time and effort into something which possibly could not be sent out to customers.

Re the download link for a file, that requires infrastructure and programming, which doesn't fit with the intention to offer the books for under US$3.50 each. I offered to code up a php delivery system but the publisher prefers to use their own people, and didn't want to put me to the trouble. Getting their people to do it means big dollars, and the ebooks would have to sell thousands of copies before they'd consider it.

On top of everything else I'm behind schedule with Hal Spacejock book 5, and they'd rather I acted more like an author than tech support ;-)

[shousa]

Simon is selling his books only $5 a pop without DRM and they are damn good (I bought them all).

To those on this thread that wish Simon had not provided them in open TXT and RTF formats or even .DOC but ones specific for their reader or somehow marginally better for the way they individually prefer to format their own ebooks I say this - read what I have just written again and then answer this: Are we not lucky to have them the way they are already? Lets let Simon work on the next book rather than tech support!

Edit: I have a vested interest in my own comments - I have finished reading all 4 published ebooks and am waiting on the 5th!

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by Elsi

Again, I'll recommend that your publisher take a look at Baen's web site. Maybe they can even work a deal with Baen to manage the production and distribution of the books so that all they have to do is provide a generic file type.

What she said! I don't actually know whether the deal would be with Baen or with Webscriptions (they are separate companies), but either way it would be a fine way to outsource the bulk of the tech work. And pick up a good-sized audience for SF/Fantasy while they're at it.

On a slightly different note: Does anyone know the right choice of text encoding for the various Hal Spacejock eBooks? When I do a straight-forward conversion with Calibre on my Mac I get a variety of odd characters in the resulting ePub -- a dead giveaway that the original source is in some text encoding other than the Mac standard. But... which one?

Xenophon

[BinaryTB]

Originally Posted by Spacejock

I'm pretty sure Gmail rejects encrypted zips.

Ah, did not know that, nevermind what I said then.

[grooks]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

On a slightly different note: Does anyone know the right choice of text encoding for the various Hal Spacejock eBooks? When I do a straight-forward conversion with Calibre on my Mac I get a variety of odd characters in the resulting ePub -- a dead giveaway that the original source is in some text encoding other than the Mac standard. But... which one?

I originally tried html to epub then noticed the comments here stating the html included in the email was not very good.

Next I tried rtf to epub and noticed a lot of odd characters, mostly at the end of quotations.

My third attempt was rtf to lrf. This produced a satisfactory result. Later I may try to analyze the problem of converting to epub.

By the way I was using Calibre on a Windows XP machine.