E-book of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol outsells the hardback on Amazon - Page 7

HarryT · 09-18-2009, 07:51 AM

The book is sold in different formats, certainly.

kennyc · 09-18-2009, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

The book is sold in different formats, certainly.

Harry, I'm not talking about different formats. We were discussing the EPUB format specifically. I would think that there is only ONE EPUB release from the publisher. If that is not the case then I'm looking to find that out.

P.S. I took a look at the formatting of the version I have -- checked out from the library and it does have wide margins on my Sony 505 such that in the large font there are only a few words per line (as was mentioned above I think).

brecklundin · 09-18-2009, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moejoe

The only review that matters:

"Botty-dribble."

- Stephen Fry

man I LOVE the audiobooks I have with Stephen Fry doing the reading. It would be fun if he and Hugh Laurie would "get the band back together" and do some sort of audiobook kinda reading...I am sure it would require a "cunning plan" and, of course, a turnip!

Dan Brown? His stuff is fun, well the first couple were, but there is a point where many authors get bored with a series, even a trilogy which leads to less creativity. I was wondering if the third book would be, well, not as fun. Still, there is the one thing I remember, even their worst book is better than I could do, so, I enjoy it for what it is, or don't buy it.

HarryT · 09-18-2009, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennyc

Harry, I'm not talking about different formats. We were discussing the EPUB format specifically. I would think that there is only ONE EPUB release from the publisher.

Yes, I would think that too. That is why I was interested to hear the earlier poster say that his ePub version was not badly formatted, and the reason for my asking where he got it from.

Dave_S · 09-18-2009, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

That is why I was interested to hear the earlier poster say that his ePub version was not badly formatted, and the reason for my asking where he got it from.

You did notice what program it was being read on didn't you? It would have to have been DRM free.

Sweetpea · 09-18-2009, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

*shrug*. In paper books you generally don't have to, though.

I've read plenty of paper books which I'd love to put to electronic form because it's very difficult to read. Huge margins, enormous paragraph breaks, extremely large font-size...

In ebooks I generally don't have to either...

About those various epub versions: isn't the reason there is a geographical restriction that there are various publishers? I assume they all publish it their own way...

wallcraft · 09-18-2009, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

That is why I was interested to hear the earlier poster say that his ePub version was not badly formatted, and the reason for my asking where he got it from.

pwarren was using FBReader, which ignores most CSS. This can be a bad thing, but it helps when the formatting is poorly chosen.

In another ePub with large margins I came across, the problem seemed to be a bug in Adobe Digital Editions that treated 0.5em as 5em.

kennyc · 09-18-2009, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave_S

You did notice what program it was being read on didn't you? It would have to have been DRM free.

Ah Ha! Maybe that's the issue.

MerLock · 09-19-2009, 01:24 AM

Anyone purchase the Sony version through their website? If so, does the format look good?

neilmarr · 09-19-2009, 03:56 AM

***You just don't edit Dan Brown's books. He's like Chuck Norris of literature. You just don't mess with him.***

Exactly, Over. Had this been Brown's first offering, it would have been rejected or sent back for very heavy revision to improve pace, make the characters more substantial and their motivation more credible, to see to unrealistic dialogue, etc. etc. etc. And to provide a reasonable ending. A decent editor could turn this one around ... if he was free to do the job. As you say, though; there's the Chuck Norris factor at play. N

Crowl · 09-19-2009, 07:27 AM

Its not so much the chuck norris factor as it is his publishers wanting to do the following with the profits:

pwarren · 09-21-2009, 01:15 AM

I have the epub published by randomhouse.co.uk, eBook ISBN: 9781409091486

I stripped the DRM so I was able to read it on my iliad. It looks very similar between DigitalEditions and FBReader on my MacBook, some slightly different relative sizes for headings, chapter headings, and the bold bit at the start of the chapter, and slightly different spacing between elements. Looks the same between FBReader on the iliad and on the mac, with the text going to within ~5 pixels of the edge of the screen.

FBReader enables you to override the margin settings, which I guess is what does it, I've set my margins to all be 0.5em.

HarryT · 09-21-2009, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwarren

FBReader enables you to override the margin settings, which I guess is what does it, I've set my margins to all be 0.5em.

Thank you - that explains it! The margins are my main issue with it.

lkodk · 09-21-2009, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Am I the only one who finds the formatting of the eBook version of "Lost Symbol" to be just ghastly? Huge margins, and huge gaps between the paragraphs. Yuck!

Finally I find someone with the same problem!
I bought the ePub version from Booksonboard
Huge margins on both my Sony 505 and 600, and on small textsize the text is almost illegible, and on Medium only a few words per line. I had to strip DRM and edit the stylesheet to remove the wide margins to be able to read it.

But I was wondering if it might be a problem with Sony's implementation of ePub.
And kennyc's statement leads me to believe that it may be the case:

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennyc

I know the same book is different on my Sony 505 vs the Pocket Pro I just returned.

HarryT · 09-21-2009, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lkodk

But I was wondering if it might be a problem with Sony's implementation of ePub.
And kennyc's statement leads me to believe that it may be the case:

No, it's a problem with the book. Sony, and all the other ADE devices, is obeying the formatting instructions in the book. More "primitive" ePub readers such as FBReader ignore most of the formatting instructions that are in the book. On the Sony, Opus, etc, we are seeing the book as the publisher intended it to be seen, bad though that is.

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09-18-2009, 07:51 AM	#91
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,557 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The book is sold in different formats, certainly.

09-19-2009, 01:24 AM	#99
MerLock Evangelist Posts: 411 Karma: 1034889 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	Anyone purchase the Sony version through their website? If so, does the format look good?

09-19-2009, 03:56 AM	#100
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,215 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	*You just don't edit Dan Brown's books. He's like Chuck Norris of literature. You just don't mess with him.* Exactly, Over. Had this been Brown's first offering, it would have been rejected or sent back for very heavy revision to improve pace, make the characters more substantial and their motivation more credible, to see to unrealistic dialogue, etc. etc. etc. And to provide a reasonable ending. A decent editor could turn this one around ... if he was free to do the job. As you say, though; there's the Chuck Norris factor at play. N

09-19-2009, 07:27 AM	#101
Crowl Wizard Posts: 1,340 Karma: 1160346 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Southport, GB Device: Kindle Voyage, PW Signature edition	Its not so much the chuck norris factor as it is his publishers wanting to do the following with the profits:

09-21-2009, 01:15 AM	#102
pwarren Connoisseur Posts: 95 Karma: 186186 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Canberra, Australia Device: Irex Iliad (Dead), EcoReader (Smashed screen), Kobo Touch	I have the epub published by randomhouse.co.uk, eBook ISBN: 9781409091486 I stripped the DRM so I was able to read it on my iliad. It looks very similar between DigitalEditions and FBReader on my MacBook, some slightly different relative sizes for headings, chapter headings, and the bold bit at the start of the chapter, and slightly different spacing between elements. Looks the same between FBReader on the iliad and on the mac, with the text going to within ~5 pixels of the edge of the screen. FBReader enables you to override the margin settings, which I guess is what does it, I've set my margins to all be 0.5em.