Delphi Classics 40% deal

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I think there's a limit on size, and that some (not all, by any means) of their larger sizes are put together without the illustrations when Amazon sells them and if they exceed that size limit.

I'm sorry, but I can't remember where I read this.

You can buy the kindle copies direct from Delphi. They don't mention anything about the kindle format ones being truncated, so I assume they are complete. Among the ones I bought from this sale were the Complete Works of L. Frank Baum, which was 135MB, so if that doesn't get truncated I don't think anything will.

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Another thing to keep in mind is that for some collections there are country specific editions whereas purchasers in some countries get fewer books in the collection if copyright still exists in their country on books that are otherwise in the collection, however other countries get the lot. I think that USA purchasers are the ones most affected (my own country is not affected at all so my comment is only an observation from browsing the shops, not from personal experience of purchasing a lesser collection).

From casual observation the entry for the collection makes this clear for affected collections in at least the Delphi and Kobo stores if such an issue exists.

For many of the collections the US version doesn't contain the latest works of the author, due to copyright. However, they let me buy the non-US versions without a fuss, so it isn't very rigidly enforced.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by Marcy

...so it isn't very rigidly enforced.

And in any event, if that were not so, it is extremely easy to get around .

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Marcy

You can buy them as kindle books directly from Delphi if that's your preferred format.

I know, but AZW3 is not my preferred format. My entire library is EPUB-based; books that are not in EPUB are first converted into that before I do anything else. (Yes, that is true even for AZW3 books.)

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I haven't had any problems when converting from epub to mobi, but for some reason azw3 does present problems.

It presents problems if the file is huge, and has many index entries. This is actually fixed in Calibre version 1.31, released last Friday. Although the error is assumed to be about the TOC in the bug report instead of the index entires, it *is* the same error Calibre throws on very large Delphi's, and it seems to be fixed.

See this bug report.

I've tested the conversion on the following three Delphi Classics:

1. Anthony Trollope (26,880 pages, 10.7 mln words)
2. Charles Dickens (19,749 pages, 7.6 mln words)
3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (12,911 pages, 4.9 mln words)

I knew that 2 and 3 wouldn't convert, because I tried before, and nr. 1 is the biggest book I have in my library (regarding number of pages).

After installing Calibre 1.31, I tried to convert them to AZW3 because of the aforementioned bug fix, and it worked.

Warning

Converting these books consumed 2.1 GB for the Trollope one, 1.4 GB for Dickens, and 1.2 GB for Doyle, at the same time. The computer capped out at 6.7 GB of memory usage. Because the Trollope book needs more than 2GB of RAM, it is possible Calibre 32-bit will be unable to convert it, as 32-bit processes are limited to 2GB per process, at least under Windows.

In short: if you have a computer that does NOT have a quad-core, or has 4GB RAM or less, then only convert one book at a time. Use Calibre 64-bit, if you have a 64-bit computer and operating system.

Conversion times:

Trollope: 31 minutes
Dickens: 24 minutes
Doyle: 13 minutes.

I opened the Doyle book in the Calibre viewer, and it works. I didn't try the other two, because opening large AZW3 books in Calibre takes a huge amount of time.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Marcy

You can buy the kindle copies direct from Delphi. They don't mention anything about the kindle format ones being truncated, so I assume they are complete. Among the ones I bought from this sale were the Complete Works of L. Frank Baum, which was 135MB, so if that doesn't get truncated I don't think anything will.

Right: I just meant that there's a difference (so I read somewhere) between what Amazon allows as an upload size from publishers, and what Delphi Classics sells.

I'll try to find that reference.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Right: I just meant that there's a difference (so I read somewhere) between what Amazon allows as an upload size from publishers, and what Delphi Classics sells.

I'll try to find that reference.

There is a 50MB limit on the size of books that people can sell through KDP. Perhaps you're thinking of that?

[samhy]

Thank you Katsunami for the information. I didn't pay much attention to Delphi Classics before, but since I've been reading more classics recently I was looking for a reliable source (well formated ebook, not much typos...) to complement the Patricia library.
I've download some of the free ebooks to give them a try