Your favorite epub vendor?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But converting a Kindle eBook purchased from Amazon violates Amazon's terms and conditions.

Are you really advocating that we break Amazon's term's and conditions?

I don't see anything wrong in saving a copy of a book you have purchased from a vendor (no matter which one) for your own use. If someone were to download and (after breaking the DRM) put it up in a torrent file that would be different as that would be taking $ out of the pocket of the author but if you do it just to have a functional copy for a back up for your own use after purchase you aren't doing that. You are still the only one with access to that copy of that particular book. And what if you buy a book from a vendor be it Kobo or Amazon for example and it turns out they made a hash of the formatting (as some have posted in other threads sometimes happens)? Is the buyer supposed to just grin and bear it? That did happen with a book I bought from Kobo. I'm not sure how many errors in the TOC there are but I found at least one chapter hadn't been tagged properly so the TOC skips over that chapter and since it's a multi part book (4 parts) with multiple chapters in each section that kind of error can make navigation difficult. Not all books have covers that fit properly either. Sometimes the cover is up in the left hand corner of the screen and on the right and the bottom there is a large field of white. That's if the cover itself downloads with the file in the 1st place as sometimes that seems to be missing as well.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by crich70

... And what if you buy a book from a vendor be it Kobo or Amazon for example and it turns out they made a hash of the formatting....

I'm with you here, crich. Tinkering with the file is half the fun. Certain formatting choices simply don't look good on a small screen (NST). Most ereaders allow some options as to displaying the font, etc. If I want to edit the CSS so I have an extra line of space between paragraphs, or so that the paragraphs do not indent, then how does that hurt anyone?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

I'm with you here, crich. Tinkering with the file is half the fun. Certain formatting choices simply don't look good on a small screen (NST). Most ereaders allow some options as to displaying the font, etc. If I want to edit the CSS so I have an extra line of space between paragraphs, or so that the paragraphs do not indent, then how does that hurt anyone?

Well I haven't tinkered with the css directly myself but I do often now run a book through Calibre and use the old rules for the Mobi file which I've found shrink the file size considerably which I find of use as well. Why have a book that's 18 mb in size when it can read just as well (IMO) at 1 mb or something like that.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Thanks, Greg!

Does anyone know of a listing of indy sites like the scifi-az site Greg mentioned? A list like that would be a good resource.

I think the Calibre Site has some:

http://drmfree.calibre-ebook.com/

But their main purpose is to list sites/authors/resources that are DRM free.

[BearMountainBooks]

I use Kobo to get epubs (or sometimes an author site or direct from the publisher). I've been very happy with their service/books. I almost always use coupons to buy what I want.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I think the Calibre Site has some:

http://drmfree.calibre-ebook.com/

But their main purpose is to list sites/authors/resources that are DRM free.

And at least some of the links there lead to books at Smashwords.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well I haven't tinkered with the css directly myself but I do often now run a book through Calibre and use the old rules for the Mobi file which I've found shrink the file size considerably which I find of use as well. Why have a book that's 18 mb in size when it can read just as well (IMO) at 1 mb or something like that.

If the epub is built logically then changing the css is easy. Just save a copy of the original file and you can experiment with the copy.

On the other hand, some books go hog-wild with the formatting, and those can be tricky. Sometimes more trouble than it's worth.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Does every thread have to degrade into a battle between Kindle format and EPub format? I think the original question was "Anyone care to recommend an online vendor for epubs?" While, personally, most of my books are bought from Amazon (more now due to recent changes at B&N) the original question was NOT "Anyone care to recommend an online vendor for Amazon formatted eBooks?"

The original question was based on a flawed premise.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The original question was based on a flawed premise.

And anytime you mention one of the two main ebook formats someone is going to compare it to the other main one. I mentioned that I favored kobo for epubs (even with the problems I've had) and someone asked why I was buying epubs when I have a Kindle and from there it got into DRM. Of course sometimes I'm sure one thing that happens is that a person wants a book that either isn't available in the other format or it's cheaper (due to either a sale or a coupon) than it is at the other site.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Sorry, I didn't mean to kick the anthill!

So, who has used Google books to purchase epubs? How was the experience?

Have bought epub books from Google books; also have 2 books pre-ordered (looks to be $2 lower as shown, not sure if it is a real discount for pre-ordering).

Use your browser from the computer or tablet to get the books. After signing on to your account check your account(?) to see the books purchased & then right-click to download the book in either epub or pdf format. This is also on their help section on how to get the books onto the computer; no intermediary acsm file!

[susan_cassidy]

If there is no acsm file, how do they implement the DRM?

[crane3]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

If there is no acsm file, how do they implement the DRM?

No idea how DRM is implemented without an acsm file. I just get a whateveritis.epub file. For me, Calibre won't load a file with an acsm extension but will load a file with the epub extension.

It may be that the acsm & epub file extension is the same & just a name change may get Calibre to load but haven't tried it. Never looked into how DRM is done, just that it can be disinfected using various tools; but disinfection don't work for acsm files as I've found from books from feedbooks(?) (think that's the French seller).

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by crane3

No idea how DRM is implemented without an acsm file. I just get a whateveritis.epub file. For me, Calibre won't load a file with an acsm extension but will load a file with the epub extension.

It may be that the acsm & epub file extension is the same & just a name change may get Calibre to load but haven't tried it. Never looked into how DRM is done, just that it can be disinfected using various tools; but disinfection don't work for acsm files as I've found from books from feedbooks(?) (think that's the French seller).

I just bought a book from Google and it downloaded as an ascm file. Maybe the ones you bought were drm free?

[eschwartz]

A .acsm file is a license file which Adobe Digital Editions opens and reads to find out where to downoad the real book from. Google uses it for books that have DRM, but they also provide a Google app that allows you to read the book directly from their service. It does not use EPUB, rather a mysterious Google-specific implementation that likely involves a generic cache. It also seems to use javascript.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I just bought a book from Google and it downloaded as an ascm file. Maybe the ones you bought were drm free?

That is probably the case. When I sold my books on Google there was no option to add DRM, but I know they were working on it. I still don't know if it is available to all publishers/authors, but I know when I uploaded, it was DRM-free.