Problems with a book from Amazon

[pwalker8]

Hey moderators, this isn't a request for recommendations, a request for help on kindle books or anything like that. It's a general discussion on ebooks with odd restrictions.

I purchased a book on weather in the kindle store earlier this week. No special notices on the book. When I went to download it, it didn't show up in my content. Odd. It did show up in the kindle app on my iPad. I pulled it up there. The font was too small to read comfortably and there was no way to change the font size or anything. Apparently, the publishers had locked it down so much that I couldn't do anything with it to make it more readable. Fortunately, I was able to return it for a refund. My first clue should have been that it was available for rent and well as purchase, something that is not normal in my experience. It was too bad, the book looked like it would be interesting, but it was simply unusable.

[JSWolf]

Could it have been fixed layout?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

No special notices on the book. When I went to download it, it didn't show up in my content. Odd. It did show up in the kindle app on my iPad.

Generally, although I obviously can’t vouch for always, such books do carry a notification in the device list, where only Fire tables and Android and iOS apps are mentioned and not Kindles.

[jhowell]

I agree that fixed-layout is likely. That is commonly used for textbooks, which probably the case here based on it being available for rent. "Print replica" typically appears in the description of such books.

A link to the specific book would make it easier to discuss.

[jhowell]

Here is an example of a fixed-layout textbook: Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate and the Environment

In this case I can find no mention of "print replica" in the description. You have to infer it from the "Look inside" preview and the device limitations.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I agree that fixed-layout is likely. That is commonly used for textbooks, which probably the case here based on it being available for rent. "Print replica" typically appears in the description of such books.

A link to the specific book would make it easier to discuss.

I don't really care about their rational, I only care that the book was not usable by me. Certainly there is nothing I can to to "fix" the issue. The fact that they block downloading the book to a computer is a pretty big clue it's more about restrictions than it is about anything else. I could download it onto my kindle which was an even worse experience trying to read it than the kindle app on my iPad. One of the major values of eBooks is the ability to increase font size. The odd thing is it wasn't an expensive book, only $20.

[salamanderjuice]

I can sort of see the rational for making a fixed layout textbook. If the book has equations, a lot of diagrams etc. anyways on Kindle those are all going be images and unaffected by text size settings regardless. With fixed layout they can still use the paper book page numbering and instructors can still say "read pages XYZ through QRS and do problem 7 on page TRV". Although why go through all the effort to do that and not just throw up a PDF? Sell on Kobo too maybe? That's the only reason I can think of.

[jhowell]

It is the publisher's decision whether to go to the extra expense to properly format an e-book or to just reuse the PDF produced anyway for print publication. For textbooks with a captive audience the extra expense on their part is unlikely to result in many additional sales.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I don't really care about their rational, I only care that the book was not usable by me. Certainly there is nothing I can to to "fix" the issue. The fact that they block downloading the book to a computer is a pretty big clue it's more about restrictions than it is about anything else. I could download it onto my kindle which was an even worse experience trying to read it than the kindle app on my iPad. One of the major values of eBooks is the ability to increase font size. The odd thing is it wasn't an expensive book, only $20.

It has nothing to do with "restrictions." Or Amazon's rationale. I make eBooks commercially and that's a choice that the publisher made, not Amazon. You are not restricted from downloading it "to a computer." You can put it on Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, a Fire device, K4Droid, K4iPad, K4iOS and one other device.

Yes, the font is too small, most likely, because it looks, works and acts like an ePDF. You simply tap or click the page to ZOOM the page and read it just as you would an ePDF. Tap-zoom, pan-scan read; pan-scan read; pan-scan read; page-flip, lather-rinse-repeat.

Amazon has zero to do with the choice here; the publisher makes that decision when they build the eBook. If the publisher feels that the complexity of the layout (lots of multi-column tabular data, multi-column text, tables, etc.) will be lost in a reflowable format, they'll choose to make Fixed-layout and 99.99%, that's what you have.

You can return the book if you are unhappy and given HOW unhappy you are, I'd recommend that as a viable option.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Here is an example of a fixed-layout textbook: Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate and the Environment

In this case I can find no mention of "print replica" in the description. You have to infer it from the "Look inside" preview and the device limitations.

No, but it DOES say eTextbook and it does flatly state (in large print) that it's not supported on all devices, so...that's pretty clear.

Hitch