ok, now I am curious! (Tor's offering)

kaas · 07-27-2008, 04:00 PM

I have read and enjoyed "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson, which I received from the Tor offering. Ready to buy the second book, I could not find it anywhere as an ebook. Even extensive research did not help and now I am just curious as to why Tor would offer part 1 of a series and not make it possible to order part 2.
Is that intentional or maybe an oversight?
What do you think?

cheers,
kaas

Nate the great · 07-27-2008, 04:02 PM

The general opinion here is that they don't really want to sell ebooks. We've all noticed it. Annoying, isn't it?

kaas · 07-27-2008, 04:15 PM

hmm, it kind of makes sense - in a twisted, evil way. If you don't trust the ebook market per se but rather look at ebooks as a viable marketing tool...
I imagine it is far easier, cheaper, and more effective to give out a few ebooks for free, thus attracting people who will be willing to spend money on pbooks than to run costly ads. a sure way to stand out...

cheers,
kaas

IceHand · 07-27-2008, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

The general opinion here is that they don't really want to sell ebooks. We've all noticed it. Annoying, isn't it?

Now, that's not entirely true. Someone from Tor wrote on their blog:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

[A]ctually, Tor parent company Macmillan is actively converting all titles to which we have digital rights. It really is just a matter of time before the majority of our library is available in e-book form.

The brief flap over the Baen deal seems to have convinced several years' worth of fannish commentators that there's some kind of dire drama going on behind the scenes where Tor and e-books are concerned. There really isn't. There are issues of workflow and rights, just as there are everywhere else. I think you'll see lots more e-books in lots more formats in the next few months.

Source: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=...log&id=577#693

Barcey · 07-27-2008, 04:31 PM

They seem to be convinced that e-books are only suitable to be given away for free and to make their point they refuse to offer them for sale and accept money for them.

Apparently it's impossible to make a digital copy of a book from a paper edition so they will always be safe to only sell paper editions.

I feel sorry for their authors because they're the ones that are losing the revenue.

Barcey · 07-27-2008, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceHand

Now, that's not entirely true. Someone from Tor wrote on their blog:
Source: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=...log&id=577#693

I'll believe it when I see it. They don't have to convert their entire library to e-books before they start selling new releases as e-books. I think we were all hoping this e-book give away was a lead up to an announcement of Tor offering e-books for sale but the promotion is over and all I see is a website selling p-books. I would love to be proven wrong.

Nate the great · 07-27-2008, 04:42 PM

Big frickin' deal. Tor already had a site that sold pbooks. I know because I've bought a couple books from them.

Elsi · 07-27-2008, 05:36 PM

If you look at what happened... The original offering was in PDF and HTML format. To me, this indicated that the folks at TOR thought that people were going to read on their computers or print to paper. Later offerings came in MobiPocket format, and I believe that was because so many people wrote asking for a true eBook format.

It appeared that TOR chose first books of series to motivate people to buy the subsequent books -- which they thought would be the paper version of the book. It was the clamor for MobiPocket (and Sony) formats that I think has finally convinced them that there is

A market for electronic books
A potential for lost sales with eBook reader owners refusing to buy paper books

TheLongshot · 07-28-2008, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barcey

I'll believe it when I see it. They don't have to convert their entire library to e-books before they start selling new releases as e-books. I think we were all hoping this e-book give away was a lead up to an announcement of Tor offering e-books for sale but the promotion is over and all I see is a website selling p-books. I would love to be proven wrong.

I don't know if they really had a plan for e-books before they started this promotion. I think a lot of this has been to promote their new site mainly, but it had the byproduct to give some numbers for e-book interest. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much at the end, since they never promised e-books. But, I do hope that the interest generated by this promotion helps move them along the path of moving forward with this.

Jason

HappyMartin · 07-28-2008, 11:19 AM

Well I read Old Mans War and loved it. Would love to read the 2 others in the series and will buy them, but not as p books.

If the idea was to get me to buy p books then it failed. Thanks for the free book and so long. If they plan on trying to sell me an e book I will buy it right now. There are more books around than I will ever be able to read so as the Dead Kennedys named their best of album "give me convenience or give me death". I find it much more convenient to read on my Gen3.

pagansoul · 07-28-2008, 04:31 PM

I have come to the conclusion that one must buy a series all at one time. When it comes to free samples, well, life sucks. You just have to wait and maybe read the first book over again when the next arrives as an ebook.

Elsi · 07-28-2008, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

Well I read Old Mans War and loved it. Would love to read the 2 others in the series and will buy them, but not as p books.

The Ghost Brigades is available for the Kindle at Amazon.com. I don't know if it's available in any other format.

Lemurion · 07-28-2008, 05:24 PM

According to Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tor will soon be restarting their deal of selling at least some eBooks through Tor.

kaas · 07-29-2008, 05:40 AM

According to one of the authors from Tor's free ebooks deal, they will be having the majority of their books as ebooks by the end of next year...
Since I don't know whether this info is confidential or not, I will stay vague

cheers,
kaas

JSWolf · 07-29-2008, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elsi

If you look at what happened... The original offering was in PDF and HTML format. To me, this indicated that the folks at TOR thought that people were going to read on their computers or print to paper. Later offerings came in MobiPocket format, and I believe that was because so many people wrote asking for a true eBook format.

Actually, the first free eBook was in PDF only. Then they got enough complaints that they then gave away the HTML later on for people who asked for it. The second free eBook onward was in PDF, HTML, and Mobipocket. But, where the PDF had a nice ToC, the HTML and Mobipocket formats did not have a ToC at all. So it seems while Tor was acquiescing to the readers, they didn't care enough to actually truly give us what we wanted. And the fact that they ignored the Sony users is another blunder on their part. I mean really, how hard is it to make a proper ToC for the HTML and then use that to make the Mobipocket edition along with a Sony Edition. Mobipocket Publisher and Calibre are easy enough to use.

07-27-2008, 04:00 PM	#1
kaas Muncher of ebooks Posts: 312 Karma: 6423 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Fürth, Germany Device: Pocketbook 360	ok, now I am curious! (Tor's offering) I have read and enjoyed "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson, which I received from the Tor offering. Ready to buy the second book, I could not find it anywhere as an ebook. Even extensive research did not help and now I am just curious as to why Tor would offer part 1 of a series and not make it possible to order part 2. Is that intentional or maybe an oversight? What do you think? cheers, kaas

07-27-2008, 04:15 PM	#3
kaas Muncher of ebooks Posts: 312 Karma: 6423 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Fürth, Germany Device: Pocketbook 360	hmm, it kind of makes sense - in a twisted, evil way. If you don't trust the ebook market per se but rather look at ebooks as a viable marketing tool... I imagine it is far easier, cheaper, and more effective to give out a few ebooks for free, thus attracting people who will be willing to spend money on pbooks than to run costly ads. a sure way to stand out... cheers, kaas Last edited by kaas; 07-27-2008 at 04:21 PM.

07-27-2008, 05:36 PM	#8
Elsi Wizard Posts: 2,366 Karma: 12000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas, USA Device: Kindle; Sony PRS 505; Blackberry 8700C	If you look at what happened... The original offering was in PDF and HTML format. To me, this indicated that the folks at TOR thought that people were going to read on their computers or print to paper. Later offerings came in MobiPocket format, and I believe that was because so many people wrote asking for a true eBook format. It appeared that TOR chose first books of series to motivate people to buy the subsequent books -- which they thought would be the paper version of the book. It was the clamor for MobiPocket (and Sony) formats that I think has finally convinced them that there is A market for electronic books A potential for lost sales with eBook reader owners refusing to buy paper books

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07-27-2008, 04:02 PM	#2
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	The general opinion here is that they don't really want to sell ebooks. We've all noticed it. Annoying, isn't it?

07-27-2008, 04:31 PM	#5
Barcey Wizard Posts: 1,531 Karma: 8059866 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Canada Device: Kobo H2O / Aura HD / Glo / iPad3	They seem to be convinced that e-books are only suitable to be given away for free and to make their point they refuse to offer them for sale and accept money for them. Apparently it's impossible to make a digital copy of a book from a paper edition so they will always be safe to only sell paper editions. I feel sorry for their authors because they're the ones that are losing the revenue.

07-27-2008, 04:42 PM	#7
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Big frickin' deal. Tor already had a site that sold pbooks. I know because I've bought a couple books from them.

07-28-2008, 11:19 AM	#10
HappyMartin Martin Kristiansen Posts: 1,546 Karma: 8480958 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Johannesburg Device: Kindle International Ipad 2	Well I read Old Mans War and loved it. Would love to read the 2 others in the series and will buy them, but not as p books. If the idea was to get me to buy p books then it failed. Thanks for the free book and so long. If they plan on trying to sell me an e book I will buy it right now. There are more books around than I will ever be able to read so as the Dead Kennedys named their best of album "give me convenience or give me death". I find it much more convenient to read on my Gen3.

07-28-2008, 04:31 PM	#11
pagansoul Fanatic Posts: 509 Karma: 1098204 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Earth Device: iPhone5, iPad Gen3, Kobo, Kindle Fire, Kobo Vox. Samsung Galaxy Tab 7	I have come to the conclusion that one must buy a series all at one time. When it comes to free samples, well, life sucks. You just have to wait and maybe read the first book over again when the next arrives as an ebook.

07-28-2008, 05:24 PM	#13
Lemurion eReader Posts: 2,750 Karma: 4968470 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Note 5; PW3; Nook HD+; ChuWi Hi12; iPad	According to Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tor will soon be restarting their deal of selling at least some eBooks through Tor.

07-29-2008, 05:40 AM	#14
kaas Muncher of ebooks Posts: 312 Karma: 6423 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Fürth, Germany Device: Pocketbook 360	According to one of the authors from Tor's free ebooks deal, they will be having the majority of their books as ebooks by the end of next year... Since I don't know whether this info is confidential or not, I will stay vague cheers, kaas

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