A Humble Bundle partnership with Kobo? 39 Terry Pratchet books! Ends tomorrow.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

The bundle still shows 5 hours to go for me, interestingly...

I personally wish they'd stick with DRM-free EPUBs like past bundles, personally. I guess HarperCollins wasn't willing to do that. Past bundles through Tor have done it, since their stuff is DRM-free anyway. But all requiring a Kobo account did was make a bunch of people angry at Kobo that they needed to sign up for an account to get their books.

Are they upset at Humble Bundle that they needed to sign up for an account?

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

It's not like it was a secret that you needed Kobo for the bundle. Always look at how you redeem a bundle before you buy it.

Good advice, but, well, just an example: At the moment there are comics and manga bundles available ("Radiant Black and the Massiverse"; "Kodansha Award-Winning (and Nominated) Manga"), but I don't see where they tell you how to redeem your purchase. (I don't have an account, in case you need to be logged in to see it.)

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/r...om-image-books

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/k...ed-manga-books

[Frogm4n]

If they don't specify a 3rd party service, then you'd be downloading directly from HB themselves.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by SomeSteve

At the moment there are comics and manga bundles available ("Radiant Black and the Massiverse"; "Kodansha Award-Winning (and Nominated) Manga"), but I don't see where they tell you how to redeem your purchase.

Scroll down and click on the + next to Bundle Details:

Read them anywhere. The comics in this bundle are available in PDF, ePUB, and CBZ format, so they work on your computer, e-readers, iPads, cell phones, and a wide array of mobile devices! Instructions and a list of recommended reading programs can be found here.

This type of description that doesn't mention a separate bookstore like Kobo means the files will be downloaded directly from HB. Always read the fine print!

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Are they upset at Humble Bundle that they needed to sign up for an account?

No, they channel their outrage at the unfamiliar third party, you see.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

No, they channel their outrage at the unfamiliar third party, you see.

If they don't like getting the eBooks from Kobo, don't buy them.

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Scroll down and click on the + next to Bundle Details:

Read them anywhere. The comics in this bundle are available in PDF, ePUB, and CBZ format, so they work on your computer, e-readers, iPads, cell phones, and a wide array of mobile devices! Instructions and a list of recommended reading programs can be found here.

This type of description that doesn't mention a separate bookstore like Kobo means the files will be downloaded directly from HB. Always read the fine print!

Before posting I hauled out my biggest magnifiying glass and did read that fine print. Not only that, but scoffing at danger, I delved into the FAQ, and thought I'd hit paydirt when I saw the heading "How do I redeem my content?", but that turned out to be fool's gold, as it only applies to games. A little higher on the page the question is asked, "Where is my purchase?", but it only mentions email and the "Purchases page," and I was hoping for something more detailed, such as step-by-step instructions: 1. Go here, 2. Click there, 3. Do this, 4. Do that, etc.

Anyhow, thanks, everybody, for your answers.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by SomeSteve

Before posting I hauled out my biggest magnifiying glass and did read that fine print. Not only that, but scoffing at danger, I delved into the FAQ, and thought I'd hit paydirt when I saw the heading "How do I redeem my content?", but that turned out to be fool's gold, as it only applies to games. A little higher on the page the question is asked, "Where is my purchase?", but it only mentions email and the "Purchases page," and I was hoping for something more detailed, such as step-by-step instructions: 1. Go here, 2. Click there, 3. Do this, 4. Do that, etc.

Anyhow, thanks, everybody, for your answers.

I’ve been purchasing from them for years. Aside from sloppy archives from Kodansha (as I detailed in the OP), I’ve mostly been pleased with Humble Bundle.

There’s a little file icon at the top of the page that lists what formats the bundle is in. PDF and ePUB for the Kodansha one, for example. The Discworld bundle specifically said that the books were to be redeemed with Kobo.

I’m a bit dismayed that Kodansha isn’t offering CBZ. It seems they’ve given up on doing them right since they botch the batches often.

Once you purchase the bundle, you’re brought to the download page. Here you can individually download each file, batch download them (which floods your browser with individual downloads en masse. Don’t select this option. It typically skips files), download individual torrent files, or (and this is stupid) mass download all the individual torrent files. It doesn’t give you a convenient, single torrent archive of all the books so that everybody can help seed the torrent.

I’ve taken to individually downloading the epubs or CBZ files so that I don’t miss any of them.

The last time I used the service was when Kodansha released all the Vampire Hunter D light novels in a bundle. It was such a pain fixing missing covers, missing files, numbering them properly, and renaming them so that they listed similarly that I haven’t gone back for two years—until this past Kobo bundle, which was painless to grab.

Now there’s a new Kodansha bundle with manga I’d like, but the pain of that last bundle of theirs that I bought two years ago still stings.

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Once you purchase the bundle, you’re brought to the download page.

Thanks for the detailed guide.

[twowheels]

I saw this post while on vacation overseas -- I already own a few of the books, and have read a few others from library loans, but this was such a good deal I had to snag it. Luckily I have a VPN server running at home and my phone configured to use it, so I was able to grab the deal and redeem it!

Now I just need to get around to downloading all of the epubs and liberating them to read in KOReader, on my Kobo.


EDIT: A lot of the books don't show covers in ADE... is this true for everybody, or should I try to re-download those? Ugh...

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by twowheels

I saw this post while on vacation overseas -- I already own a few of the books, and have read a few others from library loans, but this was such a good deal I had to snag it. Luckily I have a VPN server running at home and my phone configured to use it, so I was able to grab the deal and redeem it!

Now I just need to get around to downloading all of the epubs and liberating them to read in KOReader, on my Kobo.


EDIT: A lot of the books don't show covers in ADE... is this true for everybody, or should I try to re-download those? Ugh...

I’m glad my post was seen by somebody else in time.

I did notice a few ebook cover issues in Calibre, but they all downloaded with covers correctly on all my Kobo devices. I don’t deal with ADE anymore, so perhaps somebody else can help there.

[Aleron Ives]

If ADE doesn't show a cover image, either the OPF file is malformed, or no cover image is present. Either way, you'll have to edit the book if you want a cover image. It's a symptom of a shoddy EPUB file and not a sign that your download failed, so redownloading won't help.

[twowheels]

Thanks to both of you -- I ended up going through the entire set of books and updating the series info and downloading covers -- which also allowed me to use a consistent set of cover designs given that there are a few variants.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Thanks to both of you -- I ended up going through the entire set of books and updating the series info and downloading covers -- which also allowed me to use a consistent set of cover designs given that there are a few variants.

You may actually want to redo your covers. These covers are the best!

https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/c...bykidby_covers

[Quoth]

I've downloaded those in case I ever get the ebooks or need to recover my full set of pbooks!
Thanks @JSWolf