Irony of the stripped warning

[sassanik]

So I bought a ebook through Amazon for my iphone.

After the title page, info page, etc. there was the standard:

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property etc etc.

The irony struck me how can you "strip the cover" off a ebook and why would you?

I guess they need to revise and update their warning to include something like:

If you downloaded this book without paying for it you should be aware that this book is stolen property etc etc.

Amy

[pepak]

It's not ironic. It's tragic - it just shows the amount of care taken to produce e-books.

[JSWolf]

A lot of eBooks come without covers. So are those eBooks without proper covers stolen?

[sassanik]

Yes that is true, some ebooks don't come with covers, or come with a generic cover provided by the site, like at Fictionwise or BoB.

Its disappointing but I frequently expect better electronic copies from the smaller publishers, especially ones that specialize in online sales.

This book was by Dorchester Publishing, not only did it have that silly stripped book warning, they did not bother to remove the hyphenated words that show up when the word runs past the edge of the page. I am sure there is a specific word for that, but I can't think of it currently.


Amy

[Darqref]

Originally Posted by sassanik

Yes that is true, some ebooks don't come with covers, or come with a generic cover provided by the site, like at Fictionwise or BoB.

Its disappointing but I frequently expect better electronic copies from the smaller publishers, especially ones that specialize in online sales.

This book was by Dorchester Publishing, not only did it have that silly stripped book warning, they did not bother to remove the hyphenated words that show up when the word runs past the edge of the page. I am sure there is a specific word for that, but I can't think of it currently.


Amy

Actually, this may not be the case. I just spent a weekend at an SF convention, and talked with several small publishers. According to one, they spent a lot of time trying to get the various formats to look as good as possible, but Fictionwise just said they had to submit it to the standard process, and therefore Fictionwise is the actual source of the formatting. Complete with author's complaints to the publisher, with no results because Fictionwise didn't change anything in their workflow. Sad, if true.

The cover, or lack, would come from the publisher, though.

[Jill75]

Originally Posted by sassanik

So I bought a ebook through Amazon for my iphone.

After the title page, info page, etc. there was the standard:

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property etc etc.

The irony struck me how can you "strip the cover" off a ebook and why would you?

I guess they need to revise and update their warning to include something like:

If you downloaded this book without paying for it you should be aware that this book is stolen property etc etc.

Amy

Well, simply put, if you have downloaded the book without the cover, does it matter if you have all the contents that is more important? You would not deal much with the cover than reading the main body. Its like pirated DVD movies.

[tech_au]

I hate those generic covers that about half my purchased ebooks have. I may only look at it once before starting to read it but I at least want my ebook to look like a real book with a real cover

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by sassanik

...not only did it have that silly stripped book warning, they did not bother to remove the hyphenated words that show up when the word runs past the edge of the page. I am sure there is a specific word for that, but I can't think of it currently.

Yeah: lazy.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tech_au

I hate those generic covers that about half my purchased ebooks have. I may only look at it once before starting to read it but I at least want my ebook to look like a real book with a real cover

The reason for them is that generally the "cover art" has "rights" that are negotiated separately to those of the book itself, and very often those rights do not permit electronic distribution, hence the publisher is not permitted to use the cover of the pBook on the eBook.

[griffonwing]

With the ease of creating PDFs and converting formats, it shouldnt be a problem to google the book, save the cover image, and import it as the first page of your ebook.

I, personally, see no difference in Pbooks and Ebooks in terms of "rights". The artist sold the rights for their work to be the front cover of a specific book. Whether that book is in paper format or electronic should make absolutely NO difference. Their work, as well as the book itself, is being sold and they will be compensated for the sale (os SHOULD be) regardless of what format.

This is like having your image ONLY be licensed for Hard Cover editions, or First-Run editions, and not for paper backs. I've never heard of this.

On a related note, I have seen reprinted hardbacks/paperbacks that show a different cover page than the original. DragonLance first comes to mind. Other examples are The LoTR series of books, and books that were made into movies which show the actors or screenshots of the movie on the cover.

But a contract for ONLY hard cover or such, I've never heard of. Then again, I'm not in the biz. To me, The cover should go with the book, regardless of format. Pbook or Ebook.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

I, personally, see no difference in Pbooks and Ebooks in terms of "rights". The artist sold the rights for their work to be the front cover of a specific book. Whether that book is in paper format or electronic should make absolutely NO difference. Their work, as well as the book itself, is being sold and they will be compensated for the sale (os SHOULD be) regardless of what format.

That's a very reasonable way to think, to be sure, but unfortunately it's not the "way it is". Print and electronic distribution rights are separate things, like it or not .

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

With the ease of creating PDFs and converting formats, it shouldnt be a problem to google the book, save the cover image, and import it as the first page of your ebook.

I, personally, see no difference in Pbooks and Ebooks in terms of "rights". The artist sold the rights for their work to be the front cover of a specific book. Whether that book is in paper format or electronic should make absolutely NO difference. Their work, as well as the book itself, is being sold and they will be compensated for the sale (os SHOULD be) regardless of what format.

Actually, I think the current situation is probably most desirable to both the artists and the publishers. After all, art that looks good in print may not look all that good in e-ink or at the smaller size of an ebook reader compared to the size of a hard back.

This is like having your image ONLY be licensed for Hard Cover editions, or First-Run editions, and not for paper backs. I've never heard of this.

I don't know if it was a rights issue or not, but I have seen books that have different cover art between the hard cover and the paper back. One book I can remember it being true for was Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October... though I think that had a lot to do with the fact that the original Hard Back was published by a different publisher than the paper back edition.

On a related note, I have seen reprinted hardbacks/paperbacks that show a different cover page than the original. DragonLance first comes to mind. Other examples are The LoTR series of books, and books that were made into movies which show the actors or screenshots of the movie on the cover.

Actually I think different covers for different editions of a book tends to be the norm. At least it is in Science Fiction.. what looked futuristic in the original edition of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" 45 years ago probably looks silly to many readers today.

But a contract for ONLY hard cover or such, I've never heard of. Then again, I'm not in the biz. To me, The cover should go with the book, regardless of format. Pbook or Ebook.

Personally, I could care less... covers are, imho, a marketing tool.

--
Bill

[sassanik]

I am not too worried about what the cover image is. I realize that covers are drawn by people and have been liscenced.

I think its true that different editions have different covers, I can think of Anne McCaffreys Pern series has had several different covers for the books. International Editions can also have a different cover.

Covers are indeed a ploy to sell books and yes they do work. A good cover can help a book sell more copies.

The idea of making a specific cover for the digital editions has merit actually. Since the cover might look horrid on a small screen. I wonder if publishers will start to take that into consideration?

Amy

[Jellby]

An e-book cover doesn't have to be a fancy illustration, it can just be the title and author name in a nice big readable font, so that the book can be idientified in "library view" or whatever a particular reader implements.

And automatically generated covers are not the solution, since you can have dozens of covers showing "The Adventure of..." or "The Mysterious Case of...", etc.