Available as eBook? The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett

[haertig]

Does anyone know where - or even if - I can find The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett in eBook form? It is the only one of the 41 main novels of the Discworld series that I have not been able to locate as an eBook.

[Dazrin]

I thought I saw it at my library a while back but when I go to check now I don't see it.

It is the next book on my Discworld read-through so hopefully someone is able to find a copy.

Edit: It looks like it is available at Kobo UK. And it used to be available at Amazon US, at least that is what I infer from the note. "This title is not currently available for purchase."

I wonder if this is an illustration issue with the ebook, poor quality or rights disagreement or something. The comment I see at Kobo is that the illustrations make it very hard to read on a Kobo.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Edit: It looks like it is available at Kobo UK. And it used to be available at Amazon US, at least that is what I infer from the note. "This title is not currently available for purchase."

"This title is not currently available for purchase." is Amazonese for not available in your location due to geo-restrictions. The book is available in the UK (& probably some other countries), but not the US or Canada.

[haertig]

I've never understood the rationale behind geo restrictions. Either you (as the author or publisher) wants to sell your book, or you don't. Geo restrictions appear to be aimed at supporting the don't half of that. But for the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would desire it. I guess it's OK to sell the other 40 books in the series in the US, but just not this particular one. Makes perfect sense (to an idiot).

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by haertig

I've never understood the rationale behind geo restrictions. Either you (as the author or publisher) wants to sell your book, or you don't. Geo restrictions appear to be aimed at supporting the don't half of that. But for the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would desire it. I guess it's OK to sell the other 40 books in the series in the US, but just not this particular one. Makes perfect sense (to an idiot).

Historical reasons and contracts. Basically, historically one might not want to ship a bunch of books over seas, so you might have one publishing company in England and one publishing company in the US. One publishing company had all the contact of various bookstores in the US, while a different one had it in England. It still makes a certain amount of sense for paper books. Not every publishing company is set up to service every country. Doesn't make as much sense for ebooks though.

[haertig]

I guess a few people did find an eBook version of The Last Hero (see below). And it appears that it is completely unusable. Maybe that's why it's not readily available in eBook format.

Here's a review off of Amazon:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle version unreadable
November 6, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
DO NOT BUY THE KINDLE VERSION! ...because it is quite a scam. It's just scanned from the illustrated book and therefore contains two pages per screen. it is absolutely under no circumstances readable on my kindle oasis. Maybe it's acceptable on kindle cloud reader or smartphone app but don't buy it for your e-reader.

I can't comment on the books content because i've yet to find a e-reader compatible version before I read it.

And here's a review off the Kobo site:

The last hero
Not worth buying if you want to read it on kubo it is all in graphics and impossible to read
by Keith on June 03, 2018

[AnemicOak]

It's likely a fixed layout book of some sort as it's illustrated on every page. Those types of books are generally best on a tablet or desktop/laptop and not really well suited to something designed more for reflowable text like a standard reader.

[haertig]

Yes, a PDF file. I wonder why they don't publish it as a PDF? Those are not nice on eReaders, but they are fine on tablets and smartphones (well, a phone is kind of iffy). I've read here on Mobileread that most consumers do their reading on tablets and phones anyway. So that begs the question, why not a PDF version of the book? That would be extremely cheap to publish. A few scans of the physical book, some editing and cleanup in Gimp or PhotoShop, stitch all the individual scans together into a single file with a program like "pdfunite", ... and you're done. No real editing required. I would pay to buy that if it were published.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by haertig

I've never understood the rationale behind geo restrictions. Either you (as the author or publisher) wants to sell your book, or you don't. Geo restrictions appear to be aimed at supporting the don't half of that. But for the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would desire it.

It's very simple: it can make the author more money. If an author signs a contract with multiple publishers in different parts of the world, he gets a separate advance from each publisher. Most books never earn back their advance, hence multiple advances means more money for the author.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Most books never earn back their advance...

That's quite the losing proposition for publishers then. I don't think I would want to pursue a career in that business.

But it sounds like for the specific book I mentioned, it's probably more a problem with heavy graphics in the book than a geo restriction. I still think it would be nice if they'd publish it in PDF format, possibly with the warning that it is targeted more for tablets/smartphones that can enlarge graphics rather then eReaders that can't.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by haertig

That's quite the losing proposition for publishers then. I don't think I would want to pursue a career in that business.

I haven't seen numbers in quite a while but the publishers generally keep between 70 and 90(+)% of the money on this type of book deal. The the 70% side for ebooks, 80-85% for hardbacks, 90+% for paperbacks. They don't need the book to cover the authors advance to make a profit. Advances, except for big name people (not saying authors since many people with big advances are just celebrities with ghost writers), are generally not that big.

[fum]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's very simple: it can make the author more money. If an author signs a contract with multiple publishers in different parts of the world, he gets a separate advance from each publisher. Most books never earn back their advance, hence multiple advances means more money for the author.

Another reason is the price. In Denmark, where I live, the price of living is quite high. So you could sell the book here at one price, and yet another price in another country. The rationale being, set the price at what the market can sustain.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I haven't seen numbers in quite a while but the publishers generally keep between 70 and 90(+)% of the money on this type of book deal. The the 70% side for ebooks, 80-85% for hardbacks, 90+% for paperbacks. They don't need the book to cover the authors advance to make a profit. Advances, except for big name people (not saying authors since many people with big advances are just celebrities with ghost writers), are generally not that big.

That is slightly misleading. Authors generally get anywhere from 16 to 26 percent of what the publisher gets from the book sellers, which can be considerably less than the list price (50% seems to be common). However, this percentage is subject to negotiation as is really everything to do with publishing books - advances, percentages, etc. I'm pretty sure that the contract for the last Harry Potter book had considerably different percentages and advances than the contract for the first Harry Potter book.