Seize the Fire ePub broken

[JWolf]

S&S cannot make sBooks it seems to save their lives. I have the ePub edition of Seize the Fire and yet again this is another Star trek eBook in ePub where the embedded font is yet again not correct in the CSS. I have to yet again go into the CSS and fix it. Way to go S&S.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

S&S cannot make sBooks it seems to save their lives. I have the ePub edition of Seize the Fire and yet again this is another Star trek eBook in ePub where the embedded font is yet again not correct in the CSS. I have to yet again go into the CSS and fix it. Way to go S&S.

How so? I just bought this off of Barnes and Noble for the Nook but haven't read it.

 

[Kosst Amojan]

S&S cannot make sBooks it seems to save their lives. I have the ePub edition of Seize the Fire and yet again this is another Star trek eBook in ePub where the embedded font is yet again not correct in the CSS. I have to yet again go into the CSS and fix it. Way to go S&S.

Don't know what to tell you this time, maybe it is their fault. I only get my books from B&N but since S&S releases their own epubs I doubt B&N edits them much again other then using their own DRM.

(BTW: we had this discussion on another site about the previous book)

 

[JD]

S&S cannot make sBooks it seems to save their lives. I have the ePub edition of Seize the Fire and yet again this is another Star trek eBook in ePub where the embedded font is yet again not correct in the CSS. I have to yet again go into the CSS and fix it. Way to go S&S.

At least you actually got an ebook that opens. I didn't even get that much when I ordered the ebook of Zero Sum Game from S&S.

 

[T'deD'Edkeid'Ende'Dejdid]

Just checked S&S. It's out of stock.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How can an ebook be out of stock?

 

[JWolf]

How can an ebook be out of stock?

It is not out of stock. S&S just don't yet have it for sale. But it is available for sale as Sony's eBookstore.

http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/mi...pact-seize-the-fire/_/R-400000000000000308077

 

[JWolf]

S&S cannot make sBooks it seems to save their lives. I have the ePub edition of Seize the Fire and yet again this is another Star trek eBook in ePub where the embedded font is yet again not correct in the CSS. I have to yet again go into the CSS and fix it. Way to go S&S.

How so? I just bought this off of Barnes and Noble for the Nook but haven't read it.

The fonts embedded in the ePub are to give a better reading experience then using the default ADE font. With them not set correctly in the CSS, you won't know they are not there. There are embedded fonts in ePub editions Zero Sum Game and Seize the Fire. But in both cases, the fonts were not actually set to be used. So if you see the default font on your nook, then you'll know the embedded fonts are not working.

 

[sfroth]

So if you see the default font on your nook, then you'll know the embedded fonts are not working.

Definitely seeing default fonts on my iPad nook app. Are the fonts the only problem you're seeing with Seize the Fire so far?

 

[JWolf]

So if you see the default font on your nook, then you'll know the embedded fonts are not working.

Definitely seeing default fonts on my iPad nook app. Are the fonts the only problem you're seeing with Seize the Fire so far?

I have no idea if the nook app supports embedded fonts. But I did find section break markers that are not needed for an eBook. They are just there for a paper book to let you know it's a section break at the end of a page. I removed those too.

I have been finding in recent Trek eBooks dashes in the middle of words. Again a print thing. My guess is these are converted from PDF.

Download the sample and unzip it and see if there are fonts in it. If there are, they should display with ADe on your computer. But if not, it's because they are not set correctly.

Does the nook app allow you to use your own ePub?

 

[JWolf]

I just has a look at the sample of Seize the Fire from B&N. It has embedded fonts, but they do not work.

What I can do is post the CSS someplace and you can grab it and put it in the sample and see that the fonts are there and they do work if setup correctly in the CSS.

 

[sfroth]

Does the nook app allow you to use your own ePub?

Not as far as I know. I'm fairly certain that the only way to get books into the nook app is through the B&N store. I've only used the app a couple times - I buy my epubs from B&N because it's the easiest format I've found that allows me to read my books in the app I choose.

 

[bfollowell]

I have been finding in recent Trek eBooks dashes in the middle of words. Again a print thing. My guess is these are converted from PDF.

Don't you think it's strange they'd create an ebook from a pdf or a scan or anything other than the original electronic version of the book? I'm not doubting you; I'm just amazed at the insanity of what you're suggesting.

I mean, really, I know authors have their quirks, just like the rest of us, but I can't imagine there are too many that are writing their novels on legal pads or spiral bound notebooks. I'm fairly certain they're using some sort of word processor so the text should already be electronic and easy to read before it went through whatever electronic typesetting/formatting process it went through to get to print form and, being the publisher, S&S should have access to it so, why do we always see dashes in words, asterisks at section breaks that fall at a page break, etc. It just seems REALLY strange to me.

I was really displeased with the Kindle version of Vanguard: Precipice and I'm assuming the other versions couldn't have been to different. The cover was all stretched with the wrong aspect ratio, there was no toc and the continued blurb at the very back says, and I'm not kidding here, "The Saga of STAR TRACK OF VANGUARD Will Continue".

I know printed books have their share of errors too but these guys wouldn't dream of putting out print books in the sad, ugly shape that many of the ebooks come out in. I think it's time we demand better for our money. Who's whit me?! Now, where the heck did I put that flaming torch and pitchfork?

- Byron

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

I know printed books have their share of errors too but these guys wouldn't dream of putting out print books in the sad, ugly shape that many of the ebooks come out in. I think it's time we demand better for our money. Who's whit me?! Now, where the heck did I put that flaming torch and pitchfork?

- Byron

With a lot of the changes going on in the editors' department, that could be a cause in the dip of quality. Lots of things getting shuffled around and rushed out? Just conjecture.

 

[sfroth]

I know printed books have their share of errors too but these guys wouldn't dream of putting out print books in the sad, ugly shape that many of the ebooks come out in

The saddest part of it all is that Trek ebooks used to be better than they are now. Around the time the first shakeups happened, it seems like Pocket lost whoever was looking out for ebook quality, because that's when it went to crap. I'm not too familiar with how the publishing industry works, but I believe there's a stage before typesetting/formatting where they've got the finished book in a file format that should be the one going to the ebook formatter.

 

[Kosst Amojan]

With a lot of the changes going on in the editors' department, that could be a cause in the dip of quality. Lots of things getting shuffled around and rushed out? Just conjecture.

Could be the ebook was produced at an earlier point in the editing process like and ARC or a marketing copy. A good example is that frequently (although not with Seize the Fire) recent trek book have been coming with some generic cover, with the actual cover maybe linked in the metadata.

Whatever the case, they clearly don't put as much effort in it as the regular books.

 

[bfollowell]

Whatever the case, they clearly don't put as much effort in it as the regular books.

True, but they still expect the full amount and that's just plain wrong. All your major bookssellers discound print books. If anyone has paid MSRP for a book in the last ten years, they're a fool (OK, maybe that's a little harsh but you get the idea) or they have enough money that they don't mind wasting it. Not only are they discounted from the get-go, but months later, when a book isn't selling as well or they want to move it for whatever reason, they can discount it even further. They aren't allowed to do that with ebooks. The publisher sets the price and that's it, period.

For example: right now, on Amazon, you can buy Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Obsidian Alliances in paperback for $13.25. You can buy the same, exact book as a paperback, bargain price for $6.22, yet the Kindle version is still full price at $13.99.

I'm telling you, it's a racket. At least for that full price premium, we should be able to expect top-line quality. I work for a major auto manufacturer and if we started putting out low quality crap, we wouldn't be in business long, and we shouldn't be. The same should be true of whatever business you're in.

Thats just my two cents on the subject.

- Byron

 

[ATimson]

I work for a major auto manufacturer and if we started putting out low quality crap, we wouldn't be in business long, and we shouldn't be.

Shouldn't be, correct. Wouldn't be? Recent history seems to disprove that hypothesis.

 

[JD]

I read all of Immortal Coil, and about 70ish pages of Zero Sum game on my Nook in the Nookbook format (I'm not sure which one it is) and I haven't noticed any problems with either of them.

 

[tmclough]

If anyone has paid MSRP for a book in the last ten years, they're a fool (OK, maybe that's a little harsh but you get the idea) or they have enough money that they don't mind wasting it.

Or, they shop at their local, independent bookseller(s), the ones that can't afford a discount on every item.

As for ebooks, I'm a recent convert to them (February of this year), and I've been noticing a lot of problems with each and every ST ebook I've bought so far (all ePubs). One problem that's common to all of them (ST only, though) is that the margins are preset measured in ems. This means that as you enlarge the font in ADE on my ebook reader to a readable size, you also enlarge the margins so that it is unreadable--just a narrow column of text. However, because I remove the DRM, I can read it in the CoolReader software, which ignores the built-in margins.

I've also noticed the problem with ebooks having hyphenated words where the hyphen crosses out an adjacent letter--not always, but often enough. Until this thread, I had always assumed that it was a bug in the CoolReader program; now I realize it's a problem with the ebook, not the software.

I also have bought two ebooks that have no "real" cover. One of them, Martyr (NF #5) I don't believe was available in ebook format (definitely not ePub nor Kindle format) until this year. Now I've learned that that newness is at least part of the reason for the lack of a cover. Does anyone know when the Millennium trilogy omnibus first became available in ebook form, as that ebook also doesn't have a "real" cover?

To summarize, it looks to me like I came into the ebook world at the wrong time. That said, I definitely won't give them up, if for no other reasons than the enlargeable fonts and not having to hunt around for an out-of-print copy.