Trek Books for Kindle

[LightningStorm]

Since the agency model, most agency eBooks have gone UP in price. I used to be able to get new trek novel eBooks for between $5-$6 and sometimes less. Now we are stuck with $7.99 with no hope in hell of any lower price.

So really, why do you think the agency model isn't as bad as it really is? Do you really live with blinders on all the time because it sure seems like it.

You are clearly the only one with blinders on. As you've obviously never read any post I've ever made on the topic, even the ones you quote directly in your replies. At exactly no point have I EVER condoned the Agency model. I agree that it is bad. What I disagree with you on is the exact reasoning as to why it's so bad.

And, no I'm not going to continue to point out why you're wrong about the pricing problem, I've done that already. And I'm not inclined to give to internet norms of incessantly repeating myself. You can go back and read the posts I have made on the matter -- not that I think it'll do any good, as someone else pointed out you're clearly on a righteous rant about it and aren't open to facts.

 

[ST-One]

I've just compared prices for the ebook version of Bernard Cornwell's 'Harlequin / The Archer's Tale'

6,99 $ at Barnes&Noble
6,99 $ at Diesel-eBooks
6,99 $ at BooksOnBoard
10,34 $ at Amazon

Guess where I didn't buy that book.

Yeah, here in the States Kindle prices is $6.99 anfd B&N price is $6.99. I have yet to see a situation in States where the prices differ between Amazon and B&N. Hopefully for you B&N stays in business but it does not look promising.

So far I haven't bought a single book from B&N.
But even if their brick and mortar book shops go the way of the Dodo, doesn't mean that their eBook-business would end too.
Let's hope for the best for them.

 

[Deano2099]

It's entirely possible (probable even) that the Agency 5 agreement only applies to the US (or select countries that agreed to it) and not globally. This could explain the price differences in different countries.

I'll also point out, that this also proves my point from a while ago about how Agency is keeping prices lower than retailers might set them just as much as it's keeping them higher.

Since the agency model, most agency eBooks have gone UP in price. I used to be able to get new trek novel eBooks for between $5-$6 and sometimes less. Now we are stuck with $7.99 with no hope in hell of any lower price.

So really, why do you think the agency model isn't as bad as it really is? Do you really live with blinders on all the time because it sure seems like it.

I'm curious as to if this is a philosophical thing. I'm with Lightening - the Agency model, in the way it is being applied, is bad for the consumer. But it could be applied in a way that was good for the consumer (ie. selling all ebooks at half the price of the hard copy).

Are you equally opposed to the agency model in holiday and property sales?

 

[Lee]

Did you contact Amazon for a refund? If you contact them within seven days they'll refund any ebook purchase, and that would also alert them that there is a problem.

Actually, no. I didn't feel it was right since I knew I could fairly easily "fix" the poor formatting and then have an enjoyable read. It took a couple of hours to fix the formatting and add a cover and create a table of contents and basically get this book in the shape it should've been to begin with. Now, when I'm ready to read this book, I'll be able to enjoy my read much easier and won't seem so much like work.

- Byron

See, for me it would be less work to just read the darn thing than spend hours fixing it.

 

[JWolf]

I've just bought Christopher L. Bennett's Ex Machina (for 7,99 rather than 9,65 Amazon charges) - and that books formatting is a mess (again): text isn't justified and there are spaces between the paragraphs.

I may (legally) be able to fix it for you. Might not be perfect as I'd be working from the sample, but it would overall be better then what you have now. All you would have to do is replace the CSS in your copy with the CSS I edit.

 

[ST-One]

I've just bought Christopher L. Bennett's Ex Machina (for 7,99 rather than 9,65 Amazon charges) - and that books formatting is a mess (again): text isn't justified and there are spaces between the paragraphs.

I may (legally) be able to fix it for you. Might not be perfect as I'd be working from the sample, but it would overall be better then what you have now. All you would have to do is replace the CSS in your copy with the CSS I edit.

Thank you for the offer, but that eBook is now in a very good condition to be read.

 

[ST-One]

Did you contact Amazon for a refund? If you contact them within seven days they'll refund any ebook purchase, and that would also alert them that there is a problem.

Actually, no. I didn't feel it was right since I knew I could fairly easily "fix" the poor formatting and then have an enjoyable read. It took a couple of hours to fix the formatting and add a cover and create a table of contents and basically get this book in the shape it should've been to begin with. Now, when I'm ready to read this book, I'll be able to enjoy my read much easier and won't seem so much like work.

- Byron

See, for me it would be less work to just read the darn thing than spend hours fixing it.

As it would be for everyone.
But if the text only fills 3/4 or even just 2/3 of the screen's width and there is an extra blank line between each and every paragraph (things which wouldn't, for very good reasons, be acceptable for a print version) it just annoys the hell out of me.

 

[Lee]

I have Ex Machina for Kindle. The text is right-justified, and the space between paragraphs is about a half a line. Sometimes there is a "scene shift" which will have a larger space between paragraphs, but that only happens once or twice in a chapter. Seems perfect to me. Maybe the formatting differs according to vendor.

 

[bfollowell]

I have Ex Machina for Kindle. The text is right-justified, and the space between paragraphs is about a half a line. Sometimes there is a "scene shift" which will have a larger space between paragraphs, but that only happens once or twice in a chapter. Seems perfect to me. Maybe the formatting differs according to vendor.

I think (hope) maybe you mean justified (or full-justified), correct? Right-justified would mean the right edge all lines up and the left edge would be jagged. To me, that's another one that would look horrible and require fixing.

I guess it's possible that different formats or vendors have different versions but I'd say it's very doubtful. These guys don't produce these files themselves. They just distribute the files that are given to them by the publishers, Simon & Schuster in this instance. I'm fairly certain they operate off of the same basic html files and then tweak for the different formats, mostly just epub & mobi but maybe lrf and some others. I can't say that I've done a ton of research on the subject though so I'm only speculating.

- Byron

 

[ST-One]

I have Ex Machina for Kindle. The text is right-justified, and the space between paragraphs is about a half a line. Sometimes there is a "scene shift" which will have a larger space between paragraphs, but that only happens once or twice in a chapter. Seems perfect to me. Maybe the formatting differs according to vendor.

It's entirely possible that some changes were made in the conversion to AZW.

I don't know when the DRM is applied, but when the different shops get the EPUBs from Simon & Schuster already clogged with DRM, then the fault lies with S&S.

One non-Trek novel that I've bought from Amazon (AZW) and from Fictionwise (EPUB) (the book was cheap, so no harm in buying it twice) had exactly the same bad formatting in both versions.

 

[Lee]

I have Ex Machina for Kindle. The text is right-justified, and the space between paragraphs is about a half a line. Sometimes there is a "scene shift" which will have a larger space between paragraphs, but that only happens once or twice in a chapter. Seems perfect to me. Maybe the formatting differs according to vendor.

I think (hope) maybe you mean justified (or full-justified), correct? Right-justified would mean the right edge all lines up and the left edge would be jagged. To me, that's another one that would look horrible and require fixing.

I guess it's possible that different formats or vendors have different versions but I'd say it's very doubtful. These guys don't produce these files themselves. They just distribute the files that are given to them by the publishers, Simon & Schuster in this instance. I'm fairly certain they operate off of the same basic html files and then tweak for the different formats, mostly just epub & mobi but maybe lrf and some others. I can't say that I've done a ton of research on the subject though so I'm only speculating.

- Byron

Yup, I meant full justified, obviously. Even I would notice a jagged left edge!

Apparently Ex Machina, at least, does have different formats depending on vendor. If you don't believe me, download a free sample of Ex Machina from Amazon and see for yourself.

 

[ATimson]

I'm fairly certain they operate off of the same basic html files and then tweak for the different formats, mostly just epub & mobi but maybe lrf and some others.

For newer titles, that's correct. For some of the ePub backlist, they used the OEBPS/HTML files as the basis for the book, so they'll be basically the same across Mobi/ePub; others they did a (shoddy) conversion from PDF, so the ePub introduced new mistakes.

 

[JWolf]

I'm fairly certain they operate off of the same basic html files and then tweak for the different formats, mostly just epub & mobi but maybe lrf and some others.

For newer titles, that's correct. For some of the ePub backlist, they used the OEBPS/HTML files as the basis for the book, so they'll be basically the same across Mobi/ePub; others they did a (shoddy) conversion from PDF, so the ePub introduced new mistakes.

Using PDF as a source format is why I've been saying S&S needs at least two read throughs of every converted eBook. I've been finding a lot of errors that never should have made it for sale. They raise the price and increase the errors.

S&S's definition of the agency model... We now charge you per mistake we made.

 

[BillJ]

I'm fairly certain they operate off of the same basic html files and then tweak for the different formats, mostly just epub & mobi but maybe lrf and some others.

For newer titles, that's correct. For some of the ePub backlist, they used the OEBPS/HTML files as the basis for the book, so they'll be basically the same across Mobi/ePub; others they did a (shoddy) conversion from PDF, so the ePub introduced new mistakes.

Using PDF as a source format is why I've been saying S&S needs at least two read throughs of every converted eBook. I've been finding a lot of errors that never should have made it for sale. They raise the price and increase the errors.

S&S's definition of the agency model... We now charge you per mistake we made.

I've found The Rift by Peter David nearly unreadable on the Kindle.

 

[JD]

How bad is it? I have it on my wishlist for my Nook and I would like to know if I should take it off.

 

[BillJ]

How bad is it? I have it on my wishlist for my Nook and I would like to know if I should take it off.

Early on there is a quote that is illegible just five random words that run together plus there are absolutely no scene breaks at all. You'll be reading a scene then it'll run right into another scene taking place somewhere else... it's really quite jarring.

 

[JD]

I ran into the last problem there with Immortal Coil. It took me probably 2 or 3 chapters to figure out what was going on, and there were still times it took me halfway through some of the scenes before I realized they'd changed.

 

[JWolf]

What I want to know is this a Kindle issue or do the ePubs also have this problem?

 

[JD]

I use a Nook for my ebooks.

 

[bfollowell]

What I want to know is this a Kindle issue or do the ePubs also have this problem?

This particular problem? Who knows.

Formatting, grammar & spelling problems in general? No, pretty much every format has those and the only common issue is that they come from S&S, though I'm sure other publishers have their share of issues too.

That's not to say the issues are consistent though. One book may be darned near perfect in epub but horribly formatted in mobi or vice versa. You'd think there wouldn't be that much difference but I've heard of it.

I've given up worrying and complaining about it. It just upsets me and does no good to correct or improve the issue. I just continue to correct them myself, to my own satisfaction.

- Byron