Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On 08/11/10 22:46, Bruno Girin wrote: Thanks for the epubbooks link, I shall definitely have a browse! Not sure about your tinyurl though :-) Ooops - here's one that works: **http://tinyurl.com/krlta **- I got bored trying to figure out how to actually find and download free epubs though. Think you can only access it if you're American so that's not a lot of use. * *And there's this:* http://www.bookrix.com/?gclid=CMuyh-jlk6UCFRn-2AodnwrjLQ *Most of all, I'd love to know how it is that digital book production and distribution - which has to be much cheaper than print surely - wants £16 per copyrighted book when I can get a print copy physically mailed to me for less than 25% of that price? Well, I mean, if you don't want people to steal stuff . . . * *Paula* * -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On 9 November 2010 13:13, pmgazz pmg...@gmx.co.uk wrote: Most of all, I'd love to know how it is that digital book production and distribution - which has to be much cheaper than print surely - wants £16 per copyrighted book when I can get a print copy physically mailed to me for less than 25% of that price? Well, I mean, if you don't want people to steal stuff . . . Paula Most of the costs are not down to distribution and printing (think editing, marketing, copy-editing, artwork, etc., etc.). Also, there are economies of scale that bring the price of physical books down. So the actual differential is much smaller than you'd expect. There can also be differences in the contract with the author that affect the price of the digital copy. I agree that the example you quoted is extreme though. The price *should* be about the same. Cofion/Regards, Neil. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On 09/11/10 15:40, Neil Greenwood wrote: On 9 November 2010 13:13, pmgazzpmg...@gmx.co.uk wrote: Most of all, I'd love to know how it is that digital book production and distribution - which has to be much cheaper than print surely - wants £16 per copyrighted book when I can get a print copy physically mailed to me for less than 25% of that price? Well, I mean, if you don't want people to steal stuff . . . Paula Most of the costs are not down to distribution and printing (think editing, marketing, copy-editing, artwork, etc., etc.). Also, there are economies of scale that bring the price of physical books down. So the actual differential is much smaller than you'd expect. There can also be differences in the contract with the author that affect the price of the digital copy. I agree that the example you quoted is extreme though. The price *should* be about the same. Cofion/Regards, Neil. All the editing etc has to be done for the print copy anyway, and an e book has none of the costs of physical book. Such as distribution, handling, printing, staffing the shop, pulping the ones that don't sell! E books should be considerably cheaper, only trouble is the book world is scared stiff of them. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
Hi, This isn't a complete answer to your question but have you tried Project Gutenberg? http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page They are a public domain, ie free, repository of e-books. Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
Open standard epub format works great on Ubuntu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB I use FBReader as a client - works fine both on my Ubuntu laptop and my N900, reads epubs, txt and html books. It's a bit basic but perfectly useable. In addition to Gutenberg, which is publishing some of its catalogue in epub format, find some public domain epub format books here: http://www.epubbooks.com/ - I gather Google is in the process of publishing everything it has that's public domain in epub version but not available yet: http://tinyurl.com/create.php Otherwise, publishers with existing copyright insist on using DRM - nothing (legally) to be done about that as far as I can tell. Paula On 08/11/10 11:40, Ciarán Mooney wrote: Hi, This isn't a complete answer to your question but have you tried Project Gutenberg? http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page They are a public domain, ie free, repository of e-books. Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 12:54 +, pmgazz wrote: Otherwise, publishers with existing copyright insist on using DRM - nothing (legally) to be done about that as far as I can tell. Except for Baen, one of the first publishers to come to their senses (and have the mounting sales to prove it). All Baen books are available without DRM in 7 or 8 formats, including ePub and HTML. http://www.baen.com/ Some of which is free for download: http://www.baen.com/library/ Regards, Tyler -- Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. -- Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, 1959 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On 08/11/10 14:26, Tyler J. Wagner wrote: On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 12:54 +, pmgazz wrote: Otherwise, publishers with existing copyright insist on using DRM - nothing (legally) to be done about that as far as I can tell. Except for Baen, one of the first publishers to come to their senses (and have the mounting sales to prove it). All Baen books are available without DRM in 7 or 8 formats, including ePub and HTML. http://www.baen.com/ Some of which is free for download: http://www.baen.com/library/ Regards, Tyler Thanks for this link! -- alan cocks Ubuntu user -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 11:40 +, Ciarán Mooney wrote: Hi, This isn't a complete answer to your question but have you tried Project Gutenberg? http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page They are a public domain, ie free, repository of e-books. Ciarán Thanks. Gutenberg was actually my very first stop even before commercial sites as I know it well, having been a distributed proofreader :-) What I'm really looking for is an online shop that will sell me recent books without DRM. Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 14:26 +, Tyler J. Wagner wrote: On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 12:54 +, pmgazz wrote: Otherwise, publishers with existing copyright insist on using DRM - nothing (legally) to be done about that as far as I can tell. Except for Baen, one of the first publishers to come to their senses (and have the mounting sales to prove it). All Baen books are available without DRM in 7 or 8 formats, including ePub and HTML. http://www.baen.com/ Some of which is free for download: http://www.baen.com/library/ Regards, Tyler Thanks Tyler. Baen was actually my second stop after Project Gutenberg and I am currently reading one of their books on my reader. Cheers, Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 12:54 +, pmgazz wrote: Open standard epub format works great on Ubuntu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB I use FBReader as a client - works fine both on my Ubuntu laptop and my N900, reads epubs, txt and html books. It's a bit basic but perfectly useable. I have no problem reading any format. The Sony reader supports the most common formats and what it doesn't support, Calibre does and is able to convert to and from those formats. In addition to Gutenberg, which is publishing some of its catalogue in epub format, find some public domain epub format books here: http://www.epubbooks.com/ - I gather Google is in the process of publishing everything it has that's public domain in epub version but not available yet: http://tinyurl.com/create.php Thanks for the epubbooks link, I shall definitely have a browse! Not sure about your tinyurl though :-) Otherwise, publishers with existing copyright insist on using DRM - nothing (legally) to be done about that as far as I can tell. I know that nothing can really be done, I was just wondering if there was at least on of them that didn't use DRM, apart from Baen. Cheers, Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] e-books without Adobe Digital Editions
Hi all, I wondered if any of you knew of online UK stores that would sell e-books without DRM or the requirement to use Adobe Digital Editions. So far, I've tried: * Waterstone's: DRM, requires Adobe Digital Editions; * WH-Smith: same; * rbooks (Random House Group): same; * Penguin: same; * Blackwells: limited catalogue; * Foyles: brain dead web site, can either select all e-books or select a genre but can't select e-books by genre; * Books, etc: same problem as Foyles; * Amazon: will only sell books through the Kindle device or software, you can't download the books via a browser. I know that Adobe Digital Editions seems to work under WINE but I don't fancy installing WINE just for that, when I have a very good e-book library software already installed (Calibre). Any idea on how to legally buy e-books that I can use on Ubuntu would be welcome. Cheers, Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
