Awright! I refuse, absolutely refuse to admit what I forgot to do. Too many irons in the fire is my only excuse and even I’m not buying that. But the download should now work! If it doesn’t…wait ten minutes before telling me. I wanna go take a shower! :D—>J
THE BUTTON ISN”T WORKING YET: WE ARE POSTING RIGHT NOW DON”T CLICK IT yet!!!! Here, my friends, is the first freebie download. It’s a zip of Closed Circle’s first publication, and I need feedback. The request for name and e-mail? We’re puzzled by that too, but that’s the way the downloader wants to work, and we just toss it. It will send you an e-mail with the link, then forget the address. It will come from something called your-domain, but that’s us. We’ll fix that later. Now it sends it from ” authors@closed-circle.net ” so be sure to prepare your spam filter and declare us to be friendlies, or ‘trusted’, or it will almost certainly stick in your spam filter. The transmission should be instantaneous, so if you don’t find it in the next few seconds, it’s in the spam filter.
I’m already aware of a couple of glitches in the ‘reverse of the title page’ of the epub version, which don’t manifest in the mobi version, plus a duplication of the signature image, and a strange page break on the first of the text. I think I know where they come from, and I’m going to fix it. What I need to know is whether these artifacts are showing up in other types of files: FB2, RTF, LIT, etc. And if you are detecting more glitches further on in the epub files or find any in the Mobi files.
Just unzip the omnifile, pick your file type, and load that file into your reader. Then tell me what you know. I hope you will enjoy the little book.
The Writing Life: A Writer’s Journal Vol 1
It starts sedately, in 2004, as we attempt to survive a very warm fall; and proceeds through computer misfortunes and a comedy of disasters: my book in question is likely Pretender. And trying to write—well, when people ask me how do I find time to write, I think the answer is—it’s a mystery. FREE!
[wp_eStore_free_download:product_id:1:end]
I dont have time to read it right now, but I downloaded it and opened it no problems! Now I want to figure out how to send it to the kindle, then I’ll be all set.
Plug your kindle into a USB port and just copy the file to the documents folder. Well, it’s documents on my K1; I suppose K2 is the same. As easy as pie. Just make sure that what you copy has a PRC suffix.
Yessss!! I’ve downloaded on Adobe Reader…..Haven’t tried Calibre. Oh Frabjous Day! 😉 Calloo! 🙂 Callay 😀
Azureblu these are the ways Cj said to do smileys: semi-colon close parentheses gives a wink 😉
Colon close parentheses is smile 🙂
colon dash open parentheses is sad 🙁
colon dash D is grin 😀
colon lol colon is moving grin 😆
I have found that I have to put a few spaces between my last punctuation and the smiley
OOPS! Forgot to post this last night.
Congratulations all….this is terrific and THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL THE HARD WORK!
It works, it works!!! I downloaded onto a Mac using Safari. It worked great. And I read it on Stanza, (pdb file) which also worked great!
Many, many thanks for doing this.
I am so glad. I’m going to do some search and fixes: apparently the PDF is producing a capital on Date even in the word update, etc. And we have a gappy issue for some devices. I can tell you how to fix that one pdq, for your own use: take it to html, and go to Format/Paragraph/Spacing, and check, instead of ‘normal,’ ‘tight.’ That will close gaps between sections, I think.
I hope you enjoy the piece. It brings back funny memories for us. When you have as much chaos as we have had—you have to start laughing at it, well, once the dust settles. 😆
I don’t use a reader, so I’ve tested this out using the PDF with Adobe’s reader and the RTF file which defaulted to Microsoft Word. The PDF is probably nicer because it handles the typefaces and the graphics better. But its good to know they all work, even the TXT file . Nice you are thinking of every one!
Looks great in Kindle for PC, haven’t put it in my actual Kindle yet.
I’m looking forward to more. Thank you for doing this.
Has anybody tried this out on an iphone or the like?
Yes – on my iPhone I get “Safari cannot download this file”
Trying to download through Stanza on the iPhone gets me: Import Failed – unable to translate ‘download.php’ for import.
But it works on my laptop, YAY!!!!
Good for that—but, Ok, peoples—can we get a recommendation of file type for the iphone? It’s gotta be possible. Here’s a link I found that discusses available softwares for the iphone. http://www.macworld.com/article/139323/2009/03/ebookreader.html
I do realize that this was a good piece to use as a freebie test run, but could you be sure, when paypal is cooperating, to put a donation button into Closed Circle so that those who are so inclined can show their appreciation for this? for accounting purposes would that need to be linked to a particular work?
Kokipy, thank you. There will be one. If you push it, you will see a way to designate the donation to one particular writer, of us 3. Closed Circle sends ALL money, whether donation or payment for a book, straight to the writer(s) of the piece, since it has no bank account, no money of its own, and just sits there and looks pretty—we think.
I decided to try out Calibre. Eventually it worked (after deciding to download a slightly updated version in the middle of the process, bringing everything to a screeching, though temporary, halt). I also had installed something called Adobe e-Reader, which seemed to want to seize the download and shoulder aside other Readers (shades of Outlook, which destroyed half the usefulness of Word Perfect for me 10 years ago by causing a system freeze every time you tried to use the WP address book on my wife’s business letters. Nor could one simply uninstall Outlook to restore functionality.)
But they all seemed to work OK, though I think I would play with (learn how to) the margins/formating of the Calibre reader to get some text margins. I doubt that the original had hard line returns the way a printed book would, and the pagination filled the screen completely, but did not overrun.
Actually, though I complain, the Adobe e-reader seems to work quite nicely. I now remember downloading when I bought the Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson prologue some months ago (that seemed a bit pricey (was it $4 ?) when one received only 32 pages, rather than 100 or so I expected, but then Tor gave away the first two chapters which calmed my anger.
Anyway, with at least one reader/Reader, you clearly are on the right track. I’m expecting more glitches, but I think your fans are an understanding group. While would rather buy paperbacks, it’s clear that ain’t going to happen. And I can see that I’m going to be getting some sort of handheld reader. I have a wonderful monitor, 20 inches wide. But my back and tush can’t tolerate sitting and just reading at it for that many hours. Plus I spend time on the subway, waiting in cars, etc. Finally, there’s just no other access to many out-of-print books.
Good, good. You’ll find Calibre is frequently updated: the technology keeps changing.
You are probably a user for whom a dedicated reader would be a very good thing. A Kindle 2 weighs about 10 oz. A Kindle DX weighs 18 oz. (I know which I would prefer!) Either is going to be nicer during a plane flight than my Dell Latitude, at about 6 lbs.
Okay, for iPhone users, SUCCESS!
The company that makes Stanza, Lexcycle, has made it possible to transfer ebooks from computer to iPhone by several methods, including a free desktop version of Stanza that can transfer books, by email, and by Box.net, among others.
http://www.lexcycle.com/faq#3n619 is the link to their FAQs where all these methods are described.
Yay!
Smooth as silk onto my Kindle. (K2) I transferred the mobi format. I haven’t tried others yet. I don’t have Calibre or any other converter on my laptop. I don’t transfer files to Kindle frequently. I just extracted the file from .zip, cabled up Kindle and dragged it over. Right the first time.
Well as reported by others, the formats work well in Acrobat reader.
Also in the MOBI reader.
And the Kindle for PC reader.
Transferred the .prc to my Kindle 2 and it works better than many eBooks I have paid money for. And will always be willing to pay for your work, CJ.
And while I too like the cover, I am especially happy with the signature page.
I now have a signed copy of one of your works.
Woo hoo.
Just sayin……
Oh, thank you, Geoff. That makes me happy.
Downloaded fine and transferred onto my EPUB reader with no problem at all. You’re in business!
Using Sony’s eBook Library software, I can successfully open:
.txt — but it shows no author (not a surprise). document is rather plain, of course.
.epub — the only version which knows the author as CJ; looks good at first glance
.generic epub — looks good at first glance, but author is Unknown
.rtf — no graphics, and left-justified title page. but all right. Author is Unknown.
Oddly enough, eBook Library refuses to import the PDF. This has happened to me before, but usually Library handles this file type. Don’t know enough to have opinions about why this would occur. The PDF version opens just fine in Mac’s Preview.
Didn’t bring my Sony Touch to work, so I haven’t looked at anything there. I’ll pass along comments when I get home.
Followup:
The results on the Sony Reader (Touch) are similar, except I was able to open the PDF on the Touch (by copying it to a memory card). Normally files are loaded to the Reader through eBook Library, but the workaround is occasionally handy and I’ve used it before.
— Both EPUBs look excellent on the Sony. The signature looks fine. Neither has a Table of Contents, which probably isn’t an issue here.
— The text and RTF files are less attractive but quite readable. The graphics are missing in both cases, and the formatting’s pretty generic. No TOC, but I didn’t really expect that in these formats.
— The PDF looks very good in Reader, though the page breaks are strange (this is typical PDF behavior on the Touch). The signature page is significantly smaller than in the ePubs. This version is the only copy with a TOC, but it’s a pretty useless thing for this specific book.
Once again, the Generic ePub version is the only on which shows an author on the Reader’s book index. You might want to investigate whether there’s a reason the PDF and the other ePub don’t display the author name on the listing; seems like they should.
…. oops – spoke too soon. I’ve loaded up the PDF version and found that it is much “cleaner” than the EPUB one. For instance the page that in the PDF has your signature shows one corner of a very enlarged page. It has part of the Closed Circle logo and your signature has fallen off the page!
That’s funny. The PDF, as run by my Mac’s “Preview”app, has a postage-stamp-sized sig page. It enlarges fine, but when the rest of the book is normal, the sig page is about 2” tall. In the Mobi file in Calibre it is the right size. The RTF doesn’t have it at all.
Sigh.
It seems like I’m always the example for worst-case; filled in the blocks and hit “Download Now”, rogered the “Check your inbox” message (it comes up twice each time), all well and good. But no message has arrived. Tried once last night, tried again today (about an hour ago). Checked my email spam trap, no dice.
What am I doing worng?
There’s some sort of problem with your e-mail info getting to the program: it should record your e-mail addy and then transmit the download link. I checked the list of persons who have signed in and your sign-in isn’t there. So that at least limits the arena of what’s wrong somewhere between your entry and my machine receiving it/accepting it. Let me check my spam filter. Negative.
Try making Wave a “trusted” site and seeing if it’s your computer not trusting us…
Fear not! We’ll get through this!
Struggling.
Did you use some obscure zip program? I don’t get an option to unzip the folder, and it’s not working in Calibre.
Also – I don’t like download all the versions! It’s Ok at 3MB for this file, but a full book in lots of formats will be huge and bad even on my broadband.
I used the Windows xp zip. You click on it to unzip. You do need to get the whole copy down the first time because you can’t predict what file type your next year’s software may need, and you don’t get re-downloads on the inexpensive system we’ve got: we can help you short-term if you get a file glitch, but after 6 months it’s less likely we’re going to have records of your specific purchase. We’re a pretty basic operation, and we just aren’t set up to handle backup copies.
I started at a 6 meg file and got it down between 3 and 4.
The metadata is automatic and accepted on the main e-Pub file and prc, but you don’t have the option to install it on the format-changes: it gets wiped on all of those by the Calibre software. I must’ve typed the blanks 20 times before I realized it was wiping them out.
OK. Got it work, by cutting the relevant file out of the zip folder and pasting it in at root. I think it is justt that my WindowsXP isn’t fully recognising your zip file. I tried the two Epub versions. The generic has author data and tags, the plain Epub doesn’t. Neither has a contents field. The page sizing is different. Plain Epub has a pagebreak just at the end of the contribution page 2 to 3, generic epub the pagebreak halfway through.
None of the text is right justified, should it be?