All ready to go, on the 24th. All I have to do is the copyright process, and that takes about fifteen minutes. We’ll offer that one as .epub, .mobi, and .pdf, in keeping with our new format policy.
Yvgenie is proofed and in prep…we’re in html, and doing cleanup, and close to e-pub. which is step one. Conversion takes only a second. Prepping for conversion takes days, looking at every dot and bracket and spacing.
Then I’ll be doing the text-prep on Jane’s Netwalkers, which will follow the same course, for the same scheduled release.
Futzy does not begin to describe the process. And one of the LEAST cooperative processes is .pdf. If you have something manifest as an html problem, there is a fix. There is no fix for some .pdf problems. You just have to grit your teeth and say it’s ok if a line that should stop extends all the way across the page.
We actually care how the books LOOK…you won’t see all our wonderfulness on Kindle, alas, which is very meat-and-potatoes, but has a good look; epub lets us get a bit fancier, and displays the covers nicely. To see the cover on Kindle, you have to back up a bit, which is odd, but, hey, it at least works smoothly.
The 24th is bookmarked and circled on my calendar, and I have applied for leave on the 29th so I am sure I will have finished reading all the goodness from both you and Jane.
Lol—we hope you will indeed enjoy!
Hooray!just in time for my new paperwhite touchscreen kindle!!! that will be the first thing I download onto it,
btw, I often find you have to back up on Kindle for the title page, the contents, the cover ….
and I really haven’t worked out how to flip through a book on my kindle …
As standard practice on any of my kindles, when starting a book I use the ‘go to’ tool and move directly to the cover. The ‘go to’ tool is in different places depending on which kind of kindle or fire you are using. THEN I start paging through. For some bizarre reason the ‘beginning’ position of a kindle book often misses a LOT of ground. I’ll have to see if I can figure out how to access this new Cherryh short story! I only know how to get books from amazon. I’m not tech savvy so am more likely to throw up my hands in dismay if it’s harder than using the amazon one-click method of purchase (weak grin).
For some odd reason, they seem to think you want to start at the first chapter of the novel or text, skipping things like the cover, table of contents, and any front matter (dedication, foreword/preface, notes). I really don’t understand that, except as an impatient, dive-right-in factor. I personally really *like* looking at the cover (front and back), reading the blurb on the back cover, and reading any front matter. The author thought it was important relative to understanding the rest of the book. I skim the table of contents unless there’s a particular need to see it as an outline of the material. I don’t *think* I’m unusual in this approach. It’s so basic to a booklover or study habit.
I’ve read there’s a way to specify in the epub manifest, spin, or navigation / table of contents files whether to start at the cover, the first chapter, or some other point. These further list the preferred reading order for the whole ebook. But I don’t recall what/how/where exactly that is, which means I didn’t learn as much on the first go-round as I thought. I’ll need to find it in the books I’m reading.
I’ve never downloaded an ebook, but you best believe I will start on the 24th! I’m going to download it to my computer, so the best format would be the pdf, right? I can hardly wait! I adore the Foreigner series, and can’t seem to get enough. 🙂
I don’t think I’ve read any of the Alliance-Union series though, and may download books from that series while I’m at it. I’m of the mind that if C. J. Cherryh writes it, it will be well worth the read!
Umm… I do confess, I haven’t a clue about the Alliance-Union book titles though. Is there a list somewhere that I can reference?
Dragonrider Gal, you can use any of our formats. One is Kindle for PC. Just google that and download it from Amazon: it’s free, and will open any .mobi. or Calibre, which will display .epub quite nicely. Or pdf, which is on most computers already. Any one of the three.
The Alliance-Union books are all science fiction: Downbelow Station, Merchanters’ Luck [a love story of sorts, reviewed of all things, by Romantic Times], Cyteen, Regenesis, Tripoint, The Faded Sun, Heavy Time, Hellburner, Finity’s End, …have I left any out? I’d recommend you start with either Merchanter’s Luck or The Faded Sun, both of which you have to get from DAW. OR you might enjoy the Chanur books, again from DAW: a catlike species who happen to pick up an alien—a human.
If you particularly like Fantasy, try Faery Moon, or the Rusalka Trilogy, from Closed Circle; and Jane’s Ring series; and Lynn’s work is predominantly fantasy, including some modern fantasy…
yes, I started with merchanter’s luck – which led to downbelow station and all the rest… it was a lucky find in a secondhand bookshop! (sadly you don’t see C J Cherryh on bookstore shelves much in the UK) same 2nd hand place started me on the Chanur series too …
I too have never bought/downloaded a book (aside from a couple of Scottish histories published in the 19th century and unavailable outside of Scotland until the google books), but I plan to start with the Foreigner short on my new IPad. It will be a delightful adventure!