Howdy All,
Some of you have asked me about “Kobo” (Canada’s answer to Kindle) and whether I would put my books on that format and I just literally finished doing so. I “believe” I have succeeded in formatting and uploading them correctly. If you were one of those interested people, and you end up downloading one of those books, I’d appreciate it if you’d inform me of any errors or problems. I have uploaded:
Behind the Housing Crash
and
Worthless
as trial runs (besides, I have an exclusivity agreement with Amazon for Enjoy the Decline until May).
If anybody is willing to play “Kobo Beta Test Puppy” I would appreciate it.
Thanks!
Cpt.
I love Kobo – I looked at both Kindle and Kobo when I was buying an e-reader and I settled on Kobo. But what I really like about it is that it is now on my smartphone, my laptop, my tablet and the e-reader (I will likely be giving my e-reader to someone since I have a tablet). And they are all synced – I can download on any device and it will download on all. I’m trying to do that with Kindle, but so far no luck. So I have one book on Kindle on my tablet, but I can’t get it to my laptop or smartphone.
Captain
Our Red Tory finance minister is busy choking our banking market, because he is scared of a “US style housing crash”, despite the fact that our system is sound, and there are few, if any, similarities to the US situation.
Banks aren’t forced to make “affordable housing loans”
Banks aren’t forced to lend to “visible minorities”
Banks to not have NINJA loans here in Canada. These were three of the precursors to the collapse of the US Ponzi debt market.
I have sent a variety of e-mails to Mr Red Tory (Flaherty) but I know it is falling on deaf ears, if you will, but what will it take for low information people to understand that the conditions for a US style sutation doesn’t exist here. That’s not to say that some people end up in a foreclosure situation, that happens in any economy.
Good luck and happy sailing ‘Captain’!
Hey Captain,
I publish on both Kindle Direct Publishing (for Amazon) and Smashwords (for everything else). Formatting is different for the two, but the formatting protocols for Smashwords are much easier than Kindle’s once you get the hang of them (and your end product with Smashwords is much ‘cleaner’ code-wise). With Smashwords you get distribution via Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Sony, Diesel, Blio and a host of others (their Meatgrinder programme also churns out HTML and PDF versions for folks looking for those formats). You have to give up the exclusivity you get with Kindle Select, but that never did me much good; I sold a hell of a lot more books via Smashwords distribution than I ever managed via Kindle Select.
Here’s the Smashwords link:
http://www.smashwords.com/
Love your blog! And good luck!
– D. Alexander Neill
I want a book in my hands when I read. if the book is worthy, I’ll buy it and put in in my personal library. If not, I’ll wait until it shows up in the local library.
Sorry but E-books are just not the same.
Easiest solution is to download and use Calibre which is a universal ebook converter.
Count me as another holdout for the dead-tree books. I tried downloading a Kindle reader for my PC so that I could buy a recommended novel. Turned into a clusterf*ck.
If I am going to pay hard-earned dollars for something, then I want a physical something, not a swarm of bits in the cloud.
Capi, while you’re on the line, recently finished your book “Top Shelf” and enjoyed it. You are wise beyond your years. Passed it on to my young nephew (can’t do that with a Kobo) and he is getting a lot out of it. His mother tells me it’s the only book she know of that looks like it has a chance of actually being finished. He already has a friend that is waiting to read it. See how much money I’m screwing you out of by not having a Kobo ? 🙂 Your reputation as a worthy author will grow as word of mouth is still the best advertisement.
I like my Sony reader, and have had a couple of “arguments” with Kindle. I stay away from their products when I can. I would have echoed Original Rick’s comments, but then I got an hour each way commute by bus. My Sony reader holds over 100 novels, and weighs less than one of the Tom Clancy-thick novels that I enjoy so much. A full-sized tablet doesn’t give you the same feel as a book, a book sized one (or a mini-tablet) is quite close. Reading directly on a PC or laptop would be nothing like the experience.
I’m not beholden to Canadians book chains anymore. Finding political books that don’t make me mad is much easier. I like Tor and Baen for hard sci-fi, and buy books directly from them because I find that their newest titles just aren’t available at any of the .ca site. I enjoyed “Behind the Decline”, my kids aren’t yet in grade two (so “Worthless” is too far over the horizon), and I’m looking forward for a chance to buy “Enjoy the Decline” without having to deal with Amazon. May, you say?
Good luck!
I’m still digesting Chuck Palahniuk Invisible Monsters Remix.
Dead tree from the Library.
Every time I sit at my computer, I end up ranting on a political website, or destroying HALO 2 (PC hack)
Or just crank the custom audio attached to it.
Might download it for an adventure, will decide in a few days.
d
PS
Chive on, Cpt.
My wife has had 2 Kobo’s and loved them both.
First one she gave to our daughter.
She has a I-Pad Mini now and really likes it.
Of course she still likes her Kobo and has a bunch of series books on it.
She has found a site where she can download free books. LOTS and LOTS of books!!! 🙂
http://tuebl.ca/
You mean I have to PAY for them? What sort of capitalist are you?
My observations on the Kindle (mine) and the Kobo (my wife’s):
Default font: the Kindle’s is superior but that of course can be changed. But I still think Amazon has it better figured out.
Start up: You slide a switch on the Kindle and start reading. You do the same on the Kobo – and from what I recently saw, the Sony eReader too – and you’re treated to a Windows-like slow start-up.
Dictionary look-up: with Kobo you have to highlight a word? No, no, no. With Kindle you just place a cursor in front of the word. Easier multiple language support too.
Connect to a PC: with the Kindle you’re connected when you plug in, with the Kobo it additionally asks if you really do want to connect. Why, yes, yes I do.
Small things, but from what I’ve seen I prefer the Kindle.
Peter,
Thanks! I appreciate it, hope it helps the kid.
For Everybody else,
I do have the book in tree format too!
Cpt.
I simply downloaded the free Kindle app and on my Macbook and ipad and buy books including Cappy’s Enjoy the Decline … no problem. I can’t pass them on to others, but then the cost of the books in digital is pretty small. Amazon is a great place to shop.
I used to loan the paper books to others and they never came back so now I get to keep my books.
I don’t know what horrors await PC users who try to use Kindle app. After twenty years of struggling with the windows machines I went white-guy and switched. I don’t take it to coffee shops like so many liberal arts students and other nerds do.
If you haven’t read Cappy’s books … do it …
The critical thing for me is that I can download books from the Toronto Library for free to my Kobo as I read a lot of books. Got it a couple of years ago and only read from it now. As far as I know you can’t download library books to Kindle. The newer versions of Kobo have a backlight, which I got for my son at Christmas and he really enjoys using it.
Just a quick one for the “PC geeks”
Adobe Acrobat is quick and easy, converts to .PDF
Next time I remember to load Paypal, maybe, when I get around to it.
Might give me a few, new one- liners to use against the “helicopter Moms”
dwright
I just downloaded “Worthless” as a gift to my son, the Kobo user and University of Alberta student.
He’s in his third of a five year dual degree program.
…..here’s hoping he chose the right program! (Yikes!)
That was my b*tch about your stuff Cap. I am a cave man and all I know is Kobo and it seems to do the trick for me. (The reading lists from liberal rag sheets like the Glob and Snail and The Noo Yawk Slimes piss me off, but those are easily ignored – your books will not get a recommendation from those out house poseurs anyways).
I will buy one of them tonight but I really want to get ‘Enjoy The Decline’. I hope you make lots of $$$$…common sense is pretty rare outside the blogosphere…
Will inform when Enjoy the Decline comes out.
just got worthless and skimmed through on my desktop using the kobo desktop app, some formatting issues with the last line on a page cutting off the bottom of letters that hang low like g j y p q and that little bit showing up at the top of the next page, but overall looks good. i’ve been waiting for you to get your book on kobo, thanks I look forward to reading your book while smoking a cuban cigar and drinking a glass of scotch.
It’s amazing what one can learn just lurking on Kate’s blog! I recently got a Kindle, and wondered what the alternatives were. I’ve also noticed a couple of the books I’ve read on it suffer from flawed editing. Thanks for the lihks to smashwords and Calibre. I’m especially impressed that Calibre is in Python. That means it is likely to be well-maintained! Maybe if I ever get around to writing that novel … 😉
I have been reading your book with Kobo ipad app. Formating looks great. Will try it on the Kobo device later.
My Kobo observation, is that books generally cost less than Kindle, but a lot of books I want are not available on Kobo. Got to break the DRM to get it on the Kobo.