Suvudu free e-book site opens; drops the ball by using PDF
By Paul Biba
There is actually some e-book news today aside from the Kindle/iPhone (though not a lot of it.) Here is the press release about Suvudu (what a terrible name!) the free e-book site from Random House. They are PDF, unfortunately, but if you have a Kindle I’ve found that the Kindle’s free conversion service works like a charm in most cases.
It’s amazing how the people who think up these things know so little about the subject of e-books that they think that PDF is an acceptable format to most readers. It just shows that the Random House still doesn’t have a clue about the e-book market. Thanks to Ori Avtalion for the link.
NEW YORK, NY – March 4, 2009 – Random House, Inc. today unveiled the first five titles in its new Suvudu Free First Book Library. Designed to introduce new readers to popular and acclaimed science fiction and fantasy series, the Suvudu Free First Book Library allows readers to access free digital copies of the first book in each series.
The program launches with access to the following novels:
* His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
* Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
* Settling Accounts: Return Engagement by Harry Turtledove
* Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
* Blood Engines by T.A. PrattThe books will be made available through Random House’s science fiction/fantasy portal, Suvudu.com (http://www.suvudu.com), as well as on other content services, including Scribd.com and the Stanza ebook reader application for the iPhone.
Says Christine Cabello, Random House Publishing Group Deputy Director of Marketing: “The Suvudu Free First Book promotion provides us with a new digital vehicle to build an author’s fan base and is an ideal way to bring new readers to these series.”
New titles are scheduled to be added to the Suvudu Free First Book Library on a regular basis. Coming soon are Terry Brooks’s Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold!, Elizabeth Moon’s Trading in Danger, and many more.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Hey, they are free and have no DRM – don’t complain!
March 4th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
They’re an odd set of files. Some are actual PDF files with embedded fonts, others are 300dpi B&W scans of paperback pages with Acrobat’s OCR applied to get searchable text.
I can only think that some are the production PDFs, and some are scanned from older paperbacks.
Free, and non-DRM, for which good marks. Issuing the first in series for free is an excellent idea, as Baen have shown over the years.
In proper ebook formats, and with the subsequent volumes available for purchase also in ebook format is better. No doubt things will improve in time.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Bah! They’re PDF. I think that is like releasing an audio book on cassette tape only. I’m not going to bother to see if this one converts just OK while that one converts too poorly to read. There are other books to read, for free or for purchase, with or without DRM.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I agree with your thoughts on PDF. However, a high percentage of my customers still select PDF for downloads. I don’t really understand it but it isn’t insane for a publisher to decide PDF is a reasonable way to offer content.
Of course, offering multiple formats is nicer. Still, at this price point, we shouldn’t be too fussy.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
March 4th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Why didn’t they just get on the phone, call up Baen Books, and ask them how it’s done?
March 4th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
The big benefit to PDF is that 99% of all people have a reader already installed.
Having said that, I hate the format myself. I think my real problem is not that they used PDF, but that it’s the only format. But remember, Tor started doing PDF only when they were doing their giveaway – and soon added other formats.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I think these aren’t aimed at people with iPhones or e-ink readers, but at people who buy paper books, on the ‘check out the first few chapters, get bored with reading on your screen, buy the book’ basis. Which would also explain why it’s only the first book in the series that’s available – perhaps the rest of the series here are available as ebooks, I don’t know, but I suspect some of them aren’t.
I’m not playing apologist for them here – I’m a thorough convert to e-ink – but they’re aiming at the majority of their market, which is still people who buy paper. It’s an incentive, rather than a complete solution. But yes, epub or something would be very nice. Particularly Red Mars, which I already have in hardback.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
They’re also available for free (but DRMed) for Sony Readers from the (US) Sony eBook Store.
March 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
At the upper right hand corner of the web page they have a feedback link.
Click on it and let them know that the use of free ebook versions as promo material is good but the use of a pretend-paper format isn’t.
If enough people point out what real ebook formats offer, they might realize half-measures don’t do their authors any favors.
At a minimum it can’t hurt; at nest, somebody might wake up and notice its the 21st century out there.
March 7th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I downloaded the PDF of HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON but it took two tries to get it to convert and load to my Kindle successfully using the Amazon email conversion. It looks OK on the Kindle– better than a lot of PDFs– but of course there’s no table of contents or anything.
I’m sure publishers like PDF because they are already producing it for pint. No extra cost for them. And since there was no extra cost for me (except 10 cents to Amazon), I guess I am happy.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
All of those books have been available free on Amazon since just after the Kindle 2 was released.
May 9th, 2009 at 8:36 am
If you have kindle, their books are also already free on the kindle site for a limited time, you don’t need to convert unless you miss the initial release period. They’re also free on the Sony site after release. And scribd, which completely sucks.
I’ve actually written to them two times to ask why they ignore popular formats like MOBI, and I’ve been totally ignored two times.