Simon and Schuster releases Uglies DRM-free
By Paul Biba
Scott Westerfeld writes in with the astounding news that his publisher, Simon and Shuster, have agreed to distribute his bestselling novel Uglies as a free, DRM-free PDF. The series has sold more than a million copies, and it’s one of my favorite YA series of all time.
So says Cory Doctorow in Boingboing, where you can read a review of the book. Boingboing has a confusing link to the unfree Amazon store at the top of the page, but you can find the free version at the bottom of the page. According to Finding Free eBooks, the download is good for a month. Might be a good chance to try out the GoodReader PDF reader on my iPhone.
August 6th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Paul, I hope your eyesight is better than mine if you plan to read it on the iPhone. I downloaded it and gave it a shot with GoodReader (EXCELLENT app, by the way). But even viewing it in landscape mode, the print was small and a strain, although I could read it. But not happily. If I make the print larger, then I have to scroll sideways with each line. So I sent it on to the free Amazon conversion and will read it on my K2. That is the whole problem with pdfs and why I do not think that the DX (which I don’t own) is the solution. If a pdf is created from something with smallish type to begin with, then smallish is what you will get in the pdf. If the font is larger, so it will be on the pdf. We are held hostage to the original. That is one of the many joys of the K1 and K2—being able to make the font whatever size is most comfortable. On your computer screen you can view a pdf at 150% or whatever, but it’s only what you are seeing; the pdf is not reflowing as the Kindle text is.