Kindle Support

[Chieh Cheung]

Will you be formatting any of the Planet Stories line for the Kindle? As somebody who enjoys the Kindle, I am pretty sure that doing so would increase the interested audience. There aren't that many fantasy books for the Kindle [George Martin and Terry Brooks are exceptions] so it seems to be an underserved niche. I have bought 2 of the Planet Stories books so far; I certainly would buy more if I could get it on the Kindle.

[Vic Wertz]

Chieh Cheung wrote:

Will you be formatting any of the Planet Stories line for the Kindle? As somebody who enjoys the Kindle, I am pretty sure that doing so would increase the interested audience. There aren't that many fantasy books for the Kindle [George Martin and Terry Brooks are exceptions] so it seems to be an underserved niche. I have bought 2 of the Planet Stories books so far; I certainly would buy more if I could get it on the Kindle.

We don't have electronic rights for these books, I'm afraid. Even if we did, from what I can tell, Amazon is asking copyright holders to create new contracts with Amazon as the publisher, so we'd be out of the loop anyway—we're not the copyright holders for these books.

[Andrew Turner]

I played with a Kindle in Seattle--I was absolutely stunned at how easy it was to use and how spectacular the 'page' looks! Unfortunately, it doesn't work in Alaska or Korea (where I'm stationed right now), so I didn't buy it. :-(

[Jonathon Green]

I too love my kindle, and was saddened by its lack of connectivity while on a recent business trip to Canada.

That being said, there is alternitive to Amazon for Kindle readable books.

The Set-Up:
The Kindle uses a propritary version of the MobiPocket format. MobiPocket has a free reader for your mobile device (PDA SmartPhone) and your PC, and a free document creator that will convert most document files to .mobi format.

The Pay-Off:
MobiPocket has its own store with SFF books for sale. Also, Baen books has a huge selection of its books available _For Free_ in the format.

The Catch:
To transfer a .mobi file to your kindle, without paying the .10$ transfer fee, you have to connect the kindle to your computer, and transfer the files manually.

In the end, I have more .mobi books on my kindle than Amazon books. More selection, and better prices, when I make an effort to get the books. I use the whisper net when I hear about a cool book on NPR, or froma friend, or when I need to look something up on Wikipedia.

[James Lowder]

Vic Wertz wrote:

We don't have electronic rights for these books, I'm afraid. Even if we did, from what I can tell, Amazon is asking copyright holders to create new contracts with Amazon as the publisher, so we'd be out of the loop anyway—we're not the copyright holders for these books.

The most recent issue of the Bulletin of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America presented an annotated version of the required Kindle contract. The contract is not one most authors who read the fine print would jump at, I'm afraid.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

[Professor]

Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere. I have just recently purchased a kindle. Is it possible to take the e-book editions of the Pathfinder Tales and somehow load them onto my kindle? Will it read them or do I have to also somehow load a reader onto Kindle? I am speaking about Prince of Wolves, Winter Witch, and Plague of Shadows (I have enjoyed all 3 of those by the way)

Thank you in advance

[Vic Wertz]

Professor wrote:

Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere. I have just recently purchased a kindle. Is it possible to take the e-book editions of the Pathfinder Tales and somehow load them onto my kindle? Will it read them or do I have to also somehow load a reader onto Kindle? I am speaking about Prince of Wolves, Winter Witch, and Plague of Shadows (I have enjoyed all 3 of those by the way)

Thank you in advance

It just so happens somebody explained how to do that earlier today! Here's the thread..

[Elf_NFB]

Check here:

Kindle Instructions

Real good instructions.

[Kruelaid]

Andrew Turner wrote:

I played with a Kindle in Seattle--I was absolutely stunned at how easy it was to use and how spectacular the 'page' looks! Unfortunately, it doesn't work in Alaska or Korea (where I'm stationed right now), so I didn't buy it. :-(

I'm using one in China. (replying a few years later to your post...) Wifi only version. Saves me luggin books around while I travel.

[Andrew Betts]

I understand it's a very simple conversion (I've been doing it for almost 3 years already for books) but wouldn't it be simple for Paizo to include the Mobi file with the ePub for those that aren't as technologically savvy (as most of my friends, and I can only stand explaining it so many times).

[Vic Wertz]

Andrew Betts wrote:

I understand it's a very simple conversion (I've been doing it for almost 3 years already for books) but wouldn't it be simple for Paizo to include the Mobi file with the ePub for those that aren't as technologically savvy (as most of my friends, and I can only stand explaining it so many times).

We did some testing with that, and it went OK, but my understanding (admittedly limited) is that Calibre is able to do conversions for your specific Kindle model, and that you may therefore get better results than if we provided a generic MOBI.

If that's not true, let me know!

[Andrew Betts]

Vic Wertz wrote:

Andrew Betts wrote:

I understand it's a very simple conversion (I've been doing it for almost 3 years already for books) but wouldn't it be simple for Paizo to include the Mobi file with the ePub for those that aren't as technologically savvy (as most of my friends, and I can only stand explaining it so many times).

We did some testing with that, and it went OK, but my understanding (admittedly limited) is that Calibre is able to do conversions for your specific Kindle model, and that you may therefore get better results than if we provided a generic MOBI.

If that's not true, let me know!

In my experience, it doesn't really matter what kindle you have. A mobi is a mobi is a mobi. The only error I've ever seen in a conversion was the occasional line break not showing up in a transitional section (the extra space between two paragraphs).

With Calibre while you can pick your Kindle model, it makes no difference in the conversion in the end.