Extra! Extra! Read all about it…in the EPUB format!
If All Romance and OmniLit customers are any indication, EPUB is the fastest-growing file format. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), a trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry, developed and approved the EPUB format as the industry standard. The open, user-friendly format is non-proprietary and can be found in both secure and non-secure versions. Because of its adoption as an industry standard, you’ll find it’s compatible with just about every ebook reading device (the Kindle being a notable exception). One of the best features is that the format is designed so that the text of the files reflows and adjusts to different screen sizes. That means it’s as easy to read an EPUB file on an iPhone as it is to read it on a 29” monitor. Digimonkey loves that feature!
Harlequin Enterprises, which also owns Carina Press, Kimani Press, Love Inspired, MIRA, and several other imprints, announced back in March 2011 that their new releases are now only available in EPUB or Secure Adobe EPUB format. As the largest publisher of romance books in the world, this decision has had a huge impact on the ebook community, with other publishers following Harlequin’s lead. More and more publishers are offering the EPUB format, and many are doing so exclusively. Some alternate formats, such as Secure Microsoft Reader, Secure Mobipocket, and Secure eReader are being phased out.
So how prepared are you for the transition to EPUB? Probably more prepared than you think! Here’s a chart that will show you which programs, apps and devices are already EPUB friendly.
| EPUB and EPUB (non-DRM) | |
| Adobe Digital Editions | PC, MAC |
| BlueFire Reader | iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android OS |
| Aldiko 2.0 | Android OS |
| Natively read ePub | Nook, Sony, Kobo, iPad, iPhone, iPod |
| SECURE ADOBE EPUB | |
| Adobe Digital Editions | PC, MAC |
| BlueFire Reader | iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android OS |
| Aldiko 2.0 | Android OS |
| Natively read Secure ePub | Nook, Sony, Kobo |
What if you have a non-secure file that isn’t in EPUB format (.pdf, .mobi, .prc, .lit, .html, etc) and you would like to convert it?
You can use the free program Calibre to convert most formats to Epub. You can download Calibre from their website. In Calibre, use the Convert eBooks function to convert alternate formats to Epub.
What if you have a Kindle and the only available file format is the non-compatible Epub?
Not a problem! You can easily convert your EPUB file to a MOBI or PDF file using Calibre.
Now you’re an EPUB expert, just like Digimonkey!
Filed Under: DigiMonkey eBook Tips
Tagged: Digim, eBook tips
Customer Satisfaction is now available!! mmmfm… 
But can we read e-pub on our kindle? I don’t think so. and kindle is I think the # 1 e-book seller or not?
;0
Thea, if you download a epub, as I did by mistake; use the calibre program to convert the file to mobi which is what our kindles use. Then transfer it to your kindle with the cord. You also can email books by attaching them to a message with the subject line “convert”. (your username@free.kindle.com;find this on your amazon manage your kindle page) This will not work for Epub files though, those you will have to use a conversion program, like calibre.
Aha! Digimonkey suspects Thea is firmly in the Kindle fanclub.
According to an article in Wired, the laptop is the current most popular way to read ebooks, although the Kindle is still the most popular ereader. The Kindle only accounts for about 30% of readers, however, so nearly 70% of readers use a device other than the Kindle.
While the Kindle will not read an epub file natively, it is very easy to convert an epub file into pdf, prc or html format using Calibre and then transfer it to your Kindle.
I wouldn’t be surprised if ePub became the standard format, as it is the one used by libraries. As printed books have gotten more expensive, more people have headed to the library as personal incomes have shrunk. When considering an e-reader for purchase, cash strapped individuals may not go for a Kindle because of its proprietary file format. The proprietary file format drove me to chose the Nook over the Kindle, even though I don’t use the library to obtain my reads.
What digimonkey forgets is that those of us that are reading on Kindle can’t buy Secure epub, and use Calibre to make it mobi, prc or html. So alot of our reading choices are now taken away. I have mostly bought my romance choices through ARE and now I have to go through Amazon just so that I can read on my Kindle; where before I would spend 85% of my reading budget at ARE and maybe 2% on Amazon, I’ve had to switch just to get a format that works on my Kindle. And this is just in the last month.
Angela,
I bought my Kindle originally because of the ablity to add books that I had bought from different shops and convert them using Calibre. But the one thing I can’t convert is secure formats. Those I normally read on the computer, or my ipod, or my old pda; with the limiting to only epub, my ability to read (or even to buy my favorites) goes down. I’ve already considered buying a second ereader for library books; but I wouldn’t be buying a Nook, to many negative comments about CS, and I’ve been thinking more along the lines of a tablet instead were I could add the necessary apps to read. But with this economy I’ve really had to put things on hold.
Plus add in the limits that the big publishing houses are considering for library ebooks and the epub limitations are going to be costly for people and libraries. From my understanding publishing houses are considering a 26 limit checkout on library ebooks. So libraries would have to repay for an ebook every year.
Awww, Teresa, nothing is being taken away! Kindle users have never been able to buy Secure files from anyone other than Amazon, so a move to Secure epub shouldn’t affect your purchasing ability at ARe one bit.
Besides, we sell A LOT more non-secure books than Secure, many of which you can’t find on Amazon. And despite their name, I don’t believe Amazon has a single monkey to provide ebook assistance, whereas I’m always here to lend a hand…er…paw.
If you want any help deciding on a second reader, pop over to the Dear Digimonkey Forum and get some opinions from other Cafe patrons!
I guess I’m a little more militant than some others… I categorically refuse to be backed into one corner or another by this or that corporation’s greed for profit and refusal to play nice with one another and bending their customers over proverbial barrels. I won’t do it with cellphones (you want OUR phone, you’ll get OUR service!… heard of jailbroken phones?), and I won’t do it with eBooks, either. I’ll buy whatever I choose and if it’s been formatted in a manner that is incompatible with MY ereader (Kindle gen1), then I’ll damned well de-format it into something that my reader WILL read. I paid for this title just like everybody else, and I will NOT be pushed into buying yet another device to have the privilege of reading it! Google “anti-DRM” and you’ll find solutions to these artificially-induced problems. You DO have to be somewhat tech-savvy to do it, and be willing to go through the sometimes many steps to ‘fix’ the problem, but it’s a matter of principle with me. I don’t generally, and as a rule, approve of such measures, but this is SUCH a hot-button issue with me. And yes, I DO tilt at windmills, too!
I have the nookcolor and I really enjoy it I actually went with that one because i needed the backlighting ~ I can put epub or pdf files but I prefer the epub files. I enjoy the fact that I can buy books all over not just thru B@N plus Alot of the previous files I purchased were in pdf or lit so I am just now learning to use calibre (if i can do it anyone can lol) but you can load your converted files right into your device via calbre works fabulously and I know it has to take the kindle because thats what is actually pictured as the device icon:)
Don’t forget that so far there are three distinct flavors of DRM’d ePub. There’s Adobe ID based DRM (which is what everyone but B&N and Apple sell DRM’d ePub with) and then Adobe Password based DRM (which is what B&N sells) and Fairplay DRM’d ePub (which is what Apple sells). This has created problems for many folks, especially those newer to the ebook scene as they see ePub and don’t realize they won’t be able to necessarily use it as a universal format like they think.
I don’t see making a standard as being back into a corner. Only be able to order from one particular store because their machine only reads its format is more limiting. I think if there is a standard for publishing it would make sense to me that this standard would become available as a readable format for all readers. As far as I know for my research when I purchased by e-reader a year ago Kindle is one of the last that don’t read ePub. This is one of the main reasons I bought a nook. The ability to read a variety of formats, easy side loading from Calibre or just through the PC, and the ability to shop anywhere.
Ok, Here’s the deal. I have a Kindle Wifi & I’ve downloaded Calibre. Now I’ve figured out most of the formats that I can download, but not how to download an ePub doc. I’ve been reading how you can, but can’t quite seem how to do it. The books that I want only come in ePub format. I’m quite new @ this, so, “Baby Steps” People Please!…..lol So any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanking you in Advance,
Brenda
Brenda,
Your wish is my command! Digi’s next post will detail how to open and convert books using Calibre. Watch for it next week!
Digimonkey
Hmm…I wonder how long until Kindle comes out with epub compatibility? They’re doing quite a bit of marketing, but with a lot of good e-readers out here, I wonder if they’ll find themselves passed by for user-friendly options.
I have a kindle and a couple of other ereaders, each takes a different type of file type. The Kindle only takes PRC and probably wont ever be a epub format especially since Kindle are releasing the new touch version & a table next month.
and has anyone actually looked at the way Calibre etc convert the files? I did make a mistake and downloaded the epub a few times, I used calibre to convert it to prc and I HATE the conversion, it’s not true to a prc, the chapters run into each other, and some of the time if you have a symbol like a ‘ in the book, it’s converted to look like (?) , there’s no original formating at all and I certainly wont be buying the books like that, I’ll go back to buying the books from the orignal publishers.
Those Kindle users who buy from anyplace not Amazon, not just ARe, will probably be having this same problem at all those other places soon. This kind of makes it sound like even Amazon may cease supporting the format sometime in the near future: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511
And for those who are wondering about Amazon’s promised Kindle epub compatibility, I wish you luck, but it looks kind of bad that the Kindle Fire doesn’t include epub on its list of compatible formats.
@Tess McDonald – Some file formats convert beautifully using Calibre. I learned to buy .lit files when I only had a choice between that and PDF, because PDFs look horrible in my preferred font size on my Nook, and .lit files converted, as far as I could tell, into perfect EPUB files.
Sometimes (a lot of times?) conversion takes a lot of hard work and fiddling around, although Calibre has some advanced settings that can be changed that might take care of common conversion to PRC problems without a lot of work (beyond initially changing those settings).
Ugh, this kind of thing is why I resisted e-books for so long. Although I now buy way more e-books than print books, I still worry about the day I’ll be forced to convert or abandon all my EPUB files.
I guess this is the big publishers attempt to pull Amazon into line with their wishes and further enforce the Agency Agreement which is under investigation in many countries. I use kindle because it has no backlighting my old eyes are not compatable with backlit screen. Maybe the lessons learned re piracy in the music industry should be looked at here.
I find it disappointing that I will no longer be purchasing books from ARe. I suppose that I should not be surprised by the move away from Mobipocket. Amazon’s purchase of Mobipocket in 2005 pre-dates the industry “standard” chosen in 2007 which I suspected at the time was an intentional smack at Amazon.
I’ve been purchasing & reading eBooks since 2001 and Mobipocket was my choice at that time & it continues to be my choice now. When it became time for me to graduate to a dedicated eReader, I chose the Kindle because I already owned hundreds of eBooks and did not wish to have to re-purchase any of them in a new format. I still do not wish to repurchase any book that I already own.
@ Melissa – I do understand that Calibre can convert some books well but since I pay/paid for a book why should I have to convert it into a format that my eReader (kindle) uses? , I buy the book because it says that’s the format I can download, I’m not gonna waste my time trying to figure out how to make it format better, it’s not the point of buying the book, I’d rather just not buy the book or buy it from a publisher that still sells them in prc format.
Actually what incenses me most about decisions like these is that there is zero consideration for existing customers. The attitude is download your book if you can and like it or lump it. What they should be doing is providing an alternate format for affected books. We’ve made good faith purchases and they have a moral obligation to provide the book we paid for. What they are basically doing is shooting themselves in the foot as far as DRM is concerned and giving people a good excuse to pirate. Because unless you can download a fresh copy you cannot guarantee that your book will work with your next computer in the case of secure Lit/Mobi files as they are tied to your software / hardware configuration. Telling you to make a backup is just useless.
And it’s all very well to set “industry standards” for formats but the idiots that did so obviously didn’t consider the reader software, as the reason I’ve always preferred lit/prc is because the files are well formatted and the readers confortable to use, which epub/pdf readers aren’t.
However for those of you who want to decrypt your secure format epub books, look for ineptkey (a little fiddly to set up) when you do your google search. And if you don’t want to do the work yourself Calibre can now decrypt some secure file formats if you add the plugin (you can find it somewhere on the mobileread forums epub / azw / prc decryption works well but I haven’t got the pdb to work). I know this is technically illegal in the States but there has never been a prosecution AFAIK and I suspect the law only stands because it hasn’t been challenged.
Being English it’s quite legal for me to do so and I’m currently working through all my secure books to decrypt them. Frankly in situations like these it wouldn’t bother me in the least if it were illegal.
Actually Dawn, the customers were taken into consideration: “how much more can we squeeze out of these bozos” appears to be the general consensus in the business world these days.
I was amused (tongue firmly in cheek) that, according to the latest news on the OverDrive web site:
“OverDrive (www.overdrive.com) announced today that it has begun adding Kindle compatibility to all of the U.S. public and school libraries in its network and expects to have all sites updated within days. This is a very significant step in a series of OverDrive WIN platform enhancements to streamline user experience and help libraries meet the increased demand for eBooks.”
That announcement was made September 21, 2011. Now tell me that isn’t special.
I wanted to provide a few additional facts for consideration.
1. Kindle users who shop at ARe will not be impacted by OverDrive’s Decision to discontinue selling Secure Mobipocket. Kindle users have never been able to purchase Secure Mobipocket files from us and have them work on the Kindle (unless they are stripping the DRM). Amazon has never allowed their customers to upload Secure personal content. They require all Secure titles to be purchased through them.
2. Mobipocket has been an Amazon company since 2005. The last update for the software was spring of 2008.
3. Lexcycle (maker of Stanza) has been an Amazon company since the spring of 2009. This was a wildly popular and highly rated MAC based eBook Reading App. Updates have ceased. The current version no longer works with the latest MAC OS. (see: http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/ios5-kills-stanza/)
4. In 2010 only 4% of the titles sold on ARe sites (AllRomance.com or OmniLit.com) were DRM, including ALL DRM based formats sold at that time. 96% of sales were for non-secure titles. The #1-selling format was still Adobe Acrobat (PDF). The #2 was Epub. The #3 was .prc/.mobi.
5. Since 2007, less than 700 of over a quarter of a million have ever purchased a secure Mobipocket file from ARe sites. We’ve personally emailed each of these customers to provide outreach and advice on either backing up or transitioning to another format. (Digimonkey has been working diligently.)
6. ARe will continue to sell non-secure Mobipocket (.prc and .mobi). We have no intention of discontinuing as long as the file format is being made available to us.
QUESTION FOR EVERYONE: What eBook readers other than the Kindle will not support ePub? I’m trying to think of one and can’t. (Let’s not count something like the eBookwise or Franklin Bookman that are both out of production.)
DIGIMONKEY – Feel free to repost or move this to another thread if you think appropriate.
Check out Digi’s latest post for more details regarding the Mobipocket announcement!
Having just read through many of these posts, I’d like to mention that I have just updated to the latest version of Calibre Version: 0.8.37 and it’s one very powerful lil’ hombre. The Plugins that have been developed are amazing and really assist in downloading all the metadata you could wish for EXCEPT where the data doesn’t exist on the main metadata provider sites. (It’s worth noting that Calibre can now search within the books themselves for ISBN numbers which also helps mass download metadata for books missing details.)
However, the data (such as the synopsis or tags) generally does exist on the All Romance web site as I buy 98% of my books from AR. (As do many other readers.) I’d like to know if there is anyway I can set Calibre up to access this metadata to download into my library.
I would also LOVE LOVE LOVE to also be able to download the reader reviews and entering an extra field to manage this would be amazing.
Are there any software whips out there who can design a plugin specifically for the All Romance website?