Wheel of Time eBook Publishing Schedule

I´m also finally going to read it! I just can´t wait!

Why are the half books being put out as well? That seems a little odd, especially to bring them out after the full books are already there.

Will Towers of Midnight be released as an ebook at the same time it is released as a hardcover?

Pablo - Y'know I'm just jealous... To have all that great reading ahead of you. There's nothing like the first time with WoT. Will you be able to hold out for each ebook?

@ShooneSprings #2

Well, we're putting them out for completeness' sake, I suppose. But it doesn't make snese to put them out before all the others are available, so there you have it. No concrete plans for the remaining, as-yet-unwritten books, mostly because they're as-yet-unwritten. ;)

@forkroot #3

I'm intrigued, and excited to finally read these books I've heard so many people gushing over. But it will be slow-going, so I think keeping up, as opposed to holding out, will be my problem, since I'm proofing and keeping an eye out for errors as I read....

Hi #2 ShooneSprings,

The “half editions” are our Starscape editions, meant for younger readers. The idea is to package them for a younger audience and give them a complete reading experience but in a smaller, less intimidating doses....You might call it a gateway drug. ;-)

Will ebooks purchased in the UK have the new cover art? I ask as Waterstones UK have the traditional UK cover (black with snake-wheel symbol) for the eBook version of TEotW showing on their site. Haven't bought it yet so I don't know if this is the cover included with the download.

Who do we talk to if we have an issue with one of the ebooks? The reason I asked is I downloaded the sample of Eye of the World for my iphone Kindle last night, and I know this is a minor quibble, but the opening chapter capital letters are offset. Like I said, minor, but it's annoying. I will probably still buy it, as I love the art and I love having it available on my iphone, but I hope this isn't indicative of all of the editions.

Beren@7, it does that in the full edition as well. At least I see each chapter with the very first letter on a line by itself. If these files weren't DRM'd or I felt like breaking the law I could fix it pretty easily. Oh, and Pablo, I'm glad to see that Amazon is actually only charging paperback price for these. If they do that for all of them then I won't be complaining about it.

FYI Pablo, I emailed you a screen shot of what it looks like on the Kindle.

Only problem that I see is that I will not read "The Gathering Storm" until November of 2010 now if the ebook release date is accurate. I purchase all my books in ebook format now. Wish they would release the ebook format at the same time as the book release.

Pablo? Poking around the site off your Tor books link, I finally located http://us.macmillan.com/theeyeoftheworld but it doesn't even hint at an ebook? Just wondering...

nother mike @11:

I just looked on the Barnes & Noble web site.
They have it available as an ebook. Of course you need the B&N ebook reader.

Amazon also shows it as available for the Kindle.

Pablo - RFifes blog on the release party suggested that maria and others have a compilation of errata (not just spelling or layout but substance changes - for instance changing the reference to Faile's age to make her a wee bit older , etc.) that will be changed in each books reprinting - this is great for new fans but what about the long timers?

I am wondering if a list of errata (all as one or by editions) could be posted in an authorized site - on Tor or elsewhere- so that I (and others) could learn what has been editorially changed. I know that paperbacks and now the ebooks are being updated but have not seen any new Hardback and not sure I would repurchase them. Or perhaps it could be added to the end of one of the next books ( however I am sure they will be pressed to the limit on pages.)

If you would please pass this on to appropriate parties I would appreciate it.

Love the idea of the new art but the 1st book image is so so - I guess that first book is way too iconic for me. Even with the artists misrepresentations.

A question on the Ebooks - do they show the maps and the chapter icons as well??


Thanks

Aye Aye Sedai@13, at a brief look the chapter icons are there. There is a chapter marking for the maps, but nothing appears in the Kindle version on that spot. I don't know if this is a mistake in the encoding of the book or intentional.

Beren, Aye Aye Sedai, Artanian:

The ebooks all have maps and chapter images, as well as drop caps at the beginning of each chapter and other niceties. The maps, in particular, are nice: they are relatively high resolution scans, so you can even zoom in if you have the right hardware.

Speaking of hardware: Unfortunately, since Amazon handles the conversion from our source file (an ePub file, which is the de-facto open standard for ebooks, as opposed to their proprietary Kindle format) internally, after we hand them our file, the quality on Kindle editions leaves much to be desired (it's an automated process within Amazon, so we don't get to peek into that black box, much less get oversight once the file comes out the other end, before it's made available for sale). As a result, things like the maps, the formatting and such, that look great on all the other e-editions of the books, look bad or don't show up on the Kindle edition. For example, maps don't show on the Kindle sometimes, there is no table of contents, and drop caps look like Artanian's first letter on its own line. By all means, complain to Amazon. They listen to their customers much, much more than they listen to publishers, actually.

My advice, if you really want a nice e-edition? Don't go with the Amazon version (I know, I know: if you own a Kindle, you're kinda locked into the Amazon store. But that's a bigger conversation about open formats and device agnosticism). Of all the other retailers who have The Eye of the World available (B&N, Sony, etc.), Sony is the best-looking; they take our file as-is, and don't alter or convert it at all.

I'll be writing up an in-depth look at the process behind creating and distributing these files, and the differences between them when they come out the other end of the process at retailer sites, because it's actually a really interesting process (at least to me!). But first I have to finish reading and comparing everything! ;)

Aye Aye Sedai:
We've had Team Jordan re-check these editions, so all errata should be updated/corrected. But it's up to Team Jordan whether they want to put up an archive of those for your easy access!

Beren:
If you spot errors in the books, send them my way (pablo.defendini@tor.com). Just make sure to put "WOT ebook error" in the subject line of your email, so that I can spot it easily and my filters recognize it. Since ebooks don't have page numbers, just jot down the Chapter, and the relevant passage. Once I'm done reading through a book, I will correct any errors in the master ePub file, and then re-submit the file to the relevant services for updating. Crowdsourcing FTW.

O.K., so it looks like Amazon/Kindle, B&N/Nook/eReader and Sony/Sony Reader. How about Mobipocket or Fictionwise?

Thanks!

@FredKiesche
Mobipocket yes. Fictionwise, we're working on it... it's on Powell's, which is supplied by the same people as Fictionwise, so we're looking into why it's on one and not the other.

Pablo that's interesting that you don't just give Amazon a mobipocket format file - I'd have figured that's what they would have wanted as it would be trivial for them to add the DRM to it. If I were to try to fix this I'd strip the DRM off, convert back to epub, fix up the XML, and convert back to mobi. It didn't bug me enough before, but now I'm curious as to what they actually did.

@Artanian:

That's a good question. Since everyone and their mother has basically adopted ePub, our production department has as well. It's no big deal to convert from page layout to ePub, distribute to everyone, and then convert the ePub to Mobipocket to distribute only to Amazon/Mobipocket, when you're working with just one title, but when you scale up to deal with hundreds of titles a month, like our production dept does, that one extra step really adds up!

Well I've gone ahead and sent off a complaint to Amazon. Knowing that other formats look good and have maps really got me disappointed with my purchase there :(

We'll see where it goes.

In the meantime, are there any plans to release files in a non-DRM format? I'd much rather buy directly from say, Tor.com. I think most of the readers can handle it and it would be so much more convenient to be able to buy my content once and manage it as such.

Still, this is progress but frankly, I've already seen some pretty good conversions available through nefarious ways and with a little help from google. I'd much rather support the author/publisher directly but when buying something becomes such a hassle, I'll probably just do without. (I really don't need an ebook of these when I can just as easily walk to my bookshelf and take down a copy :))

@jabrown16
I don't disagree with anything you've said in your comment. Unfortunately, it's out of our hands: there are no plans for DRM-free editions of these books.

So if I read the comments correctly, Sony is selling ePub? I guess that's a start. I'll have to look at them again. The last time I was on their site they were selling BBeB (which was worthless to me).

DRM is an evil technology. I understand why it exists (and I know it isn't in your control to remove it), but it traps people to devices and punishes those who legally purchase books from you. Then again, it's not really the DRM I have an issue with. I'd have no problem if I bought a book and it was available in eReader DRM, mobi DRM, ePub DRM, etc. so long as when I changed devices, I could go back and download the book again in the new format, tying the DRM to my new device. I'm going to lose dozens of mobipocket books when I have to upgrade my iLiad (which isn't necessary yet ... but the new eBook readers are better with their faster screen refreshes).

Basically it's the whole Betamax/VHS and HD-DVD/Bluray thing going on in eBooks right now and DRM will soon preventing me from reading books I've already purchased -- especially since Amazon's mobipocket DRM licence is extremely evil (something about DRM exclusivity on the same device*), which will ensure that no future device will support DRM'd ePub and DRM'd mobipocket (except maybe the Kindle).

I love eBooks ... I just hate the hoops I have to jump through to buy and use them. I can't buy eBooks from Amazon because I don't have a Kindle (or a way to register my PID). I can't buy eBooks from Barnes and Noble (because I'm not in the US, even though some of the books are not region locked to the US, at least on other sites -- an it's in eReader which is as useless as mobipocket is likely to be). The books I have managed to buy from Fictionwise, Mobipocket, and BooksOnBoard, will not work if I get a device that doesn't support DRM'd mobipocket (which, incidentally, is all of them).

It's infuriating! I have hope for ePub. Many devices are supporting it now (all of Sony's, the new ones from iRex, and the nook) ... so it is really the only format worth buying assuming the stores start selling it and just drop all these other formats ... or unless DRM goes away (which is unlikely I guess).

* See this blog posting for more information of what I'm jabbering about vis-à-vis the mobipocket/ePub DRM exclusivity: http://i-to-i.irexnet.com/2009/08/26/adobe-pdf-and-epub-support-coming-q4/

@garett

I love eBooks ... I just hate the hoops I have to jump through to buy and use them.

Agreed. Utterly and entirely. Baby steps, is all I can say.

And yes, Sony now sells ePub, and all their newer devices are ePub capable (from the PRS 500 on, iirc)

Pablo, when you check with Fictionwise about _Eye Of The World_, could you check to see why David Weber's _By Heresies Distressed_ isn't available with them?

@Pablo,

The Sony PRS 500 reader doesn't support ePub as a format, but the PRS 505 and later readers do.

@rutherfordr

You are correct. I always forget that Sony put out both a PRS 500 *and* a PRS 505.

I've just learned that The Eye of the World e-book, at least on the Sony Store is a US-only book. So that means the only three stores I know that carry it (Amazon*, B&N** and Sony), won't sell me the book! And the only Canadian eBook retailer I know about (Shortcovers) doesn't carry it (probably for the same reasons I can't buy it from the Sony eBook store). Excuse me while I go scream.

* I don't own a Kindle; not available in my country (but every other bloody country in the world; I don't really want a Kindle, just access to their eBooks so I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly)
** Barnes & Noble won't sell any e-books outside of the US.

PS: The Sony eBook Store is not yet ePub. Most (all?) of their books are still in BBeB. From the press release on the site, it looks like the entire store will convert to ePub together (making it unlikely that Eye of the World is in ePub currently), something they are expecting to happen in the next few months (end of year).

Wow! How disappointing that it will be a year before we see The Gathering Storm as an e-book! REALLY? What an incredibly bad idea/poor marketing.

@Rat1028 I agree, I will not be purchasing The Gathering Storm because it is not available on the Kindle until 2 November 2010. I do not purchase dead tree books. So until Tor decides to release The Gathering Storm on the Kindle within the Next 5 days, I will be looking for it in other locations. Meaning that if it is not published for the Kindle before I find it free elsewhere, I will NOT be purchasing it at all.

You guys, read Tor, have no one to blame but themselves for piracy in this case.

What possible rationale could their be for delaying release of the latest book by a year in e-format? Well, money/greed. The publisher, Tor, knows/thinks it will make less profit per book on the e-edition, so don't want to cannibalize sales. Fine. I won't be buying it at all, as a result. This is a series that went from must read to might as well finish over a too-long period of place-holder books. Making the "final" book into two, well that's just cake, and delaying an ebook for a year is just icing on that not too tasty cake.

Yeah, pretty disappointing that Sony isn't selling EotW to Canada. Of course, same for Weber's "Off Armageddon Reef". Looking for an epub source, is cyberread a legitimate source? Their prices seem a little high, and it looks a bit odd that they only accept PayPal.

...?
As far as I can see from their web site, the only formats that cyberread supports are PDF, MobiPocket, Microsoft Word(!) and Microsoft Reader.

That being said, I'd never heard of cyberread before you mentioned them, so I'm not really sure what's up with them.

@ ShooneSprings
The half books, at least From the Two Rivers, have an extra prologue, "Ravens." There's also some illustrations beyond chapter icons and maps. Maybe that's why.. don't really know for sure

This is great. A buddy of mine is legally blind and just could not see the text and his magnifier is too cumbersome to use on a long book like this. Now he is finally reading this series and loving it. He can't wait until the next eBook is available.

PhatJ - know that is the best reason to do these. Thanks for saying so - makes it all the more rewarding.

Woohoo! I might have to start adding eBooks to my ever-growing collection of WOT.

I used to work in publishing. I hated it when people would write in and complain about the errors they find in the books and then demand free merchandise for their finds. Reading the petulant "fans" complaining in this forum brings back memories.

@Maz1 - so it's Tor's fault if you commit a crime?

"Well, if they had the game in stock they should of sold it to me before I found a way to break in and steal it instead of waiting until the release date. It's their fault I stole from them!"

Wow. What a sense of entitlement.

I do hope they get these available without DRM - it would be great if they sold these on webscriptions like I noticed they do with some books (I use webscriptions w/ bookshelf on my iPhone)

Is there going to be something like a boxed epub set once the final book is available in epub format? Also what is the holdup with getting these books in Canada?

While Tor used to be one of my favorite publishers, I have come to hate Tor.

I read quite a bit of science fiction and fantasy.

I have a Kindle, and Tor, unlike virtually every other publisher I want to read books from, refuses to release their books electronically, when they release them in hardcover.

Since I acquired my Kindle, back in March, I have purchased and read 92 books on it. In the same time frame, I have purchased 6 physical books. 5 of them from Tor, and purchased only because they were continuations of stories I was already interested in.

I do not want to purchase hardcover books. I do not have the space for them, and consider the Kindle a vastly superior alternative. I am perfectly willing to pay a premium to obtain access to these books earlier.

Tor: I will not purchase any standalone or beginning of series books published by Tor until your policy changes.

Authors: Please find another publisher. Tor's policies are restricting your audience size for no good reason.

I agree release the WOT NOW!!! Especially the gathering storm!!! I will not purchase another DEAD TREE BOOK ever again....Kindle rocks. I still don't understand how an e-book could hurt their sales...isn’t there less cost in producing an e-book over a DEAD TREE version???? I do however disagree with paying an premium because of mention cost factor above…e-books are the future, it won't be long before college & high school students can leave behind those 40lb. book bags and have a kindle / Sony etc. handy with all their book needs right in hand!

I have purchased all three eBooks from Amazon and there are "problems" with book 2 and 3:

Book 2 - the cover art by Ketai Kotaki doesn't exist instead there is a generic placeholder. Per Amazon "In regards to The Great Hunt, publishers do not always have the rights to publish cover art digitally and so it is replaced with a generic cover. Unfortunately, this is the case with The Great Hunt. I'm very sorry for any frustration this may cause." This makes absolutely no sense! Doesn't Tor have the rights to the cover art it is commissioning for the eBooks? (Book 1 and 3 have the new cover art.)

The same issue exists on Barnes & Noble's store.

Will Tor be fixing this? Will customers who have already purchased it get new copies with the correct cover art?

Book 3 - The "metadata" in this file contains an error as the file uses "Robert" as Robert Jordan's last name which completely screws us sorting by "Author" on the Kindle.

Will Tor be fixing this? (Per Amazon its the publisher's fault and not their's.)

Thanks

I was able to but TEoTW two wks after ebook release on amazon but can't get any of the others as they're not available in Europe. When I now search for TEoTW in amazon it also says "not available in Europe" Shouldn't Tor not have dates for all regions as it's misleading to list an epub schedule if that only affects North America.

When will the e-books be available in Canada? I purchased all of the books prior to Gathering Storm in paperback, and have since obtained digital copies on the internet for my re-read, but I would like to support everyone involved by purchasing legitimate digital copies. I also do not intend to contribute to deforestation by purchasing paper books ever again, and would prefer not to be a "pirate".

Unfortunately, Tor Books only have rights for the US editions; international editions are up to other, international publishers.

All of my paperbacks were published by Tor and purchased in Canada. What is different about the ebooks?

@46 iwsbarker, I was able to buy the third book from Chapters/Indigo's ebook site (kobo). The first two books weren't listed there, last time I looked. I obtained them at a fairly reasonable price from BooksOnBoard, but be warned that, at the moment, the second volume doesn't have the new cover art (there seems to be a problem with the version Tor sent to the distributor). I've brought the issue up in the forum thread for "The Great Hunt", but nothing seems to have been fixed yet.

BTW, from what I've read on the mobile read forums (fora?), it looks like ebook rights are separate, though I'm sure someone will jump in if I've got this wrong.

Thanks - I'll check out Chapters and BooksOnBoard. I'm not thrilled with the new cover art, so that doesn't matter to me. Is the content well formatted? I've heard that some ebook sellers reformat the epub from Tor rather badly. If that's the case with Chapters or BooksOnBoard, maybe I should try to re-register my Sony Reader with a US address, to get around this silly limitation.

Finally!!! Started re-reading the series before reading The Gathering Storm. Almost finished Shadow Rising. Maybe they will catch up to me so I can get the e-books.

iwsbarker@48 I haven't gone more than a couple of pages deep into any of them yet, since I have a stack of library books I need to finish first. They seem fine to me at just a cursory glance.

I love paper books - and I dont have to worry about new models making my old one obselete. I can fully see how an e book would be handy but until all these problems listed above and the exclusivity issues and non American publishing rights Im not gonna waste the money - these things aint cheap. Plus I like how my bookcase looks in the living room. (Mind you the missus could do without the boxes and boxes and boxes of books in the attic which I dont display but wont get rid of).

It just seems that in these threads for every good post there are three bad ones.

Finally! Now I can (or will) have all the books wherever I go (sadly I lost all of my hardbacks in shipment from Iraq).

However, I'm having trouble zooming in on the maps with my B&N Nook... anyone else having this issue?

As a long-time eBook user, I'm VERY pleased to see the Wheel of Time series making the jump! I'm rather disappointed that they're not available on my usual platform of choice, eReader.com/Fictionwise. However, since there's a Kindle reader for the iPod touch as well, I bit the bullet and snagged all four (thus far) available books in the series.

There are some odd capitalization errors here and there in Eye of the World, and one or two in The Great Hunt, but other than that a solid job all around! Though you might want to let Amazon know that the books are called "The Dragon Reborn" and "The Shadow Rising" instead of just "Dragon Reborn" and "Shadow Rising." They got it right for The Great Hunt, but not these two for some reason...

Suddenly, WoT is no longer available on Amazon--eBook or paper other than resellers. Is this temporary or a strategy by Tor that effectively alienates over 2 million Kindle owners?

Lawrence C.

Amazon pulled all Macmilian titles, print and ebook editions, off of Amazon.

Tor is part of Macmilian.

John Scalzi (another Tor author) has posted extensively about the issue here:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/

It's not just WoT and it's not Tor's doing.

Thank you. I neglected to also allow possible blame on Amazon strategy too. I stand corrected and apologize to all. I'll blame it on madness of not being able to buy my next WoT ebook on demand. Sigh. Another #amazonfail.

Hopefully this is only temporary and ebook prices will stay low enough that publishers, the Amazons, but especially authors and avid readers all can be happy.

I, for one, buy more books now than ever--about twice as many thanks to the sub $10 prices and the beauty of a dedicated reader.

ACK - I went to buy the 2nd WoT on my kindle...having fallen in love with the first...and it's no longer avaiable??? Does anyone know if this is temporary. PLEASE SAY IT IS! I hate this...getting into a GREAT series, and now not being able to continue. At least on the kindle...going back to an actual book might be hard!!!!

Thanks a lot TOR for releasing this series as ePub! I never heard of it before and stumbled by accident over it at the Sony Store. A faster release would have been great, as I finish each book in under a week ;-) The days are marked in my calender to buy the books as soon as they are released.

But I really hope the price will now not jump to much over the paperback edition with all this Macmillan fuss! I gladly paid 9,99 to get it comfortably on my reader, but it's still higher than the paperback edition. Paying the rumored double of the price is a bit harsh ;-)

Amazon needs to get it's head out of it a$$. Period.

The only people made to suffer by amazon's decision are the Kindle owners; because anyone else can still get a copy of the book from another vendor - and still use the Amazon site to do it!!!!

I bought a kindle for the "instant access" function; there is nothing worse than reading "Book 2 of 13", only to reach the end when there isn't a book store (or a copy of book 4) within a 200 mile radius. The Kindle allows the reader to get his/her next book without delay.

That is why I bought it; that is why I use it; and THAT is why I'll pay more for a book on kindle than if I walked out of the store with a paper copy.

Wake Up Amazon - You are only hurting your most dedicated customers.

Okay, I'm not happy with Amazon tactics, but Macmillan appears to be either trying to slow the rise of ebooks by higher prices or attempting to extract a convenience tax for the ebook format/delivery model. Or both. How else do you explain the $15 ebook price in the face of $6.99 mass market paper copy? (An example from Macmillan's own site today shows the issue: http://us.macmillan.com/theeyeoftheworld .) The value of the author's work for all forms is the same; the production and distribution costs for ebooks are less. Can't ebooks match the lowest print cost? Surely there's still a large margin there. At this point, I think the publishers are waiting to see if ebook readers will swallow a convenience tax...and in the case of "The Eye of the World," a 100% convenience tax.

Lawrence - you're exactly right. Now that the books are available again on Amazon, the ebooks are priced 2 bucks more than the paperbacks. This is crazy!

I know the new covers are nice and all, but this price just doesn't make sense. And you're not even guaranteed of getting the nice new covers anyway - it's been months now and the Amazon version of The Great Hunt STILL has the wrong cover!!

I'm in the process of re-reading the WoT books since the new Sandersons are coming out. I already own the paperbacks, but was buying the Kindle versions to re-read as sort of an impulse buy each month. But there's no way I can justify paying more than paperback cost to myself. So I'll continue my re-read on the old musty original paperback set I have in the basement.