Robert Jordan’s The Great Hunt eBook now available for sale!

Thanks to everybody!

someone should send this to Sweet so he can see what a real cover should look like.

These covers are way better than the US hardcover ones...

ToM candidate?

This is fantastic. Thanks to all for the hi-res!

Wahoo! Thank you, Tor and Kekai Kotaki! This is immediately going on all my desktops!

Anyone know why the version that CyberRead sold me this morning doesn't have the lovely new cover? I was mightily disappointed, and have contacted their customer service, but no reply yet.

Interestingly enough, it's the same abstract white-and-orange cover that Powell's is showing. Customer service said they'd try to run a script to update things, but the most recent download still shows the same cover (not the lovely new one) :P

Now if only the darned e-books actually included the maps :(

I bought both EotW and tGH in Kindle format yesterday - no maps. There's a map entry in the table of contents, but the maps are AWOL.

@6 - I;m not sure but I've asked our ebook guru, Pablo. We'll get back to you ASAP.

@6: Agreed - EotW has the new cover in the Kindle version, but tGH only has it in the "table of contents" low-rez version, not as the actual book cover which is an old-style cover with rectangular colour blocks.

Hi all. These digital editions were created from one master ePub file which includes maps, correct and high-res cover art, table of contents (both metadata and in-book), etc; however, each retailer converts and ingests the file in their own way, and results therefore vary. If you want the nicest, most accurate version, use the Sony Store, since they just take our ePub file straight (if you can. I know that if you have a Kindle, you're kinda locked down there!).

We're looking into the Kindle conversion that Amazon created from our source ePub file based on your comments, but in the meantime, you should also complain to Amazon, that way we can attack the problem from two ends.

The complaints Amazon has received about The Eye of the World, for example have prompted Amazon to reach out to us in order to refine their conversion process, so headway is being made.

@10: Thanks Pablo - I'll comment to Amazon.

FYI, the other thing the kindle conversion got wrong is the leading capital letters for chapters - they're on their own line:

"
T
he Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass..."

Same issue for all chapters, both books, I think.

@11 -- I've definitely noticed the first letter on its own line thing ... Reviewing my paper copies, I think this could be because the first letter of the first word of each chapter is in a larger font size. I plan on emailing Amazon, too; I don't know if they can/will fix the existing files, but as long as books 3+ are good... :)

One thing I would love, though, is to be able to pre-order all of them *now*, rather than having to go back to the site each time. Seriously -- just charge me for the whole set and auto-deliver whenever they're ready.

@RMGiroux #11 and @cytherea #12

Yeah, the first letter in the chapters is styled as a drop-cap, and Amazon doesn't pick up on that styling, either. Check this out:

Pablo @13: Thanks, that's exactly what I'm seeing. And if you hit page back once on the kindle, you'll see the empty place where the ToC says the map is.

I've filed complaints with Amazon. Their canned response said they took the books down until they fixed the issue, but I checked, and happily the books aren't down. I'm glad - I wouldn't want to have done that to you!

That is an amazing cover illustration. Please Kekai Kotaki! Give us more!

Dang. None of the Jordan's are available at Fictionwise. Still. Other than "Glimmers: Prologue to Crossroads of Twilight" (which has been up there for several years and is only up in a few formats--none of which I can use).

The kindle format for Eye of the World has been fixed. The maps are still a little small and hard to read, but they're there now, and the first letter of the chapter is fixed. It doesn't look as nice as the pic of the original ebpub above, but not bad.

BTW, heard back from CyberRead. Turns out:

"Generating update file right now. But honestly, the issue is likely that whomever uploaded your book file chose a generic file name for the cover art. So some other author did the same and our system was not sophisticated enough to deal with it. I've built content systems like this before and we will get it resolved eventually."

So, it won't get completely fixed until next week. Don't know if this is something that can be prevented on Tor's end or not...

ctkierst - Thanks. Any information helps. We are, most definitely, looking into it and will do whatever we can to avoid this on the upcoming books.

Irene, the problem with CyberRead may be what has happened with Barnes & Noble. They have the correct cover (on their site) but the ebook contains a generic cover.

DocJim (or anyone)
How did you get a copy of the fixed version of the Eye of the World from amazon? I tried to delete and redownload, but it still had the formatting errors. The Great Hunt seems ok.
Thx,
-Shaown

ssn76 - In theory, you should be able to remove the old edition from your kindle and re-download. However, if that doesn't work, you'll need to contact Amazon Customer Service - they can refund you for the incorrect version and you can re-purchased the correct one. That's worked for me with other fixes.

I'm still in a back and forth with Amazon about the current version of The Great Hunt. The one I downloaded last week was missing maps and the formatting of the first letter of each chapter was still incorrect. They fixed those now, but the cover is still work - some generic looking thing instead of the nice new cover.

Hopefully Amazon will get their act together soon on this.

Aagh! I'm *so* frustrated. Both CyberRead and BooksOnBoard have the stupid generic cover (still). BoB told me "This file is being sourced from LSI/Ingram. The cover shown is what they have sent us with the file.
They may be contacted at ebookissues@ingramdigital.com". When I contacted the given email address, I get "I am sorry for the inconvenience but we have the old generic image in our system for this title. Let me know if you need anything else." What ever happened to *real* customer service, as in, I'll actually fix the problem! I suggested that they try contacting Irene, but who knows if they'll actually do anything. Note that the book isn't in the Sony store, and I don't own a Kindle, so the other options seem a bit of a bust. I've bought the darned thing twice now, and still have the stupid generic cover

On the plus side, after another nag, they've agreed to ask for a replacement cover. We'll see...

Okay, after much back-and-forthing between LSI/Ingram and BoB, multiple attempts to download what I was assured was a corrected version and failing miserably, and then some more nagging, this is what I got back from BoB:

"We do not host the file on our servers. The file, and whatever cover is attached to be included with downloads of the file, is hosted on the distributor server with the metadata and cover art as supplied by the publsiher when the publisher loaded the file to the distributors server. When a customer purchases an ebook from our site, they receive a link which accesses the file download from whatever distributor server it is sourced from. Thus we have absolutely no control over this issue. What would have to happen in order for any new cover to be delivered with the download is exactly this.

1) Publisher rebuilds file attaching correct and updated cover to the file.
2) Publisher loads this new file to any distributor servers with whom they have distribution agreements with.
3) Publisher owns responsibility for removing outdated files from distribution.
4) Then, metadata for new file will be delivered to our site in the distributors automated feed which allows link to new file and corrected cover.

If volumes 1 and 3 have the correct cover art then this is what has occured with those files. Publisher need only perform this same rebuild and update with the remaining file. We have no agreement in place with the publisher or direct contact. Our agreement is with distributor. Distributor agreement is with publisher. We have sent this request upstream through distributor asking that they make publisher aware of this issue. Bottom line, solution to this lies solely with publisher. Until they update what they are sending downstream through distribution channel they are simply advertising on their own site what they are not making available to end users. Please let us know if we can assist further."

So, it looks like the ball is in Tor's court, I guess.

ctkriest - Once again, I;m stuck saying a lame sounding "thanks for the feedback"..but it really is appreciated. I've asked our tech peoples what can be done about this. No definitive answers yet but I know they are working on it. Hopefully I'll have better info in the first half of January.

Hi Irene - it looks like Amazon version of the cover is still wrong as well. Hope you can get it straightened out eventually.

On the plus side, the covers on vol 1 and 3 look great.

Hi DocJim,
We had a meeting about this yesterday. I don't no much about the technical end of the process but there are people attempting to get this straightened out. I'm told that we _should_ be able to get retailers to send the corrected versions once it is fixed. I was going to give our guys until early next week and then ask for an update.

The Kindles are no longer for sale. The Sony versions are priced several dollars HIGHER than the paperbacks. This is nuts.