They don't have the Traders War up as an ebook yet.
]]>(I'm waiting to hear if this is something my editor knows about: if not, I can pass it on up the chain and hopefully get some arses kicked.)
]]>ISBN : 9780230771734
They are using Adobe Digital Editions for DRM, all your books listed on the site are showing as having DRM that's the only one I was pretty sure shouldn't. (Did the DRM removal apply retroactively to older books?)
My original email :
Are there any plans for you to sell TOR books without DRM on them?
Their reply :
Dear Simon,
Thank you for your email.
At present the majority of eBooks we sell have a DRM or Digital Rights Management scheme applied to them. This is not something that we have required but is something that publishers have chosen to use to protect the eBook from being shared or any publicity rights being broken.
We welcome any feedback on DRM from the customers and will happily pass it on to relevant publishers.
Thank you for your patience and please accept our apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience caused.
My reply to them :
I only asked because I was reading an interview with the head of TOR books in the UK saying that their move to not required DRM last year had gone well. I then went and checked the recent Charles Stross release The Bloodline Feud, published by Tor that has DRM on it.
Which prompted my email.
(And boy should I re-read emails before I send them)
]]>The DRM removal only applies to books from Tor. Orbit, a subsidiary of Hachette, insist on DRM on everything; so do Ace in the US.
The original editions of the first three merchant princes books that Tor UK published back in the day are effectively defunct -- if they're still in the catalog they really ought to be withdrawn. Back then, Tor was applying DRM; I can't see them taking the effort to remove it from dead titles.
So the only DRM-free books should be THE BLOODLINE FEUD and the next two in the series when they debut, plus THE RAPTURE OF THE NERDS.
If you can confirm that THE BLOODLINE FEUD has DRM, I will bring this to the attention of the folks at Tor.
]]>[[ Mod: link repaired ]]
]]>This is also a good source for UK sf.
]]>Civil service grades (and ex civil service like BT) already map to Milatery Rank and Bob and Mo (as M&P grades managerial and Professionals) have been officers for along time if not from day 1.
What they appear to be grooming Bob for is senior civil service which starts at the brigadier level.
And even the snarky civil servants like Bob and a dare say my self know roughly where they sit.
Though I have mates from BT who can cite chapter and verse on how many square yards of office space each grade should get and exactly which sort of wood there desk should be made of.
]]>Mass market/trade refer to distribution channels. Mass market still exists, but is ailing, in the United States; it's dead as a doornail in the UK (and has been so for 20 years). "Trade" simply means the books are distributed to bookstores like hardcovers -- shipped to the shop on credit from the wholesaler, to be paid for in full or returned within 90 or 120 days of shipping from the distribution hub.
Mass market and trade books traditionally come in different physical sizes because mass market books (the A-format small paperbacks) would have their covers ripped off and returned as proof of destruction, in lieu of payment for sale, as part of the credit terms. It would be kind of embarrassing to rip the covers off trade books (the bookstore would then be liable for the full purchase price) so they were printed in B-format or C-format sizes (bigger).
As there is no more mass market distribution channel, paperbacks are increasingly sold in larger form factors just because someone in Marketing thinks the punters will be happier to pay more for a physically bigger lump of dead tree.
The UK Merchant Princes omnibuses are C-format (i.e. maxi-sized trade) paperbacks. I don't expect them to be reprinted in A-format (mass market sized paperback) at any point.
]]>Tor UK have contacted Waterstones and asked them to remove the DRM from these titles. They are also investigating to see which other Tor titles are affected. We have no ETA for a fix yet -- that's in Waterstones' hands -- but the problem has been actively addressed.
]]>I'm interested, because I have the other/opposite problem - a supplier point-blank refusing to accept/abide by the "Sale of Goods Act" on faulty/non-working kit.
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