To
receive notice of e-book publications and free fiction, subscribe to Dusk
Peterson's e-mail list or
blog.
Updated November 2012.
Sections below:
¶ Which e-bookstores and countries are your e-books available in?
¶ Do your e-books have Digital Rights Management (DRM)?
¶ Which accessible formats are available for the disabled?
¶ Do I have to read the rest of the series to understand a story that occurs in the middle of it?
¶ May I make fan works? May I make derivative works? May I share your e-books with other people?
Which
e-bookstores and countries are your e-books available in?PREFERRED E-BOOKSTORES
These e-bookstores offers Dusk Peterson the best cut of the profits.
Gumroad (international). DRM-free e-books: HTML and PDF.
Smashwords
(international). DRM-free multiformat e-books: Mobipocket/Kindle, ePub,
PDF, RTF, LRF, Palm Doc, and plain text. (The plain text edition has some
formatting quirks.) Smashwords e-books can also be downloaded via these
iPhone/iPad apps: Tomes and Stanza.
OTHER E-BOOKSTORES
Amazon Kindle (Deutschland). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Amazon Kindle (Espagne). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Amazon Kindle (France). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Amazon Kindle (Italia). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Amazon Kindle (Nippon). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Amazon Kindle (UK). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Amazon Kindle (US). DRM-free Kindle e-books.
Angus & Roberson (Australia). ePub e-books.
Apple iBooks (various countries). ePub e-books.
Barnes & Noble (US). ePub e-books. DRM-free from November 2012 onwards.
Borders (Australia). ePub e-books.
Diesel (US). ePub e-books.
Indigo/Chapters (Canada). ePub e-books.
Kobo (international). ePub e-books.
Sony (US). ePub e-books.
WH Smith (UK). ePub e-books.
Whitcoulls (New
Zealand). ePub e-books.
METHOD #1: Read on the Web
Read the ePub e-book online through the free Bookworm online e-reader.
METHOD #2: Read through Firefox
Read the ePub e-book in your Firefox Web browser, either online or offline, through the free Firefox add-on EPUBReader.
METHOD #3: Unzip the HTML files
An ePub e-book is simply a zipped set of HTML files, with a few extra files added. If you have an upzipping program, you can unzip the ePub e-book in order to read the HTML files directly.
In Windows, the easy way to do this is to change the end of the file name from .epub to .zip. After that, click on the file name, and any unzipping software you have on your computer will begin the process of unzipping. Then extract all the files into a new folder. (See also How do I unzip an e-book?)
Alternatively, right-click on the ePub file, choose "Open with," and choose your unzipping program. Then extract all the files into a new folder.
METHOD #4: Convert to other formats
The free e-reader Calibre will convert the ePub e-book into many formats. Some of these conversions may work better than the others.
The free e-reader Stanza (which is in a desktop version for PC or Mac) will convert the ePub e-book into these formats. Some of these conversions may work better than the others.
METHOD #5: Read on your mobile device or e-reader device
Many mobile devices and e-reader devices will read ePub e-books – for example, you can read ePub e-books on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad through the free iBooks app or through the free Stanza app.
METHOD #6: Read on your computer
Some free
e-reader software for Windows, Mac, and Linux will read ePub e-books.
A zipped file is simply a way of compressing a group of files so that they can be downloaded more quickly. In order to open a zipped e-book, first download the zipped file to your hard drive. Go to the directory to which you downloaded the file. (In Windows, you can do this through My Computer or Windows Explorer.) Most recently manufactured computers will automatically unzip a zipped file if you double-click on the file name. If that doesn't work, you can try these unzipping programs.
Free: 7-Zip (Windows) or Unarchiver (Mac).
Popular: WinZip (Windows) or Stuffit (Mac).
How to open a zipped file in Windows without an unzipping program.
When you double-click on the zipped file, the unzipping program may automatically extract all of the files into a folder. If the unzipping program instead shows you a list of files, then select all of the files that the unzipping program shows. (You can select all the files by typing Control-A in Windows.) Extract the files into an empty folder.
In order to start reading the e-book, click on the HTML file. The image
files will automatically show up as part of the HTML file.
DAISY – The DAISY edition is available free from Bookshare.org. You do not need to be a member of Bookshare.org to download the edition, since it is covered under a Creative Commons license.
Electronic braille – Also called Web-braille. The electronic braille edition is available free from Bookshare.org. You do not need to be a member of Bookshare.org to download the edition, since it is covered under a Creative Commons license. The edition is in Grade 2 North American English braille (also called contracted braille).
Embossed braille – The embossed braille edition is available for a fee that covers the cost of embossing. You do not need to be a member of Bookshare.org to purchase this edition. The embossed braille edition is in Grade 2 North American English braille (also called contracted braille). More information from Bookshare.org about how to order embossed braille editions.
Currently, the following e-book is available in braille and DAISY:
For adults and teenagers: Bard of Pain (free braille and DAISY editions).
The text of the accessible edition is identical to the e-book edition released to the general public, aside from minor formatting changes and information on accessibility. Note that online editions are also accessible to the disabled, as are the ePub e-books. Booktrailer videos for the books are accessible to the deaf, but not to the blind, since they feature captions rather than spoken narratives.
Accessible editions, online editions, and e-book editions are entirely flush left; that is, the texts, including the titles, start on the left-hand side of the page. In addition, centered markers showing scene breaks are presented in a form that can be read aloud by screen readers. In the accessible editions, the scene-break markers take the following form:
o--o--o
In the online editions and e-book editions, the scene-break markers take the following form:
o—o—o
If you have problems downloading or reading any of the formats, please
e-mail
Dusk Peterson.
Most of the stories in series are designed so that you don't need to have knowledge of what came before; any information you need is included within the story itself.
In a very few cases, a summary of previous events will be included at the beginning of the story. This is written in as entertaining a manner as possible, to prevent you from falling asleep during the summary.
A lot of these stories were written out of order, so there's no harm
in you reading them out of order. However, you should be aware that later
stories in a series often contain major spoilers for earlier stories.
Authors Against DRM graphic by Nina Paley, courtesy of readersbillofrights.info. License: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike.
This
text, or a variation on it, was originally published at duskpeterson.com.
Copyright © 2007-2012 Dusk Peterson. Some rights reserved. The text
is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0).
You may freely print, post, e-mail, share, or otherwise distribute the
text for noncommercial purposes, provided that you include this paragraph.
The author's policies on
derivative works and fan works are available online (duskpeterson.com/copyright.htm).