Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   

   Held in Reno, Nevada USA, all members can vote, and all get access to the 2011 Hugo Voter Packet in DRM-free open eBook formats. just about a gigabyte, in fact.

   
   Buy a Membership
   Rates until July 17 2011
   Attending US$ 195
   Young Adult (17-21) US$ 100
   Child (0-16) US$ 75
   Supporting US$ 50

   The packet currently includes:
   [for conversion/reading I can suggest Calibre]

   Best Novel
   Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra) - PDF of parts 1 and 2
   Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) - RTF/PDF/EPUB
   The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr) - PDF/EPUB
   Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit) - PDF/EPUB
   The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) - PDF/EPUB

   -- Updated June 28th to include All Clear by Connie Willis.

   Best Novella
   “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2010)
   The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
   “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
   “The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s, September 2010)
   “Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club)

   * RTF/PDF/EPUB/MOBI formats

   Best Novelette
   “Eight Miles” by Sean McMullen (Analog, September 2010)
   “The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)
   “The Jaguar House, in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s, July 2010)
   “Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, December 2010)
   “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone (Analog, September 2010)

   * RTF/PDF/EPUB/MOBI formats

   Best Short Story
   “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010)
   “For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)
   “Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010)
   “The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)

   Note: category has 4 nominees due to a 5% requirement under 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

   * RTF/PDF/EPUB/MOBI formats

   Best Related Work
   Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001, by Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon) - PDF Excerpt
   The Business of Science Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing, by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg (McFarland) - DOC
   Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (Mad Norwegian) - PDF
   Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: (1907–1948): Learning Curve, by William H. Patterson, Jr. (Tor) - RTF/PDF Excerpt
   Writing Excuses, Season 4, by Brandon Sanderson, Jordan Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells - MP3

   Best Graphic Story
   Fables: Witches, written by Bill Willingham; illustrated by Mark Buckingham (Vertigo)
   Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
   Grandville Mon Amour, by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse)
   Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler; colors by Howard Tayler and Travis Walton (Hypernode)
   The Unwritten, Volume 2: Inside Man, written by Mike Carey; illustrated by Peter Gross (Vertigo)

   * PDF format

   Best Editor, Short Form
   John Joseph Adams
   Stanley Schmidt
   Jonathan Strahan
   Gordon Van Gelder
   Sheila Williams

   * Anthologies and Magazines in RTF/PDF/EPUB/MOBI formats

   Best Editor, Long Form
   Lou Anders
   Ginjer Buchanan
   Moshe Feder
   Liz Gorinsky
   Nick Mamatas
   Beth Meacham
   Juliet Ulman

   * List of works

   Best Professional Artist
   Daniel Dos Santos
   Bob Eggleton
   Stephan Martiniere
   John Picacio
   Shaun Tan

   * JPG format

   Best Semiprozine
   Clarkesworld, edited by Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, Sean Wallace; podcast directed by Kate Baker - EPUB/MOBI/PDF/MP3
   Interzone, edited by Andy Cox - PDF
   Lightspeed, edited by John Joseph Adams - RTF/EPUB/MOBI
   Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi and Kirsten Gong-Wong - PDF
   Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen H. Segal - PDF

   -- Updated June 28th to include a Clarkesworld podcast.

   Best Fanzine
   Banana Wings, edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer - PDF
   Challenger, edited by Guy H. Lillian III - PDF
   The Drink Tank, edited by Christopher J Garcia and James Bacon - PDF
   File 770, edited by Mike Glyer - PDF
   StarShipSofa, edited by Tony C. Smith - MP3

   Best Fan Writer
   James Bacon
   Claire Brialey
   Christopher J Garcia
   James Nicoll
   Steven H Silver

   * RTF/PDF format

   Best Fan Artist
   Brad W. Foster
   Randall Munroe
   Maurine Starkey
   Steve Stiles
   Taral Wayne

   * JPG format

   John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

   Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2009 or 2010, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).
   Saladin Ahmed
   Lauren Beukes
   Larry Correia
   Lev Grossman
   Dan Wells

   * RTF/PDF/EPUB/MOBI formats
   Note: All Campbell finalists are in their 2nd year of eligibility.

   -- Updated June 8th to add novels from Lev Grossman and Larry Correia.

   All written and graphical works are full-length or one or more complete issues unless otherwise noted. Please check back for updates and expansions throughout the voting period.

   Posted 12 years ago #
2. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Can someone pay for my air fare and hotel room :) I'd love to go to this. :)

   Posted 12 years ago #
3. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   As a personal note [I am *not* pushing (mostly) my personal preference for reading eBooks as HTML using Firefox and a light-gray-on-black color scheme using NoSquint to set easy-to-see text sizes, but it works well for me] about Calibre (which is free and useful, if a bit of a control freak IMHO- it *does* say it's a management utility, so no false flags...) and conversions: it does not convert directly to HTML.

   The closest is HTMLZ, which stands for HTML Zip, sort of like the CBZ Comic Book Zip format. And converting EPUB to HTMLZ is pretty simple- since Epub is HTML in one file anyway. Just unzip HTMLZ to a folder, double-click index.html and you're reading.

   There are lots of settings available for conversions. EPUB to HTMLZ you can ignore most and it still works out. Calibre itself can read many formats directly, so it makes taking the lazy way pretty simple too.

   these are the 'suggested readers' for the formats; Openoffice and Adobe Reader I consider clear cases of overkill at the least. OTOH, I still read on a 2005 single-core laptop with a mighty 40 gig hard drive, so a lighter PDF and RTF reader {choose to taste) can't be that difficult to find. Mobipocket has a decent reader if somewhat large, and there's always the Kindle for Windows app to try.

   * .rtf - OpenOffice
   * .pdf - Adobe Reader
   * .epub, .mobi, or .prc - Calibre

   FWIW, IMNSHO buying my wife a kindle 3 WiFi, a 'wallet' case [look on ebay, they hold credit cards, etc. and a USB charger for the car has been a *really* good decision. with Calibre for conversion plus the oodles of free books I have she hasn't been this happy reading in years.

   Posted 12 years ago #
4. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Thanks for the info Goodgotd

   Posted 12 years ago #
5. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   one positive thing you get by installing both the Mobipocket Desktop and the virtual Kindle is that combination allows you to read both the Amazon and Mobipocket DRM variants. if you're willing to pay for DRM.

   my previous post should have used 'non-DRM' or 'non-device-locked' in place of 'free'.

   Posted 12 years ago #
6. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Thanks. :)

   Posted 12 years ago #
7. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   no problem.

   http://www.mobipocket.com has reader software or links to it for PC [Mobipocket eBook Reader 6.2], PalmOs, Windows Mobile, SymbianOs, Blackberry, Cybook from Booken, iRex Digital Reader 1000 and iLiad from iRex Tech, Hanlin from Jinke, and the BeBook from Endless Ideas.

   Also the free Mobipocket Creator 4.2 Home Edition for putting together your own .mobi files. [used to be .prc, and you still run across them from time to time- it's smart to rename 'em to .mobi]

   Amazon.com

   [or if that doesn't work for you: http://www.amazon.com > Help > Digital Products > Kindle Support]

   has Kindle for Mac, Kindle for PC, Kindle for iPad/iPhone, Kindle for BlackBerry, Kindle for Android, and Kindle for Windows Phone.

   oy.

   Posted 12 years ago #
8. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   DRM-free I think it a rip off free or not, vote why ?

   Posted 12 years ago #
9. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   because it's the Hugo Awards! and the Campbell Awards! these packets are the nominees, and becoming a member lets you vote on what you think is best to win in each category!

   the authors get none of the fees- they are competing for the awards. paying to vote gives you a bit of incentive not to just post them somewhere- a matter of honor.

   now, for Baen's Webscriptions it's a horse of a far different color, but I think Eric Flint puts it far better than I, so head over to the Baen Free Library and read his introduction.

   and then consider that Webscriptions has been selling ebooks DRM-free for 12 years and *just* had to raise the subscription monthly fee to 18 bucks a month instead of 15.

   the price of single ebooks hasn't changed- [cheaper than many on amazon] so just as with paper books, loans and free copies haven't hurt profits- THEY'RE FREE ADVERTISING!

   they don't supply ebook readers, they supply ebooks in as many formats as the readers need. They give out promotional CD's of books and encourage copies, loans.etc. as long as no money is charged- and new publishers join in with them as time goes on.

   the CD's can be found at the BaenCD at the Fifth Imperium page, including label images.

   DRM is good for business my behind.

   Posted 12 years ago #
10. 

    Whiterabbit-uk
    Games Guru

    Thanks for the info Goodgotd. :)

    Posted 12 years ago #
11. 

    Anonymous
    Unregistered

    Thanks goodgotd that looks good all the best to you all

    Posted 12 years ago #

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