Free SciFi e-book: "The Onuissance Cells"

Colin Dunstan · 10-02-2005, 02:31 PM

Steve Jordan's The Onuissance Cells is set in the 21st century when Mankind finally grows out of the infant stages of the Industrial Revolution, and accepts its own responsibility to protect their common planet - a period which became konwn as the Onuissance. From Steve:

Quote:

Now I am making my novels available in e-book form. My desire is to entertain, to make a few bucks in the process, and to see what kind of interest I can generate that may gain the attention of a publisher or agent. Ao, after carefully taking the e-book market's measure, I have developed this site, and a marketing plan for selling e-books, that I hope will really take off. As an introduction to my work, I am offering The Onuissance Cells, an anthology of short stories, FREE! More books will be added soon, so please take a look, tell others, and come back often.

"The Onuissance Cells" is available in various formats including iSilo and Adobe PDF.

[via Pocket PC eBooks]

Chaos · 10-02-2005, 11:14 PM

One thing I'd like to encourage for people who publish e-books like this, is to publish them in something simple and standard, as well as these more complex formats...

HTML, RTF, or even just plain text is a good choice. While PDFs, and similar formats are good for e-books, in general, they're often hard to convert to anything else, like Plucker, or similar.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 01-14-2006, 03:17 PM

You're the first person I've heard suggest that you'd want e-books in HTML or RTF formats.

HTML files of books tend to be so big, that browsers can choke on them... especially mobile browsers. Of course, I have to generate an HTML file to do the conversion into some of the other e-book formats, so I could probably sell the HTML file as well as the other files I sell.

When you're using Plucker, what final format are you saving to?

weave · 01-14-2006, 06:16 PM

When it comes to e-books I am always more interested in text files, for myself. I know I am probably in the minority, but reading for me is mostly about text. THe reader I use for textfiles, Haali Reader, has options to reformat on the fly (prevents long line, short line - like Gutenberg texts sometimes do), and it can read zipped textfiles, which are smaller than Palm doc's compression. Haali Reader also reads Palm doc's, so everything is still good.

Also, somtimes I use my Game Boy to read text via Game Boy Advance Movie Player - and it only does text files (well, it'll do a few other things, but I mainly use it to read, and that's purely a textfile deal).

Looking forward to reading the book! Thanks to the author for offering it up and thanks for posting the heads up!

nerys · 03-19-2011, 09:17 PM

hah this is on my todo list to read! thanks for making it available.

one reason we like more "simplified" formats IE not pdf etc.. is that when the content is largely just text (and well formatted) the less complex the format the simply and more reliable the "coversion" to another format is.

SO for example I convert to mobi for my Kindle DX (in your case its already PDF already compatible) but if I get an HTML I convert that to mobi since the DX supports that.

html while large has the advantage of retaining formatting???

so including a well formatted text file WITH the pdf would be nice for those who can not or can not easily use the PDF as is.

PDF's are great on my DX they tend to suck on my PRS500 :-) screen's too small.

I know this thread is very old but its worth reminding people that convenience is also important and very much appreciated by us users.

Over · 03-20-2011, 07:02 AM

Did Steve Jordan correct the book's formatation? I remeber trying to read it a couple years ago, but it had horrible line and paragraph spacing, so that I had only 2-3 sentences per page. He said he would correct it, but for month he didn't do it and I stoped checking it out.

GeoffC · 03-20-2011, 10:21 AM

This a really OLD thread

Ravensknight · 03-20-2011, 12:04 PM

and yet the book is still free.

I just dl'd it. Of course, with 110 other books to read before it, I won't be getting to this til end of the year or early next

I just checked the formatting. I dl'd the RTF, it was HUGE at over 10megs, but when converted to epub through calibre was slimmed down to 0.6megs. Formatting looks good. The only problem is that at the top of each chapter there is the following:
Science Fiction

Right Brane e-Book

I'll probably just edit them all out with the latest calibre [I just upgraded to .7.50] and play around, but it looks good overall.

GeoffC · 03-20-2011, 12:06 PM

http://www.rightbrane.com/StevenLyleJordan/content.htm

only looked at the mobi format - but nothing wrong with it ....

snipenekkid · 03-20-2011, 10:03 PM

Steve's a fair-ta-middlin' typer.

Actually, I have really enjoyed all of the books I've read so far and I bought all of them a couple years back. I would also recommend Denial of Service. It's a lot of fun!! I like some humor and irony in my SF.

03-20-2011, 12:06 PM	#9
GeoffC Chocolate Grasshopper ... Posts: 27,599 Karma: 20821184 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW	http://www.rightbrane.com/StevenLyleJordan/content.htm only looked at the mobi format - but nothing wrong with it .... Last edited by GeoffC; 03-20-2011 at 12:09 PM.

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10-02-2005, 11:14 PM	#2
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	One thing I'd like to encourage for people who publish e-books like this, is to publish them in something simple and standard, as well as these more complex formats... HTML, RTF, or even just plain text is a good choice. While PDFs, and similar formats are good for e-books, in general, they're often hard to convert to anything else, like Plucker, or similar.

01-14-2006, 03:17 PM	#3
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	You're the first person I've heard suggest that you'd want e-books in HTML or RTF formats. HTML files of books tend to be so big, that browsers can choke on them... especially mobile browsers. Of course, I have to generate an HTML file to do the conversion into some of the other e-book formats, so I could probably sell the HTML file as well as the other files I sell. When you're using Plucker, what final format are you saving to?

01-14-2006, 06:16 PM	#4
weave Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Eastern USA Device: Toshiba e355 Pocket PC	When it comes to e-books I am always more interested in text files, for myself. I know I am probably in the minority, but reading for me is mostly about text. THe reader I use for textfiles, Haali Reader, has options to reformat on the fly (prevents long line, short line - like Gutenberg texts sometimes do), and it can read zipped textfiles, which are smaller than Palm doc's compression. Haali Reader also reads Palm doc's, so everything is still good. Also, somtimes I use my Game Boy to read text via Game Boy Advance Movie Player - and it only does text files (well, it'll do a few other things, but I mainly use it to read, and that's purely a textfile deal). Looking forward to reading the book! Thanks to the author for offering it up and thanks for posting the heads up!

03-19-2011, 09:17 PM	#5
nerys Addict Posts: 243 Karma: 48 Join Date: Dec 2006 Device: PRS 500 - REB 1200	hah this is on my todo list to read! thanks for making it available. one reason we like more "simplified" formats IE not pdf etc.. is that when the content is largely just text (and well formatted) the less complex the format the simply and more reliable the "coversion" to another format is. SO for example I convert to mobi for my Kindle DX (in your case its already PDF already compatible) but if I get an HTML I convert that to mobi since the DX supports that. html while large has the advantage of retaining formatting??? so including a well formatted text file WITH the pdf would be nice for those who can not or can not easily use the PDF as is. PDF's are great on my DX they tend to suck on my PRS500 :-) screen's too small. I know this thread is very old but its worth reminding people that convenience is also important and very much appreciated by us users.

03-20-2011, 07:02 AM	#6
Over Wizard Posts: 1,462 Karma: 6061516 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cascais, Portugal Device: Kindle PW, Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2", OnePlus 6	Did Steve Jordan correct the book's formatation? I remeber trying to read it a couple years ago, but it had horrible line and paragraph spacing, so that I had only 2-3 sentences per page. He said he would correct it, but for month he didn't do it and I stoped checking it out.

03-20-2011, 10:21 AM	#7
GeoffC Chocolate Grasshopper ... Posts: 27,599 Karma: 20821184 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW	This a really OLD thread

03-20-2011, 12:04 PM	#8
Ravensknight Serpent Rider Posts: 1,123 Karma: 10219804 Join Date: Jun 2009 Device: Sony 350; Nook STR; Oasis	and yet the book is still free. I just dl'd it. Of course, with 110 other books to read before it, I won't be getting to this til end of the year or early next I just checked the formatting. I dl'd the RTF, it was HUGE at over 10megs, but when converted to epub through calibre was slimmed down to 0.6megs. Formatting looks good. The only problem is that at the top of each chapter there is the following: Science Fiction Right Brane e-Book I'll probably just edit them all out with the latest calibre [I just upgraded to .7.50] and play around, but it looks good overall.

03-20-2011, 10:03 PM	#10
snipenekkid Banned Posts: 760 Karma: 51034 Join Date: Feb 2009	Steve's a fair-ta-middlin' typer. Actually, I have really enjoyed all of the books I've read so far and I bought all of them a couple years back. I would also recommend Denial of Service. It's a lot of fun!! I like some humor and irony in my SF.

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