Why won't iBooks let me give it my money?
October 26, 2010 3:17 AM Subscribe
Why isn't Dan Simmons' The Fall of Hyperion available as an ebook?
Kindle and iBooks both have Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion for sale, but neither sells The Fall of Hyperion. In fact, I can't find it for sale anywhere!
I just finished the first book and loved it, and I'd love to read the second but no-one, it seems, will sell it to me. Emailing Amazon about a Kindle edition got me a useless stock response. Googling for "other" versions found me an unreadable OCR'd copy that I really don't want to stick my face into. I bought a second-hand paperback in the end (which sucks as large-ish books can get hard for me to hold for long periods), but I'm still curious: why is the second book in the series not available to download when the first, third and fourth are?
Kindle and iBooks both have Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion for sale, but neither sells The Fall of Hyperion. In fact, I can't find it for sale anywhere!
I just finished the first book and loved it, and I'd love to read the second but no-one, it seems, will sell it to me. Emailing Amazon about a Kindle edition got me a useless stock response. Googling for "other" versions found me an unreadable OCR'd copy that I really don't want to stick my face into. I bought a second-hand paperback in the end (which sucks as large-ish books can get hard for me to hold for long periods), but I'm still curious: why is the second book in the series not available to download when the first, third and fourth are?
cstross has a similar situation with his Merchant Princes series - a combination of tricky contracual details and files unsuitable for conversion to ebook formats. I'd imagine Fall of Hyperion might be stuck in the same publishing limbo?
posted by permafrost at 3:53 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by permafrost at 3:53 AM on October 26, 2010
When the Hyperion series was originally published, digital rights were not included as a matter of course. The publisher doesn't have the rights and it may not be clear who owns them. This happens all the time.
You can alert the publisher that you would like to pay them money for the book, and it might give them incentive to move this higher up on the list of books they're trying to secure digital rights for.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:00 AM on October 26, 2010
You can alert the publisher that you would like to pay them money for the book, and it might give them incentive to move this higher up on the list of books they're trying to secure digital rights for.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:00 AM on October 26, 2010
Aside: Do be aware that Endymion and especially The Fall of Endymion are widely reviled for their retconning. Among other things.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:08 AM on October 26, 2010
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:08 AM on October 26, 2010
Why not ask him?
He's pretty active in the forum on his site.
posted by disclaimer at 6:00 AM on October 26, 2010
He's pretty active in the forum on his site.
posted by disclaimer at 6:00 AM on October 26, 2010
Now this is weird, because I was just looking for these on iBooks about a month ago and couldn't find ANY of them. They had basically all of his stuff except all of the Hyperion/Endymion books.
Not trying to piggyback on your question, but maybe there's an ongoing contractual issue affecting what is and isn't offered?
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 8:27 AM on October 26, 2010
Not trying to piggyback on your question, but maybe there's an ongoing contractual issue affecting what is and isn't offered?
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 8:27 AM on October 26, 2010
Response by poster: I was just looking for these on iBooks about a month ago and couldn't find ANY of them.
The other three were all released on the same day to Kindle and iBooks, 5 August 2010.
Why not ask him?
I so will. I'm dumb and it didn't occur to me to check if he had a forum.
cstross has a similar situation with his Merchant Princes series
Fascinating link, thank you!
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 9:30 AM on October 26, 2010
The other three were all released on the same day to Kindle and iBooks, 5 August 2010.
Why not ask him?
I so will. I'm dumb and it didn't occur to me to check if he had a forum.
cstross has a similar situation with his Merchant Princes series
Fascinating link, thank you!
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 9:30 AM on October 26, 2010
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posted by DarlingBri at 3:50 AM on October 26, 2010