So I signed up for NetGalley after doing two reviews using L’s account. I didn’t have to much in the way of hope at first since I didn’t really have a record of reviewing but I thought…what the hell.

I got my first acceptance from MacMillan/Tor: The Origin of Storms by Elizabeth Bear— which was unfortunately a book I already had done a review for. Not wanting to shoot myself in the foot by submitting the same review twice I did another one. Read it here.

Then I got another book, and another (look for new reviews soon). Which brings me to this post.

PDF Galleys

One of the books I was given was Guy Gavriel Kay’s upcoming new book All the Seas of the World published by Penguin Random House Canada. Unfortunately it was a drm’ed pdf. “Unfortunately” because not only did I not want to read a pdf, and not only did I not want to authorize my ereader for drm, it turned out it was the pdf of the hardcover pages which meant it was meant to be read at 6 x 9 and the type was super tiny on all of my devices — and I actually couldn’t read it without glasses which was a non-starter for me.

But I didn’t want to fail on one of my first acceptances—I am not sure how harshly the publishers judge these things. I tried a bunch of different things including trying to convert it to an epub but the drm stymied me. For some reason the de-drm scripts I was using just wouldn’t work on this pdf file even though the documentation implied that it would.

Getting creative

I put it aside. Then I came back to it, tried a bunch of different software to try and embiggen the type and again failed miserably. At this point I was starting to feel threatened by the “machine” and my stubborn kicked in.

A google search found reference to Adobe changing their DRM in relation to pdfs between ADE 2 and 3 (Adobe Digital Editions) with no recourse except to downgrade. I was running ADE 4.1 by this time so I decided to install an old version of ADE (care of the handy Internet Archive link) on my old Mac Mini 2011. This along with an old Version of Calibre and older De-drm script resulted in a functioning, albeit slow, install that finally was able to strip the drm from the pdf.

A bad, bad epub

Next step: Calibre’s handy convert to epub feature gave me a functioning, yet butt-ugly epub.

So I used eCanCrusher to unpack the epub and started to make a new one. Using Standard ebooks tool suite I made a new container and started to copy the text into the new publication, cleaning it up as I went.

The text was pretty messy since the epub convertor can’t differentiate styles, chapter breaks etc. But I’ve been doing this sort of clean up a lot so it took less than an hour to go from pdf to 90% clean ebook. The last 10% will take a close proofread which is what I wanted it for in the first place. Ta-da…take that technology!

Who owns what?

Now I had been making the assumption that as Galleys these books were essentially electronic ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) which are what publisher’s produce in advance of the publication date to give out to reviewers. It is understood that you aren’t to sell or give away these copies but they make a neat addition to you library…I have a bunch of paper ones from past projects.

But I noticed in ADE that, like a traditional library loan, these books had status dates on them. Does that mean my review copy expires? Boo…Hiss!

I guess I will have to wait the 53 days in order to find out, but if so this is just another way that I think the whole ebook publishing market is one big scam. What’s even more ironic is that the Gladstone book (up next after Kay) is published by Tor who eschews DRM altogether. So if I buy a book from them it won’t have drm—but seemingly these galleys do and it will expire like any other library book. I am not sure the value exchange is fair here…I get to read a book a month or two earlier in exchange for my review and personal promotion, but I don’t actually get to reread the book in the future unless I buy it (or take it out from a library). Sheesh…talk about chintzy…

I mean I get that digital materials are way too easy to pass around but how about a little faith? Of course I guess after all that work I can hang on to my newly converted epub, but that just seems like cheating.

Addendum

I checked the NetGalley site and apparently the books do indeed expire after 55 days with the option for another 55 day renewal, up until the archive date—which is when the publishers pull them from the site. Except for Kindles:

*If you have used the Kindle option to send a copy of the file to your Kindle, that file will not expire, and will continue to be available to you.

Which is a total crock given how proprietary Amazon is. Maybe I will trying the Kindle app instead so I get to keep ’em. Of course that is like jumping from the frying pan to the fire…

Addendum Part 2

A bit more investigating yielded this:

How It Works

To put a book on NetGalley, authors will first need to complete a contract and submit a payment form. Most authors will likely select from one of the following pricing options: the basic six-month listing option, which is priced at $399, and the Marketing-Plus-Title listing, priced at $599, which includes placement in the NetGalley Newsletter. Indie authors who are members of the Independent Book Publishers Association can take advantage of the organization’s relationship with NetGalley. Through the IBPA partnership, indie authors can list their books at discounted prices ($349 for a standard six-month listing; $499 for a package enhanced by marketing features). In addition, IBPA will do most of the work involved in adding books to NetGalley and processing requests.
—publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/68517-the-savvy-self-publisher-s-guide-to-netgalley.html

Ahh, the world we live in, where everything is for sale. Another “review” site apparently charges $2/review but that’s ok because the money doesn’t go to the reader…it goes to the company. Right. That makes it ok. Not. So the self-publisher is getting screwed, the reviewer is getting screwed, and the big 5 (or is it 4 now?) reap the benefits of increased sales and exposure at a pretty minimal per/unit cost.

TANSTAAFL.