Info about our e-books
SOURCE TEXTS
Vance Digital Edition e-books are created from latest digital versions of the Vance Integral Edition texts. The few minor errors and open textual issues remaining after production of the Vance Integral Edition are resolved in these e-books by members of the original VIE team.
The VDE brings you the finest Vance texts available.
FORMATTING
Most e-books are created either by importing a Word document into an e-book creation tool like Sigil, or by automatically converting a document to a variety of e-book formats by one or another online conversion tool. Without a lot of manual tweaking these e-books suffer from generally poor and inconsistent formatting. Spatterlight Press does not accept these compromises. We insist our e-books should match the quality and attention to detail which Jack Vance put into his own work. For this reason we spent the better part of a year defining and optimizing macros and a House Style which would yield the highest quality e-books possible. Starting with almost plain text, our macros first create the generic formatting (book title, chapters, default paragraph text, italics, small caps etc.). Non-standard formatting- of which there is a great deal- is then applied manually according to our House Style. The result is reviewed and polished until each page is perfect.
FORMATTING SERVICE
Spatterlight Press can produce e-books for you- contact support@jackvance.com to discuss your project.
COMPATIBILITY - MOBIPOCKET AND EPUB
All Vance Digital Edition e-books are available in both Mobipocket/Kindle and EPUB formats. The Mobipocket format is for the Kindle, PDAs (Palm, Psion), Smartphones (Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, webOS), other dedicated e-readers (Cybook, iLiad, Hanlin, BeBook) and PC. Books in EPUB format can be read on a variety of devices including but not limited to Apple (iBooks on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch), Smartphones (Android, Windows Phone), Sony Reader, B&N Nook, Cybook, BeBook, Hanlin, Unix tablets etc.
EPUB became an official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in September 2007, superseding the older Open E-book standard (on which the Mobipocket/Kindle format is based). Most modern e-readers support the EPUB format. Even though EPUB offers more flexibility in e-book formatting, the Mobipocket format is still widely used (mostly due to the success of the Kindle) and for this reason we offer all Vance Digital Edition e-books in both the Mobipocket/Kindle and the EPUB format.
NO DRM
Digital Rights Management refers to schemes in which an e0book is copy-protected, or limited to reading on only certain devices.
Spatterlight Press editions are DRM-free. We do not believe the problem of piracy will be cured by limiting the ability of our customers to enjoy Jack Vance's work in the way they see fit; rather, we offer an inexpensive, high quality product- and rely upon the integrity of the great majority of our customers. Our e-books may be read on any device, however, whenever, wherever.
We ask those tempted to distribute our e-books illegally to consider the following. The stories were written by Jack Vance with pride and hard work. They were restored, digitized and formatted with the effort and goodwill of hundreds of volunteers in the VIE and VDE. The work represented in each e-ook is tremendous compared to the price.
Please show respect for Jack Vance, and don't distribute his property!
INSTALLATION
Click here for instructions how to transfer the titles from your library to your device.
VIE: VANCE INTEGRAL EDITION
The Vance Integral Edition was conceived by Paul Rhoads to restore, preserve and promote the work of Jack Vance. The VIE filled 44 hardback volumes, and a special 45th volume of three novels written by Vance for Ellery Queen. The not-for-profit effort spanned years 1999 to 2006.
Paul Rhoads illustrated the books and led the project through many thousands of hours of work volunteered by over 300 people working worldwide via the internet. 650 44-volume sets were printed, in Reader's and leatherbound Deluxe editions. A donation by Paul Allen put the VIE in dozens of university libraries.
The VIE was produced under the aegis of the author. The texts and titles follow his preferences. Further information on this unprecedented, unequalled effort can be found at Foreverness.
VDE: VANCE DIGITAL EDITION
Vance Digital Edition e-books contain the latest digital versions of the Vance Integral Edition texts, formatted to the very highest standards.
These e-books are not facsimiles of VIE volumes. A specific e-book version of the VIE is regarded as a potential future project for the team.
The VDE began in April 2011 as a collaboration between Arjen Broeze and John Vance. The all-volunteer team grew quickly to include Christopher Wood, Menno van der Leden, Koen Vyverman, Gregory Hansen and Evert Jan de Groot.
The VDE and jackvance.com website would not exist without the skills, enthusiasm and dedication of these individuals.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Both the VDE and the VIE project gratefully acknowledge the editorial guidance of Norma Vance, as well as the cooperation of the Department of Special Collections at Boston University, whose John Holbrook Vance collection has been an important source of textual evidence. Special thanks to R.C. Lacovara, Patrick Dusoulier, Koen Vyverman, Paul Rhoads, Chuck King, Gregory Hansen, Suan Yong and Josh Geller for their invaluable assistance preparing final versions of the source files.