We have often been asked “why is there no Kindle edition of Practical Data Science with R on Amazon.com?” The short answer is: there is an edition you can read on your Kindle: but it is from the publisher Manning (not Amazon.com).

The long answer is: when Amazon.com supplies a Kindle edition readers have to deal with the following:

• Amazon.com digital right management locking the material to a single format and Amazon.com devices/readers.
• Careless mechanical re-formatting of the book material yielding either poor rendering or re-packaging of PDFs that you can only zoom and scan across (and not true re-flow of text).

Some readers don’t like this and (rightly) complain. Some of the best books in our field have the occasional 1-star review due to a throughly frustrated Amazon Kindle customer. As an author you wish reviews were faceted with completely separate and mandatory sub-scores for vendor experience, price, delivery, print-quality, ebook-rendering, relevance to particular reader, and finally book quality (instead of a single rating perceived as “book quality”). But from a buyer’s point of view: rating an item low that has given you a bad experience is completely legitimate (be it for print quality, or the utility of the eBook rendering).

Practical Data Science R does have an e-copy. For our book when we say e-copy we mean:

• An electronic copy available without any intrusive digital right management (beyond requiring registration for initial download and a watermark). These are maximally useful copies as you can search them, print them, and place them on arbitrary devices.
• Unlimited downloads and re-downloads of your copies.
• e-copy available in three formats: PDF, ePub, and Kindle. And you can download all three.
• e-copies are produced and inspected by the actual book editors during the production of the book (not a later mechanical transcription).

We offer readers more than one way to get an good e-copy. Though not all customers are aware of all the options.

• Each new standard copy (though not the international discount reprint) offers an access code that gives single-user rights to an e-copy. This is true for any new standard edition (be it sold by Manning, Amazon, or any other bookseller). Note: used copies may have already consumed codes and discount international editions do not include codes (so if somebody is re-selling you a book you will want to check if it includes an unused code).
• Manning itself sells e-copies where for a single discounted price you again get access to non-DRM “e-copy” editions (again giving you all of PDF, ePub, and Kindle). We know some readers do not want a physical book, and expect a discounted e-only option.
• Manning books are often available through Safari online, so you or your enterprise may already have some (restricted online) access through Safari.

In conclusion.
Manning reserved the right to be the only seller of e-only editions of Practical Data Science with R. For a full legitimate e-only copy you must go through them. Manning includes a free e-copy code in all new standard editions of the book. Wherever you buy a legitimate new copy of the standard edition you get the same e-rights as bonus. Used copies and discount international editions have their roles, but may not have a e-copy included (someone may have consumed the right on a used copy, and the discount international edition doesn’t include a code).

Obviously the customers and readers get to decide what is of value to them. This describes the options we were able to supply.

Related posts:

1. How does Practical Data Science with R stand out?
2. A bit of the agenda of Practical Data Science with R
3. Old tails: a crude power law fit on ebook sales