Locusts on the Horizon is an eBook. However, you don’t need to purchase an eReader in order to read Locusts on the Horizon.
If you have a computer, tablet, or smartphone, you can download the Kindle software for your device for FREE from Amazon. You can also read it online through your web browser via the Kindle Cloud.
The link to Amazon’s FREE Kindle software is here:
CLICK HERE FOR FREE KINDLE E-READER SOFTWARE FROM AMAZON
With the eBook version, not only can we offer it to people at a very low price, and instantly, we can also update it and have Amazon then offer free updates to readers.
We do plan on eventually producing a printed paper version of the book, but it will be WAY more expensive than the $2.99 cost of the eBook version. Keep in mind that this book is over 244,000 words long, that is almost half the length of Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. However, unlike a novel, a non-fiction, informative book with graphics cannot be printed on the lower quality paper that novels often are. So, it will be significantly more expensive.
Just ordered the E-book, but want to download it as PDF to my computer. It doesn’t seem like I can do that with the Kindle Reader. What should I do to get a downloaded PDF file on my computer?
Thanks,
Tom
Thanks for buying the book. We hope you find it interesting and helpful.
‘Locusts on the Horizon’ is currently sold exclusively through Amazon and it isn’t available in PDF format, it’s available only in Amazon’s Kindle format. The Kindle format (AZW format), one of the most popular eBook formats in the world, is really the MOBI format (a modified form of HTML) with Amazon’s proprietary DRM (Digital Rights Management).
The Kindle reader is actually a pretty good eBook reader and quite useable. It’s also available on almost every platform, for free. The Kindle format, being based upon HTML, actually allows the Kindle reader software to work better displaying an eBook than PDF, and with fewer problems, especially on portable, handheld platforms.
We would rather have this in print. Who’s to say there is going to be power during a national or world event. We couldn’t fire up that Kindle then.
Keep in mind that a hard copy, print version of Locusts on the Horizon will be about the same size and thickness of a college chemistry or calculus textbook, and due to printing costs, WAY more expensive than the eBook version.
Right now, Locusts on the Horizon is still only available as an eBook. There are several reasons for this, and one of which is that it makes the book affordable to anyone and everyone. As an eBook, a book the size of ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ can be sold for a fraction of the price of what a printed version would cost. Being a Kindle eBook also allows us to dynamically update and revise the book, and then push out any updates or revisions for free to those who already have the book.
However, several people have asked us for a hard copy, and we are working towards making it happen.
Due to the sheer size of the book, 246,000 words on the latest revision (free update from Amazon coming for all past customers), it’s going to be considerably more expensive than the eBook version.
The logistics of putting together a printing of a hard copy book as large as this is significant.
For example: Laid out in MS Word with full size 8.5″x11″ pages, the current revision of ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ is 1,185 pages long. The Defense section alone, at 407 pages in 8.5″x11″ format, is larger than most survival and prepper books devoted just to guns, much larger if you adjust for formatting (most print books in this genre use a smaller page size than 8.5″x11″). If you adjust for formatting, the Defense section of ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ is larger than the 34 year old classic, ‘Survival Guns’ by Mel Tappan, and that is a thick book. ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ is almost half the length of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’, and ‘Atlas Shrugged’ didn’t have photos and illustrations, allowing it be mass produced in a less expensive style that what a hard copy of ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ needs to be.
So, for a rough idea of how big a printed version of ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ would be, take a look at a full sized, college level chemistry textbook. That is the size of what we are dealing with here. If anyone has priced a full sized, college level chemistry textbook lately, brace for sticker shock, and that is what were are trying to mitigate to make it as affordable as possible.
Like the eBook version of ‘Locusts on the Horizon’, we want to make it as inexpensive as possible. However, the cost of the actual printing will determine the price of the hard copy version of the book, and we are still shopping around for the best solution for that.
Check in on our Facebook page and/or our website from time to time. Any announcements for a hard copy of the book will be posted in both places first.
In the meantime, use the eBook version till a print version is ready. Everyone should also keep in mind that just because you are off grid doesn’t mean you have to be without any electrical power. We talk about that in the book. Two of the advantages of eBooks are the lower cost and infinitely lower weight. With a laptop, tablet, or portable eReader you can have access to a personal library, that if in print, would be far to heavy and large too even transport easily with a large truck. Books take up space and they are heavy, and for that reason in ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ we intentionally tried to keep the number of printed, hard copy book recommendations to a minimum of what was needed for a family’s preparations.
What about just publishing a printable format so we can print it for ourselves if we so choose? Which we would certainly do
We have a printed hard copy in the planning stages.
Is this book any good for people living in the UK? For example the gun info wouldn’t be relevant to us as we aren’t allowed any guns.
Most of the book would be of use to those living in the UK.
As for the gun section, while your legal use for firearms in regards to self-defense has been curtailed, a large focus of our firearms section is on air rifles for foraging and for shotguns as the universal everyman’s gun, the family survival gun. We also talk about using shotguns and keeping them running indefinitely, including making your own ammunition. The two easiest guns to get in the UK are air rifles and shotguns.
What is somewhat North American specific is a fair amount of the information on specific animals in the hunting section.