This is a page for The Thirteenth Hour Digital Download Package. You are probably here because you bought a dropcard at a local venue or on eBay and are now wondering what to do with it. This page will get you started.
First off, dropcards are a way to get around the issue that goes with buying virtual goods like ebooks and digital music – you just plopped down some cash but have nothing you can actually hold in your hands. Dropcards get around this somewhat by letting you at least have a laminated gift card that has an access code you can use to get your digital goods online. It’s like a key to the kingdom (although that makes it sound rather grandiose). Passcode to your phone is probably more like it.
In any event, here is what your digital download package contains:
-The Thirteenth Hour, 3rd edition ebook in three formats (.pdf, .mobi, and .epub)
-The original theme in .mp3 format
-The trailer in .wmv format
–“I’ll Fly Away” – an original song in .mp3 and music video in .wmv
-NEW: “Searching for Forever” – The Thirteenth Hour ending theme music (both vocal and instrumental versions included in .mp3)
[Listen to the whole Thirteenth Hour soundtrack free on Bandcamp]
There should also be a readme.txt file that will go over some of these instructions as well and has a link to this page.
The music and videos are pretty self explanatory – they should play on most computers and devices. If you wish to convert them to another format, feel free to do so. If you need a freeware video converter, I find Any Video Converter works pretty well, though there are many good options.
The ebook can be read on your computer, tablet, or mobile devices, which is why I included a range of formats. There is the standard .pdf format, which can be read on Adobe Acrobat and is how the book was originally laid out.
I have also included .mobi and .epub files for the Kindle and Nook (and many other ereaders), respectively. Every attempt was made when converting to these formats to retain the original formatting, but layout depends a lot on your device and the size of the screen. If you find the formatting is weird, you can try another device if you have one, converting the file to another format (the freeware Calibre ebook management software works well), or reading the .pdf. The main advantage of the previous formats is that it allows for more flexibility (changing text size, background color, etc), though that sometimes comes at the expense of layout. Unfortunately, the world hasn’t settled on a standard ebook format yet, so until that happens (if that happens), we all have to fiddle around with these different formats.
The process of adding ebooks to a proprietary device like a Kindle or Nook is called sideloading. It’s more complicated than what you’d do if you just bought the book directly from Amazon or Barnes and Nobles but is handy to know how to do. Here are instructions on how to do it:
How to sideload a .mobi file onto a Kindle
How to sideload an .epub file onto a Nook
If you don’t have a stand alone ereader but instead use your tablet or phone, both the Nook and Kindle apps are free. Here are the links:
Kindle owners also have the option of emailing files to their ereaders. Learn how here.
My favorite way to get ebook files onto these apps is to add them to a cloud storage service like dropbox (also free and can be sideloaded onto a Kindle). Once you have uploaded the file to dropbox, you can, from dropbox, have your device open the file in either the Nook or Kindle apps and then download them to your devices so you can read them when there is no signal or wifi available.
If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below or email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com. Thanks!
The Thirteenth Hour 