Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
You appear to be implying that work done in producing a nice edition of a public domain book is completely without value. Those of us who have spend many hundreds - probably thousands - of hours creating books which we're uploaded to this site might beg to differ  . |
No, Harry, I am not implying that, or inferring that, or even saying that. What I am saying is, why would anyone write in an article that reading on an iPhone is a great thing because they can get public domain books for 99 cents .... when people (thanks to the volunteers here and at Gutenberg and other sites) can get public domain books for FREE for their ebook readers??
I could see it being a big deal if they had the current best sellers on Apple for 99 cents. Now that would be a deal compared to Amazon's $9.99. Even purchased at Amazon (as you have noted) public domain books are available for as low as 25 cents. So, again, why would it be a "deal" to get them for 99 cents from Apple??
Certainly I think there is value in the work that volunteers do. I am amazed that you all are able to do as many books as you do. But, if you expect monetary recognition for your work, then you should not be doing it as a volunteer.
I'm sure Apple will make a nice profit off of 99 cent public domain books ... from those people who read an article like that and think that 99 cents for a book they could get for free elsewhere is a "deal." Me .... not so much.