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Publishers have used digital files for printing exclusively last 15-20 years but at the same time they often can't find a digital copy of their published paper books. It shows how irresponsible they were towards archiving. If properly implemented, overhead costs of backup storing would be minimal and considerably lower than repeated OCR and proofreading. It is a perfect textbook example of a business failure due to considering only short term goals.
That said, even converting digital files to properly formatted ebooks is not that simple and takes a lot of time. Most pirated versions are in pdf format, not epub or mobi. I have heard some local publishers complaining that switching to ebook platform requires substantial investment which they don't have. I wonder, why they have difficulties attracting investors and raising necessary funds? Maybe potential investors having survived countless dot com failures are now cautious with yet another e-bubble. Or maybe they think that this business model is no longer profitable and have decided to put money in other enterprises like Amazon, Apple, Google etc.
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