Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
I was just checking out some of the items that people have uploaded into the forum's "library" and I note that people are putting some effort into correctly formatting and representing books for the use of others.
I find it interesting to see things play in reverse these days; that the output from publishers seems to fall flat compared to the output of individuals who produce in their spare time for no fee.
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The people uploading here are scratching a personal itch. They want copy that is properly formatted and reads well on their device, and take pains to create books that will work on the device they create for.
There is also the problem that a lot of the public domain texts used as starting points are in poor shape. Early Project Gutenberg files, for example, dating from before Distributed Proofreaders became their feed, often leave a lot to be desired. For example, at this point I suspect MR contributor HarryT's ebook versions of Dickens are the best available, because he has been painstakingly proofing his electronic versions against good print releases and correcting as he goes.
Doing it properly is time consuming
work. Publishers are increasingly not doing it to cut costs and save money.
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Dennis