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Originally Posted by Kumabjorn
While that is true, I still believe that an author will keep a copy of the manuscript as it is made up for publishing, it could be in Word or PDF, but I sincerely doubt he or she would erase it from the computer. It has taken too long to produce and there might be future editions forthcoming.
I can actually say for sure that writers like Vince Flynn and Brad Thor does this, because in newer books there are direct quotes from earlier works, sometimes a passage or two. It was so easy to check thanks to reading it as e-books.
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You are leaving out the process that the book goes through after the manuscript leaves the author's hands. First, the manuscript is edited, probably in Word format. The author will probably get that version back. Then the manuscript is copy-edited, probably in Word format. The author may or may not get that version back. Then the book is laid out, probably in InDesign format. The author does not get that version, it is property of the publisher. Then that version is proofread, and the corrections are made in InDesign. Again, the author doesn't get that. THEN a PDF is created and sent to the printer (or else the original InDesign files are sent to the printer). So the author does not have the final, print version of the text.
If the author wishes to get large passages from previous books to put in new books, he or she could simply ask the publisher to put them in, if it's the same publisher. Or for short passages, it probably doesn't make much difference which version is used.
eP