Quote:
Originally Posted by John F
But the editing wouldn't be much work? You just need to OCR and compare the original (paper) to the new digital for OCR errors, and have them mark up things like chapters, bold, ... (I'm assuming this could be cheaply outsourced). Then you need to package it into an ebook (I'm guessing this would be a minimal effort). Sounds simple to me.  |
How much is your time worth? How many copies will you need to sell to cover that cost? (And will they sell quickly enough to cover it before you starve?)
Backlist books don't tend to get a big promotional boost on launch. They just sell in small numbers consistently. If it costs more than a little bit to produce them then it's just not commercially viable. It might be viable for a part-timer or hobbyist, or a crowd-sourcing pirate, but a regular publisher needs to keep the costs very low. Which is how we end up with the slightly shoddy stuff we often get given.
I am honestly in two minds about ventures like Gollancz's SF Gateway (which ought to be a perfect fit for Zelazny. I imagine they have at least tried. Gollancz do the SF Masterwork edition of Lord of Light, after all.) I've had some fairly poor books from them. Is it better to have a poor version of a book than to have no book at all?
I have considered the idea of setting up a crowd-editing website. A large number of people edit one page each, in exchange for, say, store credit. It might be possible to keep prices low, and generally improve the standard of OCRed books. I don't know.