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Old 08-02-2013, 03:01 AM   #20
Pulpmeister
Wizard
Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Pulpmeister ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 2,842
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Perth Western Australia
Device: kindle
In fact, looking through the available pre-1923 literature, a vast quantity of non-classics exist today, simply because they still have a considerable fan base.

Classics esteemed by the literary elite may not be esteemed by the public at large, and often are not, but a vast body of literature despised by the literary elite is alive and very well indeed in the digital world. I'll give three examples: William Hope Hodgson. Edgar Wallace. E Phillips Oppenheim.

It will eventually become apparent to all, possibly even the literary elite, that litfic is just another genre. Ultimately, it is sustained popularity with a wide public over the long haul which establishes whether any given work of literature is a "classic".

So a lot of the books which seem to have faded into "out-of-print" status and caused the big hole in the graph, could well come back as digital books (even if only as pirate digital books) simply because there is a demand for them not being met by publishers. It would be sad if it takes a thriving digital black market to goose legitimate publishers into action, rather than their own initiatives.

Quite a lot of the trouble, discussed here often, is that trying to coax digital rights out of copyright owners, or even finding copyright owners/heirs, can be a lot of work and expense, maybe not justifying itself.
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