MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Atlantic monthly: why few 20th century books are available as ebooks

SteveEisenberg · 03-19-2014, 08:38 PM

The legal factor mentioned in the OP article is big when the author is hard to locate or deceased. But I think the OP article underestimates the work involved in proofreading a scanned book.

Here's a bestselling no-eBook-available 1994 book with a living, New York City-residing, author who still has (allowing for mergers) the same publisher today:

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-R...s=robert+moses

Author Robert Caro's newer books are eBooks, but his first is not. While there could be some complicated explanation in this case, I think the most likely reason for much I want to read being paper-only is that correcting misscans is expensive.

03-19-2014, 08:38 PM	#2
SteveEisenberg Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,423 Karma: 43514536 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: near Philadelphia USA Device: Kindle Kids Edition, Fire HD 10 (11th generation)	The legal factor mentioned in the OP article is big when the author is hard to locate or deceased. But I think the OP article underestimates the work involved in proofreading a scanned book. Here's a bestselling no-eBook-available 1994 book with a living, New York City-residing, author who still has (allowing for mergers) the same publisher today: http://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-R...s=robert+moses Author Robert Caro's newer books are eBooks, but his first is not. While there could be some complicated explanation in this case, I think the most likely reason for much I want to read being paper-only is that correcting misscans is expensive. Last edited by SteveEisenberg; 03-19-2014 at 08:40 PM.