Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
Of the original manuscript, perhaps (and would that old file still be readable?). But the finished, edited, proofed, and published book?
Probably not. Book publishing didn't really start going digital until, what, the 1990s? So it's possible that a lot of his early work had to be scanned before it could be released digitally.
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Yup.
Even after tradpub "went digital" they didn't.
Their idea of archival copies were pdf files, one per edition. At most. That is why many paperbacks were reduced size replicas of the hardcover. Version control? Non-existent. Revision tracking? Feh! Keeping editable versions exposed them to authors demandijg changes be walked back.
Besides, if it was good enough for Dickens...
As recently as 2011-12 publishers complained that doing ebook editions of the backlist was expensive because they had to recreate the file from print copies. Apparently, they deleted the pdfs after a few years. Or the floppies got corrupted.
(We've all seen the result of the typical backlist workflow: scanned, OCR'ed and shoveled out without proofing.)
What went digital in the 90's was typesetting, btw.