[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by jabberwock_11

Not a bad idea, sort of on demand ebook publishing...no matter how you look at it publishers finding some way of putting at least some of their back catalogue of books into ebook format is a win-win situation.

I think most publishers are just so focused on combating the rise of a new market force that they are short sighting themselves out of the running. All of us here are huge readers and that is due, at least in part, to how easy ebook readers make it to access and acquire new and interesting books. Publishers do themselves a disservice by not allowing greater access. I am sure a part of it has to do with the current rights to publish books in "electronic and other formats" a lot of the back catalogue is probably not accessible without changes to or redrawings of currently held copyrights, but isn't it worth it to at least look at some of those older books to see what can be done with minimal effort?

I agree that not releasing ebook versions of wanted books works to the disadvantage to both the authors and the publishers. Simply put, an out-of-print book that is not released in any form earns no money for anyone.

As far as holding back the ebook market, I think it is very unlikely. One factor working against it: there are already a massive number of ebook-capable devices currently in use (besides dedicated ebook readers, there are PDAs, computers, and some cell phones).

What I think is likely to happen is that as ebooks become more common, many readers will gravitate to ebook versions of books. If a particular book that the reader wants is not available as an ebook, he/she might just find another book that is available as an ebook.