CONVERTING PRINTED BOOK TO E-BOOK

[judahis]

A few months ago, I saw posted here information about a company (originally from Hong Kong, I think), which would take a book a customer sent and then convert it to PDF ebook (with the proviso that the book be destroyed). I am looking for a company that will do that but transform into a Word ebook (
that is, a .doc or .rtf file). Anyone out there have a list of reputable companies doing this?

[Todd Young]

This is from the Smashwords site updates:

November 29, 2010 - On August 2, posted below about a low-cost book scanning service called Blue Leaf Book Scanning, which, for about $25, would scan your out of print print book and return it to you as a Word file. Today, one Smashwords author reports Blue Leaf is not replying to emails. I clicked to their website and it redirects to a parked page. Update: Their web site is back in business. Good news for authors who want to bring their out of print, reverted-rights books back to life as ebooks.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by judahis

A few months ago, I saw posted here information about a company (originally from Hong Kong, I think), which would take a book a customer sent and then convert it to PDF ebook (with the proviso that the book be destroyed). I am looking for a company that will do that but transform into a Word ebook (
that is, a .doc or .rtf file). Anyone out there have a list of reputable companies doing this?

The problem with doing this is the inherent errors that are introduced in the OCR process. Even with very clear originals, a high-end scanner and smart OCR software, you can expect several errors per page.

To get an accurate reproduction of the original text, you'll need to compare the finished file with the original line-by-line, word-by-word, character-by-character. It is time consuming and tedious.

Then you have to do it again to fix the stuff you missed on the first pass.

And I haven't even touched on the formatting issues.

But you asked about a reputable company. Here's one:
http://www.pgdp.net/

They convert public domain books to ebook format for eventual publication on Project Gutenberg. They use volunteers (such as myself) to do the proof-reading. You can help too!

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

But you asked about a reputable company. Here's one:
http://www.pgdp.net/

They convert public domain books to ebook format for eventual publication on Project Gutenberg. They use volunteers (such as myself) to do the proof-reading. You can help too!

I should point out, that pgdp will do still under copyright works with a permissions grant. If you aren't worried about commercially exploiting the work, it's an option.

Greg Weeks