Cleared Out the pBooks!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Oh! Don't try it with old yellowed fragile paper. It tears up into the machine at every few pages. You have then to fish tiny bits out and wind up typing everything by hand; after having to puzzle out the page. It happened to me while trying an old Bob Morane. I too wish I could find those old copies in ebooks .

arg !!! those are precisely the ones i would want to scan, too. the ones that are good quality and in good condition i will either keep or give away. curses, foiled again !!

maybe i should look on the bright side : now i don't have to be frustrated that i don't know anyone with a scanner like that.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

arg !!! those are precisely the ones i would want to scan, too. the ones that are good quality and in good condition i will either keep or give away. curses, foiled again !!

maybe i should look on the bright side : now i don't have to be frustrated that i don't know anyone with a scanner like that.

You'd be better with an Opticbook scanner. I think the price of it could be worth it if you scan enough books. The books I plan to scan are worth a lot of money for collectors. Are the ones you have too? Then buying that scanner would be a temporary investment well worth it.

[DixieGal]

Wait a minute here. I watched Slayda scan my old ratty second-hand pulp book as a demonstration at our meetup. The book was crumbling, but his scanner ran it perfectly. This pulp was at least 30 yrs old, brown, rough, and thoroughly worn out. So find out what brand his scanner is.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

You'd be better with an Opticbook scanner. I think the price of it could be worth it if you scan enough books. The books I plan to scan are worth a lot of money for collectors. Are the ones you have too? Then buying that scanner would be a temporary investment well worth it.

no, probably not. they are worth a lot to me, because i love them and want to be able to keep reading them, but they aren't very rare books necessarily. and the editions i have as i said are nothing special in those cases. they are mainly old mystery novels (Léo Malet for instance) in cheap pulp editions which are falling apart, which haven't been released as ebooks but which aren't nice enough paper books to want to keep. but i will keep them, until i can replace them, and this is frustrating because it could be years, unless i do it myself, and... i don't really want to.

[DixieGal]

Have you emailed Fictionwise or Hadrien about getting them in ebooks? FW is digging up lots of oldies.

[yvanleterrible]

There might be copyright issues that Hadrien can't deal with?

[zelda_pinwheel]

FW probably can't help because these are french books, and Hadrien definitely can't help because they are not in the PD. you see my problem.

i think i would even repurchase them as ebooks to save myself the trouble of scanning them, much as that idea annoys me, but the french publishers are really dragging their feet with ebooks, and god only knows when (if ever) they will get around to digitising their back catalogue (these books are from the 30s-40s).

[yvanleterrible]

Thoe old Bob Morane that I paid 99cents in 1970 are worth from 3$ to 50$ but most in the 15$ range. Henri Vernes is still alive and writing. I think he does not want those books to exist in eform.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Léo Malet is dead, but only since 1996, so his books won't be in the PD for a loooong time (grrr.). i don't think they're specially worth much, but i love them.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

FW probably can't help because these are french books, and Hadrien definitely can't help because they are not in the PD. you see my problem.

i think i would even repurchase them as ebooks to save myself the trouble of scanning them, much as that idea annoys me, but the french publishers are really dragging their feet with ebooks, and god only knows when (if ever) they will get around to digitising their back catalogue (these books are from the 30s-40s).

Could you hire a kid in the family to do it?
I have nieces and nephews about twelve years old, too young to work. I'm thinking of asking them to do the work.

[zelda_pinwheel]

not really, the kids in my family live far away, and my friends kids are too young. besides which, i'm not going to invest in a scanner ; that is too much money.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i think i would even repurchase them as ebooks to save myself the trouble of scanning them, much as that idea annoys me, but the french publishers are really dragging their feet with ebooks, and god only knows when (if ever) they will get around to digitising their back catalogue (these books are from the 30s-40s).

Not only the French publishers... Those Dutch publishers are also horribly slow... There are so many Dutch books I'd love to have an ebook version of.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

not really, the kids in my family live far away, and my friends kids are too young. besides which, i'm not going to invest in a scanner ; that is too much money.

Hey! we're many people here.

Start a "Pester" thread. We put up letters in different languages and editor adresses. Get everyone to send them, snail or email.
(I know. That won't work!)

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Hey! we're many people here.

Start a "Pester" thread. We put up letters in different languages and editor adresses. Get everyone to send them, snail or email.
(I know. That won't work!)

it can't hurt ! i'm writing to the Robert Laffont publishers right now. they are the ones who publish the omnibus editions of Léo Malet's mysteries. i think the individual ones are out of print. a few are available used on amazon. look at the price for this one. and that is a cheap paperback edition, not even hardcover. maybe mine are worth more than i thought...

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Hey! we're many people here.

Start a "Pester" thread. We put up letters in different languages and editor adresses. Get everyone to send them, snail or email.
(I know. That won't work!)

in case you're interested, i wrote to les Éditions Robert Laffont using their contact form. i wrote to the service commerciale, maybe i should have chosen a different one...

here's my letter, feel free to take it as inspiration if you would like to write to them as well... there is also Robert Laffont Canada so it could be pertinent for you.

Madame,
Vous éditez les éditions omnibus des oeuvres de Léo Malet (Nouveaux Mystères de Paris, enquêtes de Nestor Burma...).

Ayant récemment fait l'acquisition d'une liseuse Sony pour lire des ebooks, j'ai cherché ces livres que j'adore, mais à ma grande tristesse ils ne sont apparemment pas disponibles en édition numérique.

Avez-vous l'intention de vous mettre bientôt à l'édition numérique, et notamment pour ces titres ? Je l'espère vraiment, car par manque de place je ne peux plus acheter de livre papier et désormais tous mes achats seront des ebooks, de préférence au format epub (nouveau format standard de l'industrie). D'ailleurs je compte même remplacer certains de mes livres papiers par des versions epub (notamment ceux qui sont en mauvais état, ou de qualité inférieure et donc inapte à l'archivage, et pour faire de la place dans mon appartement minuscule).

Je vous remercie d'avance de votre attention et de me tenir informée de vos projets en matière d'édition numérique, et vous prie d'accepter mes meilleures salutations.