Standard Ebooks
standardebooks.org
Standard Ebooks
1–10 of 158 posts
Re: Standard Ebooks
#2I would love if they offered a download option for a file you could just upload to Lulu (or similar service) to have it printed and mailed to you.
Every time I buy one of these public domain books from Amazon, they are invariably shitty, low-quality "printed by Amazon" versions. I miss the time where you could get a high-quality hardcover, but more and more those seem reserved only for the current week's NYT best-seller books.
Re: Standard Ebooks
#3A well run open source ebook project, producing the highest quality ebooks. Always looking for volunteers as well as donations.
Re: Standard Ebooks
#4This is really cool. I'm going to donate.
Re: Standard Ebooks
#5I published a couple of books for the project during a sabbatical in 2021 (The Devil's Dictionary [0] and a cheesy, small H. Beam Piper book named Four-Day Planet).
The process and tools are quite nice and it's very rewarding to see your work in ebook form. It takes a _long_ time to proof and re-read a book, but it's surprising how many times you can do this and how differently you need to read to catch errors versus just enjoying the damn book.
The fascinating part of the project is a _strong_ editorial opinion, which IMO makes the project successful. There is a core group of people that upholds the standards for the project, and the resulting consistency of quality of output derives from that. The team clearly cares about the quality, and has demonstrably maintained that over the huge number of releases.
I even went to the archives of the "San Francisco Newletter and California Advertiser" to collect some of Bierce's original work, making it the most complete, and most corrected open-source version of the book. [1] The one previously hosted by Project Gutenburg was quite old and, frankly, quite riddled with transcription errors.
I haven't tried reading the Devil's Dictionary back-to-back since I published it, but I might one day. There's a lot of detail in this work that I never saw until I had it under a microscope.
[0] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/ambrose-bierce/the-devils-...
[1] https://archive.org/details/san-francisco-newletter-dec-11-1...
Re: Standard Ebooks
#6I would love if they offered a download option for a file you could just upload to Lulu (or similar service) to have it printed and mailed to you. Every time I buy one of these public domain books from Amazon, they are invariably shitty, low-quality "printed by Amazon" versions. I miss the time where you could get a high-quality hardcover, but more and more those seem reserved only for the current week's NYT best-sel…
This could be a cool monetization strategy. I don't really read physical books, but the "classics" on Amazon are often complete ripoffs. Here's Crime and Punishment for $10 just to get the Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/Punishment-Penguin-Classics-Fyodor-Do...
I feel like these open domain novels published by big publishing houses have the veneer of legitimacy, but projects like the one this thread is about I think could accomplish much more. Especially for authors where the work is translated into English. Plus the cover designs are much cooler.
I will say, the search on their website is kind of slow and could use some work.
Re: Standard Ebooks
#7I would love if they offered a download option for a file you could just upload to Lulu (or similar service) to have it printed and mailed to you. Every time I buy one of these public domain books from Amazon, they are invariably shitty, low-quality "printed by Amazon" versions. I miss the time where you could get a high-quality hardcover, but more and more those seem reserved only for the current week's NYT best-sel…
This could be a cool monetization strategy. I don't really read physical books, but the "classics" on Amazon are often complete ripoffs. Here's Crime and Punishment for $10 just to get the Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/Punishment-Penguin-Classics-Fyodor-Do... I feel like these open domain novels published by big publishing houses have the veneer of legitimacy, but projects like the one this thread is about I…
In fairness though, if you sort by price, you can always find classics on Amazon for dirt cheap. E.g.
https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Works-Dostoyevsky-Punishment...
Although there's no saying as to whether or not they will have proper spellcheck, TOC, if they are legitimately in the public domain, or even if it's the right book with all the pages. That's where a service like Standard Ebooks is superior to the potluck you get from Amazon.
Re: Standard Ebooks
#8For other curious HNers, what differentiates [0] them from Project Gutenberg [1] is the improved typography/styling and the full usage of modern reader techniques. Think of it like, etext != ebook.
[0] https://standardebooks.org/about/what-makes-standard-ebooks-...
Re: Standard Ebooks
#9Editor-in-Chief here, happy to answer any questions!
Of interest might be my blog post on how SE runs on a small VPS using classic web tech: https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-...
(This post is slightly out of date as there is a database now; but it's used for managing Patrons - and soon a cover art listing and approval system - not for serving the actual ebooks, which are still served as described in the post.)
Our volunteers have spent the last few months preparing a few notable books published in 1928 to be released today, Public Domain Day. Those are the top 5 books in the ebook list, starting with The Mystery of the Blue Train. Check them out!
We welcome new contributors if you'd like to work on producing a new ebook. In the next week we'll also have a brand new cover art database launched, so if you'd rather help by cataloguing new cover art for future ebooks, get in touch at our mailing list!
Re: Standard Ebooks
#10I would love if they offered a download option for a file you could just upload to Lulu (or similar service) to have it printed and mailed to you. Every time I buy one of these public domain books from Amazon, they are invariably shitty, low-quality "printed by Amazon" versions. I miss the time where you could get a high-quality hardcover, but more and more those seem reserved only for the current week's NYT best-sel…
This could be a cool monetization strategy. I don't really read physical books, but the "classics" on Amazon are often complete ripoffs. Here's Crime and Punishment for $10 just to get the Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/Punishment-Penguin-Classics-Fyodor-Do... I feel like these open domain novels published by big publishing houses have the veneer of legitimacy, but projects like the one this thread is about I…
Not the greatest example, as the translation is not public domain.