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When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

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Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#91

> And sometimes we’re not sure if what we’re seeing even is an error. The following passage, from Philip K. Dick, displays a lot of creative use of language, but the “zommed” in the third line — while matching the print book — seems a bit suspect. Should it be “zoomed”? How can we know? Strictly for possible typos: if the author is alive, ask them, otherwise leave it. > Sometimes a book is completely accurate at the…

> No. A book should capture an author's intent/concept/idea at the time it was written and those intents/concepts/ideas should be frozen. Given that we're talking about ebooks, whose readers generally have some kind of navigation system, I think it would be reasonable to include a footnote. If a book says Pluto is a planet, I wouldn't mind a [1] linking to a note that says "Pluto has not been considered a planet sinc…

That, too, would constitute a new edition if the updates went into the work itself. Otherwise, the previous work is still a thing—you're just pretending that it's not and the new thing was the thing all along. That's harmful and dangerous and unnecessary.

What you want doesn't necessitate changes to anything except maybe the reader software. Annotation and commentary has been around for millennia. What you want is for the reader to inline the commentary. That's fine.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#92
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you completely misunderstand. The people who want to read the complete Travis McGee series don't want updated covers. They want complete metadata and good search tools, so they can figure out that The Long Lavender Look comes before A Tan and Sandy Silence. The folks who are trying to hunt down ebooks of all the non-Fleming James Bond novels don't care much about the covers. And if your epub reader software d…

I'm sure this is true for some (maybe even many) readers, but this simply is not reflective of the larger genre fiction market today. Most genre fiction authors, even those making a great living, are not writing the next Travis McGee - they're writing thrillers, mysteries, or romance series that will not get Wikipedia pages or be turned into TV adaptations. Readers will not discover their books thinking "Oh yeah, Ser…

Cool story.

What are you actually arguing for/against here?

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#93

> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…

You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985? Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change? Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently. Publishers make chan…

> 1985

You mean 1940. (Its original publication in the US.)

> Because once someone admits that change was okay

You seem to be going with the assumption that everyone is on board—that they agree that that change was okay (had it actually happened, that is).

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#96
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this is true for some (maybe even many) readers, but this simply is not reflective of the larger genre fiction market today. Most genre fiction authors, even those making a great living, are not writing the next Travis McGee - they're writing thrillers, mysteries, or romance series that will not get Wikipedia pages or be turned into TV adaptations. Readers will not discover their books thinking "Oh yeah, Ser…

Cool story. What are you actually arguing for/against here?

I was replying to a comment I disagree with as part of this discussion thread, explaining why I don't think it is entirely reflective of reality. I suggest reading that comment for the context.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#97
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool story. What are you actually arguing for/against here?

I was replying to a comment I disagree with as part of this discussion thread, explaining why I don't think it is entirely reflective of reality. I suggest reading that comment for the context.

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