i'm composing a post on how project gutenberg should approach an arrangement with amazon... but it appears that real life has just whizzed by. according to this post on morris rosenthal's site:
http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=626 amazon is not accepting public-domain e-books.
after preparing and submitting a book with content in the public-domain, morris got this from amazon:
We’re implementing a new policy that addresses the customer experience problem caused by multiple, undifferentiated copies of public domain titles in our Kindle catalog.
Our vision is to have high-quality editions of every public domain title in the world available on Kindle, including a free edition of each, and to avoid the confusion that is caused by having a large number of undifferentiated (or barely differentiated) versions of each.
To protect the customer experience we have decided to stop accepting and selling duplicate, undifferentiated versions of public domain titles where there is a free edition already available for sale. As a result, we are removing the following title(s) for sale on our web site:
Charles Dickens Tale Of Two Cities (The Works Of Charles Dickens) by Dickens, Charles, Digital Item ID: 847429
interesting, eh? morris goes on with his own reaction:
I checked, and sure enough, Amazon published their own free copy of the book the day before, on December 1st 2010. ... I decided to check on how many classics they’ve already published in their new push to protect the customer experience, Here’s the complete list: A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I thought that was pretty funny too.
remember when i asked whether anyone here would want project gutenberg to veto other public-domain republishers, if it were to magically be given that veto? and remember how i said consider the answer carefully? that's because the situation could also come up where project gutenberg would be the _victim_ of such a veto. and that scenario might well be coming to pass. amazon can create their own "blessed" copy of _any_ public-domain book, and then refuse to carry others. because, as far as amazon is concerned, p.g is just another one of the republishers who are creating a confusing situation, a "customer experience problem." now how does it feel? now you want to get up on a high horse and complain about how the public-domain belongs to everyone, eh? morris goes on:
Update: A Tale Of Two Cities is a new Oprah pick, and her people must notify the trade beforehand to prepare for demand. So my guess is that Amazon’s newfound sensitivity will be one-and-done.
just in case you thought that the new amazon policy was brought about by the recent brouhaha with p.g., don't get a big head. there are bigger fish in the sea. much bigger fish. including a great whale called oprah. -bowerbird