Under the *current* DP system everyone knows that everything being done is also going to be worked on by about six other people. The hard part then is getting anyone to feel "ownership" about anything -- particularly about getting something *done*.
Jim, this is unfair to DP and to those of us who work there. I'm a high-count proofer in P3. I do care about finishing off books ...
I have two books, highly requested, in DP that I spent about 40 hours each getting them into DP and where they have been moldering for almost a year now. They are "stuck" and there is no way to get them unstuck and the txt has been "ready to go" from almost the beginning. Again, the txt part, including P1, P2, P3 is the easy part of the problem, and is working relatively well compared to the rest of the DP process. This compares, for example, that I can personally crank out a book -- perhaps not quite as good as DP -- taking about the same 40 hours *total*, and can get it done including HTML in less than a month elapsed time including god knows how many family emergencies intruding on my efforts. I *try* to take ownership of these books at DP but am prevented in doing so by the system and the management -- god knows if I were allowed to do so I would personally have finished them off a half a year ago! A fundamental part of the DP problem is that the "design" (if you want to call it that) of the queuing system doesn't work. Another part of the problem, frankly, is the disproportionate amount of time spent on books that are very complicated, poorly scanned, and not very good choices to begin with -- meaning simply that they are books when all is said and done that not that many people are going to want to read. Under the current system bad ideas are allowed to consume a disproportionate amount of everyone's time and effort -- but isn't that true of life in general!