I'm starting an e-publishing company. The only thing it will use any time soon from PG is one book which I put on PG myself, stating that it was copyrighted but that I was giving PG a permanent non-exclusive loan of the copyright, provided that nobody used it for profit. That last clause didn't work till the water got hot--I found it a few weeks later on somebody's for-profit site, with my copyright notice still on it. I spent about six months on that book and have yet to receive a penny for it, which in that case is okay because I wasn't doing it for profit. Well, I take that "not a penny" back sort of, because the guy who had it on his for-profit site agreed to give me a different book he had there in return for the use of my copyrighted book. He couldn't have asked the author of the other book if that was okay due to the fact that the author of the other book is dead, though not long enough for his book to be public domain unless the first copyright wasn't renewed. If I ever chance to use anything else from PG, I will reedit it and probably rewrite it somewhat; and it will be at least a hundred years old and therefore not subject to even the most insane copyright laws. I have taken that Amazon thing out of the Webpage about six times but it comes right back without permission. That ticks me off considerably because the only things I sell through Amazon are used treebooks (that I wrote, and they aren't really used at all but I have to sell them as such), and I don't have any even posted there at the moment. At least when I'm selling my own books through my own publishing company I can set the price myself, which is somewhat less than the company that originally published them set. If the author had any say-so on the price of the book, nobody would ever have expected anybody to pay $30 for something that came out of my head. They would have sold a lot better if the price had been a lot more reasonable, but authors have no say-so whatever on jacket design, price, release date, sneaky and usually artless rewriting behind the author's back, and so on and so forth. Also, authors very rarely get much over 10% of the selling price (not the marked price). Besides my own books, I have six-and-a-half good fantasy novels from a dead friend (signed on that with her literary executor last week, and have to finish writing the last book), two collections of literary short stories coming in when they're finished, a grammar reference book to be written by the best grammarian I have ever met, and so forth--I've asked my husband to write a book about how value is created but he doesn't have time right now and I don't want one by anyone who is not in the Ludwig von Mises camp of economy--last time I checked I'm committed to 50 books, about a third of which I have to complete, or write, or rewrite myself besides editing. So that'll run to at least two years, maybe three, combined with time used for other for-pay work I'm doing and need not discuss. And by the way, I DO discuss jacket design, price, and release date with my authors, and I don't rewrite without permission from the author or his/her estate unless the book is over a hundred years old. I will NEVER treat any of my writers the way my publishers treated me. If you wish to comment, send to the address given in the Website. It's at _Live Oak House_ (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/utahliveoak/myhomepage/business.html) , also known as _http://hometown.aol.co.uk/utahliveoak/myhomepage/business.html_ (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/utahliveoak/myhomepage/business.html) . I'd have a better Website if I could afford it, but I can't, and this is the best I can get. I have quit reading _gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org_ (mailto:gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org) except for Michael's newsletters. If you wish to tell me how terribly unreasonable I am for expecting to be paid for my work (exclusive of volunteer and pro bono work, which I prefer NOT to be paid for), please go where it doesn't snow and leave me the h*** alone. I have yet to meet a landlord who quit charging his tenants rent as soon as he had paid for the construction costs of his rental property, or who then cut the rent back to only enough to cover maintenance and taxes. Oil well owners get a "depletion allowance" in their taxes because eventually the wells will run out of oil. The possibility of authors running out of brain-power is not considered. My grammarian is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and she's going to be writing her book as fast as she can while she can still think. In the highly unlikely event that any of you have something you want published for profit and lack the contacts to do it yourself, submit it to me in the usual fashion, and tell me you're part of PGLAF and I'll have a look at it. I just don't want to be barraged by manuscripts that should have been used for kitty litter, which happened some years ago when we were trying to do an e-publishing company. Anne Husband, seeing flock of birds seated side by side on electric wire: "Look, even the birds have gone online."