This is all admirable, but anyone can publish any of these books, if they want, on Amazon, if they are in the public domain. For example I could publish a Gatsby tomorrow in an ebook form and start charging for it, and if I wanted to pay the printing cost I could probably do that, I could probably even arrange for a printer to put out books individually as they were ordered. In fact there are people that sell their system to do this to make money. Something I would never do. For what it's worth, if you have a Kindle Paperwhite, the best thing to do is go to project Gutenberg where you can find almost anything that is out of copyright in an ebook form and put it on your paperwhite. I just did that with a whole bunch of Ray Bradbury. You can also find books on Internet Archive. I found a couple there written by one of my ancestors in the mid 19th century. Anyway just information, be well. If you're interested, check out my first novel in ebook form written 20 years ago on Amazon. It be just all right: an island journey. And also my second novel which I'm serializing on substatic and it's there for free with audio for now, and almost completed. A Builder's Tale.
You are right and one thing that is fun to do is look at all the variant editions for sale and the crazy covers. There is a sarcastic X poster who posts hilarious covers (Caustic Cover Critic https://twitter.com/Unwise_Trousers). The point of LOA is also to have a carefully edited standard edition. The early arguments at NEH about the initial funding in Skinner's article (link in footnote) goes into the need for standard editions. But, YES, these are all available elsewhere.
Finding Books... In case you know any poor senior citizens, who like to read... I was very poor for a while, a few years back, that is when I discovered project Gutenberg. (Ill health and our 'wonderful' health care system has a way of impoverishing one) The only way for me to read newer books was to find copies on the internet. You can find most books for free, including those recently published, if they are at all known, using bit torrents and a VPN and a bit torrent server. Bitlord, for example. There are many people who share their books with bit torrents. Understanding how to access these takes time and effort. This is probably why bit torrents are not a large threat to author's income. It is much easier to buy the book. But if you are old and poor and in our new economy having difficulty paying for food, let alone books, and if there are no libraries that carry the books you want to read nearby. It is an option for retired readers living on inadequate social security. Note, this group of poor seniors is growing, and its poverty is going to expand along with that of the entire society, except for the elites, as the inclined plane of dedollarization steepens over the next decade. We are looking at a future where the United states becomes more feudal.
I'm very glad to hear about these programs. I didn't iknow they were offerig so many of them.
This is all admirable, but anyone can publish any of these books, if they want, on Amazon, if they are in the public domain. For example I could publish a Gatsby tomorrow in an ebook form and start charging for it, and if I wanted to pay the printing cost I could probably do that, I could probably even arrange for a printer to put out books individually as they were ordered. In fact there are people that sell their system to do this to make money. Something I would never do. For what it's worth, if you have a Kindle Paperwhite, the best thing to do is go to project Gutenberg where you can find almost anything that is out of copyright in an ebook form and put it on your paperwhite. I just did that with a whole bunch of Ray Bradbury. You can also find books on Internet Archive. I found a couple there written by one of my ancestors in the mid 19th century. Anyway just information, be well. If you're interested, check out my first novel in ebook form written 20 years ago on Amazon. It be just all right: an island journey. And also my second novel which I'm serializing on substatic and it's there for free with audio for now, and almost completed. A Builder's Tale.
You are right and one thing that is fun to do is look at all the variant editions for sale and the crazy covers. There is a sarcastic X poster who posts hilarious covers (Caustic Cover Critic https://twitter.com/Unwise_Trousers). The point of LOA is also to have a carefully edited standard edition. The early arguments at NEH about the initial funding in Skinner's article (link in footnote) goes into the need for standard editions. But, YES, these are all available elsewhere.
Finding Books... In case you know any poor senior citizens, who like to read... I was very poor for a while, a few years back, that is when I discovered project Gutenberg. (Ill health and our 'wonderful' health care system has a way of impoverishing one) The only way for me to read newer books was to find copies on the internet. You can find most books for free, including those recently published, if they are at all known, using bit torrents and a VPN and a bit torrent server. Bitlord, for example. There are many people who share their books with bit torrents. Understanding how to access these takes time and effort. This is probably why bit torrents are not a large threat to author's income. It is much easier to buy the book. But if you are old and poor and in our new economy having difficulty paying for food, let alone books, and if there are no libraries that carry the books you want to read nearby. It is an option for retired readers living on inadequate social security. Note, this group of poor seniors is growing, and its poverty is going to expand along with that of the entire society, except for the elites, as the inclined plane of dedollarization steepens over the next decade. We are looking at a future where the United states becomes more feudal.
And while libraries have a lot, the interface isn't always simple.
oh, this looks good!