RARA-AVIS: Re: Legal, but is it ethical?

From: hardcasecrime ( editor@hardcasecrime.com)
Date: 26 Apr 2006


Sorry to take a few days to reply -- Edgar week has got me hopping.

> How do you feel about offering
> free eBooks of works in the PD
> or low-cost eBooks with all
> proceeds going to the authors
> estate?

I feel fine about it -- as long as someone else does it, and does it well. We, alas, have our hands full just putting out one book a month, and I wouldn't want to sacrifice quality in order to put out more; also, a big part of what we're out to do is not just to revive some great old stories but actually to recreate a specific physical object, a type of book that has a certain weight and page size and certain dimensions and a certain feel in your pocket...e-books are great, but they're not what floats our boat.

> What about a bulletin board or a
> blog where you offer your loyal
> readers a chance to tell you what
> they would most like to see back
> in print?

We've talked about setting up a bulletin board or blog; just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. But in the meantime I'm always glad to field suggestions (and in fact have a stack of 50 or so books on my "to be read" pile as a result of suggestions that have filtered in over the past year or so).

Recently, for instance, I've been diving into the work of the singularly named Slater McGurk. Does anyone on the list know anything about this writer? That can't possibly have been his real name...can it?

--Charles

--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Vorzimmer" <jvorzimmer@...> wrote:
>
> > You wrote: "I hope you're not ruling out books simply because
they're
> > in the public domain." Alas, we are: Part of our agreement with
the
> > company that produces and distributes our books is that we will
not
> > do any public domain books. The good news is that while it's true
> > that there are tons of great PD books that deserve to be
reprinted,
> > there are also tons of great non-PD books that also deserve to be
> > reprinted -- far more than we could ever get around to, even if
our
> > line were around for many years.
>
> Well I hope you are around for years, Charles, and that you see
greater
> profits as a result of turning on younger generations to a genre
that might
> otherwise be forgotten. You and your partner are doing an excellent
job,
> close to perfection. That's why we would like you to consider
certain titles
> such as "Black Wings" because we know you'll do it justice, a nice
clean
> copy with royalties going to the estate. We also appreciate the
fact that
> you listen to your constituency.
>
> How do you feel about offering free eBooks of works in the PD or
low-cost
> eBooks with all proceeds going to the authors estate? Wow, that
would get
> your more goodwill and publicity than you could ever buy. Giving
things away
> for free or low-cost always drives traffic too. What about a
bulletin board
> or a blog where you offer your loyal readers a chance to tell you
what they
> would most like to see back in print?
>
> As Always, Good Luck,
> Jeff
>

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