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Suggesting a book for Kindlization?

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annis
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Suggesting a book for Kindlization?

Post by annis » Wed September 18th, 2013, 7:42 am

I'm sure I've seen somewhere that you can ask Amazon to consider "Kindlizing" OOP books, but I've hunted around the Amazon site and can't see a way of doing it. Mind you, I'm blind as a bat and am quite likely missing something obvious.

I've started reading a series written for older children between the 1950-1970s, written by British author Ronald Welch. They were written with the aim of getting boys interested in history by writing exciting adventures about members of the same family, who take part in pivotal military campaigns over the centuries. The first of this series, Knight Crusader, has been made available as a Kindle edition, but not the rest. I've read a few now and they're really pretty good (as the consistent 4 and 5 star reviews attest) but second-hand editions are horrendously expensive (I've been lucky to find copies through the National Library interloan service).

I think Amazon should make them all available as Kindle books, but how do I go about asking?
Last edited by annis on Fri September 20th, 2013, 3:47 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Mythica
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Post by Mythica » Wed September 18th, 2013, 10:02 am

Well, it's important to realize that it's not Amazon who decides what books are available on Kindle. The publisher is responsible for that because they own the rights to publish the book in any format - just like with print books, Amazon merely sell copies, they do not print them.

However, Amazon do have a method that claims to inform the publisher when a customer requests a book be made available on Kindle. It used to be right under the book cover but they've recently changed the layout of book/product pages and it's now across from where it lists "product details". I don't know if the product page has updated for everyone yet or if it's still in beta (it's only changed on print book pages, not for the Kindle store) so check both places.

Look for where it says:

Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle
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annis
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Post by annis » Wed September 18th, 2013, 5:42 pm

Thanks, Mythica. That might account for why I thought I'd seen this as an option, but couldn't find it again! I'm guessing that if the publisher was happy to allow one of the books in the series to be made available as a Kindle edition, they wouldn't have a problem with the rest, if readers were keen. Some of these books are well over US$100 to buy second-hand and they're only slim-ish paperbacks.

annis
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Post by annis » Wed September 18th, 2013, 5:44 pm

Thanks, Mythica. That might account for why I thought I'd seen this as an option, but couldn't find it again! I'm guessing that if the publisher was happy to allow one of the books in the series to be made available as a Kindle edition, they wouldn't have a problem with the rest, if readers were keen. Some of these books are well over US$100 to buy and they're only slim-ish paperbacks. I'd certainly recommend them as a great read for boys in the 11-15 age group.

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Wed September 18th, 2013, 6:17 pm

I've clicked on that I'd-like-to-read-this-on-Kindle button before. I figure it can only help them build a case for reissuing some of the older books that are out of print.

Related to this, I read this interesting article not too long ago about how copyright law constrains the availability for many of these older books (keep in mind that I'm a just a reader, so I don't know much about copyright law or what's typical for publisher contracts).
Last edited by Ludmilla on Wed September 18th, 2013, 6:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Wed September 18th, 2013, 7:38 pm

Copyright law for ebooks is an evolving thing. In most of the old contracts (pre-2005) the rights returned to the author when the book went out-of-print. Then came print-on-demand (where the book exists as a file with lightning source and can be printed and shipped directly to the customer whenever anyone orders it) so books never went out of print.

However, if it's an older book, the publisher can't just re-print it. The rights to the ebook have to be renegotiated, sometimes with a deceased authors heirs. And then the older books, which don't exist somewhere in digital format, have to be scanned in page by page, hopefully from a good copy, and somebody has to go through them on a copyedit, because lower-case 'L's often read as '1's and the like. I did that once for a friend's book, and there were still some things I missed, as your brain corrects the scanner's mistakes without noticing.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Wed September 18th, 2013, 7:54 pm

Some of my GR friends are using Open Library. I haven't quite grasped how it works, but that might be an option for these older OOPs. Calibreis another site that's been mentioned, but again I have no experience.
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annis
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Post by annis » Thu September 19th, 2013, 9:09 am

I've double-checked all around the Product Details, but there's nothing there giving me an option asking Amazon to suggest a publisher makes a book available as a Kindle edition. Maybe my product page just hasn't been updated. I'm sure I used to see it under the book's cover in the past.

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Mythica
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Post by Mythica » Thu September 19th, 2013, 10:17 am

[quote=""annis""]I've double-checked all around the Product Details, but there's nothing there giving me an option asking Amazon to suggest a publisher makes a book available as a Kindle edition. Maybe my product page just hasn't been updated. I'm sure I used to see it under the book's cover in the past.[/quote]

Strange, so you don't see this on the right?
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Thu September 19th, 2013, 1:06 pm

That's where i find it. Is it a country of origin thing?
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