Books on demand - Reprints of old books?

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 01:52:12 GMT, Doug McClure
wrote:

Suppose you have a book and a photocopier.

Actually it usually (by number of titles involved) involves a book, a
scaner, and a _bandsaw_. The spine is sawn off before scanning, which
considerably lowers the cost of scanning.

Don't complain to me, talk to the American universities who are doing
this.


I also use a bandsaw for scanning books, but I used it to saw the edge
of an old HP ScanJet, allowing it to be placed upside into the gutter of
a bound book, scanning it without damaging the spine. Old scanners
(lower resolution) have greater depth of focus and are better at
scanning books than modern scanners.

on Thu, 14 Jul 2005 23:30:57 +0100, Andy Dingley stated:

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 01:52:12 GMT, Doug McClure
wrote:

Suppose you have a book and a photocopier.

Actually it usually (by number of titles involved) involves a book, a
scaner, and a _bandsaw_. The spine is sawn off before scanning, which
considerably lowers the cost of scanning.

Don't complain to me, talk to the American universities who are doing
this.


I also use a bandsaw for scanning books, but I used it to saw the edge
of an old HP ScanJet, allowing it to be placed upside into the gutter of
a bound book, scanning it without damaging the spine. Old scanners
(lower resolution) have greater depth of focus and are better at
scanning books than modern scanners.

I've been wondering for a while whether technology is at the
point where a scanner can be made that is, essentially, a very
thin sheet with fiberoptics (or whatever) in it, connected to
a separate piece that has the software, etc. So that you could
slide the thin sheet in between the pages of a book and scan
both pages without even having to open (much) an old delicate
book. Anyone know if there's anything like this out there?

-Allison

Al Smith wrote:
Does anybody know if these 'books' are usually scanned copied from disbound
(i.e., flat) originals, or if they have the distortions and shadows inherent
in a scan or photocopy of a thick book where the areas near the binding are
much farther from the glass? I've considered buying one from time to time,
but would not be interested in the latter.

Thanks,
Chris

Just a guess, but I think it would depend on the book. Nobody is
going to cut up a book that's worth hundreds of dollars to
photocopy it perfectly flat. The photocopy facsimile reprints of
rare books that I own (not print on demand, but the nearest thing)
often show curves in the lines of text near the spine. If all you
want is the text (and what good is print on demand, otherwise?)
then slightly distorted lines of text are unimportant.

When I liaised with the British Library about scanning a rare old book,
they said they would take it apart, scan the sheets, and then put the
book back together, trying to use the original cloth where possible. I
would pay for the whole process, but the scans would be there ready to
sell to the next customer who enquired.

CB

Books on demand are not photocopied or scanned books (at least, not the
quality ones, which includes new first-edition just published books). Books
on demand are short run printed books, similar to regular books, but they
are not printed on a schedule from a publisher for later consignment to a
seller, rather they are printed to actual orders for books, and they are
usually printed by the book distributor rather than a regular printer. When
enough orders for a book have been received, the book is printed.

Usually such printing is done by the book distributors themselves using only
digitally-generated plates and high-speed printing and binding equipment.
The wholesale distributor prints enough copies to satisfy current orders,
then ships them to the buyers, thus having been paid up front. The run may
be as few as a hundred books or even less, but the printing cost is already
in the bank before they are ever produced, and it eliminates in many cases
the middleman cost of a publisher and a printing house, since the book
distributor is actually doing that function.

If you look at niche books, specialty topics and such, you will find quite a
few brand new books being sold this way, and it is also quite common
nowadays for reprints too. Reprints are the likeliest to have been
"scanned" since it is quite expensive to produce new plates for a book long
out of production. But for new books, the entire process can be done
electronically, just like many magazines are nowadays. Since it is done by
the area distributors themselves, there is a huge savings of shipping costs
that a regular printing-house book order has to include to get books to that
wholesaler after printing them, so that is another reason.

Books on demand are not cheap copies, they are just manufactured in a more
efficient manner. The difference is nothing is actually printed at first,
all that is done is to advertise the book for sale and await enough actual
orders to pay for the printing up front.

--
Petes Castle


"Allison Turner-" wrote in message
...
on Mon, 11 Jul 2005 09:45:46 -0500, John A. Stovall stated:

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 07:41:06 -0700, "Billy Bob"
wrote:

I sometimes see "Book-on-Demand reprint" for old books I am looking for.
This is good because I can read some old books without having to pay
thousands of dollars for the book.

I'm wondering if there are reprints available for some of the older
books I
am looking for, but I just need to find the "Book-on-Demand" place and
"demand" my book???

Is there one single web site where I can order reprints of old books?

Can you request that they add a new (old) book to their reprint list or
something?


Have you looked at Project Gutenberg? Better than POD books in price,
Free.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Project Gutenberg is the coolest thing. I highly recommend
that anyone interested in old books volunteer a little bit of
time now and then scanning pages or proofing pages or whatever.

They don't have much of anything in my field, yet (old herbal/
medical books) so as soon as I get the time, there'll be a lot
I can do.

What, exactly, are print-on-demand books? Are they page-by-page
photocopies? Or printouts of scanned pages? (and does that
actually qualify as a 'book'?) I always skip over those listings
with a mild bit of annoyance that they're cluttering my search.
They won't have that wonderful old-book esthetic that I love so
much, and they aren't cheap, by any means. Though they'd be a
deal, I suppose, if I needed the information in an otherwise $1k+
priced book.


-Allison

The couple of MicroForm books I've seen were very poorly reproduced, crooked
and with lots of dirt specks too. Worse than photocopies.
Not anything I'd want to pay much cash for, at the ridiculous prices I've
seen asked.

Doug

"Allison Turner-" wrote in message
...
on Tue, 12 Jul 2005 07:52:46 -0500, John A. Stovall stated:

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 01:52:12 GMT, Doug McClure
wrote:

On 11 Jul 2005 09:30:51 -0700, Allison Turner-
wrote:


What, exactly, are print-on-demand books? Are they page-by-page
photocopies? Or printouts of scanned pages? (and does that
actually qualify as a 'book'?) I always skip over those listings
with a mild bit of annoyance that they're cluttering my search.
They won't have that wonderful old-book esthetic that I love so
much, and they aren't cheap, by any means. Though they'd be a
deal, I suppose, if I needed the information in an otherwise $1k+
priced book.



I will take a guess on what a POD book is...

Suppose you have a book and a photocopier. You open the book, place
the page against the glass, press the PRINT button, and out comes a
page. Repeat for each page in the book. That is simple enough, but
really wasteful!


Most of the POD houses use Micro form copies not a copier or scanner.

What is the quality of that media? I'm remembering books on
microfische that I dealt with in the early eighties. *Ugly*.
Anything would be better than that, though if POD isn't pretty
close to the original, I wouldn't go for it.

Well, I wouldn't go for a POD regardless of quality, if there
was any reasonable way for me to get a real copy of the book.

-Allison

Does anybody know if print-on-demand publishers (the ones who typically
publish the books of unknown writers) will do public domain reprints?

Many of the sites I've seen want to do only copywrited material.


"Billy Bob" wrote in message
...
I sometimes see "Book-on-Demand reprint" for old books I am looking for.
This is good because I can read some old books without having to pay
thousands of dollars for the book.

I'm wondering if there are reprints available for some of the older books
I
am looking for, but I just need to find the "Book-on-Demand" place and
"demand" my book???

Is there one single web site where I can order reprints of old books?

Can you request that they add a new (old) book to their reprint list or
something?