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This may be the wrong place to ask, but- Does anyone know of a reputable service that would turn a decades-old print book into an eBook? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.world

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In the 1980s, my father wrote a book that an analysis and annotation of another well-known book which is now in the public domain. My family owns the rights to this annotation (we checked with the press that put it out). I think it would make a really good eBook if someone wanted to scan it all in, digitize it, and turn all the annotations into hyperlinks. I know that theoretically I could do that all myself, but I feel like that's something bigger than I can tackle alone. He was a scholar, so he did a huge amount of research on the book which is basically unavailable now to anyone who is interested in it.

So could anyone recommend a good service to do this? I don't know that I could necessarily raise the funds to do it, but I think it would be worth a try with a kickstarter or something.

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[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

How many pages is it? If you could scan the pages, the rest of it (conversion, annotation, hyperlinks) could be crowd sourced? Could even put it together as a github repo to manage the links and content, using that to generate the final ebook output

https://alejandroschuler.github.io/mybookname/guide/publish/github-pages.html

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Significantly longer than the original novel, so scanning alone would take a very long time and I don't even have a scanner.

[–] InfiniteFlow@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are companies specializing in document management. One of the services they offer (besides archiving, secure destruction, etc.) is scanning books and creating high-quality pdfs of their contents. This is usually a (semi-)automated process that uses a machine that opens the book only as much as necessary, to try not to even damage its spine. I’ve used it professionally and can vouch for this kind of service, even if I cannot really recommend you a particular provider, since I very much doubt you live near me, in Europe. Still, I’m pretty sure you can find one close to you if you search.

This will only take you halfway there, by producing a good quality pdf version of the book that you could share with others. To go the extra step of OCR’ing it, proofreading, adding the links, would need something else…

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thanks. Can you recommend a reputable one?

[–] InfiniteFlow@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I’ve used these guys. Fast, courteous and acceptable price. Still, unless you live in Portugal, I don’t think it will help you much. Might give you an idea of what to look for, though!

GASDA

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Ah, yeah, not in Portugal. But I appreciate you giving me a direction to look in, thank you!

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

As someone who has dabbled in genealogy, even a simple phone scan can be appreciated by the right audience. I always preferred transcription and OCR of course, but that first jump from "not online" to "online" was always a huge relief.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That makes sense, but this is more about providing a scholarly work in an easy-to-access format, which would necessarily include a lot of hyperlinks since it was an annotation.

As far as just preserving it for family, we have multiple copies.

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm just suggesting that, if it is a book, the people who might be interested in using it will be happy that it is at least available in its original state, and that the effort to cross-reference will be a bonus, not a critical feature.

If there are copies hiding in academic libraries, then fair play, no real need, but if there is literally nowhere else to get your dad's book, I think the universe of people interested in a scholarly analysis of a novel would welcome whatever they can get and keep a copy of the novel open on their desk or in another window. The genealogy angle was more tangential to that. :-)