web/www/contribute/collections-policy.php

<?= Template::Header(['title' => 'Collections Policy', 'highlight' => 'contribute', 'description' => 'Standard Ebooks only accepts certain kinds of ebooks for production and hosting. This is the full list.']) ?>
<main>
	<article>
		<hgroup>
			<h1>Collections Policy</h1>
			<h2 class="miniheader">Or, ebooks we do and don’t accept.</h2>
		</hgroup>
		<p>Standard Ebooks only works on books that have entered the U.S. public domain due to copyright expiration. Generally this means a book must have been published before <?= PD_STRING ?>, though there are exceptions for works from later periods that didn’t follow copyright formalities. For more information on determining the copyright status of a work in the U.S., see <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/help/copyright.html">Project Gutenberg’s Copyright How-To</a>.</p>
		<p>Note that a book that is in the U.S. public domain may not be in the public domain of other countries, and vice versa.</p>
		<h2>Types of ebooks we do accept</h2>
		<ul>
			<li>
				<p>Most long fiction, including plays.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Most short fiction and poetry, when presented in collections or omnibuses. We consider short fiction to be works less than 40,000 words in length, a length that typically includes novellas. Short plays are 12,500 words or less in length. Some independent short works may be produced individually on a case-by-case basis.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Some “timeless” non-fiction, including philosophy, travelogue, classics from antiquity, and notable autobiography. In general, this means books about <em>ideas and experiences</em>, not <em>facts</em>.</p>
			</li>
		</ul>
		<h2>Types of ebooks we don’t accept</h2>
		<ul>
			<li>
				<p>Ebooks that are not clearly in the U.S. public domain. If it’s not hosted on <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">Project Gutenberg</a>, we’ll probably decline it.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Individual short works that could instead be collected in a larger omnibus, like individual pamphlets, essays, or short stories.</p>
				<p>For example, we wouldn’t accept individual ebook productions of Jonathan Swift’s “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1080">A Modest Proposal</a>” or Philip K. Dick’s “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32522">Mr. Spaceship</a>.” However we <em>do</em> want <em>complete compilations</em> of those kinds of short works, for example our <a href="/ebooks/philip-k-dick/short-fiction">ebook of all of Philip K. Dick’s public domain short stories</a>.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Most non-fiction, including:</p>
				<ul>
					<li>
						<p>Dated non-fiction that isn’t relevant to a modern reader;</p>
					</li>
					<li>
						<p>Histories that aren’t otherwise notable and that could be superseded by modern research (though we <em>might</em> accept book-length primary source historical accounts);</p>
					</li>
					<li>
						<p>Biographies of long-forgotten people that aren’t notable;</p>
					</li>
					<li>
						<p>Craft and science books including cookbooks, practical how-tos, instructional books, books of medicine, textbooks, books about science, books of research, or technical references;</p>
					</li>
					<li>
						<p>Periodical or journalistic non-fiction like magazine articles, serials, newspapers, and other journalism;</p>
					</li>
					<li>
						<p>Legal documents, including codes of law and constitutions.</p>
					</li>
				</ul>
				<p>In general, this means books about <em>facts</em> and not <em>ideas</em>. Note that we may occasionally make exceptions, for example for <i><a href="/ebooks/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire">The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</a></i> or <i><a href="/ebooks/julius-caesar/commentaries-on-the-gallic-war/w-a-mcdevitte_w-s-bohn">Commentaries on the Gallic War</a></i> or <i>The Life of Samuel Johnson</i>.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Books that are illustration-heavy, like picture or art books, or whose content greatly depends on the arrangement of illustrations or graphics.</p>
				<p>For example, we wouldn’t produce anything by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake">William Blake</a>, as his intricate arrangement of words and illustration would result in an ebook that is merely a series of images, without parseable text.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Modern books that have released to the public domain, including self-published books.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Religious texts from modern world religions, like the Bible, the Koran, or books of prayer, won’t be accepted. Texts <em>about</em> religion—i.e., texts on the philosophy of religion—will usually be accepted. Texts from historical religious movements that were culturally influential but are now defunct, or are otherwise not significant in modern times, <em>might</em> be accepted; ask first.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Different editions of books, including editions published in different places or years, and different translations. We aim to host a single “best” edition of a book. For books that differ significantly across editions, this typically means the latest possible edition, presuming that it’s the most correct and most aligned with the author’s intent. (Of course, case-by-case circumstances often warrant exceptions to this rule of thumb.) For books in translation, we want the one public domain translation that reviewers or scholars consider to be the “best.”</p>
				<p>For example, we currently host the 1831 edition of <i><a href="/ebooks/mary-shelley/frankenstein">Frankenstein</a></i>, which is the author’s heavy revision of the original 1818 edition; therefore we wouldn’t accept the 1818 edition, or any other editions. In a similar vein, we currently host a respected translation of <i><a href="/ebooks/dante-alighieri/the-divine-comedy/henry-wadsworth-longfellow">The Divine Comedy</a></i>, therefore we wouldn’t accept a separate ebook of a different translation.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>“The complete works”-type omnibuses, in which an author who wrote in various styles (like poetry, short stories, and novels) has their entire literary corpus compiled into one ebook. However we <em>are</em> interested in omnibuses of <em>single types of writing</em>.</p>
				<p>For example, Anton Chekhov wrote many plays, short stories, novels, and novellas. We <em>wouldn’t</em> accept “The Complete Works of Anton Chekhov,” but we <em>would</em> accept <i><a href="/ebooks/anton-chekhov/short-fiction/constance-garnett">Anton Chekhov’s Complete Short Fiction</a></i>, and his many novels and plays as individual ebooks.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Non-English-language books. Translations to English are, of course, OK.</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<p>Translations into English which are severely abridged, Bowdlerized, wildly archaic or near-unreadable to modern readers, or which scholars agree are poor translations.</p>
				<p>For example, the only public domain translations of <i>Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas</i> are ones widely considered to be slapdash—thus we wouldn’t accept any of them, even if that means not hosting the ebook at all.</p>
			</li>
		</ul>
	</article>
</main>
<?= Template::Footer() ?>