Direct from email to blog:
Hi Gary,
I thought you might be interested in a recent book purchase experience of mine.
In pursuing my hobby of collecting books on leathercraft/work, I bought a book on Ebay titled: “Facts on Leather” by William James Leach, editor, published by PediaPress. I hadn’t seen it before, and thought for a couple of dollars it would expand my collection, and maybe have an interesting fact about leather I did not know already. On receipt, I leafed through it and had this deja vu feeling that I had seen the content before, which I had. It seems that the book was based on extracting information and images from open sources on the internet and using that to publish a “book”. As it turns out, after checking Wiki, this is what it was.
This book came courtesy of an online service that lets WEB users create customized books from wiki content, and has a connection to Wikpedia. To tell you the truth, this publication gives real original and reprint POD books a bad name, as it’s not much better than a grade school research paper. I guess the previous owner must have felt the same as he/she had sold it. The “editor/author”, had inscribed the book thanking the purchaser for buying his “book” in July 2011. Calling the creator an “editor/author” and this drivel a “book” does not seem appropriate, and is a waste of paper for information that is available on the net.
I wonder what a proper name is for this type of product? It adds no value to the world of books. If there weren’t good POD books I would say I’ve been “PODed” , maybe I’ve been “pediaed”. Perhaps the printing industry should be required to create a category called Wiki-Books so people can be more aware of the type of publication they are buying?
In the future, I’ll be sure to avoid anything from the PediaPress. I titled my email “near useless”, but really this purchase was fully useless.
Enough of my soap box.
Regards,
James
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James
You've been Book Scammed, my term for anyone who has purchased a book they thought was an original, or a reprint of an original and then finds it's a low quality reprint of a Google Books or Internet Archive or other public domain accessible document. The seller publishers through Google Books or Createspace, gets a small profit and you get took.
Kessinger, Good Reads, Nabu Press, Pranava and now PediaPress are amongst the Book Scammers.
Pulling information from a Wiki is a new one to me. Would you mind if I discuss your email on my blog, though without mentioning your full name or email address? I'ld like to bring to light this new angle on the scam process.
Google Books and Createspace simply have the publisher sign a statement saying the publisher/author owns the content and the printer (Google and Createspace) are not held accountable. Neat trick. No one is watching the henhouse.
Gary
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Hi Gary,
No problem, please blog away. If you go to: “ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PediaPress” they give a summary of how this works.
My main issue with this, is the publishing of a “book” which is nothing more than a filtered collection of web content, and no notice given of that. It should have been called out as an anthology perhaps. On reflection, this type of printing could have a legitimate place, when for example one may want to print research resources to collect together data that was available at one point in time on the internet. The internet does open the door to valuable information that may not always be available. I’m also not necessarily against any company that reprints an original that is no longer in print, so long as they are up front about it and produce a legible and complete reprint. I’m mainly a collector for content and not for condition/value/rarity.
I had another type of experience with a reprint book through Ebay, which had the title changed from the original, but the author’s name was kept. I thought I was buying another book from an author that I already had. When I received it, I found out that it was a reprint of a book that I already had in its original printing. Luckily, after communicating with the seller that their listing was not accurate, they took it back and refunded my money. You can make reference to this experience as well in your next posting. Caveat emptor!
I appreciate the nuance you have brought to the market, showing that there are different approaches to reprinting books that produce quality reprints with care and attention to detail in mind.
Cheers,
James
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James
You've zeroed in on the problem. The scam publishers present themselves and their product under false pretenses. The sources they use may or may not have use requirements that stipulate Fair Use guidelines, general public use or restrictions. These publishers ignore any and all such notices.
The product is presented as if it is theirs in it's entirety, pulling in people. Recently I was contacted by someone through a forum who wanted to buy a book for his wife via ABE. The book he had selected appeared to be a reprint via the Library Of Congress when in fact it was just an Internet Archive pdf scammed and printed by Kesssinger Publishing but listed under the LOC as the source in a clever manner. I was able to find a real copy for them, surrounded by many scam copies.
Google owns ABE books now so it's unlikely they will strictly police their progeny.
As for compiling and printing internet resources, all that takes is contacting the originators and requesting permission as per the Fair Use guidelines.
Thanks for the permission. I'll let you know when the post goes live.
Gary
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While PediaPress is noted in Wiki, the problem arises when a bookseller fails to inform the customer of the source of the information in the book for sale. It's a fine point, but I feel it's an ethical choice that the seller should state to the customer that the content is an exact duplicate of what is available online. In this case, there is an editor, but there is no indication of the online source. That's simply bad publishing practice and a bit of deception. Possibly by accident but it's what is happening with the use of POD and self-publishing.
Much as with the Google Book and Internet Archive scam books, the publishers who sell those books don't tell people of the true source of the content. If a customer chooses to buy the compilation, fine and good. Slapping an ISBN on a book essentially certifies that the publisher or author has originated or owns the material in some fashion as specified by the ISBN controlling authority. But, no one is really monitoring that process.
Furthermore, nothing on a Wiki can be safely and accurately vetted. Anyone can add or delete. Is this really what you want to see in hard copy as a solid reference? In a way, I'm glad I'm out of the library business. Trying to verify sources a decade from now will be near impossible. While I applaud the effort to link POD and online content, it feels more like a free-for-all to me, but then I'm a stickler for accuracy in research. Which research is going the way of the dinosaurs?
Till next, Gary
PS: to be fair, I ordered a 34 page book on Peter Nicholson via PediaPress just to see what it looks like. PediaPress contracts with Lightning Source so I have no doubt as to quality.
