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[Official] Book Scanning and Sharing Service

An official request, or post by staff acting with authority.

SkullTraill

Glorious Light of Knowledge and Power
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I have noticed there are a decent amount of books that are print-only (meaning no easy Kindle extraction and sharing) and the existing scans available on the web are either really low quality, or have missing pages etc. Also, I have recently gained access to the ability to occasionally scan books in really high quality, for a reasonable price.

Now, I am considering whether to allow a limited service on WF, where if someone really wants a book to be scanned, they can pay me for the book + shipping + the scanning fee, then I'll order the book, have it scanned and release it publicly on WF.

How it will work is like this:
  1. You post on this thread which book you'd like to have scanned, with a link to the store page to buy it.
  2. I will give you a quotation based on what I calculate it will cost me to buy the book, have it shipped to me, and have it machine scanned.
  3. If you agree to the price, you can pay me (via Amazon Gift Card).
  4. I will do everything that needs to be done, and share the PDF on WF, for everyone.
This process will take quite some time... from 2-4 weeks generally. It's also kind of a hassle for me to do cause I won't be charging anything for my own time or effort, just for the book, shipping and scanning cost. Therefore, I'm thinking I'll only do maximum 1 book every 1-2 months. I figure it'll still come in really handy to a lot of people because there are some really good books that have really poor scans online.

Notes/rules:
  1. You must obviously have access to the library/book shares section. I will not do this for 0 post accounts, or send books in DMs to people who can't access the library.
  2. One request per user.
  3. You must pay up front. Amazon Gift card only, for now (because I will be buying the books on Amazon).
  4. No split payments. You can coordinate with people you trust in private, but I will only accept a single gift card per book request.
  5. For the purposes of trust and security, I will be the only person collecting payment for, and carrying out this service. Anyone else found to be coordinating something like this will be warned in accordance with the Marketplace Guidelines.
  6. The book must be readily available for purchase online, with international shipping (no US-only sellers).
  7. The book must NOT already be available on Kindle/any other easy to use e-reader platform.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to drop a link to a book (one book per person) and I'll reply back with the amount so that everyone can see roughly how much it's gonna cost and determine if it's worth your money.
 

SkullTraill

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Great idea. What happens with the physical book once it's scanned?
It will be destroyed and disposed of. The books need to be unbound (usually by slicing) before being run through the commercial scanning apparatus.
 
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