Hi. I currently have 15 books on my step 2 page and I would very much like
to disagree with you. First, let me explain the reasons for some of them
being renewed indefinitely. There were some Agatha Christie books
submitted. I have completely read two of them and submitted one which
showed up on the new books page quite some time ago now. The reason why I
am still holding them is that they have page break issues that need to be
sorted out. This is not my fault and probably not the submitter's fault
either. That accounts for at least three books, so we're down to 12 that
need more immediate attention.
Of the 12, that same submitter submitted three Ellery Queen mysteries and
one by Dorothy Gillman. I had specifically asked her for the Ellery Queen
and had been wanting to read them for a long time. She is not blind, so
she gets no credits for submitting. She does it because she wants to and
no other reason. Therefore, I took the Ellery Queen books because I asked
for them, but I am not going to rush through them because she doesn't get
credit anyway. Also, I'm worried that they will have the same page break
issues. That narrows down my list to 8.
Of the 8, I have a few submitted by Paul Edwards. I'm not sure how much he
relies on credits, but based on how many books he has scanned and
submitted, I'm not too worried about getting them done either. He has
submitted at least 10 books or so in the last few months, of which I only
took two or three. One turned out to be a duplicate, so I rejected my copy
as such and let someone else have credit for the other. That leaves about 5.
Of the 5, a few are Hardy Boys books. I do feel a little badly about those
because they only take a day or two to read and spell check. I don't know
how much Jake is in need of credits, but considering his many submissions,
I don't think this is a huge issue to him, so I haven't worried too much
about it. He did post, at my request, a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys SuperMystery
which I validated since I asked him for it. That only leaves 2 books left
I think.
Of those 2, that is far from a rediculous number and I think they had been
waiting for quite awhile before I took them. One was actually part of a
series by the same author. I released those and kept only one of her
mysteries for myself. The other was part of the Constable Evans
series. Last time one of those was submitted that I saw, I took it. I
didn't get to it for a few weeks so released it. Several months later, it
was still on the download step 1 page. I should have kept it in the first
place.
I do not think that people should just grab books for the fun of it. If a
book doesn't interest them, don't take it, or at least don't put it in a
huge step 2 backlog. I only take books which I know I'll read. If I know
that I will not read the full book, I don't take it. Also, some books are
extremely popular to the point of being rediculous. I have missed the last
few Star Trek and Star Wars books because they're gone quickly after
someone posts here. I have also seen this with the Hardy books. I
released one or two because I wasn't sure if they would interest me. They
were gone within 24 hours. Other books just sit there for eternity. I
just saw one which has been there since 05-12-2004. No one has even
downloaded it at all in that time! I thought about taking it just to get
it done. I know at least one of my books I took was there since last
October and I didn't take it until the end of December. I think I was the
only one who took it.
Finally, two other thoughts. If a book is automatically released into the
pool after 7 days and you haven't looked at it, just leave it. I have
picked up a few good books that way. Obviously if you haven't started it
in a week, you're not interested. I might not finish a book then or even
start it by then, but I make sure I renew it so it won't expire. Second, I
have made my own internal policy that I will give priority to blind
submitters or those who need the credit. As much as I would like to finish
up Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, she won't get scanning credit for
those so it just doesn't make sense to me to rush them. However I will try
to finish those from Jake and Jim. If people are really interested, I will
post when I've validated and resubmitted a book. I don't see much point in
this since it still has to be approved, but if it helps keep track of
what's floating through the system, I don't mind. That's another issue
that I didn't even address. I validated a Christmas book a few days before
Christmas. I put in the comments that it is a holiday book and asked that
it get validated quickly. I'm still waiting for it to show up on the new
books page. Why should I hurry up and finish a book if it will take a
month or more to show up?