Do you have a previously published book that you wish you could re-release, but you do not have a current version of the manuscript? No problem, just get it scanned, right? You’ve seen those ads that promise to scan your book, and even create an ebook and PDF while they’re at it. It sounds really great, but Pedernales has worked with many authors to get their books scanned and there are pitfalls you should be aware of.

First, it does not have to be too expensive, so don’t overpay for the service. A 300 page book should cost you somewhere around $25-40 just for the scan. For this you should get a formatted text file and a PDF. That is, of course, for an unproofed scan. And there is the rub. To get a useful scan of your book, it has to be proofed before you can use it, and that is a manual, painstaking chore.  The reason a book has to be proofed is that although the scan might be pretty good, the errors need to be eliminated.  And there ARE going to be scan errors. If you are willing to clean them up yourself, then paying a modest fee for just the scanning makes sense. If you want perfection (it ain’t gonna happen) or at least the best quality, pay extra for the proofing, which will cost a minimum of a dollar a page. So, a 300 page book should come in at about $300. Reasonable enough, right? If you want your original book that you sent in for scanning returned to you, you can choose “non-destructive” scanning which costs a bit more. The PDF is useful because it is a good way to see what the scanned text SHOULD look like if you sent your one and only copy of the book to the scanning company. The formatted text file is a file that contains the scanned text and includes italicized, bolded, and otherwise formatted text.

Second, don’t buy any of the addons, like ebook versions such as epub or mobi. Why? Because the scanning process is imperfect. The text files are going to have scan errors, and every one of those errors is going to show up in your ebook, which renders it useless.
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