Earlier today I posted about how self-publishing was affecting the modern science fiction genre. As it happens, independent publishing is not just for self-published e-books; io9 has discovered a Kickstarter project called “Save the Scifi!" by publisher Singularity & Co., aimed at purchasing publishing rights to out-of-print classic SF titles, scanning them, and publishing them as e-books and in print.
The project had a goal of $15,000, which would have covered purchasing the rights to the first four books it was planning on republishing. It has currently been funded to $32,916. The titles to be rescued have not yet been announced; the project FAQ says the books will be chosen by monthly vote on its web site.
I think this is a great idea for a project—there are plenty of classic SF titles out there that publishers haven’t deemed worth e-publishing and that even pirates haven’t found interesting enough to scan. It would be fun to be able to read some of these works electronically.
Unglue.it is soon to launch. We’re excited to see the enthusiasm for Singularity and company, but we find the approach of taking money without having a rightsholders agree to the scheme in advance to be a bit dubious.