Will the Classics Soon Go Out of Print?

[Terrence]

Some years ago I lost my copy of Anthony Trollope’s “The Last Chronicle of Barset” and I went to a bookstore to get a fresh copy. There were none on the shelves, but they eventually found me a copy. It cost about $ 15. A few months later I bought a Kindle and discovered that I could download the eBook version of this book for free.

There are voluntary, non-profit organisations that have uploaded 19th century and some early 20th century books into the internet that can be downloaded free. They are books in the public domain. You can even download free, audio versions of many of these books.

Though many might like to read off physical books, can they afford this luxury when eBooks are available for free? Hence, the demand for physical books that are in the public domain will diminish and it may become economically unfeasible for publishers to print these books.

Hence, the big question: will the classics soon go out of print?

[Lori, Super Mod]

I don't believe the Classics are at risk of going out of print any more so than current titles are. Not everyone owns an e-reader, or prefers reading digitally. Personally, whether the books are available in the public domian or not is not much a concern.

To add to that, think about library and used book sales. I can go to the library and rent any Classic I like, because they will always copies available there. And used book sales are notorious for selling copies of them for 50 cents or a buck a book. They don't have any impact on the lack of necessity or feasibility of continuous print for those titles now. If they did, perhaps the Classics would have gone out of print a long while ago : )