: Re: Is there such a thing as the "master copy" of a book? The process for movies and music is pretty well-known and thoroughly documented on Wikipedia. You shoot a movie, edit it and then you

Do books need master copies? Do we still need master copies?

The answer to both questions is yes. Even though the original copy of a book might be digital, it still needs a master copy.

For one thing, digital degrades. It might not happen as fast as with physical copies, but images degrade as they get copied (one of the downsides of image compression tech). Also, errors (formatting, spelling, and extraneous) are introduced into text as it is copied more and more.

And even if digital didn't suffer from degradation, you should still have a master (or archival) copy. It's not a good idea to assume that you will always be able to find a good quality copy in the future should you need to create a new edition. Chances are it will be a degraded copy with lower quality images and other issues introduced in the conversion process

What should that master copy contain?

In my opinion: Everything.

I would archive everything from the original source documents and images to the intermediate file formats and including whatever preferred archival file format is common at the moment. Don't forget to also include any material discarded from the published book; it could prove useful in a future edition.

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: Capitalize and/or hyphenate "the Start Your Own Business project"? I have come across a situation which drives me mad, and I cannot find any satisfying answer in the Oxford Guide to Style, which

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: This comes down to what exactly you mean by "while writing." To me writing is the act of getting the story down, just as laying out the plot is preparing, and editing and proofreading are

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: Best way to become more natural at English To give a brief background about me, I was born in east Asian countries then moved to America when I was 15. I went to American high school and

: Re: Is there such a thing as the "master copy" of a book? The process for movies and music is pretty well-known and thoroughly documented on Wikipedia. You shoot a movie, edit it and then you

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: Capitalize and/or hyphenate "the Start Your Own Business project"? I have come across a situation which drives me mad, and I cannot find any satisfying answer in the Oxford Guide to Style, which

: How to cite (APA style) a whole chapter about a product? I'm currently writing my thesis and one chapter is about a software product. The chapter contains three paragraphs with general information

: This comes down to what exactly you mean by "while writing." To me writing is the act of getting the story down, just as laying out the plot is preparing, and editing and proofreading are

: Best way to become more natural at English To give a brief background about me, I was born in east Asian countries then moved to America when I was 15. I went to American high school and

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