Legal Deposit Blues

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Dear British Library,

Attached to this email is a file containing my eBook, 'The Missionary Dune' which was published for the Amazon Kindle on the 30th June, 2021. I hope that this will satisfy my legal obligation to deposit a copy of the book with your organisation. It is only right and proper that future generations be given the same opportunity to ignore its existence as those who are currently living.

Prior to writing this email, I had been advised by a member of your Digital Processing Team that a zipped copy of my book could be downloaded from my KDP dashboard. This proved not to be the case. I have since discovered that, because the book was produced using Kindle Create, it cannot be downloaded and previewed offline. I duly contacted Amazon requesting guidance. They sent me the link to the file that you now have in your possession. You will find the relevant part of the email that Amazon sent me trowelled onto the bottom of this communication.

It is my understanding that The British Library is presently sitting on an ever-growing pile of eBooks that it cannot currently access, presumably due to outstanding legal issues surrounding proprietary software. If that is indeed the case, then I fail to see how this can be resolved in a manner that doesn't expose your national archive to the shifting sands of software licencing terms and conditions.

It bears noting that I did offer to produce a PDF copy of the book, either as single file, or broken down into chapters. This would have allowed easy access to the text without having to jump through any of the hoops that Jeff Bezos undoubtedly sells on Amazon (hula hoops retail from as little as £3; something called a 'smart hoop', that resembles a terrifying sex toy, can be yours from £5 and up). I sympathize with you to a degree. In another life I worked as a clerk. I routinely filed documents knowing that they would never again be gazed upon by human eyes. It was like being the opposite of God.

In an ideal world, I would have produced a print on demand version of the book. That being said, long-term unemployment shifts one's priorities in the direction of what is essential, over and above what is desirable. Purchasing six copies of my own novella and then mailing them to the libraries included in the legal deposit scheme, falls rather dubiously into the category of luxury, in a world where I often live off a jar of Marmite and a loaf of bread.

Amazon, despite being run by the closest person that the world has to a real-life Bond villain, has democratised publishing and streamlined the process to a point where even a complete idiot can have a go at it. I am a living testimony to their success in this venture. The British Library, in contrast, strikes me as an institution in denial with regard to this rapidly changing landscape and the rise of digital books and digital marketplaces. Hoarding thousands upon thousands of inaccessible eBooks, in the hope that, one day, a planet-straddling conglomerate will take pity on you and hand you the keys to their own library, seems terribly optimistic. In this context, a theoretical library comprising infinite hexagonal galleries, staffed by a diminishing population of captive librarians, makes significantly more sense.


Yours Truly

Sam Redlark

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