Submitting your own eBook or other Work to Project Gutenberg Europe HOWTO

Thanks for considering offering your eBook or other work to Project Gutenberg Europe. This HOWTO gives an overview of our selection process, and describes the steps you should take. These guidelines should be followed for any item which is either currently under copyright in the US, and you are the copyright holder, or contemporary items (i.e., post-1923) which are public domain, but were not published by a commercial publisher or are not generally available in libraries. These guidelines should also be followed if you wish to add supplemental materials for an existing Project Gutenberg Europe eBook (such as a new author biography, annotations, bibliographies, etc.).

1. Only works that fit in the Project Gutenberg Europe literary mission will be considered.
2. Confirm the eBook has already been published by a bona-fide publisher (i.e., not self-published or unpublished). Project Gutenberg Europe generally is not suitable for unpublished work. In cases where a work was published by an very small publisher or not widely distributed, Project Gutenberg Europe might request copies of published literary reviews or similar documentation to demonstrate recognition of the work's literary value.
3. Let Project Gutenberg Europe review the eBook. You might also include links/copies of published or online reviews of your work.
4. If Project Gutenberg Europe accepts the eBook, send a copyright permission letter
5. Submit the properly formatted eBook files

If your book is not well-suited for Project Gutenberg Europe, you might consider using the Internet Archive's open source books collection, which accepts a wider range of content.

Let Project Gutenberg Europe review the eBook

Project Gutenberg Europe's mission is to preserve and distribute literary works. As part of this mission, we seek contemporary authors to consider us as a means of preservation for their published creative output. Some general guidelines:

• The book must have been published by a bona fide publisher (Project Gutenberg Europe is probably not the right target for your unpublished manuscript);
• You must have the legal right to offer the eBook for distribution;
• The book should be in a literary genre, broadly considered. This could include anything from recipes to travelogues, but probably excludes most items such as technical manuals, diaries, self-help books and musical performances;
• It must not contain illegal materials, including obscenity. This is important for the safety of Project Gutenberg Europe and its mirrors. (For a definition of obscenity, as compared to indecency, see the FCC);
• You should have the book in an editable electronic form, so that it may be converted to plain text and other formats desired. We generally do not distribute eBooks only in non-editable formats (such as PDF) - the ability to engage in fair use, to create derivative works etc. within the constraints of copyright law or the license you grant is a hallmark of the Project Gutenberg Europe literary mission.

If you would like Project Gutenberg Europe to consider distributing your book as part of its collection, please email details to PGLAF's CEO. You can email the eBook (plain text or HTML is best) or a URL. He'll repond within day or two.

Send a copyright permission letter

Due to the risks and challenges of US Copyright Law, we need to have the letter on paper, sent to Michael Hart (Founder). The letter can be brief, must be signed by the appropriate person, and should include:

• The name of the book(s);
• That the letter's sender is the legal copyright holder (or agent);
• Giving Project Gutenberg Europe perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide rights to distribute the books in electronic form on a royalty-free basis.

Here are some notes of explanation:

1. You do NOT need to grant the book to the public domain. It is still copyrighted, according to whatever national laws apply.
2. Copyleft, CreativeCommons, and other licenses are fine.
3. You still own your book, and all rights to it (for example, you could sell copies of the book in print or electronic form).
4. Because the collection is mirrored worldwide, Project Gutenberg has no way of "recalling" etexts, so you cannot expect to be able to change your mind. Once we add it to the collection, it will stay there. We can fix errors or update the formatting, as needed.
5. If you desire to have a URL or other information included with the etext, we will be happy to oblige. Minimally, we will include clear notation that the book is copyrighted by the copyright holder.
6. The Project Gutenberg Europe header specifies under what conditions your book may be distributed while associated with the Project Gutenberg Europe trademark. People might remove this header. If you want to place additional restrictions (such as no commercial use or resale), we advise putting them at the start of the text.

Here is a sample letter, including the address to send it to:

Michael S. Hart
Founder, Project Gutenberg Europe405 West Elm Street
Urbana IL, 61801-3231, USA

Dear Project Gutenberg Europe:

I am the sole copyright holder for the book, "A Pouch Full of
Wallbies."  It gives me pleasure to grant Project Gutenberg Europe perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive rights to distribute this book in electronic
form through Project Gutenberg Europe Web sites, CDs or other current and
future formats.  No royalties are due for these rights.

Sincerely,

Gregory B. Newby
gbnewby AT pglaf.org

Including your email in the letter will make it easier for us to get in touch.

Submit the Properly Formatted eBook files

Project Gutenberg Europe does not have sufficient staff to edit your eBook or to prepare the eBook files to meet our standards. Thus, it is up to the submitter to prepare files to our standards. Complete detail is available in our FAQ. Please review these standards before offering your eBook. If you are unable or unwilling to prepare your eBook as described, we will be unable to accept it.

Briefly, requirements are:

• You must submit a plain text (.txt) version of the file, formatted according to our guidelines (line endings at ~72 characters; run through the gutcheck program for correct formatting). The only exception is if plain text is simply not possible for your work (for example, for a mathematical work). If you do not have plain text, or are unable to meet our standards, we will not be able to accept the eBook.
• Other formats, such as HTML, are welcome. HTML must be valid and linkchecked (as described in the FAQ), with no external links other than one link to the author/submitter's site. We require eBooks to be available as one single HTML file. If you would additionally like to submit a work subdivided into separate HTML files, that is acceptable as long as the one-file version is available. Images may be included.
• We will distribute PDF, RTF, LaTeX, and other formats, but you might want to check first on any guidance we might have to offer. Generally, we do not distribute files in Word .doc or similar vendor-based formats. We greatly prefer formats that are editable, but recognize that PDF is sometimes the best contemporary way to get your eBook to display just right.

Once the eBook is uploaded to the main servers and announced, it will be searchable and listed in the Gutenberg holdings lists. If you notice any problems with the files, contact the posting team or individual who prepared your eBook, so fixes may be applied

Thanks again for considering offering your work to the Project Gutenberg Europe collection!