They already do offer the entire Gutenberg catalog. But if you think Gutenberg has every PD title there is, you are sadly mistaken. In fact, Gutenberg has only a tiny fraction of all the books ever published before 1923. And of that tiny fraction, only a tiny fraction is formatted for the Kindle so the reading experience is somewhat bearable.

Gutenberg has only a tiny fraction of all the PD titles that exist. And even of that tiny fraction, only a tiny fraction are formatted for the kindle so the reading experience is halfway bearable.

I agree I think you have a better idea there. That would probably improve the quality of the submissions which is really what they (Amazon) are trying to do. (you should suggest that by sending an email to title-submission@amazon.com )

Actually you are incorrect. They have instituted a "no public domain" policy. This is not meant to filter out copyright infringement because that could still happen under their new policy and process. In fact, it may be even easier under the new process because they are concentrating their review process on weeding out public domain works only, rather than asking for proof of rights to the work.

Bezos' oft stated grand vision with the Kindle is to make every book ever published available for Kindle readers. Right now they have about 350,000 titles (30,000 of which are various versions of "Pride and Prejudice" j/k ;-) 350,000 titles is obviously a far cry from the vision. Even if you throw in the poorly formatted Gutenberg collection into the mix, that only represents a small fraction of every book ever published. Clearly it doesn't make any sense for Amazon to exclude public domain titles, because that would mean they have written off (no pun intended) every book published before 1923. That certainly would not serve their Kindle readership well -- the same readership that have shelled out $300+ for a Kindle. In fact, there are complaints on the Amazon forums about a lot of books not being available for the Kindle. This is just one of many threads: http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_search_res_ti?_encoding=UTF8&cdMsgNo=1&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx1CHJ1YPUUMKOQ&cdMsgID=MxPIP3LYY8GT4D#MxPIP3LYY8GT4D [amazon.com] So why did Amazon institute such a draconian policy? It doesn't help them because it limits their library. It doesn't help their customers because it cuts off every book published before 1923 and goes against the vision stated by Bezos himself. My guess is that this was a short-sited policy implemented at a low management level. Amazon is a large, bureaucratic organization and decisions are made that Bezos would not necessarily agree to. Look at the 1984 fiasco. It was clear Bezos was not involved in that policy decision and he acted quickly and decisively to rectify the situation. My personal opinion is that this sledgehammer policy will be rescinded and a policy that is better thought through to deal with the quality issues will be drafted. Amazon wants to work with publishers in order to bring their vision for the Kindle to fruition. They certainly want to provide the books that their customers want. This current policy gets in the way of doing that.