This is kind of, at least what I take Monergisms outlook to be. (But take it off-the-record, as I am far from their official spokesman.) That is, its goal is to offer the "best" in Reformed and Puritan literature, to the world, free of charge; to the best of its ability. Nobody has a monopoly on Public Domain works. People who are going to buy critical editions; like libraries, students whom it is required reading, those who prefer print books, etc. are going to be completely unaffected by any sort of effort to make these works free in digital form. But what it does offer, is for those on the lower income spectrum, (especially global Christians who even if they could afford the print, the shipping may put it out of range), is to have similar access to these wonderful books via ePubs for their phones or eReaders, as those who can easily afford the print, or eBooks which may be very similar to the print price. While publishers I am sure do what they do with a heart to see the work done, and God glorified, there is also a very real business side to it that Monergism can kind of ignore. We can ignore this because there is no monetary incentive for our distribution. This in turn leaves us kind of not really concerned with what big publishers are doing, because many do not (at least to my knowledge) minster in the same realm as we do, that is offering no-cost global access to all its works. I am not saying that is better or worse, not at all, but only what print-publishers do, and how they move; is not in the same realm of what we do. We simply want to see the text out, and offered to all, to the best of our ability, with no strings attached. Will this step on toes at times? Maybe. But if people understand that the people who buy all the new Banner, RHB, SDG, etc. books, are usually not the same people who utilize Monergism, they may find more peace in the fact that doing it this way, at least attempts to make sure everyone has a chance to read them, which should make people happy, that more people are being edified by these wonderful works, instead of potentially less people, due possibly to regional or financial constraints.
What EEBO-TCP and Project Puritas, as well as recent transcription advancements in AI, all pretty much culminating in the last 5 years, has allowed us to do, is it has made it much easier to get a reasonably good (though not critical) text into the hands of readers; with little expense outside of time and an internet connection. We are not going to ignore this opportunity because someone has, or is doing a work which many in the world may not be able to afford once published. If they want the primo-edition, of the primo-quality, in the primo-format; then a worker is worth their wages, and they must pay the allotted price. Our goal is to offer the closest we can get to such an effort, but in a way that it wont cost them anything, and can be shared anywhere globally in as little as a mouse click.
And lastly lets not pretend any of these people or publishers would think for a second to stop going forward with any project they envisioned because they knew Monergism was doing it or has done it. And why would they? A PD book is just as open to them as it is to us. And I am not saying that with a single a grain of disdain. I am simply stating a fact. Many times the big publishers reach people who could care less about Monergism, and many times Monergism reaches people who would love to purchase everything from the big publishers, but cant. It is not a war; it is to see the most reached with the best works written.
