[frereubu]

Do you "claim" a book, to make sure that no-one else is trying to work on the same book? I presume that's part of step 4 in your link, given that it would be heartbreaking to get 90% of the way through and then be beaten to it by someone who'd started at roughly the same time!

[contact9879]

Yes, you signal your intent on the mailing list subject to approval by the editor-in-chief

[ssttoo]

Exactly, you do get approval before you start, as step 4 says: https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-ste...

In my case I picked a title from the project’s wishlist and almost started but searching the mailing list showed that someone has just started. I found another title by the same author: https://groups.google.com/g/standardebooks/c/IP0emhSQ6Bw/m/B...