Writers, Sign Up for your Check from Google Books!

Okay, I admit that I went for it.

Whatever published authors may think about Google’s ambitious plan to digitize more or less every book ever published, the company’s recent settlement of a class-action lawsuit with publishers and authors creates a potential new revenue stream, albeit a small one, for us that I believe is worth pursuing.

According to the terms of the settlement, Google will pay $125 million to set up a system which will charge users for reading a copyrighted book, and will share that fee with the copyright holder. If you are a writer, and hold your copyright rights, you are also to receive a one-time $60 flat fee for the initial scanning, unless you wish to opt out of the system altogether.

BTW,  Google Book Settlement.com makes it easy to locate your books, including any old and out of print editions — the rights to which may well have reverted to you. For those of us who have written books that have been published in multiple editions, and different languages, it can be quite a research project to locate all of those separate editions; so whether or not we actually receive any additional compensation this is an opportunity to get our historical (pre-digital) act together.

As to whether Google will pay us for these random editions will depend on Google (or the court)’s decisions over:

(1) whether scanning a book in 12 or so different languages, say, constitutes 12 books and therefore 12 scanning fees; and

(2) whether Google will bother to scan a single title that was published in, say, 4 different formats, by three different imprints, each with separate editing and text/graphic elements, and all bearing different ISBNs.

As you can guess, these questions are of direct interest to me. Google has already scanned three of my published books, two of which were written with co-authors. Although I initially did not own the copyright to any of these works — as that typically went to the publishers or to the non-profit organization that employed me when I wrote the books — over the years all of them have fallen “out-of-print.”

When they did so, in traditional terms, they were literally dead trees. And, according to the contracts I signed with the companies that published them, all of the rights to these dead trees reverted to me (and my co-authors.)

In the pre-Google world, this was the end of the story. But now, as I was relocating these old paperback and hardcover friends of mine online, I started realizing how Google’s massive effort to digitize everything ever written might end up benefiting me, and those like me, on a number of levels.

Taking the most conservative path, my co-authors and I (or our then-employers) should split the initial $60 fee on two of the titles. On the third, the entire $60 should come to me. If you hate to do basic math, so far my personal takings stand at $120 (half of which I would probably donate to the NPO who employed me, happily, since I am not currently able to make very many charitable donations and this would represent “found money.”)

Even better, I might be able to lend this money to Third World entrepreneurs via Kiva. org, where it could do more good than here in the USA., since the best credit risks in this world are the poorest women in the poorest countries — there’s a book worth writing in and of itself.

But, all of this may be just the beginning. I know of approximately 18 translations into foreign languages of these books, and at least 8 separate editions/imprints. For the moment, let’s forget how the scanning fee would be split, because we are now talking about at least $1,560 in scanning fees, should Google choose to (or be required to) pay out on the basis of separate ISBNs and separate language versions, for these three books.

One of these books was an underground best-seller, since sales reached at least 100,000 in its various editions around the world. Thanks to Google Books, it may now find new readers, since its topic is still relevant and even the basis of an ongoing legislative effort in the U.S. Senate.

Therefore, perhaps a small revenue stream could be realized as this 30-year-old book finds new fans in a world that is far more integrated, globally, than back when my co-author and I wrote it.

All of which is only one writer’s tiny story. To all of those dedicated to bashing Google no matter what the company does, take a closer look at the possibilities here, and imagine a world where our pre-digital contributions cross the divide and join the digital line separating pre-web and post-web history.

And remember: It took the Dead Sea Scrolls a hell of a lot longer to come to light.