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Publishers Thank Google for Book Sales
eldavojohn writes "A few book publishers are actually thanking Google for an apparent rise in sales due to Google's scan plan. Google is busy defending itself against authors and publishers that have brought lawsuits for ignoring copyrights. The director of the Oxford University Press said, 'Google Book Search has helped us turn searchers into consumers.' It seems to work in favor of the smaller publishers: 'Walter de Gruyter/Mouton-De Gruyter, a German publisher, said its encyclopedia of fairy tales has been viewed 471 times since appearing in the program, with 44 percent of them clicking on the 'buy this book' Google link.' Do you think that Google's 'sneak peak' search access increases sales or violates copyrights on intellectual property?"
However, this would disallow that they line their own pockets to the betterment of science and/or art. After all, "it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker...." This greed is the only reason this art for which you're so desperate exists.
Do you think that the New York Times should be paying you for each newspaper they sell which has a review of your book? After all, they are making money off your work, right?
Oh, boy! A coward AND completely ignorant of the way the world works. Hopefully you can at least play the banjo or know some card tricks or your gonna have some trouble with small groups of people later on in life...
Listen, Citizen Kane, the publisher SENDS a copy of the book to the NY Times, and practically BEGS them to review it because a review in the Times almost inevitably boosts both placement in bookstores AND sales (regardless of whether the review was favorable or not). Passages from the book may be excerpted without explicit permission, as per fair use. This relationship exists because it is mutually beneficial to both the newspaper and the publisher. It is a relationship into which both parties enter, happily and willingly.
There is no relationship between Google and the publisher, beyond Google saying, "I'm going to scan your client's book, usurp some of the distribution rights he sold to you, and make a lot of money from it (while my Marketing Department keeps convincing the kids that I'm the Sugar Plum Fairy and not some rapacious global corporation with more power than Microsoft ever dreamed of). So shut up, you can't afford the legal fees to come after me, but if you're lucky, and your client is relatively unknown with not much of a following, maybe -- just maybe -- my illegal scan-and-search-enable will goose his sales a little."
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on
Ohhhh, let me guess: You're one of the "Code is Poetry" crowd, am I right? Or maybe your idea of a good read is curling up with a Zaurus full of the latest Buffy fanfic, yes? You resent the sales people in your organization because they don't do any of the REAL work, like fixing the mail server or de-bugging the wireless print server, right? Here's a tip: You know all those happy, creative, good-looking, funny and stylishly-dressed people who shun you? It's NOT because they're bitter that God made you better with mechanical objects than they are...