"Authors Guild" Skims Half of Google Book-Rights Settlement

Miracle Jones writes "A recent memo from the 'Author's Guild' to the writers and publishers that it supposedly represents shows that only $45 million of the $125 million dollar settlement with Google will be paid to writers, and that the most a writer can receive for a book is $300. Many people speculate that Google's monopoly over all of out-of-copyright works will result in a brutal monopoly that will hurt both writers and readers, and that the 'Author's Guild' had no right to make the deal in the first place. How will it all shake down? Should writers be paid at all for their work? Will Google be any good at the publishing racket?"

Comments

The publishing stranglehold is failing anyway

[einhverfr]

The publishing industry worked very well when the only way you could self-publish was with expensive long offset runs. Nowadays, print on demand is making self-publishing much easier and more affordable. Add to it affordable typesetting/design software, and you have a chance to really crack these cartels.

I recently published my book via a POD publisher (Booksurge). You can see it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439223084/

I also do micro-runs for wholesale (100 copies of the book at a time).

Interestingly.... I did the entire book design, including the cover, in LaTeX. It came out great. I am extremely happy with the quality that the free software in this area is able to provide. The only few issues are design mistakes I made, and not software limitations (the barcode should be placed differently on the back, etc).

My most recent journal entry includes a follow-up post on advice for people designing books using LaTeX.

Re:Parent comment also laughably incorrect

[rossifer]

That's the result of a settlement with the class. As soon as the judge certifies the settlement, it applies to both parties, including the class, and can bind members of the class from subsequent litigation.

The judge's certification is supposed to verify that the various obligations of the settlement are in the fiduciary interest of the class and the plaintiff, to prevent the class lawyers from writing a settlement which only benefits themselves, for instance.

So the question here is: is the settlement in the fiduciary interest of the class members or did the judge make an error in certifying the settlement?

Seems right to me

[BigBadBus]

I'm a writer, and I agree that more of the book's profits should go to the person who did all the hard work actually writing the text, researching the material etc. Thats not to see that a publisher shouldn't get something; after all, they bind, market and distribute the books, but surely the people who provided the publisher with its profits shouldn't get more money? A friend is a successful author and he gets only 1/17th of the profits of the book. I decided to write my book as an ebook, so that the profits come direct to me and not some pen pushing non entity, but I come across the problems of marketing and publicity.

Moral: authors (unless you are established) just can't win. Makes you wonder why we bother.

Not this author...

[tinrobot]

I've been a published author of computer books for almost 15 years, writing 12 books for several major publishers. All of my books have been scanned and put online by Google without my consent.

The first I heard of the Author's Guild was when Google sent me a notice about this matter and offered me practically nothing for the 'right' to steal my books. I do not have a contract with the Authors Guild and did not give the Author's Guild any right to speak for me. I'd imagine most authors didn't authorize them, either.