This week Google has taken a huge step in their quest for world domination by announcing plans to create the world’s biggest online library.
It’s left many people asking – is there nothing Google won’t get its’ hands on?
A deal was made between Google and the author’s association in America, which will see millions of books published online. Although the plans will only go ahead in America at first, they have also been approved by British publishing groups and authors so it looks like it won’t be long until we follow.
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), who represent the majority of British authors, welcomed the deal as it will provide revenue for out-of-print authors. True to this, out of the 10 million books Google have already copied, 7 million of those are out-of-print.
If everything is published online it does leave you wondering how any money is going to be made from books. Well, apparently more that 20,000 British writers are set to make thousands from the deal because readers can search millions of books, read online extracts and then buy a full copy.
There are many publishers who are still extremely suspicious about the proposition and wonder if there is not more to it than just giving people a wider access to books.
Authors will get around £40 just for allowing digital copies of their books to be made (yes, £40 - not exactly thousands.) They will then receive ‘the majority’ of profits from online sales and also about 60% from other online book sales.
I say ‘the majority’ because I question the definition of ‘majority’ in Google’s eyes, if it was all so great for authors then what would be in it for Google in the first place? What made them re-draft and re-draft the proposal just so it got agreed? What’s the attraction?
Well, the publishing industry in Britain is worth £1.8 billion – sounds pretty attractive to me.
What about the idea of online books? Does it mean the end of paper books? Well, no, I don’t actually believe that’s possible- what would I read on the beach?! Although I do believe that soon libraries will be about as extinct as dinosaurs.
I do just want to leave you with one final thought… Who wants to read a book on a laptop anyway?
