By: Andrew W

Andrew W — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:06:53 +0000

Academic publishers have discovered great success in being included in Google Book Search. I think it was someone from Kluwer who reported that for the first time in their history that this year they had sold at least one copy of every journal they’d ever published.

For the rights issue you bring up—every right not explicitly outlined in a contract still belongs to the author. Which could make things messy.

You know what another huge challenge is going to be? What if Google Book Search greatly increases demand for obscure texts without a commensurate improvement in/acceptance of digital reader technology? Publishers will have an enormous warehousing problem facing them as they try to gauge what single copies of fifty-year-old books they should keep in stock. Consumers would be more likely to then buy a used copy from Amazon, meaning the publisher wouldn’t see a cut, meaning the publisher would be less amenable to Google Book Search in the first place.

By: meika

meika — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 01:09:45 +0000

And that whole ISBN needs re-thinking too designed as it was for distribution channels, and that bowker rent-taking monopoly on issuing ISBNs needs total removal,
something like the
http://www.registeredcommons.org, only re-jigged somewhat , would be a much better idea.

the ISBN system needs some sort of Author number added, especially as in the future we all become self-publishers, just going up to 13 numbers is not enough.

Comments on: Google Book Search, Google Print, The Plot Comes Together

By: Andrew W

By: meika