"Authors Guild" Skims Half of Google Book-Rights Settlement 271
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?"
Can Slashdot, I dunno, Just "Un-Submit" This? (Score:5, Funny)
...or would that require responsible editing?
Re:I can speak to this from firsthand knowledge (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Can Slashdot, I dunno, Just "Un-Submit" This? (Score:3, Funny)
Editing? /.?
Re:Summary and blogspam link laughably incorrect (Score:5, Funny)
pay 8 bucks at your local book store for something that cost them 1 buck to make.
Hey, it only cost them $0.21 for the paper and ink to make that book. It cost them another $0.33 for packaging, storage and shipping. Then it cost them $0.64 for promotion (free copies, advertising, signing parties). If you bought the book in a shopping mall, they're probably paying $1.50 per book in rent for the mall space (say $20K per month rent vs 40K books in the store that stay there for 3 months each), and another $1.50 per book for the cheerful staff who ignore you until you shout at them that you're ready to pay now, please! Corporate management, insurance, accounting, debt service, shareholder profits, etc. account for another $3.80, and then the author gets their 0.02 per copy royalty.
Who could possibly want to disturb such a vibrant ecosystem by delivering content directly from the author to their readers efficiently?