 Publishing
Electronic Books
Copyright
As
a general rule, an author or publisher can assert
copyright over electronic works, but documents published
on the internet can be copied by anyone with access. The
thing to remember is that provided other people cannot
change the work, and provided that an author can receive
payment for the published work, then copying the
published document does not cause a problem. In fact,
copying the published work can ensure far wider
publicity.
Preventing
the Book From Being Changed
There
are now several document
viewer systems available that allow a
book to be published as a single file that can be
downloaded and viewed with a viewer program, but the file
itself cannot be changed.
Payment
Several
companies are addressing the payment issue with the use
of credit cards or electronic cash, but these methods are
mainly for use in purchase of goods. Other items like
music, writing and art are much harder to ensure payment
because the file is on the web, and anyone can down load
it.
However,
the publishing industry could take a leaf out of the
software industry's book (pardon the pun), using the shareware
model. Under this model, an evaluation version is freely
available and may be freely copied. However, if people
want the full version they must part with money to obtain
it. There are some
books available now using this process.
So
a writer could load the first chapter of his/her novel
onto the web, with a note that upon sending a sum of
money to the author you will receive the full version,
perhaps printed and bound, or on disk. If the book is
published using the Publisher Suite from
Fugue Software, the entire book can be distributed with
part of it being password protected. Only those who pay
the fee to receive the password can read the protected
chapters.
Payments
can be made by cash, cheque (check), or credit cards with
very little problem. In order to receive credit card
payments you need to make a Credit Card Merchant
arrangement with a bank.
Warning
Authors, do
not sign away your on-line rights when
you sign a publishing deal. Have an experienced
entertainment lawyer check things first. You could be
doing yourself out of a very lucrative market in the
years to come!
Note
Publishers are not
doing you a favor by publishing your work. They think
they will make money out of it, that's the only
reason. Make sure you get your share!
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