AN AUTHOR'S VIEW OF ELECTRONIC RIGHTS & THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

by Richard Seltzer, The B&R Samizdat Express

From Internet-on-a-Disk #3, May 1994

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim electronic copies of this article for non-commercial purposes provided this permission notice is preserved on all copies. All other rights reserved. To correspond with the author, send email to: seltzer@samizdat.com

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Twenty years ago, when the small press movement was gaining momentum, my wife and I started a little company to publish a children's book I had written -- The Lizard of Oz. Offset printing had become so inexpensive that anyone could be a publisher. You no longer needed the blessing of an established publishing house to bring your words to the public. There were book fairs everywhere, and a spirit of camaraderie and sharing prevailed among beginners like us. Everything seemed possible.

The world would be transformed.

Gradually, we woke up to the fact that while it was easy and inexpensive to put words onto paper, distribution was slow, expensive, and inefficient. Even with good reviews (the media were actually looking for small press material to review), it was very difficult to get books into stores. And even if you did get them into stores, they didn't stay on the shelves for long.

That's the way the business was set up -- they have to make room for the latest offerings, and there is only limited space. And with that system, the price of books is designed to pay for all the copies that will be returned by the stores and remaindered or shredded.

So instead of manuscripts gathering dust in writers' drawers, boxes of printed books gathered dust in their closets.

Now we are experiencing the same kind of excitement and sharing with the Internet. Only this time the information is in electronic form. That means that not only can anyone publish, but the means of distribution are available to everyone as well.

The main barrier to writers using this means to deliver their work to the public are psychological.

Often we presume that while the score and the players change, the rules of the game remain the same. But we are now at a turning point in the history of publishing. With the proliferation of electronic texts, old rules do not necessarily apply and new ones have not been established. The choices that authors make today can help establish what will be common practice for many years to come.

Traditional publishers are waking up and beginning to include "electronic rights" in their contracts and are trying to get their authors to sign over electronic rights for previously published works. Authors should think very carefully before signing such documents, should consider the other options and their implications.

Step back. Why do you write? -- to be read.

Yes, you would like to be paid for your work, though you realize that is likely to be more symbolic than substantial -- an indication that your work is valued and accepted by the establishment. (Very few writers receive significant sums for their work). But, most likely, your primary motivation is to share your thoughts and creations with others.

Why does a traditional company publish your work? -- to make money.

They invest in your work because they expect to get a return, whether from the marketplace or from grant money. Even university presses will not keep a book in print if they cannot make a profit from it.

In cyberspace, an electronic book can stay in print indefinitely, at practically no cost. As long as the work exists at one public site on the Internet, it remains available to everyone who is interested, everywhere in the world.

And electronic texts on diskettes can be quickly and inexpensively copied for colleagues and students.

This means authors can keep their works alive either by placing them in the public domain or by retaining copyright, but making them freely available in electronic form.

Examples:

• New life for out-of-print works:
• Norman Coombs has placed his The Black Experience in America in the public domain and made it available over the Internet.
• Outlet for works of limited scholarly interest:
• Dale Grote placed his never-before-published Study Guide to Wheelock's Latin in the public domain on the Internet.
• Jean-Michel Margot. president of the Jules Verne Society, is making available through PLEASE COPY THIS DISK, a little-known Jules Verne novella that was recently published for the first time: Le Mariage de Mr Anselme des Tilleuls.
• Free electronic edition available in parallel with print edition:
• Bruce Sterling retained the electronic rights to his Hacker Crackdown and made it freely available over the Internet, in parallel with its paperback publication by Bantam.
• Eric Raymond retained electronic rights to The New Hacker's Dictionary and made it freely available over the Internet in parallel with publication by MIT Press.
• And I've made my Lizard of Oz available in electronic form, while the paper version is still in print.

When authors put their work in the public domain or retain electronic rights and make their work freely available in electronic form, the public gains access to their work for the indefinite future, and the authors win new readers.

So if a publisher offers you a contract that includes electronic rights, think before you sign. You may want to join the electronic revolution.

This site is Published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. (617) 469-2269. seltzer@samizdat.com

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