In July it was reported that the settlement between Google and the Author's Guild and numerous book publishers was "dead" because the judge in the case had determined that the Author's Guild did not constitute a class, as in a class deemed eligible for legal class action. Judge Chin ruled that there are too many kinds of authors involved in the case: American authors, foreign authors, fiction and non-fiction authors, authors of short stories and essays, authors who are members and authors who are not members of the Author's Guild, academic authors, commercial authors, independent authors, self-published authors, and even unidentified authors, in the case of some works. All these various authors do not, in Judge Chin's opinion, make up a class.

Various publishers continued in talks with Google, even after Judge Chin's ruling, in order to reach a separate settlement. Now a separate settlement with publishers has not been reached. But the Author's Guild has entered the fray once more. Interestingly or perhaps bafflingly, the Author's Guild has filed a motion for class certification - the very assertion that caused Judge Chin to throw out the terms of the settlement when he stated the Author's Guild does not represent a "class". In addition, the Author's Guild goes on to assert, as it has before, that Google infringed upon copyrights as it scanned books that it made available through its search engine and that all of this was done strictly for commercial purposes. Google will assert that it was making books available in the spirit of "fair use." Also Google will be able to state that the Author's Guild has done nothing to correct the situation as it existed previously with regard to not representing authors in general and therefore does not constitute a class.

All of this will no doubt kick the can down the road a bit more; and I hope eventually some figure approaching the 45 million that was to be paid to authors whose rights have been violated will be distributed amongst all the authors in question. It is very important that this violation of copyright law does not go without penalty and that all authors whose books were scanned without their permission shall be compensated for their losses.

Today on NPR I heard an interview with Chester Nez, the last living member of the famous platoon of Navajo Code Talkers who developed a code the Japanese could not crack during World War II. He was being interviewed in light of the fact that this is Native American History Month and in honor of the publication this year of his own book recounting in his own words the intriguing history of the brave young men who volunteered to use their native language to provide cover and intelligence for Americans fighting in the Pacific Campaign all those many years ago. Nez, who is now 90, says he is particularly proud that the Navajo language was used as the basis for the code which the enemy could never decipher, and he hopes their story will be an inspiration to young Navajos.

In 2001 then President Bush presented the five surviving Code Talkers with the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Last year two Code Talkers remained when a newspaper article appeared about them in an Albuquerque newspaper. But today Nez is the only one still living, a legend and a repository of all the courage, hope, and honor shared by those men and their people.

The book is published by Berkeley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin. But this is not the first book about the Navajo Code Talkers that I have known about or written about.

In 1973, after receiving rejection notices from traditional publishers, Doris Paul published her
seminal work, Navajo Code Talkers, with Dorrance. Based upon interviews with all of the original Code Talkers still living at that time, her account was the first to tell the story of these remarkable Americans. This self-published book, having sold almost 100,000 copies over the years, is still in print with Dorrance. It has been featured by the Smithsonian Institution, was the subject of four segments of CBS's "An American Portrait" series, and provided the basis for a major motion picture released by MGM Studios in 2002 titled Wind Talkers. 

It is very good all these many years later to see that the legacy of the Code Talkers lives on and to know that this brave man, Chester Nez, has had the opportunity to share his important memoir with a grateful nation.

Barnes & Noble is predicting its sales of e-books to increase from $250 million in 2010 to $2 billion in 2015. During the same time period, it expects its sales of print books to decline from $3.6 billion to $2.8 billion. Nevertheless the overall projected increase of $1.2 billion in sales represents a 33 percent jump. Barnes & Noble is projecting growth not only in e-book sales but also in e-reading devices and the materials that can be read on them, such as magazines and newspapers, and also apps.

Currently Barnes & Noble is the only bricks and mortar book selling chain operating profitably. Infamously Borders closed all its stores and went out of business this year. Less well known is the fact that Books A Million has also closed stores and lost $10 million over the past nine months. The distinguishing factor separating profitability from loss in this industry is whether stores sell e-books and e-readers. Those who do not are not enjoying the benefits of the publishing industry's expansion spearheaded by the increase in e-books, but they are experiencing a continuing and serious decline in the sale of print books.

Just recently the major traditional publishing houses have announced that e-books are making up 20 percent of their sales. When you consider that just a few years ago, e-books accounted for 1 percent of sales, and last year they made up about 6 percent of sales, and this year they total about 15 percent of all sales, their growth is explosive. Recently it has been predicted that in two or three years e-books will account for 80 percent of books sold that consist of straight running text. Remarkably this staggering projection does not seem out of line. Look for big increases in e-books in the first few months of 2012 as people start downloading books for their new Kindles, Nooks, and i Pads that they received as holiday gifts.  That exact phenomenon occurred last year. With the cost of the devices coming down and lending libraries making it more and more appealing to own e-reading devices by making e-books available for borrowing over the internet, the trend seems sure to continue.

The book publishing industry has expanded in all markets over the past three years - traditional publishing, self-publishing, scholarly publishing, children's book publishing. From 2008 to 2010 there has been an increase of 4 percent in books sold and a 5 percent increase in book sales revenues. And e-books are leading the parade. This is great news for self-publishing authors as e-books are the product of digital publishing, which makes it possible for authors and readers to connect directly in cyberspace, which, apparently is also expanding.

It's a whole new world of/for readers!

Amazon.com has just announced its new Lending lLbrary for Kindle owners who are also Amazon Prime subscribers. The Amazon Prime program, which has been in existence for many years, allows customers to pay one flat fee for a year and receive free shipping on everything they purchase from Amazon. It is an odd pairing indeed, as neither lending nor selling e-books involves any shipping expense whatsoever. Therefore it seems to me that the new program has been developed by Amazon primarily as a way to get more Amazon customers to purchase the Prime service rather than as a way of distributing more e-books.

Nevertheless the bi-product, however unintentional, will indeed be the distribution of more e-books, and that is good to a point. Many publishers and authors are disturbed by the new lending library because Amazon seems to have launched it without consulting sufficiently, in their minds, with the traditional publishing community, and because they are distrustful that publishers and authors will be justly compensated for the distribution of their content. Rather Amazon has put together a Kindle Lending Library of 5,000 books, mostly self-published, published by Amazon itself, or published by houses that will accept Amazon's payment model of paying the wholesale price for the one book it purchases and then lends out. The six major traditional publishing houses have refused to participate, many stating this kind of arrangement should be handled as a lease not a wholesale purchase.

It seems to me this concept is good for self-published authors, primarily because it is a way to get their books noticed. It provides free promotion and, in the bargain, some money will change hands between Amazon and the author for the book they lend out. The terms of the lending library state that a borrower may only borrow up to one book a month for free. If readers want to read additional titles they find are available in the lending library, but they have used up their book for the month, they may very well be motivated to purchase a Kindle edition of that book, an additional revenue stream, a potentially much greater one, for self-published authors.

I think the Amazon Kindle Lending Library is worth checking out. Undoubtedly, it will continue to evolve, and only time will tell its impact on self-published authors and their books.

A Good One !!

Great organization with a powerful mission. I hope that providing this type of service to these communities' schools is currently happening or being considered, as I didn't see where this was addressed in the article. Perhaps worldreader.org can take the reigns in this task because I'm certain there's a need.

Very helpful article - with thousands of books to browse readers need a hook.

Worldreader.org is a non-profit organization working primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa with an eventual goal to place books within reach of virtually every family on the planet. Its purpose and mission is to increase literacy by providing access to large selections, libraries, of books for people living in underdeveloped countries. It is the brain child of one of the original founders of Amazon.com who left the company in 2003 and is running several pilot projects in Africa - one that has been ongoing for sometime, in Ghana.

The organization delivers subsidized Kindles, pre-loaded with books, to under-served communities. Just as cellular phones leap-frogged landlines in under- developed nations, the premise is that electronic readers and e-books will leap-frog over printed books in bringing access to a wide variety of book selections and therefore fostering increased reading and literacy in poor nations throughout the globe.

Most of the books made available are published in English, as it is the most common language used throughout the world. Once a reader is in place, there is no cost of shipping to get books to the family, school, or center, and the prices of e-books are a third to half of the cost of printed books, thereby achieving additional savings as the library on each device grows. In remote areas where there is no electricity or internet access, technology provides the necessary means for connectivity through solar cells and satellite internet access.

The hope is that children and adults alike will become lifelong learners and dedicated readers when exposed to a wide variety of reading material. In addition to books, newspapers, magazines, and other publications may also be downloaded by readers eager for all manner of content.

The organization operates by means of  donations. if you go to their web site, www.worldreader.org, you can donate money for an e-book or for a Kindle. Currently they report donors have made contributions of $163,000 for e-books, and as a result 63,500 e-books have been made available to families in sub-Saharan Africa. Authors and publishers may donate their books to this project by going on the Authors page of the web site and contacting the organization to make arrangements for books to be distributed free of charge.

It's truly amazing that because of technology that was not even available a few years ago, the entire world can now have access to the same books as a reviewer in Los Angeles or book collector in New York. And authors who would not have seen their books in print because of barriers to publishing can now make their books available around the globe. Moreover this is a brilliant concept for increasing literacy throughout the third world in a very cost-effective and timely way.

Check out the web site for yourself and tell other authors of this opportunity to put their published works to good and productive use.

At Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs delivered his now famous commencement address. He spoke of the importance of making every day count, of the benefits of failing at something important in life and starting over, and the rewards of following your passion. Specifically he spoke of the influence a course that he took at Reed College, after he had dropped out, had on his life and his career: