It's a simple yet incredibly clever concept that aims at financially helping creative ideas. A campaign is created, the idea of a product or a service is explained, a goal is created to raise a certain amount of money and a deadline determined. Anybody who believes in that idea can contribute money. If the goal is met, that money plays an important role in making that idea a success.
Unglue.it is a recently launched website that aims to bring this concept into eBooks.
As we all know that when it comes to publishing, there are whole lot copyright issues involved that aren't very compatible with digital publishing. You can always share a book legally, but you can't digitally share an eBook without breaking the law. Because these books are DRM (Digital Right Management) protected. It is only possible when the author and the copyright holders agree to publish it for free under 'Creative Commons' license.
But there are very few writers and publishers who are interested in providing their books to the digital world for free; and quite rightly so. How else would they earn money for their creativity?
Unglue.it has come up with an interesting solution, they are using the concept of 'crowdfunding' to pay these authors to publish their work as eBooks under Creative Commons license.
It's a simple concept:
Those who hold rights to a certain book can create a campaign on this website, declare the amount they want to raise in order to make that eBook available for free and a deadline. Readers can browse through the website to find a campaign that interests them, and participate in crowdfunding it. They can also create a wishlist of books that they would like to see a free eBooks.
If the target is achieved and the campaign raises the said amount within the deadline, then those who hold the rights are paid (giving Unglue 6% of the commission) and the book is made available for free.
"At Unglue.it, you can pledge toward creating ebooks that will be legally free, worldwide. These books have already been traditionally published, but they're stuck: legal restrictions keep you from being able to enjoy and share them. Unglue.it gets them unstuck." shares the website.There is no denying that it is a very interesting idea with the potential of becoming a success. I mean who knew that Kickstarter will play such an important role in kickstarting many start-ups who are today successful small businesses.
But then the question is that how many publishers or writers would like to give up their copyrights for one time payment for their work?
Although you may not find bestsellers in Unglue's list, but there are many book lovers out there who want to see classics as free books; Those who believe that certain stories need to be read for free by anyone in the word.
Unglue is definitely a fascinating concept, but we still have to wait and see how successful this concept becomes. What do you think?
Thanks for the writeup!
Authors' and publishers' interest definitely varies -- as you note, they need to make money for their creativity! That's why we let them set their own prices. In theory, you can pick a one-time up-front lump sum that's as much as you would have made by royalties trickling in over time. And, of course, they're not giving up all future royalties -- people who distribute free editions of their books can and do also sell copies. But it's a new model and, like any new models, takes some time to explain.
BTW, worth noting that they are NOT giving up their copyrights. The copyright of the work is unchanged. Putting a Creative Commons license on the work allows the public to use it in certain ways (e.g. making copies) but does not in any way diminish the copyright holder's rights to the work.
As for your last question -- if everyone waits and sees, the concept won't be successful ;). If people want to convince authors and publishers it's worthwhile for them to open-license their works, they will have to actually support them in doing so. I hope you will.
Andromeda Yelton
librarian, web developer, et cetera at Unglue.it
Thanks for the insight Andromeda, any concept that revolutionizes the digital books industry is a success in our eyes. We wish Unglue.it the very best. :)