Authors Need To Be Protected In The Digital Age

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A French court has found internet search giant Google guilty of copyright infringement. La Martiniere, a French publisher, was awarded 300,000 Euros ($ 430,000) in damages and interest. Google was also ordered to pay the sum of 10,000 Euros ($ 14,000) each day until it withdraws the book extracts from its database. The court hearing was initiated by the French Publishers’ Association, La Martiniere and SGDL – an author’s group – who demanded that Google be forced to pay 15m Euros ($ 21m).

For Google, the size of the final settlement is trivial – but there may yet be some impact on Google’s plans to scan and make available online as many of the world’s books as possible. Google is currently in the process of scanning and digitising pretty much any book it can get its hands on. Books which are out of copyright are made available in their entirety. Books which are still in copyright either have snippets of them made available online or have the whole book electronically published under a licensing scheme.

It’s not the first time Google has found itself in court as a result of their ambitious plan to become the world’s digital librarian. A class action was filed against Google Books by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and a number of individual authors and publishers in 2001. Google had, they alleged, breached copyright laws by scanning books from university libraries without getting permission from the copyright owners in some cases.

At the time, Google claimed that it was operating under the “fair use” principle as only short snippets of books scanned without the permission of copyright holders were made available.

In October of 2008 an agreement was reached with Google establishing a $ 125 million fund to compensate authors whose books were made available online. However, the deal was applicable in North America only and raised problems with books which, whilst perhaps out of copyright in the USA, were still under copyright law in other parts of the world. Over and above opposition from Europe, including the governments of both France and Germany, Google now faces competition from Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon who are supporting the “Open Book Alliance” being driven by the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive is a non-profit organisation which scans and digitises books. To date, they have scanned over half a million books, all of which are available free. Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, feels that Google is attempting to monopolise the library system.

Google has argued that their system will make millions of out of print books, which would otherwise be inaccessible to most readers, available. Users of the Amazon Kindle can also access free Kindle ebooks via Amazon’s Kindle store and there are a number of other projects which make certain books available at no charge online. It does seem probable that our reading habits are about to undergo major change and the method of both book storage and delivery will be updated to take advantage of the internet and electronic formatting. However, prior to that happening it may be a requirement to ensure that the legal framework is in place and that authors and other copyright holders are not disadvantaged.

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Pricing Digital Books for ClickBank Success

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If you haven’t already explored the possibility of publishing your digital books on ClickBank, now is the time. ClickBank offers an easy to use process that allows self-publishers to create their content, upload it, and promote it to millions of potential customers. All it takes is registration on the site and then you’ll be ready to get started. Step-by-step instructions on uploading your book and managing the process are included on the site. But if you do need help, they have an outstanding customer support team to help you.

One of the important aspects of publishing and selling your e-book book or any other digital product on ClickBank is pricing. Attaching the most appropriate price on the book helps ensure sales will be brisk and many. There are some basic guidelines that will help you price your book for ClickBank publication:

1. Know your niche market and the niche audience. What are they looking for in content and how much are they willing to pay for it. Can they find it somewhere else cheaper? The ClickBank Marketplace offers a great opportunity for you to review similar products and see their pricing strategies. This may help you decide where to price your eBook for better sales.

2. Remember that your niche audience is looking for value for money and more importantly unique information. If you’re providing information they can find easilly anywhere else on the Internet, they are likely to pass you by. But if you offer valuable, informative content that tells them how to do something, how to save money, or another subject that makes life easier for them, they are more likely to buy your book. And all the more likely to return for more books.

3. Many publishers start out with an initial price and adjust pricing as they experiment and learn more. If you price the book and it is not selling, you can test a lower price to see what happens. Changing the price is simple with the ClickBank system. However, some publishers find that it is more attractive to start with a higher price or even increase prices. Some people perceive value is equal to cost and they are willing to buy books that are higher priced. Once again, consider your niche market when doing this.

4. Pricing too high or too low can have a negative effect on the sales of the book. A low price may be attractive to you because you want to get a lot of sales fast. But remember that affiliates will be promoting your product and they need to make sure it is worth their time. On the other hand, pricing a book too high may scare off buyers and affiliates.

Paying attention to what others in the market are receiving for similar products in the niche is the best place to start with pricing. Then, you can work on pricing from that point. If you decide to adjust pricing later, it will be easy to do and this helps you understand about pricing strategy for future eBooks.

Check out the ClickBank resource to publish your eBook and you’ll start seeing rewards soon. You’ve no need to be a techno-expert to make it work. Success is waiting at ClickBank.

Checkout more internet marketing information on our website: www.ebizadvice.net

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How To Sell EBooks And Make Money

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If you’re looking for good ideas that can help you make money online, why not consider selling eBooks?  Producing and selling eBooks has become one of the most viable ways through which you can make a profit online, especially because the business involves very low overhead costs and little expense on your part.

There are various ways through which you can start producing eBooks and making a profit from them.  The most well-known method for putting up an eBook business is creating your own eBook and then putting it up for sale. This is the best method for you if you’re confident of your writing skills and your level of expertise in the topic for your eBook.  Remember, however, that eBooks have a different set of criteria for excellence from those of printed books. To begin with, selling printed books takes a very long time. A 20-page guide in hard copy might not be on the bestseller list, but in the eBook world, this same book can actuallybe a huge success.

You can resell a high quality existing eBook if you are not eager to create your own merchandise. This might be best if you’re doubtful of your capacity to come up with original material for your own eBook.  Since eBooks are still covered by copyright laws, you have to be careful not to step over the resale rights of the eBook you want to resell.

Although some resale rights come for free, you might also have to buy the resale rights to the eBook so you can resell it with authorization. The expense is usually in the range. It is not a setback, because the money could be made back in a couple of months of sale.It shouldn’t be too difficult from that point on.

You can even use free eBooks as incentives if you sell products or offer services. For every product that your users purchase, you can include a free eBook that will show them how to make the most of your product and how to troubleshoot potential problems that might come up.

Whether you make your own eBook, resell them, or use them to supplement the profits you get when you sell products or make money blogging, you’ll find that eBooks are a wonderful option for earning extra cash online.  Cheaper and easier to make than their printed counterparts, eBooks may just be your ticket to making more money and earning a profit in the long run.

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