Get Involved Supporting Online Books! (original) (raw)

If you are an author, consider giving permission for your books to go online. An online version of your book can reach readers worldwide, and make your writing available to all long after print copies leave bookstore shelves. (If your book is hard to find in stores, an online version with ordering capabilities may even spur sales. Here is a report from Baen Books showing sales increases after some of their books went online for free.)

If you're interested in giving permission for free online editions, either now or in the future, write to onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu. Authors can donate their works to the public in a variety of ways, ranging from putting the work into the public domain to retaining copyright and donating a license. The Creative Commons has a page on approaches that one can use.

Many books have already been scanned in mass digitization projects, so making your book readable online may be as simple as granting permission to a suitable project. For instance, if you wrote any of the millions of books with copies now in Hathi Trust, you can simply complete and send a permission agreement authorizing them to make your book readable online.