Perhaps 50 or so writers attended. We watched on the  blackboard how the publisher’s revenue of a hypothetical book selling for $10, displayed at Chapters, is dropped into the Big Box woodchipper. First the Chapters/Indigo discount of 45% is applied. Then a further charge of $1 per book is levied for strategic in-store placement, reducing the revenue to $4.50. The publisher must now grind off his/her costs.  Brinnggg. The book is half the size it was.

We writers watched, mesmerised, as our own little crumb of a royalty chip flicked off somewhere below the bottom line of the chalkboard. (We didn’t actually arrive at this number but doing the math was easy. Less than 50 cents if you’re talking Net. Less than $1 if you’re talking the now-apparently-normal 7% royalty.)

Okay, admittedly,  it’s hard to make traditional publishing pay. We know that. We’ve known that forever. Big Box stores have big rents, so must move a lot of books or yoga mats or candles to cover this.

We didn’t bother unpacking the topic of consignment. It was better to focus on the percentage of “sell-throughs” where a book walks out the door and it doesn’t come home again. The way most stores sell things.

I could feel the glumness descend as the writers, twisting their caps in their laps, pondered how they might make themselves even smaller at the Table of Book Publishing. They could see how much trouble they were costing everyone and how little they brought back home. But if they stayed well-behaved and charming and promised not to ask for too much or make a fuss if their little share was made just a little smaller …might they keep a bit of e-rights for themselves!

What! Asking for a second bowl of gruel!

I’m being a little more snarky than I truly feel most days towards publishers. I do feel their pain and negotiating with Chapters can’t be any sort of fun at all.  Must be hard to think over the whine of that wood chipper.

What to do?

Kick over the old and get on with the new. If Chapters is strangling the publishing market then the market must swarm elsewhere. The Net is the Agora. It is bigger than the biggest Box Store and its customers are global. Writers and editors and Web Managers and Marketers can team up to work around the Chapters monster, encourage InstaBook machine depots, print On-Demand books, perfect the formatting of ebooks so that they can be downloaded onto a reader’s bridgework if that’s the preference. It can be done. It is already being done.

Writers of the e-world Unite! We have nothing to lose but the Chains.

I recommend you visit the Google Settlement home page (see Useful Links page) and read its explanation. Access has also posted its seminar online with commentary and is running still more seminars in March. Unless you love poring over these sorts of documents, it’s easier to bite a few hours and take their seminar than try to digest the implications of this settlement on your own.

It’s too soon for me to offer any sort of coherent summary but one thing rang clear. Do your darndest to retain your electronic rights yourself. Google Registry proceeds will go to the rights-holder which, in the case of a book in print, will be your publisher who will split the cheque according to your contractual agreement regarding ebooks, if you have one.

All writers whose books have been digitised (or will be) are automatically included in this settlement unless they choose specifically to opt out. You have until May 5/09 to opt out of the settlement. Doing this will give you the freedom to sue Google for copyright infringement should you be so minded.

If you wish to stay in, register with the Registry. This is not run by Google but by US rights-holders and publishers. The Registry is responsible for paying out monies earned through Google’s revenues from digitization of texts.

Google is only the first to make such settlements. Yahoo and others are likely to follow suit. This could mean money for writers — perhaps many small drops in many buckets but they could add up to a cool drink of water.