Publisher Steals Back from Google

I first read about this on Truemors (the new site by web entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki), and tracked the link to UK techie news site Register. Here's the story, in brief: in an attempt to make a point about Google's inroads in the digital publishing  space, the CEO of Macmillan Publishers, Richard Charkin, stole two laptops from the web giant's booth at BookExpo America last week. Google was on site to show off its Book Search service, which promises to digitize the world's printed material and, ultimately, do away with all that pesky paper. The laptops were returned promptly after a Google rep noticed they were gone.

In his blog, Charkin confessed to feeling "rather shabby" to have played such a trick on Google, but argued that Google "should feel the same playing the same trick on authors and publishers." The "trick" to which Charkin is alluding has gained some other considerable opposition in addition to the CEO and his accomplice: the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild have joined several other partners in attempting to thwart Google's efforts, claiming copyright infringement. The paper industry's concern is that Google will not refrain from scanning copyrighted material unless they receive a specific request not to do so. Charkin snarkly justified his act by saying Google failed to post a sign asking passerby not to steal the computers.

 This little stunt does more damage than good to the image of publishers -- in an already difficult position after watching other analog industries like music and newspaper tumble into digital oblivion, publishers need to be smart, progressive, and -- for god's sake -- mature about the impending digital transition. As trade sales of all adult and juvenile books saw a mere 2.9% increase from 2005 to 2006, digital books (or e-books) saw in that same period an increase of nearly 25%. Though still a minor part of the total revenue, it's clear in what direction the industry is moving.

By grifting those laptops from Google, Charkin put himself -- and the publishing industry on the whole -- in a position to look not like the righteous underdog in an uphill struggle, but instead like a whiny sore loser kicking feebly at the shins of an enemy. In my opinion, his time plotting and pilfering might have been better spent researching Google's initiative and planning ahead for the inevitable digital publishing revolution.

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Chris Steib is a digital media entrepreneur, an aspiring novelist, and the founder & editor in chief of VoidMagazine.com. Yes, he really believes digital books are the future of the publishing industry and, no, he's not kidding. Chris lives and works in New York City.