Is listing your ebook on Google Play worth it?

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Pierre Lawrence

By hoops I meant the hassle of setting up an account, which in this case would entail providing banking and tax information [...]

Hard to believe that you have not had a single sale on Google Play, which confirms my judgment that listing on it is not worth the hassle I referred to above.

Personally, I'd test the waters in Google Play with a few books... MAYBE.

Although Google Play has been shedding the non-apps sections like crazy:

• Ars Technica: March 2022: "Google Play is stripped of movie and TV show sales"
• June 2022: "Google Play Movies & TV is getting replaced on Android and iOS"

I wouldn't be surprised if within the next year or two, Google puts ebooks on the chopping block too.

Similar situation happened with Microsoft's book store in:

• 2019: "Microsoft kills off the book store you probably didn’t know it had"

where Microsoft tried to push all this "unified store" garbage along with their apps/programs/everything else into Windows 10/11, but nobody was going for it.

Originally Posted by Quoth

CC has no independent existence. It relies purely on copyright law in each country.

Yes, and nearly all countries of the world have signed the Berne Convention.

CC4.0 expanded upon CC3.0, applying to even more countries + covering even more edge-cases.

Read more about the differences here:

• Creative Commons: "What's New in 4.0"

A more global license

In the past six years, Creative Commons has worked with hundreds of volunteers around the world – literally, some of the best minds in copyright law and open licensing on the planet – to translate and adapt the 3.0 and earlier licenses to local laws in over 60 jurisdictions (what we call “porting”). In the process, we’ve learned a lot about how our licenses work internationally and how they’re impacted by the nuances of copyright law in various jurisdictions.

We drew on this experience in the process of developing 4.0. We’ve worked closely with our wide international network of affiliates and countless other experts and stakeholders to make 4.0 the most internationally enforceable set of CC licenses to date.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Berne Convention is fragmented due to USA and lobbying from Corps like Disney and Google.

No disagreement here. I'm no fan of copyright + the (rotten) Berne Convention.

But, since ~1989, nearly all governments of the world, forcefully apply copyright automatically whether you like it or not. They do not allow you to relinquish it or "release things to the Public Domain", hence why I described copyright as "very sticky".

The closest you can get to relinquishing your copyright is by using an extremely permissive license (like CC BY 4.0).

Originally Posted by Quoth

Legal citation for claiming the owner of copyright (which IS automatic in most countries without any registration) can't give up the rights?

You can read about more details here:

• Wikipedia.org: "Public domain" > Dedicating works to the public domain

You can hear more common misconceptions about copyright here:

• "Rethinking IP: History, Theory, and Economics: Lecture 1" (beginning at 32:38)

or read all about the debates if:

• CC0 (Creative Commons 0)
• or "Public Domain Dedications"

would even be legally enforceable. (There are many arguments [and problems] saying no.)

- - - -

Side Note: On real-life complications with copyright, see the 14+ years of Techdirt articles on the topic...

For example, this one from 2019 which wrongly claimed copyright on a 3000 year old statue.

(Or the insanity of "Permission Culture" in example, after example, after example... even when you try to release things as open as possible.)

Originally Posted by Quoth

No-one needs any variation of CC, even CC-0. It has no independent existence, depending purely on local copyright laws.

You can say whatever you want...

You can say "all my stuff is Public Domain"... but that doesn't make it so. The Berne Convention forces copyright on you automatically (if you live in any of these countries), and you can't get rid of it.

You can declare/promise:

• I won't sue you sometime in the future.
• Please treat this like it's in the public.
• blah blah blah...

but that isn't legally enforceable + will put a chilling effect on others.

Again, this was a lot of what Creative Commons 4.0 was trying to smooth over. You can label your works as CC—and CC is in such common use, that most people, around the world, can use it to:

• Replicate in their own books
• Make videos/audiobooks
• Retranslate
• [...]

... and keep it as close to the Public Domain as possible.

(While, at the same time, still being legally applicable/enforceable across a wide range of countries/jurisdictions.)

- - -

Anyway, this is all veering too far from the original topic.

If you wanted to discuss nuances of copyright, I'd recommend opening another thread. (Although the last time it happened, it turned into a madhouse.)

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, if you put it on Gutenberg, isn't that for PD only? If you publish it as PD, then you have other issues with Amazon.

Hitch

Sorry for the late response.

Say I want to scrap being on Amazon. Now I want to put my book in Public Domain only. How will I be able to manage that? RSVP.

Hope anyone can help me.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Sorry for the late response.

Say I want to scrap being on Amazon. Now I want to put my book in Public Domain only. How will I be able to manage that? RSVP.

Hope anyone can help me.

To get the technical/semantic issue out of the way first: Truly "Public Domain" is problematic. Yes, you can waive your rights (see Wikipedia here) but as already noted the effectiveness of this may vary with the jurisdiction. (Rights are more complicated than most people realise.)

Previous posts also mention Creative Commons which may be your best bet if you really want something approaching Public Domain without having to wait for 70 years after your demise.

BUT either of those two solutions may complicate where you can place your book for distribution. You can still make it downloadable on your own website, but it won't get seen by many people there. For all other distributors you will have to read their fine print concerning public domain works (what they accept as public domain) or whether they accept CC.

However, if you just want to make your book freely available to be read by the public then publishing on Smashwords (for example) is relatively easy and quite comprehensive. A book published on Smashwords as free can be downloaded directly or read online anonymously (no registration needed). cf a book that is normally not free but for which you have a coupon that makes it free will require the reader to be registered - so the permanently-free distinction is important.

I'm not sure if Smashwords will insist on have tax and payment details registered if all your books are free, or not. But they will accept Paypal for payments (unlike Amazon - except in a few jurisdictions).

[Quoth]

CC is just a fashionable pre-written set of templates that the copyright holder can apply. Some of it may not be what you want and none of it has any legal basis other than actual copyright law or local laws. Same applies to GPL, BSD, Apache etc licences.

The US online IRS form you have to do for any US company you are supplying basically needs your local Tax or Social Security ID and the name and address that your own Government has for that. It's only every few years, not every year.

Smashwords do distribute to Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble etc. They have been taken over by Direct2Digital and step by step all features are being merged (1st is D2D users getting Smashwords features) and eventually accounts merged. I think D2D does also distribute to Amazon, but I don't know if that includes free.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

CC is just a fashionable pre-written set of templates that the copyright holder can apply. Some of it may not be what you want and none of it has any legal basis other than actual copyright law or local laws. Same applies to GPL, BSD, Apache etc licences.

The US online IRS form you have to do for any US company you are supplying basically needs your local Tax or Social Security ID and the name and address that your own Government has for that. It's only every few years, not every year.

Smashwords do distribute to Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble etc. They have been taken over by Direct2Digital and step by step all features are being merged (1st is D2D users getting Smashwords features) and eventually accounts merged. I think D2D does also distribute to Amazon, but I don't know if that includes free.

You can also put a PDF on Scribd, which is nearly as good (unintentionally, mind you) as PD.

Hitch

[Quoth]

Sadly loads of out good of print books you'd not get a copy of anywhere. Some PD and many copyright. But if the author is really famous and alive today, no matter how much DRM there is, there are "free" copies.

When are the Traditional publishers going to wake up? If they don't there may only be archive org and Amazon.

Put the ebooks out without DRM. Make POD available for every title out of print, the top priced fiction of print runs wholesale price still makes a profit on POD. Text book price madness. You could PAY someone to make scan PDF + OCR for the price of some.

Personally I think if you are alive you should charge SOMETHING for an ebook, even if only 99c.

[kevin3289]

Thanks for the information. I was considering putting one of my books on Google Play, but after listening to you guys, I'll give it a miss for now, cheers.

[DragonRiderOz]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Note Android can use Kindle App, Kobo App, a wide variety of epub apps. We've never sold any via Google Play Store Books, but like Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Amazon, etc it costs nothing.

Maybe more than half of eBooks are read on iOS and Android. Apple doesn't have a great share and Google seems miniscule, despite Playstore popularity and Worldwide about 80% is Android, more if you leave out USA, where Apple is similar iOS to Android share.

Apple, too, can use Kindle App, Kobo App, and whatever other epub apps one likes. If one works it well, you can use that knowledge to publish and market wide.