Publishers Grudgingly Cooperate With Amazon Database Effort

Missed this story last week: Amazon.com, which is digitizing nonfiction titles to create an online database, first reported in NYT in July, is gettng a mixed reception on its plans from publishers. “If Amazon was really interested in only promoting book sales, one publisher said, why didn’t they just add a few more chapters? Publishers fear, for example, that if people can find a particular recipe online, they won’t buy the book.”

Another concern, and one shared by the Authors Guild, is that publishers don’t have the contractual right to let an author’s work appear on the site without the author’s consent.

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