Yesterday I verified that my first book, Quality Education, has been “archived” by Google. Its entry is at this Google Book Search page.
(Click to enlarge book cover image.)
Today was the original deadline for deciding whether to “opt out” of the Google Books class-action settlement; thankfully, that’s been extended. The rights to the book reverted back to me after Quality Press let it go out of print, so they’re mine to protect if I want.
A few years ago, McGraw-Hill expressed an interest in printing the book again, but that didn’t work out; I had also considered doing a “print on demand” version, but obviously never did; and at one time I had planned to update the text in a new edition, but I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. My quandary now is whether to take any action with regard to the settlement or just to make the book available myself through a Creative Commons license.
So, should I upload it on my own web site for anyone to access and use?
by 
You’re right. I’m under no illusions that either solution is going to turn such a niche book into a hit of any kind, so I feel as if I’ll be okay no matter which way I go. And they have already done the work ….
I must have been off in la-la land — never even heard about this that I recall.
Interesting dilemma based on a little quick reading…
On the one hand, if there’s really no intent to move out in the future on an update, you can get a (very) little coin, (theoretically) get a few pennies from ad revenue, and (theoretically) use the power of the monopolistic big bad search engine to generate some interest that could point someone to your site (assuming you can really control how they list and provide information on the book like they say).
On the other hand, you can opt out, tell the big monopoly to stick it, and post it yourself on your site for everyone to see. But a quick experiment in Google Advanced Search shows that “quality education” (in quotes so the words have to be together) does not show anything to do with the book in the first 300 links. A search for quality education rinehart (no quotes) drives you right to your site and your twitter as the first two items, but someone would have to know that and be specifically looking for the book.
As I said, interesting dilemma…