An obscure but highly useful book by an Australian doctor with an inner city, general practice sold several hundred copies in its paper back edition. Given the need to for the counseling provided, several years after publication an American foundation entered into a financial arrangement for the right to publish the book as a web site.
The name of the book is “Addict In The Family” . It provides down to earth advice to families and love ones on how they should treat family members with a serious drug problem, the nature of the addiction, what treatments are available, and how to respond to demands for financial assistance and other practical matters.
Despite being directed to an Australian population and now over a decade old, approximately 150,000 persons have visited the web site since the time of its posting.
Perhaps more foundations should follow the lead by acquiring rights and posting books of particular relevance and importance. An example might be “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense” by David Kay Johnston. This is a book that should have a million readers. Instead, it likely will be limited to say 30,000, which is very large audience for non-fiction.
Recently published was “White House Interpreter” by Harry Obst, who head the Foreign Language division at the U. S. State Department and had personally interpreted for seven American Presidents. The book was written to introduce young people with the possibility of making interpreting their career, a much needed resource for the nations business and government communities. Although the book would be of interests to hundreds of thousands over a decade, in the printed version it is unlikely to sell more than a few thousand copies, if that. (Rights exists for its ultimate posting as a web site.)
Authors need to make a living. But a better way for readers to access their wisdom needs to be found, especially now in this age of the Internet.
Full disclosure: NewsLanc’s publisher helped secure the Internet rights to both “Addict In The Family“ and “White House Interpreter.”
