unglue.it FAQ

De Gruyter to work with Unglue.it: Wish for your favorites!

unglue (v. t.) 1. To pay an author or publisher in full, up front, for publishing a Creative Commons ebook.

unglue (v. t.) 2. To make a digital book free to read and use, worldwide.

unglue (v. t.) 3. To make it clearly legal for a digital book to be used, distributed, archived and preserved by libraries.

unglue (v. t.) 4. For an author or publisher, to accept a fixed amount of money from the public for its unlimited use of an ebook.

unglue (v. t.) 5. To give your favorite books to everyone on earth.

unglue (v. t.) 6. To reward authors and publishers for sharing books with the world.

Learn more

We all have books we love so much, we'd like to give them to the world. We want to share them, but also reward their creators. With digital books, it can be hard to do both.

Unglue.it offers a win-win solution: Crowdfunding. We run pledge campaigns for books; you chip in. When, together, we've reached the goal, we'll reward the book's creators and issue an unglued ebook.

Creative Commons licensing means everyone, everywhere can read and share the unglued book - freely and legally. You've given your favorite book to the world.

Still have questions? We've got answers.

Or, sign up today

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Help! My question isn't covered in the FAQs!: Please email us at support@gluejar.com. We want to make sure everything on the site runs as smoothly as possible. Thanks for helping us do that.

Unglued Ebooks

General Questions

So what is an unglued ebook?: An unglued ebook is an already-published book that's been rereleased under a Creative Commons license, after obtaining permission and compensating the author, publisher, or other rights holder.

What does this mean for you? If you're a book lover, you can read unglued ebooks for free, on the device of your choice, in the format of your choice, and share them with all your friends. If you're a library, you can lend them to your patrons with no checkout limits or simultaneous user restrictions, and preserve them however you think best. If you're a rights holder, you get a guaranteed up-front payment in lieu of royalties on this edition, while retaining copyright and all interests in other editions of your work.

Unglued ebooks are a win-win solution for readers, libraries, and authors, publishers.
Is the unglued ebook edition the same as one of the existing editions?: Not necessarily. Sometimes the existing editions include content that we can't get the rights to include in the unglued ebook, especially cover art or illustrations. Sometimes the unglued ebook edition will have improvements, like copy-editing fixes or bonus features. These differences, if any, will be specified in the Rights tab of the campaign page. In addition, all unglued ebooks include acknowledgements of supporters and information on their Creative Commons license.
How much does a book cost?: The author or publisher sets a price for giving the book to the world. Once you and your fellow ungluers raise enough money to meet that price, the unglued ebook is available at no charge, for everyone, everywhere!
Will Unglue.it have campaigns for all kinds of books?: Yes. You choose what books to wishlist and what books to support. Your passion will drive the campaigns. We aim to host campaigns for diverse subjects and genres, from romance novels to poetry, from history to medicine, from the lectures of famous scentists to your favorite chapter book when you were 8 years old.
Will you raise money for books already for sale as an ebook?: Yes. Books available as ebooks can still be unglued, to make them available more easily to more people.
Does an unglued book have to be out-of-print?: No. Unglued books can be anything in copyright, whether 75 years or 7 days old, whether they sell in paperback or hardcover and or can only be found in used bookstores -- or nowhere. But the copyright owners and any one else with a claim on the book need to agree.
Does Unglue.it help to fund self-published books?: In general, no. Unglue.it does not support campaigns for self-published books that have not previously been sold in the retail market. If your self-published book has been for sale for at least 6 months, let's talk. (rights@gluejar.com).
Will Unglue.it help raise funds for books not yet written?: No. There are other crowdfunding sites devoted to new creative works, and we encourage you to investigate them. Once your book has been published, we'd love to talk to you.