NEW YORK (AP) -- Giving old books a fresh chance, the Authors Guild has arranged for members to reissue their own out-of-print works both in stores and on the Internet. Novels by Thornton Wilder and Mary McCarthy and non-fiction works by William F. Buckley and Judy Blume are among the hundreds of newly available titles.
"Books stay in print for a very short time and they often don't get to find their audience. This is a way to keep the books out there," said Paul Aiken, the guild's executive director."The culture has changed so dramatically," said author Sidney Offit, who is bringing back his acclaimed "The Adventures of Homer Fink," a children's story first published in the 1960s.
"When my books were being published I had no thoughts about books being out of print. It wasn't in the discussions I had with other children's book writers."
Guild authors now can either sell leftover copies of their books or sell new editions via "print-on-demand," the computerized process that quickly produces paperback copies at customer request. Current technology enables a book to be printed and bound within minutes. ToExcel, which provides on-demand services to the presses for Harvard and Columbia University, will republish the guild books.
Print-on-demand is a small, but growing industry that could solve two major problems: the expense of keeping books in warehouses, which has made publishers less and less willing to keep a slow-selling title in print. And the excessive number of "returns," unsold books sent back by stores to publishers.
Many believe on-demand printing could eventually keep all books in print forever.
"It's a fabulous development," said Buckley, who is reissuing "The Blackford Oakes Reader," a compilation of excerpts from his spy novels.
The guild has set up its own online store, Backinprint.com, and has made distribution deals with Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and many other Internet and traditional sellers. Ten percent of sales from Backinprint.com will go back to the guild, a non-profit organization.
"If everyone bought through our service, that would be great," Aiken said. "But we want the books to be as widely available as possible."
Back-in-print titles include Wilder's novel "Theophilus North" and his essay collection "American Characteristics," McCarthy's novel "Oasis" and Blume's "Letters to Judy," a compilations of advice for kids. Also returning is "Random Walk," a lesser-known novel by the popular mystery writer Lawrence Block.
"I'm delighted," Block said. "This particular book had a very small response when it came out in the 1980s, but it's had a devoted following over the years. I always get questions about it at signings, from people wondering if it's going to be available again."
This isn't the first time guild members have tried such a project. In the 1980s, Buckley and theater critic Stuart W. Little founded an annual mail-order catalogue through which authors could sell out of print books. The Buckley-Little Catalogue, as it was called, lasted just a few years.
"It was expensive to put out the catalogue and it went out of date quickly," Little said. "The Internet is much cheaper and it can be updated instantly. This really puts power back into the author's hands."
Prices will be comparable to those of books purchased from regular publishers. Rights for out-of-print works traditionally return to the author, although some hope the guild program will encourage publishers to take another look at what they've discarded.
"If a large commercial press wants to bring a book back, we're free to allow them to do that," said Margo Viscusi, literary trustee for McCarthy's estate. "We'd love to hear them say, 'We made a mistake. The Authors Guild showed us it really should be kept in print.' I think that's part of the purpose."
The Authors Guild, the nation's largest society of published authors, represents more than 7,500 writers and their estates.