I’ve been receiving emails from my publishers with updates on the Google Book Settlement, and I’m not embarrassed to say that the whole thing had me feeling a bit overwhelmed by the detail and muddled as to whether it was a bad thing for me as an illustrator that Google was scanning books and making them available in digital format. I did a Google search (ironic) and found “The Google Book Search Case for Dummies*” by David Weir, which I found was an easy to understand (and funny) overview. So I’m left with feeling like there is middle ground to be had here… on the one hand I want the publishers, authors & illustrators to be compensated for their work, and on the other I think it’s wonderful to make books available to anyone around the world who mightn’t have access to them otherwise. Whether you opt-out or opt-into the settlement, you’ve got till March 2011 to get informed and decide.

“*That would include me.” –David Weir