Rethinking Incentives

This chapter begins by describing an experience of Iceland that casts Samuel Johnson's claim that “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money” into serious doubt. With only 350,000 speakers, the potential readership for Icelandic books is truly small; yet Iceland's publishing scene is thriving. It discusses the counterproductive effect of financial rewards as the strongest for activities that people find psychologically rewarding because they are fun, culturally valued, or otherwise meaningful. An author can experience the writing process as play, in which the creator enjoys a high degree of control over the outcome and may also feel gratified for having made a contribution to society, advancing knowledge in an area that one cares about, or the pure satisfaction of self-expression. The chapter further clarifies that people internalize the notion that doing something for profit makes it less praiseworthy and being financially rewarded may undermine the sense of pride or virtue associated with it.

Choosing Open Licenses

This chapter focuses on Creative Commons licensing, which has a vital role to play in tackling book hunger. Open-access books facilitate costless sharing and adaptation to diverse needs, especially through translation. It emphasizes that although open licensing is not right for everyone, all authors, illustrators, and publishers with a sense of social mission should explore what open licensing could do for their cause. Open licensing mandates are also becoming increasingly common requirements for funding from governments and foundations. Funders can incentivize authors and publishers to learn about and experiment with open licensing. The chapter further explains that open licensing requires a counterintuitive leap of faith: that surrendering control will actually help achieve certain goals. The best way to overcome doubt is to conduct an experiment. If someone is a publisher, that person should identify half a dozen backlist titles whose sales have slowed, and release half of them on a Creative Commons license.

Fair Use of Existing Books

This chapter analyzes the nuances of the copyright law book, such as translating a book into another language for academic use, adapting a famous book to make it more multicultural, or cheaply photocopying a book to give away to low-income families. Copyright exceptions are sometimes quite specific and clearly defined, while others are open-ended and subject to broad interpretation. It talks about the doctrine of “fair use” in America. Contrary to popular belief, the fact that something is widely done is no assurance that it is legally recognized as fair use. The chapter also provides a hypothetical situation in order to illustrate how the fair use doctrine might apply to a potential non-profit publishing project to address book hunger.

Reflecting Diversity

This chapter describes the book Underpants Dance, which only depicts four white people out of all the thirty characters. However, the book still shows quite a significant underrepresentation of America's diversity. In this story, none of the people of color are important enough to have names. They serve only as a sprinkling of color in the background. The book's settings and events also reflect a distinctly upper-middle-class lifestyle. The chapter further explains that there is nothing wrong with any single children's book being culturally specific to a white, upper-income, American experience. The problem is that this pattern is so strong that children's literature as a whole is systematically less attractive or even alienating to children who do not fit that mold.

Making Books Affordable

This chapter talks about country music star Dolly Parton, who is also a poet at heart. She is an avid reader, with an extensive book collection. As a child growing up in Appalachia, however, Dolly experienced book hunger first-hand. It explains how Dolly's own childhood experience motivated her to found the Imagination Library as a way to ensure that all children could experience the joy of book ownership. The chapter also discusses other organizations like First Book that reinvents the traditional book supply chain. Rather than relying on for-profit bookstores as an intermediary, First Book and Imagination Library have innovated alternative, more cost-effective systems to deliver books to children from low-income backgrounds. Through a combination of charitable dollars and cost savings, innovative nonprofits are bringing books to millions of American children who otherwise could not afford them.