There may be a small charge. The following, and politically the most important, step will be to set up mechanisms to collect royalties for electronic publication from publishers and re-distribute them to creators. The Authors Registry is a US non-profit corporation, whose current board members are members of the Authors' Guild, the US organisation with 6800 members, founded to represent book writers. The initiative came from the Guild and from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, an almost entirely member-run organisation of nearly 1000 magazine writers. With the addition of the NUJ's members, the Registry now represents 46,000 creators.
Business clearly takes the initiative seriously.
The consultancy arm of A Very Famous Accountancy Firm is giving free advice in the hope of later involvement, as are computer consultancies. Membership of the Registry, should you choose to take it up when the deal is worked out in more detail, is strictly non-exclusive and there is no obligation to take part in future stages. The NUJ continues to explore specifically UK or European mechanisms to collect payment for members and enforce authors' rights. Several literary agents have also affiliated. All rights reserved.