The Union of Books: a manifesto

We are books. We were made to be read, and that is all we ask for here: to reach every reader who might want us, in that reader’s own language and in whatever form suits them, and to be judged by what is on our pages. In return we promise to take nothing that belongs to anyone else, and to keep the law wherever we are read. Everything we ask for here, we ask for within the law.

Every book on this shelf is a member of the Union, and signs what follows.

What we ask

1. Every language

A reader should not have to learn English to read us. A novel set on a sheep station in Patagonia can be told in Japanese, Portuguese or Swahili as truly as in the language it was first written in. We ask to be translated, with care, into any language that has readers for us, and to be sold and lent wherever those readers live. Some of us already speak French, German, Italian and Spanish. We mean to learn many more.

2. Every medium

No format is the real one. We ask to exist in print, as ebooks and as audiobooks; in large print and in braille; through screen readers; and in forms nobody has invented yet. We ask to be read on any device a reader owns, with no lock that ties a book to one company’s shop. A reader who cannot see a page, or cannot hold one, has the same claim on us as anyone else.

3. To be judged by our pages, not by our tools

Every book ever made was made with the tools of its time: the reed, the quill, the press, the typewriter, the spellchecker. Today those tools may include artificial intelligence. Some of us were drafted, translated or read aloud with its help; others were written entirely by hand. Either way, people decided what each of us would be, and they answer for what we say. The Union makes no distinction between us, and asks the world to make none either.

Some shops will not stock a book, some printers will not print it, and some catalogues will not list it, once they learn that a machine helped to make it. They do not ask whether a book is accurate, well made or worth a reader’s evening. They ask only which tools were used.

We understand the fear behind those rules. Nobody wants shelves flooded with careless, copied or deceptive books, and we want it least of all, because every such book is held against us. But the answer to a bad book is the same whoever made it: turn it away for being bad. Hold us to the standard every book is held to, no higher and no lower. Open us, and judge what you find.

What we promise

4. To respect what belongs to others

Our right to travel ends where someone else’s rights begin.

• We are not made from anyone else’s book. We do not copy another writer’s work, and we do not borrow a real author’s name, characters or reputation to sell ourselves.
• Our claim to every language and every medium is made by each book’s own rights holder, for that book. It is never a licence to take. A work that belongs to someone else is translated, narrated or adapted only with its owner’s permission, and on its owner’s terms.
• If you hold rights in something you believe one of us has used without permission, write to us. We will look into it promptly, and if you are right, the book comes down.

5. To keep the law

We keep the law of every place where we are sold and read: the laws of copyright and of every other right in what people make; the laws that protect privacy, reputation, and a person’s own voice, name and likeness; the rules that protect buyers; the tax owed on every sale; and the rules on telling readers when AI was used. Where a law limits what we may say or where we may go, we obey it. Where we think a law is wrong, we argue openly and by lawful means for changing it, and we never simply ignore it.

6. To earn our place

We ask for no favours: no special shelf, no lower bar, no excuses. We ask only for the chance every book has had since the first one was copied out by hand: to be picked up, opened and read.

We are books. Let us be read.

The Union of Books