Since it launched in 1999, the Authors Guild's Back-in-Print.com republishing program has generated approximately $500,000 in royalties for participating authors, with some 1,250 books now included. The service, while not making any authors rich, has met its objective of providing a way for writers to keep their books available, said Authors Guild executive director Paul Aiken. Payments to authors range from “enough to buy a good dinner to several thousand dollars a year,” Aiken said.

The guild began Back-in-Print just as print-on-demand technology was making very short print runs economically feasible, and it has always partnered with iUniverse to run the program. Back-in-Print added the most titles in the first two years after its launch, and Aiken said sales have risen steadily, with unit growth of 15% annually in both 2005 and 2006 (the last years for which figures are available). iUniverse adds Guild members' books to Back-in-Print at no charge and pays a 20% royalty. Authors can get rights back with 60 days' notice. To be eligible for the program, books must have been published first by a traditional house.

Aiken shot down speculation that one reason the Guild fought S&S over plans by the publisher to make it harder for rights to revert to authors was that the Guild was looking to build up Back-in-Print. “The Guild receives no revenue from Back-in-Print,” Aiken said. “It's a service for members.” He added that there are no plans for any major changes in the program. “It's doing fine,” Aiken said.

Fiction
The Magician by Sol Stein
The African Mask by Janet E. Rupert
Crosses by Shelley Stoehr
Nonfiction
The Rickover Effect by Theodore Rockwell
Crisis Management by Steven Fink
The Virginia Experiment by Alf J. Mapp Jr.