> pays authors every time someone checks out their book?

That's not how libraries work. Libraries pay for a book once (assuming it wasn't donated to them.)

No, you're wrong. At least in the UK since 1979 [1] Other countries have similar schemes.

[1] https://www2.societyofauthors.org/where-we-stand/public-lend...

Turns out other countries still haven't gotten the point of public libraries. Once you own a book, it's your property. You don't have to pay a fee to lend out your own property. This is how it works in America, where free public libraries were invented.

Ok but hear me out, what if we embed citations in the text, so there's like a colossal graph of publications, with regional distribution centers.