Dear Author » author-rights

The International Digital Rights Mess (or Amazon’s Cock Up)

Jane — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:00:05 +0000

Over the past year, as more and more readers have become interested in ebooks, we’ve begun to realize one of the biggest problems is the mess of territorial rights. We had Fictionwise and BooksonBoard removing books from its bookstore. Fictionwise went so far as removing access to books that people had already purchased.

This past week, Amazon announced that it would sell its Amazon Kindle to 100+ countries and those Kindles would have cellular access so you could take advantage of the on Kindle book purchasing. (which is really the only advantage of the Kindle at this point). Two problems emerged from this announcement. First, the release of the Kindle didn’t do anything to make more books available to international readers. Amazon confirmed that it would be observing all territorial rights agreements. Second, Amazon will actually be charging more for books sold outside the U.S.

Territorial Agreements

As I discussed in this article published in May of 2009, rights have traditionally been sold with translation and territory rights sold as one bundle known as “foreign rights”. I argued that rights should be decoupled. World digital rights could be granted while reserving translation rights. One of the drawbacks of this is that it can inhibit the growth of a regional publishing industry. Martin Taylor, Director of the New Zealand Digital Publishing Forum, argues that if the US published writers were to grant world digital rights to their publisher, it would serve to diminish the publishing power of the other countries:

Territorial rights are important to preserve. They allow countries to develop their own economically sustainable publishing industries and to reflect the specific dynamics of each market. The profits from country-specific international editions help sustain the infrastucture needed for local book publishing that is important both economically and culturally. Local pricing, and the ability to profit from locally generated sales and marketing initiatives are also important parts of this.

Language/translation rights can be a useful alternative to achieve this but only if you have a unique language. If, for instance, you’re a small English language market like New Zealand, it’s no barrier. The only way to have a chance of developing a local market is to have territorial rights.

Martin’s point is an important one, but in the meantime, what do readers do? With no legitimate source, do readers in New Zealand, Australia or even the UK simply go without?

Higher Prices

Hidden behind the fluff of the news announcement of the great Kindle being available worldwide was the fact that Amazon intends to charge more, not only for the device itself, but also for the books.

When asked by the Guardian precisely how much downloads would cost, an Amazon.co.uk spokesman revealed that foreign customers – including those in Britain – would be paying $13.99 ( £8.75) per book instead of the American price of $9.99 ( £6.25). That amounts to a 40% premium for the same title.

“International customers do pay a higher price for their books than US customers due to higher operating costs outside of the US,” said the spokesman. “Additionally, VAT rates in the EU are higher on ebooks than on print books.”

Increased prices engender bad will for consumers. We don’t understand why the prices are higher (particularly if VAT rates have to be paid in addition to higher costs). The only thing we know is that the digital file is easily to store and deliver. It seems to us that there can be no extra cost. Indeed, we see there a savings for retailers and publishers.

The Result

The result of the digital rights confusion is readers not willing to adopt the ebook platform or for those who do adopt the platform, piracy is becomes a more attractive option. As guest blogger at Teleread points out, the seeming artificial boundaries prevent the customer from giving the content creator money.

I am not wanting to do something illegal. I want to make a perfectly legal purchase of an item on the Internet. I want to give the publisher (and hence the author) real, actual, genuine cash. Can I get the e-book any other way? No. So the old relict boundaries are preventing me from giving the author my money. What the-?

…

These kind of restrictions, in fact, do just create incentives for people to find ways around them, and thus almost certainly ending up meaning that the original creator gets nothing.

I’m not sure what the answer is – how best to balance the ability of countries to foster a publishing industry but still providing readers the books that they want. I do know that the internet is making boundaries seem superfluous and if those who want to make money from consumers must respond quickly or the boundaries will indeed be illusions as will profits. Publishing, worldwide, needs to start solving the problem of how to get books to the readers who want them.

Aspiring Author Attempts Own Auction

Jane — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:49:03 +0000

An enterprising author offers up his book for auction on eBay. The auction, entitled “Offering the Rights to My Book” starts with a bid of $5,000.00 and free shipping.

The book has apparently already been sold to a publisher and is set to be published this coming month (September), but the rights (unclear what exactly those rights are) are for sale. According to the auction, there will be no loss of investment because “50,000 MINIMUM COPIES ARE SOLD ON ON AN AVERAGE OF ANY PUBLISHED BOOKS. IT’S MORE THAN ENOUGH TO COVER YOUR MONEY AND NOT TO MENTION YOUR PROFIT!”

Plus, by buying the rights, you’ll be engaging a “great humanitarian help” to the author’s family. “I CAN’T EFFORT TO PAY MY BILLS ANYMORE. I HAVE FIXED THE PRICE BASED ON THE AMOUNT TO COVER MY UNPAID BILLS, MORTGAGE (MY HOME WILL BE FORECLOSED ANYTIME) AND ENOUGH TO SURVIVE TILL END OCTOBER 2008. ”

The Synopsis is included:

What does a married man do when he is obsessed and seduced by another woman? This obsession and seduction cost the man’s normal life, his business and marriage. he was framed and sent to jail by the seductive woman. This man has chosen a mysterious way to get his life back, upon realization of his mistakes the hard way. Ironically his way worked and got his life back to normal saved his marriage too. His wife deserves lots of credit for putting up with his ordeal. She has shown true patience and love. This is a true life story.

Sadly, the auction ended earlier today but without any bids so you could contact the seller if you are interested.

What’s Appropriate for Public Consumption

Jane — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:19:38 +0000

GalleyCat had an interesting article regarding a contretemps involving author Michael Cisco and his publisher Prime Books. Prime Books is a small print publisher of science fiction,fantasy and horror fiction. Cisco complained that he hadn’t received any royalties from his last book. He determined from watching the traffic on Amazon that he must have sold at least 500 books through Amazon. He also spoke with other Prime authors and they, too, had received delays in payments and at least one author was waiting for money she was owed on original cover art. He asserted that Prime wasn’t following through on marketing commitments and promotion.

Prime executive editor, when contacted by GalleyCat, acknowledged that they need to improve communications with their authors but that his non payment of royalties was accurate. Galley Cat noted that Cisco’s estimate of books sold was “grossly inflated.”

GalleyCat noted that Cisco’s comments sounded “bitter rather than older-but-wiser.”

Given the debacles of epress and small print publishing that we have seen in the romance community, the failure to pay royalties, the lack of communication by a publisher, the failure to follow through on promises to promote and/or market a book are often warning signs. The article notes that Prime isn’t suffering anything different than any other small print publisher and that may very well be true, but it doesn’t mean that is how it should be or that authors should keep their mouths shut about it.

Warnings from authors like Cisco might lead another author to work harder at his or her craft than simply settle for a publisher who isn’t transparent, fails to communicate with its authors, and doesn’t fulfill its promises.

Yaoi/Manga Publishing Issues: Iris Print and Tokyo Pop

Jane — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:30:17 +0000

I received two publisher alerts and want to share them with the community. One relates to a Yaoi publisher closing shop and the second is Tokyo Pop’s Manga Pilot draconian contract.

Iris Print:

Iris Print is a Yaoi publisher who apparently closed up shop and failed to tell its authors. Giapet.Net first reported this on May 17:

Something I didn’t mention in my Yaoi Press report was that Yamila Abraham, when asked about publishing yaoi novels as well as comics, said that it tends not to work very well, and pointed to Iris Print as an example- saying that the company has actually closed up shop.

Emails to the owner of Iris Print have seemingly gone unanswered. From an Iris Print author:

Well isn’t that swell? Iris Print closes up shop and doesn’t bother to tell the creators they have under contract. Nice. So what about our books? What about our titles? :/ I don’t know what to say about this, except that I’m truly disappointed. I’m beyond pissed; I wonder though, where is Amazon getting their re-stock if Iris is out of business? What about all those people who paid pre-orders for Queer Magic? It would’ve been nice to know if she was filing for bankruptcy.

Another author hasn’t had her first quarter 2008 sales report even though she’s written 3 times now.

I can’t get through to my publisher. I haven’t heard anything about my first quarter 2008 sales, so I’ve written 3 times now. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a "I got your email, am working on it, please be patient.’ Not even bounce messages, so I can only assume my email is getting through and being ignored, or that something very awful has happened to my publisher. I can’t express how frustrating that is. Seriously, any response is better than silence. Even "eff off and die, you annoying author b***h’ would be an improvement. "Nuff said for now, but there may be more on this topic if things don’t improve. -Rebecca Day

Doesn’t sound good. A non responsive publisher is not a good sign.

Toyko Pop

Tokyo Pop has a Manga Pilot Program wherein an aspiring author or an established author can create a 24-to-36 “pilot” of a manga to convince Tokyo Pop that it is worth continuing into a full fledged manga. The contract for the program has the comic world up in arms over this. Some of the terms are draconian and some of them seem very standard to me (i.e., the indemnification clause). What is unusual is that you sign over your rights to the Manga Pilot for a flat fee (no royalties) and only get your rights back if TP rejects you.

Simon & Schuster Agrees that You Can Leave Them without Getting a Restraining Order

Jane — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:17:11 +0000

Two weeks ago I blogged about how Simon & Schuster was treating authors like abusive husbands: giving authors poor treatment but leaving them too broken to actually leave. Now it appears that S&S is going to kiss and makeup. The publishers are all grumbling at S&S for giving in so soon while bottles of champagne are being sprayed around the offices of the Author’s Guild like the locker room of a division champion. (Obviously this is my interpretation of what is happening and given that I am blogging at 12:10 am, you’ll have to forgive my departure from lucidity).

Calling the rights grab attempt as an “early miscommunication”, Simon & Schuster will now negotiate a “revenue-based” threshold to determine the book’s “in print” status. Somehow I still think that the midlist authors are going to get screwed here, but I guess if the author doesn’t have a lawyer or agent, it’s on them.

Via Publisher’s Weekly and Sandra Schwab for bringing it to my attention.

Why You, the Reader, Should Care About S&S’s Contract Changes

Jane — Tue, 22 May 2007 10:00:31 +0000

Sometimes I’ll blog about information that seems to be directed straight at writers and I wonder if some readers think to themselves, but this isn’t for us. It doesn’t affect us. Aren’t you guys a readers’ blog? We are, but sometimes industry changes have a great affect on we, the readers.

Simon & Schuster’s announcement of its contractual changes is an example of that. Last week, it was discovered that Simon & Schuster intended to include language in its contracts that would essentially eliminate any reversion of rights. What does reversion of rights mean? A little copyright lesson. Stay with me. It’s not that boring, I promise.

When an artist creates a work of art, this art has a copyright. The copyright is a form of protection that is granted by the U.S. Congress. Essentially, the writer of a book has the right to

reproduce the work (make a copy)
prepare derivative works (i.e., a series of books like the Black Dagger Brotherhood series or Eve Dallas series)
distribute copies to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, by rental, lease or lending; (sell print rights)
perform the work (i.e., sell the rights to have a movie or tv show based on it);

In a self publishing instance, the writer produces the book, creates the copies and distributes the copies to the public herself. In almost every other case, the writer produces a work and then sells the right to distribute the work to the public. The author says to the publisher the following:

you pay me $X amount of dollars; promise to print Y amount of my books and pay me $ in royalties and you can have the exclusive right to distribute my book to the fawning readership in the US or maybe even the world, if you pay me enough.

But, if my book goes out of print after so many years, I get the right of distribution back and can peddle my wares either myself (as Michele Albert is tinkering with) or I may sell them back to someone else.

Harlequin doesn’t allow certain books to go out of print. It republishes Nora Roberts, Jennifer Crusie, Diana Palmer, and other very popular authors so that those rights never revert back. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as the author gets paid royalties from every sale.

In the past, Simon & Schuster agreed that if ebook or POD sales fell below a minimum threshold “usually around 150 copies annually” the book would be declared out of print and the rights given back to the author. Not any more, says Simon & Schuster.

But why is that something we should care about? Here’s just a couple of ways this can adversely affect us readers.

Simon & Schuster’s editors may want to buy a book that no other editor believes in but the author doesn’t want to be beholden to S&S for the rest of her life so she moves onto another book that another house may be interested in and we readers miss out on that book. No big deal you say? Not so. Look at the First Sale letters and how many books were rejected by house after house after house until just one editor believes. And then that author goes on to big success.
Another, more insidious, way the contract changes affects readers is when a good book does poorly. Let’s say because of a bad cover, poor publicity an author’s career at Simon & Schuster is killed. We readers never really understand that beneath the boring background with a galloping horse lies an emotionally rich romance. The book dies and the author’s career dies. The book is never in print unless you specifically go and ask for it to be printed, perhaps at an extra charge, making you wait an extra period. Let’s face it ladies, when we go into a bookstore to buy books, we don’t want to have to order them and wait a week. We want them now. Even if they are only going home to lay on the TBR mountain.
What if they decide to restructure like Luna did last year and instead of giving the rights back to Gail Dayton’s series or Laura Leone’s series, they held the rights to those books forever so long as one digital copy existed? Maybe Dayton with Juno Press and Leone with Daw will find revitalized success allowing readers who enjoy the series to continue to be readers of them. In the new Simon & Schuster contract world, those events would not happen.

And so books will go to the S&S vault and die, even if readers want to read them. Joan Wolf wrote this fabulous medieval series for HarperCollins. Due to poor sales, however, the series was canceled. Someday, Wolf will get her rights back and maybe she will be able to resell her idea with more books. I.e., get another advance for the bundle of rights and a promise of promotion and visibility whereas HarperCollins isn’t interested in pursuing this series thus Wolf isn’t going to write something that isn’t selling.

Connie Brockway wrote a character into her historical books by the name of Lord Strand. I have long wanted a book about him. Brockway wants to make money on her books and won’t write a Lord Strand book until she gets the rights back to All Through the Night.

Okay, here’s my fantasy. Bantam/Dell stops printing copies of All Through the Night. After three years (the period named in the original contract), I get the reversion of rights to the book. As I already have the rights to the first book in which Giles appeared, Promise Me Heaven, I then sell those two books, along with Giles’s story, to a publisher who packages the whole thing as a trilogy! Well, a girl can wish…

I would love to do Giles’s story. But until I get All Through the Night back, we’ll all just have to wait.

If Simon & Schuster is successful, I suspect that many other houses will follow suit. HarperCollins president and CEO Jane Friedman, believes that no fiction title should go out of print.

The statement by Simon & Schuster is that the contract “reflects the fact that print on demand titles may now be readily purchased by consumers at both online and brick and mortar stores.” Alas, while Simon & Schuster has a nice selection of ebooks, its catalog is by no means complete. I also don’t know how to obtain a POD book at a brick and mortar store. How will the reader know that this elusive backlist title is even available? Certainly our first instinct would be to hit the used bookstores if it is not readily stocked in the shelves.

S&S indicates it will negotiate this clause on a case by case basis which Georges Borchardt of the Borchardt Agency says will create a two-tiered system whereby big name authors, like Johanna Lindsey, would get a favorable contract and midlist author like Laura Moore would get the big shaft up the ass contract.

What’s good for authors, in this case, is good for readers. And it’s not good for Simon & Schuster because if this rights grab takes a foothold in publishing, Simon & Schuster will miss out on buying books that some other publisher may have bought the rights to initially but failed to see the promise. It’s just a bad deal all around.