Writers’ Roundup

Bite marks are beginning to collect on The Google Settlement. As writers, publishers and legal beagles chew their way through its 385 pages, the bitter taste of a possible price-fixing monopoly is beginning to spread. I’ll turn the column over now to Lynn Chu, a principal at Writers’ Representatives LLC whose challenge to the proposed Settlement was published in the Wall Street Journal. She sinks a powerful pair of incisors into the Google Corporation’s grabby handy-pandies: Continue reading

The jury’s still deliberating at The Writers’ Union of Canada on ebook rights and how much to ask for. While we’re waiting, let’s peek through the fence  at what other writers’ unions in the English-speaking world are posting on their sites. What they seem to agree upon as fair to writers is at least 50/50 and to lease your erights for a limited time only. This post is a bit quote-dense but I think worth it. Pace yourself. (The boldface decisions herein are mine.)

Authors’ Guild of America

The Authors Guild Legal Services Department offers the following advice, along with a recommendation that your e-rights agreement be periodically reviewable: Although electronic publishing is still an evolving industry without clear standards, not long ago, Random House announced an intention to evenly split ebook sales revenue with authors. Before this announcement, Random House had been offering authors royalties of no more than 15% of the retail price of an ebook. Many other publishers, including Harper Collins, have started to offer a 50-50 split of net proceeds also. Therefore, you should negotiate to receive no less.

Random House has now dropped its royalty offering to 25% of net, and presents the familiar baffle/grab for doing so.

“The way the market is developing, the publisher’s list price will soon no longer be a relevant basis for calculating royalties in the digital environment…  The electronic formats are not as inexpensive to produce and publish as many believe … We have made substantial investments …  in related digital infrastructure, such as the creation and maintenance of a digital archive  … The new ebook rate continues to compare favorably to the rates we pay for other formats in which books are made available.” Continue reading