Slashdot Mirror
Top Authors Make eBook Deal, Bypassing Publishers
RobotRunAmok writes "Home to 700 authors and estates, from Philip Roth to John Updike, Jorge Luis Borges, and Saul Bellow, the Wylie Agency shocked the publishing world yesterday when it announced the launch of Odyssey Editions. The new initiative is selling ebook editions of modern classics, including Lolita, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Updike's Rabbit tetralogy, exclusively via Amazon.com's Kindle store, leaving conventional publishers out of the picture. The issue boils down to who holds digital rights in older titles published before the advent of ebooks, with publishers arguing that the ebook rights belong to them, and authors and agents responding that, if not specifically granted, the digital rights remain with the author. Publishers and authors are also at loggerheads over the royalty that should be paid for ebooks: authors believe they should be getting up to double the current standard rate of 25%, because ebooks are cheaper to produce than physical editions. (Amazon pays authors 70%.)"
Hey, look at this RIAA! This is the record label industry getting murdered, and everyone else benefiting!
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
The author pays the publisher.
Wait a minute! That's how it works in academia.
You sir sound like someone who knows how businesses are run. What are you doing on slashdot?
my trusty Palm Tungsten for now, my eyes are still ok.
Not for long. According to what I was told as an adolecent, if you Palm your Tungsten too often, you'll go blind.