A battle is brewing between publishers and authors. The fight is over who benefits from E-Book publishing. Only in the last 15 years did contracts with authors explicitly mention digital publishing. Therefore, backlisted works that are covered by older contracts, and controlled either by the original author or the author’s estate are in a bit of a gray area when it comes to digital publishing. Publishers say they own the printed-book rights, and by extension the E-Book rights. Authors, unsurpisingly, disagree. From the New York Times:
Backlist titles, which continue to be reprinted long after their initial release, are crucial to publishing houses because of their promise of lucrative revenue year after year. But authors and agents are particularly concerned that traditional publishers are not offering sufficient royalties on e-book editions, which they point out are cheaper for publishers to produce. Some are considering taking their digital rights elsewhere, which could deal a financial blow to the hobbled publishing industry.
Some publishers have already made agreements with authors or their estates to release digital editions. All of Ernest Hemingway’s books, for example, are available in electronic versions from his print publisher, Scribner, a unit of Simon & Schuster.
But with only a small fraction of the thousands of books in print available in e-book form, there are many titles to be fought over.
“This is a wide open frontier right now,” said Maja Thomas, senior vice president for digital and audio publishing at the Hachette Book Group.
How this might impact the growth of the E-Book market is unclear. The number of copyrights being contested hasn’t been revealed, but given the infancy of the E-Book market, further litigation would not be a surprise as more and more royalties come from digital editions of books. But if a large chunk of the world’s older literature gets caught up in legal battles, might this impact the number of titles Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other digital retailers are able to provide? Could this limited selection of E-Books keep consumers away? All speculation, but the intellectual property issues surrounding E-Books won’t be going away any time soon.
Via: Authors and Publishers Argue Over Digital Rights to Older Books – NYTimes.com.
