The Authors Guild sends warning letters to its members when it thinks publishers are trying to take advantage of them. We’ve mentioned recent Authors Guild warnings about Random House’s statement on e-book rights, and Random House and HarperCollins’ attempts to lock authors into 25% e-book royalty rates.
Today, Galleycat reports that the Authors Guild sent out a warning over a letter from Wiley & Sons, the new owner of Bloomberg Press, to Bloomberg writers concerning changes to the accounting system. Notes the Guild:
We’ve asked an independent royalty auditor to review the effects of these contractual changes on royalty income. The royalty auditor found reductions of 24% to 43% using actual sales figures and applying Wiley’s amendments. (The precise affect of the amendments will vary by title, depending on particular categories of sales of the work.)
The Guild is also concerned that a clause pertaining to retaining rights through relatively low print-on-demand sales could amount to granting the publisher perpetual rights to the work for “a pittance,” rather than letting it revert to the author’s ownership after a set period of time. (This has been a common fear ever since print-on-demand and electronic publication first came to prominence in the last few years.)
Galleycat since reported that Wiley & Sons has responded to the Authors Guild’s allegations:
This morning — without speaking with Wiley concerning its specific assertions — the Authors Guild issued an ‘alert’ to its authors, claiming that the Wiley letter is deceptive and inferring that the Wiley changes it effects will reduce royalties for all or most former Bloomberg authors. This is simply not the case. We believe former Bloomberg authors will be paid higher royalties in most instances. The limited number of contract amendments the AG apparently chose to select are not therefore representative; nor are their ‘calculations’ accurate.
Wiley further offers to discuss the contract changes with all affected authors.
Related: Open letter to Authors Guild president on piracy from Brian O’Leary
