Pub Rants, written by a literary agent, has a post today that let’s us into what’s going on in the publishing industry. A couple of items:
Unlike times past publishers will walk away from a deal rather than give up electronic rights.
If you have, indeed, managed to reserve your electronic rights it doesn’t necessarily mean you can use them. The non-competition clause in most publishing contracts is usually broad enough so that it will prevent an author from publishing electronically even if the author reserves the rights. Agent Kristin says, and I agree with her based on my own legal experience, that very few people bother to read or think about the non-compete clause.
Thanks to Marilynn Byerly for the link.
I’m not a lawyer but any non-compete clause would have to be pretty general. If electronic rights are specifically not granted, the author/agent should have the right to sell them elsewhere. The situation is similar to audio rights or movie rights. These are, in some ways, competitive with paper print rights, but they are, nevertheless, sold separately. Similarly, too, authors who reserve paperback rights can sell them separately although clearly paperbacks compete with hardbacks.
I agree with the more basic point that most publishers today will insist on both paper and electronic rights. Nobody wants to be left holding a monopoly on buggy whips.
Rob Preece
Publisher
My dad recently published a book, and when I asked him some questions about ebook versions (among other things) his answer was pretty much that his publisher owns his soul now, and he does what they tell him. He was unhappy with the Amazon blurb, but it was up to them; he was unsure if ebook editions were offered/available/planned but it was not up to him; eventually, there was a Kindle edition and when I pointed it out to him, he was quite surprised. I suspect many authors are just so grateful to be published that they don’t even think about the fine print, and sometimes that may be to their detriment.