An article about this in the Bookseller today. US publishers are evidently seeking rights to territories that are considered the domain of UK publishers in lieu of global deals, says the article. India, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa are the contested territories right now.
Anthony Goff, president of the Association of Authors Agents said: “US publishers are trying to erode those assumptions that markets like India and Singapore automatically go to the British publishers. … Goff described this situation as “small skirmishes” compared with the larger issue of global territories, which was “a huge battle to be fought”.
According to an agent from William Morris Endeavor Entertainment there is a move towards American publishers “… hoping to buy world rights in the first instance, and when unable to do that, to ensure India and South Africa, and smaller territories like Singapore and Malaysia.”
Given the inability of many of TeleRead’s readers to buy books in certain countries this seems like a good thing to me for the reader at large. However, the article points out that UK authors tend to get higher royalties from UK publishers.
Surprises me they don’t do it more, being gung-ho capitalists generally.
i.e. “Give us all your rights or no USA books for you, garden variety authorperson.”
“However, the article points out that UK authors tend to get higher royalties from UK publishers.”
Isn’t that a bit too much of a generalization? If US publishing houses are going after a larger rights areas for ebooks, they’ll have to pay accordingly to convince authors and their agents.
This is actually a very necessary step if they’re going to combat piracy, since any kind of rights issues are just going to make it harder for people to justify paying money for content (if it’s even available in their region).