S&S Responds to Author's Guild
PW reports that Simon & Schuster has responded to the Author's Guild suit regarding the reversion (or non-reversion, rather) of rights back to the author when a book stops selling:
Another pain point caused by encroaching technology - while authors and publishers now are more aware of how technological advances affect copyright (and this shows in the more recent contract negotiations), there is that inevitable group who didn't foresee this coming, and their books are going to be the casualties of change.
S&S says that in recent years it has accepted "contract language that specifies a minimum level of activity for print on demand titles," adding that "our experience with the current high quality and accessibility of print on demand titles indicates to us that such minimums are no longer necessary." S&S insists, however, that "our position on reversions for active titles remains unchanged. As always, we are willing to have an open and forthright dialogue on this or any other topic." S&S notes that POD "is simply a means of manufacturing a book, making it widely available to retailers and consumers."The Science Fiction Writers of America has responded to S&S by saying that it supports the Author's Guild position, and that this is yet another instance of "an already-developing trend to use technologies, not to the benefit of authors, but as a way to seize rights that writers have traditionally taken for granted."
Another pain point caused by encroaching technology - while authors and publishers now are more aware of how technological advances affect copyright (and this shows in the more recent contract negotiations), there is that inevitable group who didn't foresee this coming, and their books are going to be the casualties of change.
What I offer:
