2.03.2007

And so it begins with audio

There's always the debate in publishing about how royalties should be shared on subsidiary rights. At one time everyone shared things equally: 50/50. Then things started to shift; Translations and British Commonwealth/ English Reprint rights escalated and then were pulled from contracts. Movie and TV rights either disappeared from the author's contract or are so favorable to the author that publishers might as well leave it up to the agents to sell.

Now the Association of Authors' Agents wants to raise the royalty rate for digital downloads of audio books.

My 30 second take: It will be a hard fight unless the agents can come up with a way to cut out the publisher from the digital download market. Let the rumbles and fumbles begin.

News, but no book reviews

The AP is canceling it's book review service. Hurrah for freelance book editors! (That is if those sources using AP's book review decide to continue reviewing books).