‘An unacceptable restriction on authors’ livelihoods’ No publisher would agree, at an author’s request, to forgo publishing another author’s book on a particular subject. So why should an author assume a similar obligation? But it happens all the time. Of all the contract-reform issues being discussed today around publishing and its contracts with authors, the non-compete… Read More
Is 'out of print' running out of time?
Never being ‘out of print’ is not good news You can’t self-publish. Because you can’t get your rights back. And your book is nowhere to be seen. Kill the entire outmoded concept of “out of print.” Instead, the contract should define when book rights are being “inadequately exploited” and therefore available for reversion to the… Read More
Will author contract reform succeed this time?
‘Can you hear me now?’ A not-so-funny television commercial a while back gave us that line with maddening repetition as we watched a hapless mobile phone customer wander through his world in search of a decent connection. The line might work today for authors, agents, and others who are becoming increasingly frustrated by the “silence of… Read More
Writers And Their Business: Don’t Assume It’s All For One
‘Authors Earn Their Living As Freelancers’ There’s a sense these days that the centricity of the author is becoming more convincing in publishing. Or maybe to put it more accurately, it’s becoming harder to think that the centricity of the author won’t be the contextual understanding in publishing some day. Nevertheless, it’s also possible to discern a striking division… Read More
‘The Overselling Of Self-Publishing': New Perspective
‘A Serious Epidemic Of Impatience’ Here in New York City where BookExpo America (BEA) is holding the focus of many in the traditional publishing establishment, a friend and I were finishing lunch at Café Luxembourg when the waiter approached. “I overheard you guys talking about publishing,” he said. “I wondered if you could give me any advice about… Read More
Authors making $8,000 per year? Why write free? A #FutureChat recap
‘Question is, are you making money for someone else?’ That’s the historical fiction author Jane Steen, English, based in Chicago, during our live Twitter conversation at the end of last week. But not for nothing do independent writers like to “celebrate their diversity,” as they tend to put it on a good day. Views of… Read More
Should Authors Write Without Pay?
From anyone else, the advice might sound like right-headed rationality, itself. But as the author Roxana Robinson (pictured) can tell you, when you’re the president of the Authors Guild, nothing you say seems to fall on unbiased ears. This time, Robinson is talking about what authors may be doing to inadvertently diminish their own perceived… Read More
The Authors’ Wish List Goes In: How Will The Guild Council Respond?
“Can The Authors Guild Become An Authors’ Guild?” That’s the Eislerian wit at work, sync-ing up both challenge and hope in one canny phrase, with which he kindly tweeted my recap of Friday’s #FutureChat on the issue of author advocacy. His phrasing captures the friction behind quickly but smoothly moving developments. For background, here is my piece from… Read More