On 26 July 2010, I posted about the esteemed Wylie Literary Agency getting into the publishing field by publishing the digital versions of old classics by their own writer clientele through Amazon.
You see, the old, original publishing contracts with Random House (and a few others) did not include “digital rights”…They didn’t exist at the time.
It now seems that Random House, who published most of the original print versions of the subject Wylie titles, has wrestled the digital rights from Wylie.
Even though I previously commented on a concern over a Wylie Agency conflict of interest with their authors, I would still like to see the wording of those original Random House contracts…that evidently held up rights that didn’t exist at the time. Rights I believe belong to the writers/authors to assign as they wish.
What do you think?
Anyway, here is a Wall Street Journal report written by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg giving more details.
Publishing/Writing: Insights, News, Intrigue 
Hmmm. Guess neither party wants to take such an issue to court!
Comment by Frances Jeanne — 08/26/2010 @ 9:05 am |
I think you're right…I feel both sides just came to an agreement through talks…But, I wonder how involved the writers/authors were in the negotiations…Anyway, it does eliminate the conflict of interest RE Wylie…Rather they would negotiate in their own interests (profits) as publisher OR in the interests of their client writers (writers' profits)
Comment by John Austin — 08/26/2010 @ 9:11 am |