Be Your Own Editor

Here’s a sign that publishers are beginning to rethink their business model in the face of new methods of book promotion and distribution: the Author’s Guild isn’t happy with a change in the standard book contract at Simon & Schuster, effectively granting the publisher rights to a book well beyond the point when a book would, under most current contracts, be considered out of print. (Rights to out-of-print books normally revert to the author.) S&S now wants to retain rights if the book remains available in any form, including digitally or via print-on-demand.

Chances are they’ll come to some sort of compromise in this case, but it signals the beginning of a inevitable restructuring of the legal and financial relationship between publisher and author in the age of the internet and print-on-demand. Something to keep an eye on.

Check out GalleyCat for a good summary of the situation and industry reaction.