eBooks and rights

seagull · 03-04-2010, 02:13 PM

I thought the publisher that published the pBook would also have the rights to publish the eBook version but this seems to not always be the case - I've e-mailed both Penguin and Hachette and neither have the rights to publish The Catcher in the Rye in eBook format. I thought publishers were saying that the contracts usually had a clause that said about future formats? It seems an awful big title for no publisher to have the ebook rights to

Billjr13 · 03-04-2010, 08:31 PM

The Catcher in the Rye was written and published long before electronic rights were even thought of, so I am betting the original contracts don't have them. I don't know when Salinger might have sign new contracts, he was a pretty private guy and didn't seek to have a lot of his works published. There was talk after he passed away that some new works might be brought to the public by his family. This may be one of those ocassions where the author specifically keeped the electronic rights and prevented it from being published.

bill_mchale · 03-05-2010, 01:05 PM

Salinger is actually an excellent example of how the current copyright laws can be a disincentive to creating or publishing new works. Catcher in the Rye continues to sell well to this day (In part I imagine because it is used in so many High School lit classes) and as a result, Salinger has seen little need to publish anything else for income. Apparently he continued writing the regularly during the last 40 years of his life and even marked manuscripts that he felt were ready to be published. I suspect that we will probably see some new Salinger works published in the next few years. That being said, if copyright was still under the 28 year maximum that was specified in the U.S. Constitution, he might have published other works years ago.

--
Bill

Scott Nicholson · 03-09-2010, 10:53 PM

Interesting, Bill, I never thought of it that way. As a creator, I like to think my heirs stand to gain income from my work. But not many writers will earn a lifetime's income off one or two books. I think the current copyright law is pretty fair, as long as they don't keep granting special exemptions for corporations.

I expect a Salinger heir will crack soon and sell out.

Scott Nicholson

Krystian Galaj · 03-10-2010, 10:49 AM

If works published posthumously count their copyright since the date of publishing, and Salinger's are all good, his heirs might publish only one every decade or so to keep copyright on them longer

So it might go on for centuries

03-04-2010, 02:13 PM	#1
seagull Addict Posts: 247 Karma: 89950 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Amazon Kindle 2	eBooks and rights I thought the publisher that published the pBook would also have the rights to publish the eBook version but this seems to not always be the case - I've e-mailed both Penguin and Hachette and neither have the rights to publish The Catcher in the Rye in eBook format. I thought publishers were saying that the contracts usually had a clause that said about future formats? It seems an awful big title for no publisher to have the ebook rights to

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03-04-2010, 08:31 PM	#2
Billjr13 Addict Posts: 357 Karma: 550002 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Colorado Device: Sony PRS 700 & 650	The Catcher in the Rye was written and published long before electronic rights were even thought of, so I am betting the original contracts don't have them. I don't know when Salinger might have sign new contracts, he was a pretty private guy and didn't seek to have a lot of his works published. There was talk after he passed away that some new works might be brought to the public by his family. This may be one of those ocassions where the author specifically keeped the electronic rights and prevented it from being published.

03-05-2010, 01:05 PM	#3
bill_mchale Wizard Posts: 1,451 Karma: 1550000 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Maryland, USA Device: Nook Simple Touch, HPC Evo 4G LTE	Salinger is actually an excellent example of how the current copyright laws can be a disincentive to creating or publishing new works. Catcher in the Rye continues to sell well to this day (In part I imagine because it is used in so many High School lit classes) and as a result, Salinger has seen little need to publish anything else for income. Apparently he continued writing the regularly during the last 40 years of his life and even marked manuscripts that he felt were ready to be published. I suspect that we will probably see some new Salinger works published in the next few years. That being said, if copyright was still under the 28 year maximum that was specified in the U.S. Constitution, he might have published other works years ago. -- Bill

03-09-2010, 10:53 PM	#4
Scott Nicholson Scott Nicholson, author Posts: 363 Karma: 2029337 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Boone NC Device: Kindle	Interesting, Bill, I never thought of it that way. As a creator, I like to think my heirs stand to gain income from my work. But not many writers will earn a lifetime's income off one or two books. I think the current copyright law is pretty fair, as long as they don't keep granting special exemptions for corporations. I expect a Salinger heir will crack soon and sell out. Scott Nicholson

03-10-2010, 10:49 AM	#5
Krystian Galaj Guru Posts: 820 Karma: 11012 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Bookeen Cybook	If works published posthumously count their copyright since the date of publishing, and Salinger's are all good, his heirs might publish only one every decade or so to keep copyright on them longer So it might go on for centuries

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