[neilmarr]

***I agree that for e-books, the rights should be sold by language, not by country***

And I couldn't agree more fully, Bev. But there is a hitch.

My own wee publishing house contracts both treebooks and ebooks for publication in a single international English language edition and for simultaneous release, as do many smaller indies (and, indeed most self-publishing authors also go single-edition in PoD treebook and ebook), so there's no problem with us, unless a third-party retail outlet slaps on its own uninvited geographical restrictions for some mysterious and never explained reason.

The bigger houses, though, usually take English language rights to treebook and ebook on a country-specific basis and release dates for the same title are often wildly staggered.

Agents and their sub-agents, quite understandably, negotiate the very best separate deals they can for an author client's book in, say, the US, UK, Canada and Australia; anywhere with an English-reading customer base that can potentially support a title.

Sometimes, a house will buy international rights to a title and either work through its own imprints in various countries or even on-sell publication rights to another house in whatever country is targeted. So, again, release dates of a title in treebook and ebook are not likely to coincide and ISBNs differ. If an international retailer were to sell an ebook in some countries it would undermine the strategy of the publishing house with local rights if his release is behind that of the first digital publisher in the line.

Sometimes the cover is different in each country (the art work, edit and internal text design usually being the copyright of the individual publisher); also the English standard of spelling might be adjusted in edit on a country-specific basis; inside text designs may differ; even content might be re-worked to local taste; and, of course, release dates on any given title can be wildly different from country to country and publisher to publisher.

Sadly, I don't think we'll see an end to this in treebooks or ebooks until major publishers have their backs pressed even harder against the wall and book deals are negotiated by an agent by bringing together an international consortium of publishers in each relevant country who will agree a simultaneous release date for their editions of a title and simultaneous launch of both paper and digital editions.

Cover work and English standard might still be adjusted in treebooks for a long time to come to cater to local market appeal, but the very nature of ebook sales (and ebook and treebook release dates should and must coincide) would make differing cover art and language standard a matter of disproportionate effort and surplus to requirements.

This is, perhaps, why agents dealing with the Big Six should negotiate ebook rights separately on the firm basis that both ebook and treebook would have the same international release date.

I'm not sure of the morality issue in an agency actually publishing ebooks themselves -- especially on a store-specific basis, a la Andrew Wylie with his Odyssey operation and exclusive deal with a single retailer, Amazon. Then again, Wylie's job is to pull the best deal possible for his clients (and for the Wylie Agency, of course), so I for one understand this recent move. Whether or not I agree with it is quite another matter, but I must disqualify myself from comment on the grounds of vested interest.

I realise that big houses would find a treebook-only deal less attractive these days and I can see the reason (dubious as it might be) for the big houses whose older contracts contain no mention of digital rights but who fight to assume them anyway (to the extent that Random House will not now do business with Wylie). But the industry is standing on its head right now and we'll see huge changes very soon. Hopefully to the benefit of readers and authors ... possibly even to publishers in the long run.

Best wishes. Neil