Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonkchapman
[snip]I was told, during the time prior to the Kindle coming out, that the major houses were scrambling through their contracts trying to track down which titles they held e-rights to and which they didn't. You would think that would be a simple look-up process, wouldn't you?
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I'm not surprised in the least -- the publishing industry has been very slow to get onboard with computers, and I suspect the legal department may well be the last department to have to get up to speed. So the contracts are all on paper and probably not on computers yet, at least the important details. They may actually be scanned in, but with agents each negotiating special contracts for their authors, most likely no two contracts look exactly the same.
It'll take a while for them to simply enter all the contract data into a database where they can manipulate it to find out such things as which authors allow ebook versions, which don't, which will allow ebooks but under separate contract, which will allow them on the same conditions, as well as which authors have sold ebook rights to different publishers so that negotiations will have to start, etc.
I'm sure it's a legal morass which will make Dickens' Bleak House look like a simple and quick in/out court case!