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Originally Posted by NVash
Have most of these publishers even realized the growing market with ebooks? Why is this such a problem? Cant they just go to the authors, pitch the idea to them and that be that?
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They don't pitch to authors. They pitch to agents.
Setting aside the number of authors who'll be paying attention to Konrath and deciding to ditch publishers entirely for their backlists...
What's the publisher's pitch? "Let us release your backlist and we'll give you 15-25% of each sale?" That, they might go for. Except for the part that says, "If they get popular, you can't sell a movie script without giving us a cut. And you can't sell them at ebookstores we don't have a contract with. And you can't set the price of the book. And we retain the right to sell your book as an ebook for as long as we like."
Most pbook contracts expire after a book goes "out of print," which is defined as a certain amount of time after the last print run. Ebooks don't go out of print, so when does the contract expire and leave the author free to look for a better deal? If another publisher wants to offer a pbook contract, how does the author get the rights for that?
Publishers *are* seeking out some authors for backlist rights, but authors aren't automatically willing to hand them over. Maybe the author wants to hold out for a pbook re-release to go with the ebooks. Maybe the author wants a higher percentage than the publisher offers. Maybe the author wants to retain control of derivatives. Maybe the author's shopping around among publishers to see who'll offer the best deal.
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As for the back catalog, I have no idea how many books will ever see the light of day as ebooks. Especially the books from publishers who no longer exist. How will they ever become ebooks? Is it even possible?
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Of course! Copyright on those books expires 70 years after the death of the author, and then anyone can republish them!