[taustin]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

You seem to be saying that it's not the publishers who are greedy, it's the authors!

Not my intent. My intent is to say that it is both who are responsible. The authors are acting out of legitimate self-interest - if you want more rights, give us more money - and the publishers out of inertia, greed and incompetence.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Ok. Maybe in some cases. Doubtful in others -- there are several Margaret Atwood books still not available over here and I doubt it's because she can't find a buyer. Probably the rights are in dispute.

There's a lot of confusion over exactly what rights older contracts cover. In some cases, it's only specific rights as specified, in others, it's "and any other possible media that might some day be invented," and everything in between. The devil is in the details, and nobody wins if there's a lawsuit.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

And of course a whole bunch of geo-restricted authors are dead, so there's that.

And that complicates it a lot more. When the author is dead, it might be difficult to determine who controls the estate to negotiate a new deal. The heirs might not want any new deals (I know of at least one author of roleplaying games whose family were a little embarassed by his work, and any reneotiations would be more likely to reduce availablity rather than increase it), and of course, there's always the possibility of non-author heirs who simply have no clue how much (or, rather, how little) such rights are worth, and make insane demands.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

But yeah, I can totally believe that at least one case is a Greedy Author instead of a Greedy Publisher.

The point being?[/QUOTE]

That it's not an "or" situation. That, in the vast majority of cases, it's both that are the reason for geo-restrictions, and that both need to adjust their thinking before it will change.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I mean, the publishers are still to blame for much of the mess that is ebook rights. And they're all pretty big corporations, so I don't think me or anyone else criticizing them on MR is going to make them cry. I guess I'm just not seeing the big point being made here.

Geo-restrictions aren't there (and never were) to protect the publisher's interests, they exist to protect the author's interests. They came to be standard because the authors (or, rather, their agents) came to realize their clients could make more money, without actually costing the publishers a cent, if rights were split up by region. That condition is no longer true, but successful authors talking to wannabes still point out that you need to make sure your agents includes geo-restrictions in the contract to protect possible additional revenue sources.

The solution isn't for publishers to be less greedy. They should, if anything, be more greedy, and offer up higher advances and better options on royalties to get those world-wide ebook rights, so they can get all the sales on a particular book instead of just part. But at the same time, authors need to realize that those world-wide rights are not going to get them better royalty percentages, or, frankly, a lot more in an advance, and be willing to cough them up on a realistic basis.

The world has changed for both sides.