Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
Where do these publishers obtain the rights to distribute a work; do they pay the author for that? If so, then why should an author choose to NOT make his books available in a particular country? Doing so will undoubtedly cost him fans, and money.
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The author starts out with all the rights and the reason we sometimes hold the rights back is not simple, but in some cases the publishers don't WANT the rights--which means, we have to sell them individually. Sometimes the publishers want the rights, but has a history of doing nothing with them (Not publishing in foreign countries) so an author negotiates to keep them in the hopes we can sell them later.
Foreign sales generally bring in a higher percentage for the author so while we WANT to sell them, sometimes we can't. Sometimes we sell them only to see delay after delay in publication.
For an ebook there is little incentive to NOT sell the rights if an author is independent, but so far there hasn't been a lot of "Exclusive" talk. Amazon has JUST started trying to get authors to do "Exclusive" books. So, for example, to get certain terms from Amazon, I would have to pull my books from Smashwords--this would limit my circulation to wherever Amazon does sales. I could not sell directly to Japan. Or Estonia. Or wherever. BUT Amazon offers authors incentives to enter plans like these (more mentions, more placement, the ability to run promos, etc.)