Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
Yes, out of print books are a separate matter entirely. I'm of the opinion that if a book falls out of print for some specified period of time (e.g. 5 years, though I'd actually prefer a shorter period) it should automatically first revert rights completely to the author (if living), then go into the public domain if it still remains out of print.
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Generally speaking, rights
do revert to the author when a book goes out of print, though the author or author's agent must formally request that the rights revert.
David Hartwell, a Senior Editor at Tor these days, once recounted the time he was a Consulting Editor at Signet/NAL, brought in to breathe life into their SF line. It took him seven months simply to find out what SF Signet
had under contract, and another five months to dot Is, cross Ts, and renew rights on stuff they wanted. At that, they lost properties, because 'they" had forgotten they had the rights, but the author or agent hadn't, and promptly asked that the rights revert when the title went out of print.
Ebooks and POD are forcing a redefinition of what "out of print" means, with current contracts tending to include specified sales levels for ebooks and POD editions to qualify a book as in print and remaining with the publisher.
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Dennis