Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonkchapman
I agree, but it's a market question, with a market solution. Book contracts will shift and twitch for a while and then settle back in around some kind of "norm". Authors and agents are already paying attention to e-rights. They have been since Tasini v. NYTimes. They'll just have to do some tweaking to the rights reversion clause.
|
Which is what's been happening.
Quote:
Personally, I don't think anything makes sense but a strict time limit for e-rights.
Print rights have a built-in milestone that the publisher has to cross to keep a book in print, that being another print run. That milestone requires a certain level of commitment from the publisher. E-rights don't have one, and the old phrases like "substantial effort to promote and sell the book" just don't make sense in e-.
|
It won't be a strict time limit alone. Sales will also factor into it. If the book is selling well in an electronic edition, you don't want the rights to magically lapse because the time limit has expired.
Publisher commitment can take the form of attempts to promote the ebook to the intended audience, with success measured by sales.
______
Dennis