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Old 03-03-2008, 09:31 PM   #6
ePossum
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ePossum began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 38
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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I have a friend who in the past wrote for a prominent (genre) publisher. Her contracts with this publisher covered electronic - giving her a lower royalty rate for electronic than for print.

Ten years ago this didn't seem so bad (low sales through electronic). Now... My friend continues to publish genre fiction (with a different publisher) and has a growing fan base that buys from her backlist. If the fans look to electronic with the original publisher, my friend gets virtually nothing due to the putrageous terms of her contract. Meanwhile, the original publisher (and persumably the e-retailers) are getting money for jam for no work at all, since my friend's current publisher does all her marketing!

I agree with Kate Pullinger. When it comes to contracts, writers (in particular popular fiction writers) need to be savvy to the long term implications of the growing popularity of e-books - both in terms of where the money is going, and in terms of what the publisher does for them.
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