Top Author Shifts eBook Rights to eBook Retailer
Brad Stone
Excerpts from an article written by Brad Stone and Mokoto Rich for the New York Times
Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York’s largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers or other new ventures, bypassing traditional publishers entirely. Now, one well-known author is doing just that.
Stephen R. Covey, one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, has moved e-book rights to two of his best-selling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster to a digital publisher that will sell the e-books to Amazon for one year.
Stephen R. Covey
Amazon will have the exclusive rights to sell electronic editions of “The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People,” and a later work, “Principle-Centered Leadership.” Mr. Covey also plans to gradually make other e-books available exclusively to Amazon, which will promote them on its Web site.
The move promises to raise the already high anxiety level among publishers about the economics of digital publishing and could offer authors a way to earn more profits from their works than they do under the traditional system.
His move comes as publishers ratchet up their efforts to secure the digital rights to so–called backlist titles — books published many years, if not decades, ago. These books can be vitally important to publishing houses because they are reprinted year after year and provide a stream of guaranteed revenue without much extra marketing effort.
The decision to publish the e-book editions of the two older titles through … Amazon was not a result of dissatisfaction with Simon & Schuster. Stephen Covey will continue to publish print books through Simon & Schuster.
Mr. Covey was also experimenting with self-publishing new books, another way of cutting out the traditional print publisher. In August, he published “Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times,”….
The skirmish over e-books is part of a larger multidimensional chess match being played among publishers, authors, agents and book retailers. The big publishing houses hate the uniform e-book price of $9.99 that Amazon and others have set for newer titles.
Although the retailers are subsidizing that price, executives say they believe that such pricing harms the market for more expensive hardcovers, and some publishers have reacted by announcing they will delay the publication of certain e-books by several months after they are made available in hardcover.
Last week, Simon & Schuster said it would delay by four months the e-book versions of 35 titles being published in hardcover from January to April. Both the Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide have also indicated they will delay e-book editions.
Mike Shatzkin, the chief executive of Idea Logical, which advises publishers on digital strategy, said that publishers were trying to minimize Amazon’s outsize influence in the book business and preserve their own. “Publishers are trying to herd Amazon back into their corner and keep it there,” he said. “But I think that this is going to be a very difficult situation for the big publishers to control.”
Comment by Jerry Simmons:
Their Own Worst Enemy - Rather than negotiate with their authors in an attempt to work out a suitable arrangement, publishers have created the situation that exists and now face the prospect of seeing their authors make new deals for digital content. There was a time when authors would publish hardcover under one house then move their paperbacks to another house and it was cumbersome and made little sense. That changed. However the publishers failed to learn the lessons of the past and rather than work out a new strategy they follow the old and as a result, more big name authors will most likely follow the lead of Stephen R. Covey.
| This article is reprinted from TIPS for WRITERS from the PUBLISHING INSIDER newsletter by Jerry Simmons of Writers Readers. Used by permission. |
Tags: backlist, delays, digital rights, eBooks, Jerry Simmons, rights, Stephan Covey
