HAIL HYDRA! DONATION TO COMPANY ORGAN BANKS NOW OPTIONAL, NOT MANDATORY!

[james_davis_nicoll]

Reacting to criticism from the Science Fiction Writers Association and other groups about the terms for its new digital imprints, Random House has made changes to its contracts. The most significant change is that prospective authors for the Hydra, Alibi, LoveSwept and Flirt imprints will now be able to choose from two models--the original profit share deal or a more traditional advance plus royalty deal.

At the cost of sounding like a churl, when they say

Hydra, Alibi, Loveswept, and Flirt seek to acquire rights throughout the world and in all languages. This expands the author’s opportunities and earnings potential.

Actually, this*may* expand the author’s opportunities and earnings potential or it may not; the author already has the option of selling rights around the world and I could see how having one entity handle them could work out for or against the author. What it does is expand Hydra, Alibi, Loveswept, and Flirt’s opportunities and earnings potential.

Comments

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

He should feel right at home, then, working for a commercial organ that apparently is asking people to write for free. Actually, that's probably too snarky. But still.

One wonders if professional writers are (or should be) worried that they'll be increasingly supplanted by people who are willing (or can afford and choose) not to get paid.

One wonders if the publishers will offer deals that feature no advance, but royalties, and only a very limited license to publish with dramatic secure-back (i.e. you have exclusive north american book publishing rights for two years, and from that point if the property isn't in print, in hardcopy and e-book, available through all major online retailers, the rights revert back to author).

One wonders if more and more genre publishers will self-publish, or publish in commune groups.

It's a brave new world a comin'!

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

He should feel right at home, then, working for a commercial organ that apparently is asking people to write for free.

I believe he wrote that piece specifically in response to complaints that his employer was asking people to write for free. The employer that presumably pays him to be an employee. I'm reminded of the old saying, "Where you stand depends on where you sit."

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

I suspect publishers will eventually become what vanity presses claim to be, where an author pays them to edit and market a book and get it in whatever physical bookshops still remain.