Re: The Seven Types Of Pirate

On Oct 15, 2010, at 12:19 PM, Brenna Lyons wrote:

>> That's totally wrong. Publishers are dealing with territory-based rights,
>> so if there's a publisher in a given territory with the rights to a book,
>> the NY publisher can't sell the book in that territory. What gets a bit more
>> complicated is the issue of language - while these rights make sense for the
>> USA vs the UK, they make less sense for non-English speaking countries.
>> 
> 
> They COULD choose to separate ebook from print rights overseas (like it used
> to be until a year or two ago, I'll note) and negotiate the contracts for
> worldwide ebook rights from the start. They choose not to. I'm not talking
> about translation rights here. I'm talking about simply releasing an
> English-langauge copy in other places. NY conglomerate chooses to not click
> "worldwide distribution" (and not to negotiate worldwide distribution for
> ebooks from day one) and to make it part of the overseas package instead.
> Their choice, and it aggravates readers.

No, they can't. Because different territories imply different languages, and, hence, different publishers. You're not going to assign rights to, say, all of Europe to a publisher in, say, Spain, who has no way of selling in other countries, regardless of language. They simply don't have the sales force and distribution agreements. (Theoretically, they could; but none of the conglomerates are organized in a multi-country manner to do so.)
> 
>> 
>> Don't forget also that in many cases (for top-tier authors) the authors
>> themselves may not have sold worldwide or even multi-territory rights to
>> your NY publisher.
>> 
>> 
> Yes, and that's another issue. If the contract allowed an English-language
> ebook worldwide and only the writers that negotiated that out didn't have
> it, the readers would have a real beef with the authors, where the blame
> lies, in that case. Many NY authors on the blogs and forums are frustrated
> by the fact that they have no option to get the worldwide in ebook from day
> one, even if their books are not available in hard bound editions. Those
> authors are responsive to the needs and wants of readers, but without being
> given the option to offer it...

Well, they could decide to not sign the contracts they are offered. That's one way to change things. But they don't want to bother. 


Kirk

*Author of Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ*
http://www.mcelhearn.com/itunes
Twitter: @mcelhearn








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