Posts Tagged ‘Authors Guild’

The Author’s Guild on State of Publishing and My comment

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

http://blog.authorsguild.org/2012/01/31/publishings-ecosystem-on-the-brink-the-backstory/

To which I commented  Monopolies are generally evil, and I hold no brief for Amazon.com– although why Amazon’s evil makes Barnes & Noble and Big Publishing into good guys is beyond me.  B&N with their end-of-the-aisle bribe stacks and books with a shorter shelf life than yoghurt.  Puh-leeze.

I personally have published with big publishers, small ones, university presses, and an independent co-operative press.  While I am, at least for the moment, still a member of the Authors Guild, I do not find them representing my interests.  AG works for  Scott Turow and  others who make a lot of money selling books.  I’m glad Mr. Turow and his ilk have a guild to represent them, but don’t let the Authors Guild fool you into thinking it does anything for people who don’t sell a lot of books.

So we’re living in interesting times.  Lean back and enjoy the ride.

Agency Becomes EBook Publisher: Random House P.O.’d

Monday, July 26th, 2010

I received emails from the Author’s Guild today telling how the Wylie literary agency has set up its own publishing branch called Odyssey Editions and cut a deal with Amazon for twenty in-print, famous books like Lolita, Invisible Man, and Portnoy’s Complaint.  Random house is up in arms  (I assume they have print rights to these books). It turns out that these are books for which the authors kept electronic rights, which the publishing houses are trying to get.  Read the whole story here and here.

Interesting stuff– I’m on the writers’ side of course, except that I want all information to be free, live long, and prosper.