Harper UK latest publisher to condemn Wylie's move
26.07.10 | Catherine Neilan
HarperCollins has become the third publisher to condemn The Wylie Agency's decision to set up a digital-only publisher, with chief executive Victoria Barnsley saying "the only winners in this are Amazon".
The e-tailer benefits from the set up thanks to a two-year right to exclusively sell the e-books through its Kindle Store. Wylie announced on Thursday it was launching an e-book publisher, called Odyssey Editions, launching with 20 backlist titles from the agent's clients.
HarperCollins UK has print rights to three of the books on Wylie's initial list—Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Naked and the Dead, Love Medicine—all three of which are available to download from the Kindle store internationally.
Barnsley said: "HC will vigorously protect its rights and our authors' interests by ensuring their work gets to the broadest possible audience. The only winners in this are Amazon."
This move has already been criticised by Waterstone's, with head of e-commerce David Kohn saying it was "very disappointing to see that some of our best writers' work is to be only available in such a limited fashion. It does not help build the market, nor does it serve readers well."
Random House and Macmillan have already waded into the controversy, with the former disputing the legality of the move, and cutting off future dealings with the agency on a global basis "until this situation is resolved".
It was "an extraordinarily bad deal for writers, illustrators, publishers, other booksellers, and for anyone who believes that books should be as widely available as possible", he added.
Penguin, which has the largest number of titles in Odyssey's launch list, has declined to comment. No one from Faber was available to discuss the matter.
Authors include Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Philip Roth (all Vintage) and Orhan Pamuk (Faber). The list also includes a number of deceased authors, such as Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, Saul Bellow and Evelyn Waugh (all Penguin).
Comments on this article
By Sarah Tomley
The authors may be happy for their backlist to go straight to Amazon, but what about their unedited new titles? Are authors really prepared to bypass the entire editorial process -- so critical even to great writers such as Raymond Carver -- by turning their backs on the print publishers? It seems that publishers will need to copyright the changes made during the editing process in order for authors to acknowledge publisher input to the text itself. Book publishers are not, nor ever were, purely marketing machines.26 Jul 10 11:03
By Robert Tenison
I'm afraid the publishing industry's reaction is predictable and pathetic. Rather like the music industry, they are sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the ebook problem will go away, or at least they are doing all they can to discourage this form making books available, e.g. by totally unrealistic pricing, enforcing geographic distribution rights, not marketing ebooks correctly etc. Clearly, ebooks will NOT have same impact as MP3 but they do offer existing readers alternatives (for example when travelling) and also broaden the market for books (everybody predicted the death of the bookshop when Amazon hit the world but overall booksales have risen and many bookshops have adapted to provide value added services).26 Jul 10 11:12
By inwaiting
I'll be interested to see how Wylie's authors' new titles will get promoted in future: he thinks that a print publisher will pay big money and commit to huge promotional campaigns, so that he can let Amazon then reap the benefit by undercutting any print edition with an e-book for a couple of quid? Really? He does believe that? Does he really believe that Waterstones will commit space and marketing to a title they can't sell as an e-book from their own site, and which will potentially sit like lead on the shelves? Oh perleaze. He really hasn't thought this through.26 Jul 10 11:43
By Robert Gottlieb
1. Publishing is not the music business. Publishers are looking at a variety of way to protect their content. A major effort is underway. 2. Agents in my view should not be publishers. That creates a conflict of interest. Wylie has not said yet what his deal is with authors. 3. When publishing ebooks without a house such as Harper there are no legal protections in place and the author will have to bear all the risk of litigation. 4. As time goes buy publishers in my opinion will be offering much better royalties due to competition. 5. Main line houses provide a host distribution, promotion, marketing, editorial and much more that simply putting ebooks on websites for sale will not see. 7. What will the agent/publisher do when there is a business or legal disagreement between the parties. Will that agent/publisher sue the author now? Trident Media embraces the ebook fully and works with all parties on behalf of our authors. Robert Gottlieb Chairman Trident Media Group www.tridentmediagroup.com26 Jul 10 13:05
By Heads in Sand
For those that don't understand the problem here, do the following: Go buy a $199 Kindle, then go download the eBook version of "In Cold Blood" for $4.95. Now, while you still can, go buy a used paperback version of "In Cold Blood" for $4.50. Okay, cool. Now, go out to your car, and while putting your keys in your door, drop both the Kindle and the paperback on the concrete from a height of 4 feet. Okay, now imagine that you're late learning this lesson, and you've got $1000 dollars worth of eBooks (If Amazon hasn't chosen to simply delete them, as it has the right to do, and has done, based on the agreement you signed when you bought them). Off to buy another Kindle for $199. Now take your eBook on a sailboat. Then buy another Kindle for $199 Now take your eBook to the beach. $199. Now try to lend your brother a copy of "In True Blood". Oh wait, you can't....even if he owns his own kindle. Now try to pass it on to your Son who is headed off to College. NOPE! Oh wait! What happened to the eBook I thought I owned, for which I paid my money? It's Gone? Amazon sent a wireless signal to my Kindle and it DELETED IT??? Can that happen?? Yes, and it has: Ironically enough, they deleted books by George Orwell: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html to anyone who buys books using this "model", I give you P.T. Barnum; "There's a sucker born every minute". Cheers.26 Jul 10 18:56
By Heads in Sand
The proper model to protect content AND those who read books (customers), is to offer 3 prices for a book: 1. Physical only copy of the book. 2. Physical copy of book, and for a small, small additional fee, (a dollar) an eBook convenience copy. 3. eBook convenience copy only, heavily DRM'd, unexchangeable, uncopyable, rebuyable for 25 cents if you drop your Kindle. The convenience copy would be, 7/8 the price of the highest quality, lowest priced print version available on the Amazon market. This is the model that customers want.26 Jul 10 19:12
By heather d
@heads in sand: If you damage or lose your Kindle all ebooks that you've purchased are restored. E-readers will no doubt become cheaper and more durable as competition heats up. While I agree that paper books still provide the best reading experience, I also keep in mind the environmental impact of the creation and transportation of paper books and am happy to have the option. Too many books being published today don't really deserve the tree treatment. Additionally, I have purchased double the amount of books since receiving my Kindle. I'm not going to drive to Borders after a few glasses of wine, but I will certainly hit up Amazon and make some giddy impulse buys. I agree with the point about agents-as-publishers creating huge conflict of interest. It seems like the Writer's Guild should follow Mr. Wylie's model and truly build something that serves authors.26 Jul 10 20:32
By Ancient Mariner
Whatever the outcome of this latest spat, perhaps publishers will at last realise how independent booksellers feel when publishers fix exclusive deals with chain retailers such as WHSmith or Waterstones for their paper editions. For years they have had to put up with competition from airport editions, early publication exclusives and C-format single chain only editions. Have not they been collectively 'an extraordinarily bad deal...for anyone who believes books should be as widely available as possible'?27 Jul 10 07:29
By Yay!
Yay, well done Wylie. At last someone shaking up the publishers and giving them the medicine they've been dishing out to booksellers for so long. I don't really care what happens, my shop (part of a chain) is going down the swanny due to asymetric discounts across the trade. I'm delighted - whatever the outcome - that the seemingly bulletproof publishers are being shaken up a bit. At long last.27 Jul 10 11:11
By Lesley O'Neil
So Harper UK and others think "The only winners in this are [sic] Amazon," do they? Well I beg to differ. I think we readers are going to be winners as well. Many of us are fed up with the attitude (and recent actions) of the Big Six publishers, and are quite happy to see Andrew Wylie make this move.27 Jul 10 23:54
By Lesley O'Neil
For those that don't understand the problem here, do the following: Go buy a $199 Kindle, then go download the eBook version of "In Cold Blood" for $4.95. Now, while you still can, go buy a used paperback version of "In Cold Blood" for $4.50. Okay, cool. Now, go out to your car, and while putting your keys in your door, drop both the Kindle and the paperback on the concrete from a height of 4 feet. Okay, now imagine that you're late learning this lesson, and you've got $1000 dollars worth of eBooks (If Amazon hasn't chosen to simply delete them, as it has the right to do, and has done, based on the agreement you signed when you bought them). 1) Amazon will often replace a Kindle during the first year, even for an accidental drop. And the books that you have bought are all archived -- you don't lose a thing, even the numerous freebies. Off to buy another Kindle for $199. Now take your eBook on a sailboat. Then buy another Kindle for $199 Now take your eBook to the beach. $199. 2) So your paperback does well in the water? Now try to lend your brother a copy of "In True Blood". Oh wait, you can't....even if he owns his own kindle. Now try to pass it on to your Son who is headed off to College. NOPE! 3) All three of those Kindles are on the same account and you can share ALL of the books purchased, no problem at all. So can your dad and your wife, who also have Kindles on the same account. Oh wait! What happened to the eBook I thought I owned, for which I paid my money? It's Gone? Amazon sent a wireless signal to my Kindle and it DELETED IT??? Can that happen?? Yes, and it has: Ironically enough, they deleted books by George Orwell: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html 4) That was a unique situation, where the book in question was an *illegal copy* and had to be removed. People who had purchased it were refunded the money, and nothing similar has happened since.28 Jul 10 00:04
