The Bookseller.com

8th January 2010

‘Agents need to be more flexible on e-rights'

02.07.09 Catherine Neilan

Agents must be more flexible when selling digital rights to publishers, according to David Roth-Ey, HarperCollins' director of digital business development. As part of a discussion at the Publishing Laid Bare Conference last week Roth-Ey warned the current way of handling 
e-rights could leave publishers trailing behind public demand.

He said: "Agents define rights very narrowly at the moment. What if the model evolves, and we want to provide, say, a chapter a day. If the contracts don't allow it, it's just not going to happen. The danger is, if we don't create a compelling model, we'll be stymied." Roth-Ey warned groups such as Scribd.com would be "eager to step up" to the space left by publishers.

But fellow panellists, independent agent Judith Antell and Watson, Little director James Wills, stressed that they were "looking after authors". Although Wills agreed the digital space allowed for "really interesting ways of selling books in new formats", he acknowledged there was "a reluctance on agents' parts to give rights away". He said: "I don't think any of us know what's going to happen, so I think it's sensible to have two-year breaks in contracts, to address any changes that might arise. If [publishers] are not selling the author's book effectively, perhaps we should be looking after them."

Although some authors are excited about the creative possibilities opening up with the digital world, Antell said some authors did not want to have digital or enhanced versions of their book made. "Some authors don't like it, and don't think that way," she said. "For some authors it is never going to be appropriate to digitise, or enhance, their work. And that's fine—because it's reasonably few people."

HarperCollins digital e-book Agents Catherine Neilan

Comments on this article