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The US Authors Guild has said that it regrets Wiley's decision not to undertake a comparison of royalty payments to authors under the Wiley proposal and the existing Bloomberg contract.
Wiley">http://www.thebookseller.com/news/121123-wiley-says-bloomberg-authors-ca... has said that those Bloomberg authors affected by its proposed contract changes can now remain on the old contracts should they choose to, following a public row with the US Authors Guild over the new contracts. But it denied the Guild's request to conduct a royalty review of both contract arrangements. In a new statement made in response to Wiley the Guild said: "We regret Wiley didn't take us up on our offer. This dispute, and the Bloomberg authors, need clear, objective information. In our view, a royalty audit was just the ticket."
But the Guild cautiously welcomed Wiley's decision to allow Bloomberg authors to remain on their old contacts. The Guild said: "While this is progress, and we're relieved that Bloomberg authors will have this opportunity, we still don't know whether those authors will be given the clear information they need regarding how the changes will affect their royalties and other material terms of their book contracts."
The Guild described Wiley's initial letter as a "spectacular failure, destined perhaps for law school textbooks, in obtaining informed consent to a contract modification".
Wiley - which took over the Bloomberg programme earlier this year - is seeking to move the royalty rate from being based on the list price to being based on net receipts. The result of the change, the Guild said, would reduce author royalties by as much as 50%. But Wiley said it believed Bloomberg authors would be paid higher royalties in most instances, since the discounting of business titles meant royalty rates under the old contracts would have been lowered anyway.