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The Importance of Reversion Clauses in Book Contracts
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Most book publishing contracts can be divided into two types: fixed-term, where the grant of rights extends for a defined period of time, such as five years; and life-of-copyright, where the grant of rig...
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The DOJ’s Ebook Price Fixing Lawsuit Against Apple and the "Agency Five": An Overview
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Unquestionably, the big publishing news of the week was the US Department of Justice's lawsuit filing against Apple and five major book publishers--Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon a...
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Guest Blog Post: Why Small Publishers Fail
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware I've used up a lot of column space on this blog warning about the risks of submitting to small presses, especially brand new small presses. In my opinion, this is currently the most dangerous area for write...
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Publishing Industry Terms and Contracts: Some Resources, and Some Advice
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware On my last post, a reader posted this comment: Can you recommend a site where publishing contract terms are, if not discussed, defined (and maybe have a note like "This is good, this is okay, this is ...
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New French Law Seizes Digital Rights
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware The issue of orphan works--out of print, still-in-copyright books, films, photographs, etc. whose rightsholders can't be found--is one that has been much in the news lately. Concern over a potential mon...
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Why Poets Should Not Seek Literary Agents
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Writer Beware hears from a fair number poets. Much of the time, they're contacting us to ask about self-publishing, or to check the reputation of a journal or a contest. Sometimes, unfortunately, they've ...
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Tidbits
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware The Taleist 2012 Self-Publishing Survey The recent mega-success of self-epublishing authors such as Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Darcie Chan, and Kerry Wilkinson has generated a lot of media attention over ...
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The Authors Guild on Amazon: Publishing’s Ecosystem on the Brink
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware This article from the Authors Guild was posted Tuesday on the Authors Guild blog. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the ways in which the book business is changing, and how we reached the point wher...
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Digital Rights Showdown: HarperCollins v. Open Road
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware One of the effects of the phenomenal growth of ebooks over the past few years has been to bring new value to the backlist--both for publishers who hold the contracts for backlist books, and authors who wa...
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Pearson Education Extends Scope of Permissions Licenses
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Writer Beware has learned that Pearson Education, a major education services company (and the parent company of trade publisher Penguin), is currently requesting vastly extended licenses for copyrighted t...