Lloyd Alexander

According to PW Bookshelf, Lloyd Alexander died yesterday at the age of 83.

Not that I didn't love reading before, but I feel deeper in love the summer I was 12 and we visited my relatives in Idaho. That meant a break from our library trips. We had nothing to read. My mother called my aunt, and a few moments later we were plumbing the shelves of my cousins' rooms.

"This one," they said, handing over The Book of Three. "Here, take the whole series."

We staggered down the farm road back to my grandparents' house with our arms full of books. We read them all, but the ones we kept coming back to were the Prydain ones. I think I ended up reading everything he had in print after that. And tried to trace my Welsh genealogy. And even requested--and took--and class in Welsh with my similarly-afflicted college roommate. And the number of books I read because of his is immeasureable.

Thanks, Lloyd. We'll miss you.

Simon & Schuster perpetuity clause

This came out from Author's Guild yesterday. A lot of you have seen this already, but it's one of those writing business items that writers (especially those without an agent) need to understand. (Quoted directly from Author's Guild announcement):

Simon & Schuster has changed its standard contract language in an attempt to retain exclusive control of books even after they have gone out of print. Until now, Simon & Schuster, like all other major trade publishers, has followed the traditional practice in which rights to a work revert to the author if the book falls out of print or if its sales are low.

The publisher is signaling that it will no longer include minimum sales requirements for a work to be considered in print. Simon & Schuster is apparently seeking nothing less than an exclusive grant of rights in perpetuity. Effectively, the publisher would co-own your copyright.

The new contract would allow Simon & Schuster to consider a book in print, and under its exclusive control, so long as it's available in any form, including through its own in-house database -- even if no copies are available to be ordered by traditional bookstores.

Other major trade publishers are not seeking a similar perpetual grant of rights.

We urge you to consider your options carefully:

1. Remember that if you sign a contract with Simon & Schuster that includes this clause, they'll say you're wed to them. Your book will live and die with this particular conglomerate.

2. Ask your agent to explore other options. Other publishers are not seeking an irrevocable grant of rights.

3. If you have a manuscript that may be auctioned, consider asking your agent to exclude Simon & Schuster imprints unless they agree before the auction to use industry standard terms.

4. Let us know if other major publishers follow suit. Any coordination among publishers on this matter has serious legal implications.

Feel free to forward and post this message in its entirety.

The Authors Guild (www.authorsguild.org) is the nation's oldest and largest organization of published book authors.


What's the problem? Well, if your book goes out of print (ie, they are not printing copies and selling them anymore), usually you have the rights revert to you. That means you can sell reprint rights somewhere else and you can earn more off your book. When the publisher refuses to part with those rights, even though they aren't selling the book anymore, you have no way of earning anything more off of them. Plus, you can't bring the book back into print, either.

For the agent perspective on this, see Kristin Nelson's discussion of it at http://pubrants.blogspot.com. But even if you're unagented, you don't have to just sign the boilerplate. You should negotiate the points of the contract. This is one of those points.