What does it mean...

[ksmith]

...when your current publisher buys into the digital revolution:

Eager to tap into what it thinks will be a growing market for the digitization of books, News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers has bought an equity stake in a company that digitizes, electronically warehouses and distributes books via the Web.

HarperCollins has also decided to license its internally developed digital technology for use by rival publishers, giving HarperCollins the ability to influence the digital revolution sweeping the book industry.

Wonder if my books will ever be declared OOO...

Comments

[thecurlyboy.livejournal.com]

I feel silly asking this, but ... "Declared OOO"? What does "OOO" stand for?

Honestly, I like having books in both formats. I buy a lot of hard and soft cover books, but I also like having electronic forms of them. I travel a lot. And it's much easier for me to carry about my phone/PDA than it is for me to carry around the hundreds of books I currently have both electronic and paper versions of.

So, getting back to your question ... I think it helps the author out, provided the company puts the books in a form with solid DRM protection. If they put the books out as a PDF or html file, then any book would quickly become "free" over the internet.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Work on the brain--I meant OOP (out of print) or OOS (out of stock).

OOO is the day job designation for 'out of office."

My major concern as an author is that I may never get my rights back. Publishers can be loathe to declare books out of print--when they do, the author can request that the rights revert back to them after a certain period of time. If something is simply out of stock, well, they just haven't gotten around to printing any more copies, although they might, at some future date, maybe. Usually there's something in the contract--if the number of sales over a certain period of time drops below a certain number, the book is oop and the author can request reversion. But if e-copies are always available, and some sort of language concerning any difference between paper and e-copies isn't in the contract, the book may never go oop.

OTOH, this may lead to the elimination of the 'cheaper to let it go OOS then store it in our warehouses/print another run'. Folks will always be able to find all the books in a series because even if Book 3 of 5 is no longer available in stores in paper format, you can order it online. I don't know if you'll be able to get it in paper format if you want it--I wonder if Harpercollins would contract with a printer to provide bound copies to a reader if requested?

I wonder if the need to no longer have to 'hard warehouse' books will make it more likely or less likely, or have any effect, on whether the majors try to rebuild their midlists? I wonder if the majors will offer 'e-book only' books for lesser lights, the way some movies go straight to DVD?

I think about things like this a lot, yes, as I ponder the publishing world and my place in it.

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

The key question here really is "what does your contract say" on the issue of electronic and OOP. Many publishers these days will add language saying that if the print edition is OOP and the electronic edition is selling less than X copies per royalty period (or per year), the rights can revert. You should consult your contracts, and your agent, if you have one, to see what your rights are. It may be possible to get your contract amended to include such language, but that will depend on Harper's policies on this issue (of which policies I know nothing).

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I need to check. Things have evolved since I signed the first one in 1998 and the second in, iirc, 2001.

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

If your agent can't help, feel free to email me if you need an outside opinion based on 18 years in publishing contracts along with 5 as Director of Electronic Publishing at DAW.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thanks--I may take you up on that, but not until next month, when I get this book out the door.

I'm no longer with the agent of record for those contracts, so I think I'd hold off on talking to them unless/until a major issue emerged. I'm assuming they'd have to handle it.