Amazon, E-Books and New Business Models
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AUTHORS GUILD Winter 2015 BULLETIN The Big Grab: T. J. Stiles On How Publishing’s New Math Devalues Writers’ Work Q&A with Executive Director Mary Rasenberger Roxana Robinson on Compassion’s Place in Prose Annual Meeting Report LETTER TO THE EDITOR our timely Q&A with author CJ Lyons was uplift- Bulletin, however, should feature an author who Ying and inspiring (Summer, 2014). Clearly, Lyons’s is beating the odds with guts, grit and innovation. success as an author is due to her winning mindset. Somebody saying Yes, you can! (Not go hide under the That’s what authors need most from the Authors bed.) Lyons did that and it was a refreshing change. Guild. Less doom and gloom. More daring hope and Now give us more. Thanks for your consideration. enthusiasm. With how-to’s. Onward! Sure, industry news is often depressing. Every — Patricia Raybon, Aurora, CO ALONG PUBLISHERS ROW By Campbell Geeslin “ remarkable thing about the novel is that it can with Harper Collins. The first book will be Seveneves, A incorporate almost anything,” wrote Thad due out in May. The novel, PW said, is about “the sur- Ziolkowski in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. vivors of a global disaster which nearly caused the ex- He directs the writing program at Pratt Institute and is tinction of life on the planet.” the author of a novel, Wichita. The second book, to be written with Nicole The novel, he said, “can contain essays, short sto- Galland, is set for 2017. ries, mock memoirs, screenplays, e-mails—and re- Stephenson has written more than a dozen novels, main a novel. This elasticity is also a sign that unlike, several of them prize winners, and a dozen books of say, the epic or the ode, the novel is a living, evolving nonfiction. Wikipedia said his novels are “categorized form. But if its outer limits are virtually nonexistent, as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and the minimum requirement is generally that there be a ‘postcyberpunk.’ Other labels, such as ‘baroque’ often narrator telling us something. In this way, any manner appear.” of book can find a way to justify calling itself a novel, The many photos on the Internet show that he is but the label should not be worn lightly since it invites skilled in growing facial hair. scrutiny of the highest and most exacting kind.” LEGEND: In an essay for The Guardian, Val McDermid FIRST NOVELS: Lauren Groff is the author of a novel, wrote: “Four writers of [P. D. James’s] generation Arcadia. She wrote in The New York Times Book Review: “I reshaped the way we experience the English crime feel deeply for first novels because they often manifest novel—P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill and so much anxiety they make me think uncomfortably Colin Dexter.” Once, after a book event, McDermid of children’s bell-choirs, hands in soft cotton gloves, ushered James to the signing table. He recalled, “I the proper notes rung at the proper time, the palpable shouted, ‘Make way, legend coming through.’ They sense of relief in performer and audience alike when parted like the Red Sea for Phyllis, in a way they it’s all over.” would have done for few others.” USING A PEN: Robert Stone, who died in January, GET HAPPY: Tara Parker-Pope writes a column in was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several novels The New York Times Science section. She said: “Studies including Dog Soldiers and A Flag for Sunrise. In a 1985 have shown that writing about oneself and personal interview for The Paris Review, he said, “I write in long- experiences can improve mood disorders, help reduce hand in order to be precise. On a typewriter or word symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s processor you can rush something that shouldn’t be health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits and rushed—you can lose nuance, richness, lucidity. The even boost memory. pen compels lucidity.” “Now researchers are studying whether the power of writing—and then rewriting—your personal story PROLIFIC: Bestselling author Neal Stephenson lives with his family in Seattle. He has a new two-book deal Continued on page 32 Authors Guild Bulletin 2 Winter 2015 THE AUTHORS WINTER 2015 GUILD BULLETIN President Roxana Robinson Executive Director ARTICLES Mary Rasenberger Editor Q&A with Executive Director Mary Rasenberger ......................7 Martha Fay By Isabel Howe Assistant Editor Amazon Is Not the Reader’s Friend, Says Debate Audience ........ 10 Nicole Vazquez By Ryan Fox Senior Contributing Editor Campbell Geeslin Among the Digital Luddites ............................................ 12 By T. J. Stiles Staff Writer Ryan Fox The American Publishing Landscape in the Digital Age ............ 16 Copy Editor By Jan Constantine Paula Glatzer Authors Guild Opposes Google’s Fair Use Claim All non-staff contributors to the in Federal Appeals Court ............................................... 19 Bulletin retain copyright to the articles that appear in these Legal Roundup ........................................................... 21 pages. Guild members seeking information on contributors’ 2015 Annual Meeting .................................................... 23 other publications are invited to contact the Guild office. Don’t Get Caught in a Web(site) ....................................... 27 Published quarterly by: By Jessica R. Friedman The Authors Guild, Inc. 31 East 32nd Street CONTRACTS Q&A ...................................................... 29 7th Floor By Mark L. Levine New York, NY 10016 The Bulletin was first published DEPARTMENTS in 1912 as The Authors League News letter. Along Publishers Row ......................................................2 Short Takes ...................................................................4 From the President ..........................................................6 Legal Watch ................................................................ 30 OVERHEARD Books by Members ........................................................ 46 “When I finished this book, I Members Make News .................................................... 53 was contemplating going to get what work I could in the ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST mines . because things had come to such a pass with my Kevin Sanchez Walsh is a freelance artist and longtime contributor to the writing. I had spent so long on Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected]. this book. There’s nothing un- usual about that for writers.” — Richard Flanagan, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his sixth novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, quoted in the UK Telegraph, October 15, 2014 Copyright © 2015 The Authors Guild, Inc. Authors Guild Bulletin 3 Winter 2015 scribers for $9.99 a month. Oyster as educational and trade.” Battles SHORT TAKES well as Scribd will soon have 1,000 noted that direct sale has been a Macmillan titles on offer, a develop- feature of operations for years, “but Amazon Has Books ment reported by the AP as “another now [direct] selling has become an on the Ground major publisher . testing the sub- elevated priority.” The subject was Amazon is expanding its campus scription market.” HarperCollins also discussed at a Digital Book bookselling business, entering a and Simon & Schuster are also World panel discussion in January, five-year deal with the University of among those testing the waters, with participants Dominique Massachusetts-Amherst, to launch a while Penguin Random House is Raccah, Publisher and CEO of virtual store for students beginning holding off for the foreseeable fu- Sourcebooks, HarperCollins Chief in May. A 3,000-square-foot “staffed ture. The primary concern for most Digital Officer Chantal Restivo- customer pick-up and drop-off cen- publishers is maintaining the value Alessi, and David Wilk of Booktrix. ter” in the Campus Center is sched- of e-books. PW also spoke to Jack McKeown, uled to open in June according to Audiobooks are also an area of a former publishing executive who is UMass’s website. It replaces the interest: Audible—purchased by now president of Books and Books, bookstore formerly run by Follet, Amazon in 2008—had been the pri- an independent bookstore in New which retains its campus franchise mary provider of subscription audio- York State, and was disappointed for clothing, computers and other books until recently; in November by reports of increased direct sell- items, just not books. UMass will Scribd announced that it would add ing. “I’m sure HarperCollins is well- receive a 2.5 percent commission more than 30,000 audiobooks to its intentioned,” he said. “Publishers on sales; minimum payments for library, formerly limited to e-books. do need to engage consumers and the first three years have been set offer buy buttons for their conve- at $375,000, $465,000 and $610,000. Publishers Warming to nience. But an aggressive pursuit Amazon is offering free one-day Direct Sales of direct sales, I think, is misguided and a misallocation of resources.” delivery to campus addresses and Direct sales to consumers is a area He explained that “Consumers are nearby residences as well as in-store of growing interest in the book pub- not looking for publishers, they’re pick-ups of textbooks ordered on- lishing industry, and over the past looking to retailers to aggregate and line. year many companies have been recommend titles.” Over the past year Amazon has enhancing their marketing tactics entered bookselling arrangements and making it easier for readers to Digital Book World 2015: with the University of California- purchase books on their websites. Davis and Purdue University, and