AUTHORS GUILD Fall 2015 BULLETIN Roxana Robinson: Should Writers Have to Sing for Their Supper Too? The Wages of Writing: The Authors Guild Member Survey Going 50-50 with the Publisher: An Author’s Tale Agents & Authors Roundtable: What to Look for When You’re Looking for an Agent ALONG PUBLISHERS ROW By Campbell Geeslin hris Abani, who was born in Nigeria and has lived NO SCENES: Charles Baxter has taught writing for Cin the U.S. since 1999, is the author of The Secret 30 years and is the author of There’s Something I Want History of Las Vegas. In a review of Dragonfish by Vu You to Do. Alison Lurie reviewed it for The New York Tran in The Times Book Review, Abani wrote, “America Review of Books. is a nation not of immigrants but of refugees. Trauma, She chose the following quote from Baxter’s writ- displacement and fanatical hope have marked all ing: “If you were raised in the genteel tradition, as I new Americans from the occupants of the Mayflower was, you avoid scenes. We create a scene when we through every subsequent group who came to these forcibly illustrate our need to be visible to others, of- shores (or who were brought here by force). Novels ten in the service of a wish or a demand. Genteel by recently arrived Americans have tried to negotiate people fear scenes. the struggle to fit into a new home that doesn’t always “We . were not supposed to be dramatic. Drama want them, and the nostalgia for all that has been lost. was for others, or for the purposes of entertainment. In this way new immigrant literature mimics it ante- Along with being told not to create scenes, I was told cedents.” not to tattle on people, which was worded as, ‘Charlie, don’t tell tales.’” REVISION: Kate Bolick is the author of the nonfic- tion Spinster. In a Time magazine review, Bolick was ABOUT BIOS: George Bernard Shaw said: “When quoted: “A wholesale reclamation of the word spinster you read a biography, remember that the truth is never is a tall order. My aim is more modest: to offer it up as fit for publication.” shorthand for holding onto that in you which is inde- pendent and self-sufficient, whether you’re single or A MIGRATION: Robert Darnton’s latest book is coupled.” Censors at Work: How States Shaped Literature. In an es- say in The New York Review of Books, he wrote: “One WRITING AUTOBIOS: Tracey Thorn is the author of of the most famous first lines among modern novels— Bedsit Disco Queen and Naked at the Albert Hall. She is a “The past is a foreign country: they do things differ- member of the musical group Everything but the Girl. ently there” (L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between, 1953)—has The Guardian asked her why so many female musicians migrated from literature to history and now serves of a certain age, including Kim Gordon and Chrissie as an article of faith among professional historians. It Hynde, were producing memoirs. Thorn said, “I think means: avoid anachronism.” it’s partly because we’re the generation who are a bit more empowered, and it’s partly to do with our fans TOUGH JOB: Thomas Mann believed: “A writer is growing up. People who liked our records now work someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is at publishers and can commission us.” for other people.” SPORT BOOK: Mike Petri is the author of R Is for MIGHTY MAX: Phillip Lopate wrote an essay about Rugby. He’s also a key player on the U.S. rugby team. Max Beerbohm for The New York Review of Books. In it, When he and his wife were expecting their first child, he quoted critic F. W. Dupee. they shopped for books. Petri said, “They had kids’ al- The critic wrote: “Rereading Beerbohm one gets phabet books about baseball, football, basketball. But caught up in the intricate singularity of his mind, all nothing about rugby.” He and his wife began playing of a piece yet full of surprises. That his drawings around with rhymes. “The most basic play / Is an old- and parodies should survive is no cause for wonder. fashioned switch. / One guy will strike, / But it’s hard One look at them, or into them, and his old reputation to tell which.” is immediately re-established: that whim of iron, that Petri said, “I’m not saying it’s Pulitzer Prize mate- cleverness amounting to genius. What is odd is that rial or anything. But we’ve sold more than a thousand his stories and essays should turn out to be equally du- copies in a few months, and I’ve heard from people rable.” whose kids love it or who even use it themselves when they’ve watched rugby.” Continued on page 29 Authors Guild Bulletin 2 Fall 2015 THE AUTHORS FALL 2015 GUILD BULLETIN President Roxana Robinson Executive Director ARTICLES Mary Rasenberger The Wages of Writing: The 2015 Authors Guild Member Survey ....9 Editor Martha Fay Industry & Advocacy News U.S. Appeals Court Ruling in Google Case Leaves Authors High Assistant Editor Nicole Vazquez and Dry ................................................................. 11 Senior Contributing Editor Guild Sees Promise in European Model Campbell Geeslin for Collective Licensing of Digital Works .......................... 12 Staff Writer The Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative: An Update ............. 13 Ryan Fox Copy Editors Contracts Q&A ........................................................... 15 Hallie Einhorn By Mark L. Levine Heather Rodino A Fair Deal: The Perspective of a Midlist Author ..................... 17 All non-staff contributors to the By Jon Turk Bulletin retain copyright to the articles that appear in these How to Decode a Royalty Statement pages. Guild members seeking information on contributors’ By Juli Saitz ................................................................ 19 other publications are invited to contact the Guild office. Agent & Author Roundtable ............................................ 23 By Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Published quarterly by: The Authors Guild, Inc. 31 East 32nd Street DEPARTMENTS 7th Floor New York, NY 10016 Along Publishers Row ......................................................2 Short Takes ...................................................................4 The Bulletin was first published in 1912 as The Authors League From the President ..........................................................6 News letter. From the Home Office ......................................................7 Legal Watch ................................................................ 21 Books by Members ........................................................ 35 OVERHEARD Members Make News .................................................... 38 “You can imagine the way ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST your heart skips a small beat when you put a book under a Kevin Sanchez Walsh is a freelance artist and longtime contributor to the chopper like that.’” Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected]. — Jonathan L. Zittrain, Harvard Law professor and director of the Harvard Law School Library, on slicing off the spines of thousands of law books in order to scan them for its “Free the Law” project. Quoted in The New York Times, October 29, 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Authors Guild, Inc. Authors Guild Bulletin 3 Fall 2015 through the booking website Hotels Amazon’s definition virtually all of SHORT TAKES .com will now be given a free Simon an author’s fans on social media will & Schuster e-book, from a selection be considered friends of the author. E-book vs. Print of seven rotating titles. Simon & Another frustrated writer, Jas The New York Times headline said Schuster’s chief marketing officer, Ward, has set up a petition at Change it all: “The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Liz Perl, promoted the program by .org asking Amazon to change its Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead.” noting that “Business and plea- policy. At press time, the petition It turns out that the last five sure travelers spend a great deal of had garnered more than 16,000 sig- years of handwringing and “the- time reading on the road and are an natures toward its goal of 25,000 (the end-is-coming angst” within the ideal audience with whom to share initial goal of 15,000 signatures was publishing industry over e-books great new books.” The program fol- achieved in August). Ward also tried and the future of print were for lows the company’s earlier travel- to contact Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos nothing. Recent sales figures related giveaway of copies of David directly, but so far no one from the from the Association of American McCullough’s The Wright Brothers company has responded. The policy Publishers (AAP) found that e-book to readers passing through fifty air- applies to Amazon.com as well as sales were down 10 percent in the ports. Amazon.co.uk and has been criti- first five months of 2015 and that Simon & Schuster joins Pen guin cized by readers and authors in both e-book sales continue to represent Random House, which has a pro- countries. only about 20 percent of the market, gram with Amtrak, and Harper- a figure unchanged in years. Collins, which is collaborating with Pew Study on Library Use The article also quotes a number JetBlue. These programs are gener- A new study on public library use of independent booksellers whose ally popular, although some ques- from the Pew Re search Center found businesses are thriving, including tion what these giveaways do for that overall use is down compared to Steve Bercu, co-owner of Texas’s authors’ royalties. 2012 and 2013, even as appreciation BookPeople, who expects 2015 to for libraries remains strong. As Pub- be the store’s most successful year Amazon Book Review Policy lishers Weekly summarized, “46 per- since it opened in 1970. Amazon has begun blocking users cent of respondents reported a visit Just why e-book sales have from reviewing books written by to a physical library, or bookmobile, cooled is a matter of opinion.