S&S Fires Back At Guild 'Distortions'

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 5/22/2007 9:08:00 AM

Simon & Schuster has sent an open letter to writers and agents accusing the Authors Guild of "perpetrating serious misinformation" and spreading distortions, and addressing some of the issues raised last week by the Guild, which criticized changes in the publisher's out-of-print policy. The letter, however, has received a cool reception, at least initially.

In the letter, S&S says that in recent years it has accepted "contract language that specifies a minimum level of activity for print on demand titles," adding that "our experience with the current high quality and accessibility of print on demand titles indicates to us that such minimums are no longer necessary." S&S insists, however, that "our position on reversions for active titles remains unchanged. As always, we are willing to have an open and forthright dialogue on this or any other topic." S&S notes that POD "is simply a means of manufacturing a book, making it widely available to retailers and consumers."

Brian DeFiore of DeFiore and Co. believes the letter doesn’t address the main point: will S&S be willing to revert the rights when the title becomes minimally active or is selling no copies. No one at the Authors Guild was available to address the letter this morning. The guild, however, did release a statement from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America supporting the guild’s position. The S&S decision, the SFWA writes, "expands upon an already-developing trend to use technologies, not to the benefit of authors, but as a way to seize rights that writers have traditionally taken for granted." The SFWA is particularly concerned that printing individual copies only to fill orders will give publishers no motivation to do more marketing or promotion of books, and calls on S&S "to rescind this pernicious policy."