S&S, AAR Meeting Closes Rights Gap

by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 6/1/2007

After a meeting between the Association of Authors' Representatives and S&S executives Jack Romanos, Carolyn Reidy and Rick Richter, the AAR sent an alert to members notifying them of the publisher's willingness to negotiate with agents a revenue-based threshold to determine the in-print status of a book. S&S also apologized for any early miscommunication regarding its new stance on when a book's rights revert to the author.

In updating its members on the AAR/S&S talks, the Authors Guild said S&S's new position "reflects substantial movement" from their initial stance. The guild, however, said several questions remain, including whether revenues would be measured by income to the publisher or the author; what level of revenues would meet the threshold; and how unagented authors would fare under the policy.