S&S, AAR Meeting Closes Rights Gap

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 6/2/2007 12:22:00 PM

Just before Book Expo officially began on Friday, a meeting between the Association of Authors’ Representatives and Simon & Schuster executives Jack Romanos, Carolyn Reidy and Rick Richter accelerated the process of clarifying S&S’s position about when rights revert back to authors. After the Thursday meeting, 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.

S&S spokesperson Adam Rothberg confirmed that the talks between agents and the publisher were "substantive and positive." He said progress has been made in educating agents on what S&S’s stance is on the reversion issue and reiterated that the publisher is willing to negotiate on a case-by-case basis.

« Back | Print