Random House asserts ownership of e-rights to old titles

As the Kindle, the Nook, and the Sony Reader gain traction with consumers, one publisher is rushing to ensure that it retains the electronic rights to all of its backlist titles, even if the contracts for those titles were written before e-readers existed.

In a front-page article in yesterday’s New York Times, Motoko Rich reported that Random House sent a letter to literary agents last Friday claiming “that the company’s older agreements gave it ‘the exclusive right to publish in electronic book publishing formats.’” The Bookseller points out that the letter, signed by Random House chief executive Markus Dohle, is already provoking controversy:

Nat Sobel, a literary agent whose clients include James Ellroy and Richard Russo, both of whom are published by Random House’s Alfred Knopf imprint, disagreed with Dohle’s assertions. “I don’t accept Random House’s position, and I don’t think anybody else will either,” Sobel said. “You are entitled to the rights stated in your contract. And contracts 20 years ago didn’t cover electronic rights. And the courts have already agreed with this position.”

According to Rich, the estate of William Styron entered into an agreement this fall with a company called Open Road Integrated Media to produce electronic versions of Styron’s books, which include the classic novels Sophie’s Choice and The Confessions of Nat Turner. But if Dohle gets his way, those proposed Open Road titles will be rendered illegitimate:

In his letter on Friday, Mr. Dohle said that authors were precluded “from granting publishing rights to third parties.” Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, said the company expected to “continue to publish the Styron books we own in all formats, including e-books.”

[Jeffrey] Sharp, president of Open Road, said in an e-mailed statement: “We are confident in our agreements and only make deals with parties who represent to us that they own the rights.”

Begging for blurbs

Vogue contributing editor Rebecca Johnson chronicles the agony of seeking out “blurbs” for her first novel, And Sometimes Why, on Salon.com. Johnson, obviously a well-connected woman, falls short when her editor presses her to find “the right author” to write a blurb of praise for her novel.

No problem, I told my editor. I’ve lived in New York City for 25 years. I’m a professional journalist. Some of my best friends are novelists. I rattled off their names to my editor and was met with a worrisome silence.

“What about Ann Patchett?” she asked. “Do you know her?”

I do not know Ann Patchett. My novelist friends were not, it turned out, the right kind of novelists. They’d either written the wrong kind of novels (one of my closest friends has written 13, all paperback trade and all distinctly mass market) or had written literary novels that suffered the same fate as all those talented new voices on William Styron’s living room table. They’d received admiring reviews and sold few copies. To be blurb-worthy, they needed to have received admiring reviews and sold well.

“Do you,” my editor pressed on, “know anyone who knows Ann Patchett?”

After chasing writers all over Manhattan, Johnson finds her three blurbers. But not before realizing that most writers don’t blurb for friends, strangers, or anyone, ever.

Johnson never actually asks the question: “do blurbs matter?” In other words, did the blurbs from David Rakoff, Dani Shapiro, and Mary Morris help Johnson’s sales?