Agency News

Reporting from our Ice-Skating in the Netherworld Department is the latest jackalicious threat from Andrew Wylie: that if publishers don’t negotiate acceptable erights royalties his Odyssey will “make itself available to other agents,” who are no doubt clamoring to have Wylie as their electronic publisher. Or perhaps they will be persuaded by his passion and commitment to the publishing process: “I am only trying to make a point in order to underscore the importance of getting the right terms with a view to uniting the two [print and digital] revenue streams.” It’s interesting that he talks of “uniting” something that […]

In a masterpiece of confusion and contradiction from FT chief business commentator John Gapper, Andrew “The Jackalope” Wylie commentates: “Publishers have overpaid for the front-list to increase revenues without an eye to margins and profits. If they get it wrong again, they will only increase the book industry’s malady.” But “despite his Odyssey deal,” Wylie assures Gapper “he does not want…e-book rights to be split from print rights by authors and agents.” Also from our Can You Believe He Said That Department, Amazon executive Steve Kessel tells The Bookseller, “We are not out there contacting agents. [Except for the ones […]

In a bulletin posted this morning, the Authors Guild tells members their “understanding” is that Andrew Wylie and his recently-announced Odyssey Editions “as agent and publisher is taking no more than it would as an agent. That is, Wylie/Odyssey is limiting its total compensation to its rate for commissions.” The Guild tells us they are “confident” about the accuracy of this understanding. Of course that raises again the question of what makes Odyssey a publisher instead of an agency making e-only deals, but the publisher himself remains on vacation. Many other elements of the deal remain opaque, including how Odyssey’s […]