Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger Prior to joining the Authors Guild in November 2014, Mary practiced law for over 25 years in roles that spanned private practice, the government and corporate sector, as a recognized expert in copyright and media law. Could you briefly summarize why a writer should join Authors Guild, especially since so many of us struggle financially? The first reason to join is for the many benefits you receive for $135 a year, including free contract reviews and legal advice on a number of issues, all our free educational and other programs, our online forums where you […]
Trial Takeaways: Marketing and Publicity
At the antitrust trial, marketing and publicity expenditures were discussed mostly as a way of determining the level of support for Anticipated Top Selling Books (those acquired for $250,000+). While there are exceptions and surprises—the social media influencer whose posts promote the book for free; the modest acquisition that becomes an in-house favorite or hotly anticipated by readers—most publishers agreed that there was some correlation between advance level and promotional spend. Marketing Vs. Publicity In broad terms, marketing is paid for (i.e. advertising) and publicity is not, and they are usually handled by two separate departments. For marketing, in addition […]
Literary Arts Emergency Fund Report: Nonprofits and Publishers Are Underfunded, Provide Great Value
The Literary Arts Emergency Fund has released a report on the “state of the literary arts field in the U.S,” concluding that nonprofits and publishers are underfunded, yet provide great value to the literary world. The organization–made up of the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses, and the National Book Foundation–collaborated with marketing research firm WolfBrown to analyze 2021 applications to the Fund. Backed by the Mellon Foundation, the fund distributed $7.8 million to 376 nonprofit literary arts organizations in two cycles. The study included 410 nonprofit literary organizations and publishers that applied to the […]
Pallante Defends the Broad Protection and Innovation of Exclusive Rights Under Copyright
On Tuesday night, AAP ceo Maria Pallante delivered the Copyright Society’s Donald C. Brace lecture (named for the publisher, and business partner of Alfred Harcourt) at Fordham University Law School. She spoke on “the art and innovation of exclusive rights,” declaring, “To say that divisibility is a shining feature of copyright law would be an understatement…. That exclusive rights are divisible under the law amplifies their constitutional purpose, compounds their potential, and solidifies the underlying architecture of the Copyright Act.” Appropriate to a year in which AAP publishers prevailed against an unconstitutional Maryland law trying to regulate sales of digital […]
People 12/14
Ajay Roy will join as Macmillan's chief operating officer on December 19, reporting to incoming ceo Jon Yaged.