Literary agent Andrew Wylie shook up the publishing world last month when he decided to begin his own publishing venture to produce ebook titles for some his premier authors. His idea was to focus on titles whose digital rights weren’t taken (although that in itself was in dispute), and publish directly through the Amazon Kindle platform.

Needless to say, by bypassing the rights-holders and publishers of the print editions of these authors, this action caused quite a stir as it highlighted the advantages  of the ebook publishing phenomenon. It also put the major publishers on the offensive, as Random House (which published 13 of the 20 print titles) disputed Amazon’s right to sell the titles via the Kindle. In retaliation, Random House removed all Amazon listings of Mr. Wylie’s clients. Ouch!

What’s an agent to do? Today, in the interests of his clients–and rightly so–Mr. Wylie pulled out of the Amazon ebook deal. Although the direct-to-Kindle publishing approach would have most certainly given his authors a better ebook royalty percentage, the downside of having his client’s other titles pulled off of Amazon was just too damaging to ignore. Random House will now distribute the electronic versions to all retailers after Mr. Wylie reached a truce with the publisher and agreed to terms for the titles.

It’s a missed opportunity for the improved economies and efficiencies of ebook publishing to really shine, but when the major book publishers throw their weight around like this somebody usually ends up getting hurt. I can’t blame them for looking out for their best interests (versus the interests of the authors), but I am disappointed all the same. It would have been another major–and exciting–development in the ever-changing publishing landscape.

But the game is just beginning, and the rules are changing as well. I’m betting that Mr. Wylie’s actions got the attention of other major agents, and that we’ll see this new publishing model adopted sooner rather than later.

How about you? Are you making the move to ebook publishing? More and more authors are, and their sales are taking off. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to email me or give me a call to discuss your situation.

And till next time, keep publishing!

Henry Hutton
PublishandSell.com
hhutton@publishandsell.com
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