I have a thing about audio rights. Here’s a short history:
Audio rights used to be easily retainable by the author, because no one thought they were that big a deal. But then they went digital, and all of a sudden, publishers woke up. They not only demanded that they keep audio rights, but some refused to even offer without them.
That was a big change, one that I never fully accepted. Here’s why.
If the author retains audio, I can sell the rights to an audio publisher and the author gets all the money. She gets it promptly and it goes directly into her pocket, where it belongs. If the publisher retains audio, they can either publish audio themselves, which is often the case, or they can sell those rights to an audio publisher. And take half. HALF. If I sell the rights, I take my standard 15%. But the publisher wants half. It has been that way since I’ve been in the business and no one has ever seriously challenged it.
Except me.
I don’t see why they should get half for selling something that I can sell. Moreover, they will charge it against the author’s royalty account and the author will probably wait for years to get it—or maybe never.
I’m okay with the publisher’s audio division publishing the title. At least that way, the author gets a fair royalty. But even then, it will be charged against the royalty account, and the proceeds may never make it into the author’s pocket.
The worst part is they tend to offer for everything in a lump sum. If they buy a book for say $100,000, the audio is included. It used to be that they would pay $100,000 and I would sell the audio, bringing in an extra sum. Of course, they don’t differentiate between print and audio rights. It’s all lumped in together. Which means they are basically STEALING the audio rights. It’s assumed they get those rights as part of a package, without breaking down the package.
I continue to fight this, but it has become an uphill battle. I would be happy to consider other methods that are fair, but the current system of them grabbing rights is not fair.
How many of you agree with me?
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