Things are heating up in France. We’ve already seen the publishers lambast the Wylie Agency and say that digital rights sould not be put in the hands of “outside parties”, including agents – who were “liable to endanger the equilibrium within the profession”.
Now The Bookseller is reporting that writers are lambasting the publishers, claiming that their statement is “gobbledygook”.
The Permanent Writers Council (Conseil Permanent des Ecrivains, CPE) said that authors also had rights under French intellectual property law, including earning a percentage of the earnings from their work. The CPE is the umbrella organisation for writers from 15 creators’ societies and collection agencies. …
Author François Bon said in his blog on the Tiers Livre site that he was furious by the use of the words “natural responsibility”, and wondered how Hachette Livre c.e.o. Arnaud Nourry and other eminent publishers could have signed such “gobbledygook”.
For the last four years, publishers have been offering authors an optional amendment on digital rights, and within the last few weeks, the SNE has drawn up a new type of contract that includes digital rights, Bon noted. He castigated the level of royalties in France, saying he had torn up a contract offering 6% on both print and digital versions of a book.
France is another Planet.