Any time you turn on the news, odds are good you will see something about the News Corporation voicemail-hacking scandal which has again exploded onto headlines in the last few days. It stood to reason that sooner or later some corner of it would reach into the e-book world.
Yet, strangely enough, it is not something related to Murdoch’s feud with Google or obsession with paywalls. In this case, it comes by way of agent Andrew Wylie, who made a big splash in the publishing world last year with his abortive backlist self-e-publishing operation (which by and large mysteriously disappeared when the publishers became more willing to negotiate on royalty rates).
The Bookseller reports Wylie is accusing News Corp subsidiary HarperCollins of acting “unusually shrill and punitive” toward authors. Apparently Wylie felt the company had been under “unusual pressure” and had complained to News Corp Deputy CEO James Murdoch (Rupert’s son) about it 18 months ago but nothing ever was done.
NewsCorp is under pressure in the wake of the News of the Worldphone hacking scandal. When asked if he felt the scandal could lead to other NewsCorp companies being examined, including HarperCollins, Wylie said: "Yes, it will focus attention on all parts of the business and people will perhaps turn on some lights in rooms that have been left dark previously and look more closely at what is profitable and what is not and what is proper behaviour and what isn’t."
In response, a HarperCollins spokesman noted that Wylie made “extravagant claims” but never actually got around to saying what, exactly, he was complaining about. He also referred to Wylie as having earned the nickname “The Jackal” for being a “seasoned operator.”
I’ll certainly agree that Wylie’s claim is remarkably vague, and it is rather hard to see what, exactly, HarperCollins could have to do with the scandal in any direct way. But on the other hand, “The Jackal”? Really? They make their living on publishing creative works but couldn’t come up with any epithet more creative than that?
HarperCollins spokesman noted that Wylie made “extravagant claims” but never actually got around to saying what, exactly, he was complaining about.
CONTACT/SUBMISSION INFORMATION If you have submissions/additions you’d like to make, I’d love to post them if I have the time. I may very easily have some things wrong here as far as which choices count towards the score and which don’t. Now, here’s the deal. I will NOT accept submissions on Facebook, nor any friend requests from people I don’t know that are based on this guide. I have hundreds of friends as is, and I partially use it for professional communication. What I will accept is e-mail sent to me personally. So contact me only at my personal e-mail address, which is: michael.leo.feldman@gmail.com I will do my absolute best to read all of your submissions and post them. I can’t make guarantees due to how busy my schedule is, especially in terms of replying, but I’ll do my best. Thanks!
Alon LockerLess than a minute ago CONTACT/SUBMISSION INFORMATION If you have submissions/additions you’d like to make, I’d love to post them if I have the time. I may very easily have some things wrong here as far as which choices count towards the score and which don’t. Now, here’s the deal. I will NOT accept submissions on Facebook, nor any friend requests from people I don’t know that are based on this guide. I have hundreds of friends as is, and I partially use it for professional communication. What I will accept is e-mail sent to me personally. So contact me only at my personal e-mail address, which is:
Now, here’s the deal. I will NOT accept submissions on Facebook, nor any friend requests from people I don’t know that are based on this guide. I have hundreds of friends as is, and I partially use it for professional communication. What I will accept is e-mail sent to me personally. So contact me only at my personal e-mail address, which is:
What on earth are the four posts below? The first quotes a sentence from the article (but says nothing else), and the others rave on about something completely unconnected. Is this comment spam? If so, could it please be removed (along with my comment, which would then be unnecessary)?