Conville & Walsh

Tom Holland, chairman of the Society of Authors, has today hit out at publishers offering low royalty rates to authors for ebook editions of their works. In an article entitled “Show Us the Money”, published today on his Bookseller blog, Tom talks about the ebook revolution as a sign of “punctuated equilibrium,” arguing that we are in the midst of an important period which will set the tone for royalty rates in the future.

“If publishers can justify why they should not share at least half of their income from e-books with authors, then we at the Society of Authors are certainly open to being persuaded. So far, however, the omertà has been deafening.”

In America, The Authors’ Guild has also slammed publishers Random House USA in recent months, condemning what they see as a ”retroactive rights grab” on electronic rights to older contracts. Speaking on current royalty rates, a Guild spokesperson said, “The only reason e-book royalty rates are so low right now is that so little attention has been paid to them: sales were simply too low to scrap over. That’s beginning to change.”

You can read Tom’s article here.