New York: Starting this week and continuing into 2012, virtually all Michael Chabon novels, stories and other writings will become available as e-books; news the author looks upon with pleasure and resignation.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," Chabon has been a published author since 1988, long enough to land on both sides of the legal and financial digital divide.
Chabon controls e-rights to such early works as "Wonder Boys" and his acclaimed debut novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" because they came out well before the electronic era and digital editions were not mentioned in his contracts. For those books, Chabon signed with Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher that offers 50 per cent royalties. Chabon called the terms "extremely fair and generous."
E-rights to "Kavalier & Clay," published in 2000 by Random House, and such recent HarperCollins releases as "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" are owned by the original publishers. For those editions, Chabon's royalties will be around 25 per cent of the publisher's net receipts (minus the per centage paid to the seller), the industry standard and comparable to what publishers offer for hardcovers and paperbacks. Countless writers and agents have said the rate for e-books should be raised....
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11:42 PM, Dec 20, 2011
