Legal question: Non-exclusive rights

[I. J. Parker]

I think that means that the publisher shares in the rights with the author. In other words, if the publisher has non-exclusive rights to publish a book in the UK, the author may do so instead.

 

Have I got that right?  (I'm tracking my e-rights)

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Without seeing the contract itself, I believe you're correct.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, Benjamin. I can't get an answer out of my agent on this.  Since I've turned to self-publishing, they don't see much point in dealing with my past contracts, especially when I intend to use the answers to do more self-publishing.  Fans in the UK are clamoring, but the fact is that I don't have very many sales there yet with the books I've already published, so I'm not in any big hurry to spend the time and money on preparing European versions.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

You can't get an answer? Jeez, then what does your agent do? This is exactly the kind of contract jargon agents are supposed to explain.

[I. J. Parker]

Well, I've been fired, though they still handle existing books and some e-books.  I'm about to take 4 of the e-books back, and that probably didn't sit too well.

[I. J. Parker]

To clarify:  Penguin holds exclusive rights in the U.S., its territories and in Canada.  For the UK and a list of other countries it has non-exclusive rights.  So far, they have not sold anything in the UK in any format, I think, but definitely no e-books.

[I. J. Parker]

I finally got an answer that is still puzzling:

"it would be quite a challenge for us to manage the publication of those titles in the territories not controlled by Penguin and confusing for consumers to have two editions of these titles available in eBook form- where they are available non-exclusively. Purchasing files from Penguin is quite cost-prohibitive and the return on investment for all of us is quite low, as we have seen with sales for your other titles in the UK and other Amazon store-fronts. " 

The recommendation was to let Penguin do it if they want to.

 

I can see where the agency sees no rewards in getting into e-pubbing for the UK (and French, German, Italian) market.  Sales there are indeed slow, because none of my publishers ever made an attempt to publish there.

There would also intially not be much of a return for me.  I do think, however, even if it isn't precisely stated, that I do have the right to do that.  This hang-up over the files doesn't apply.  I have my mss. of the books and can have them formatted.  I can also design the covers.  So it appears that there are no obstacles.  I'd love it if a lawyerly member confirmed this.