On August 24, 2010, Random House announced that they reached an agreement with the Wylie Agency over ebook distribution for many Odyssey Editions, which include classic books such as Brideshead Revisited. The dispute had been about Andrew Wylie's move to allow Amazon to have exclusive rights to certain ebooks, and Random House wanted to have less restrictive ebook distributions for the titles. This means that the titles may be temporarily removed from the Amazon's Kindle store.
Random House and Wylie Agency Resolution
According to Jason Boog's August 24, 2010 GalleyCat article "Random House Strikes Truce with Wylie Agency," Random House and Andrew Wylie released a joint statement saying in part that, " the disputed Random House titles which have been included in the Odyssey Editions e-book publishing program. These titles are being removed from that program and taken off-sale...The titles soon will be available for sale on a non-exclusive basis through all of Random House's current e-book customers."
The problems began, according to Rachel Deahl of Publishers Weekly, when Random House was not releasing books in ebook format, and Andrew Wylie came to the conclusion that, "those digital rights are under his control, telling [The New York Times] that 'backlist digital rights were not conveyed to publishers, and so there's an opportunity to do something with those rights.'" Amazon became the exclusive distributor of the titles in ebook form, and Random House responded with clear disagreement and the promise of "appropriate actions." Deahl explains the dispute fully in her July 22, 2010 article "Random House Prepared to Challenge Wylie Agency's New Publishing Biz."
What the Random House and Wylie Agreement Means for Kindle Customers
Many Kindle customers remember the 1984 fiasco, when a publisher disputed the ebook edition of 1984 being distributed on the Kindle, and Amazon removed the title that had already been downloaded to Kindles. Even though the Odyssey Editions may be removed from the Kindle store, they should not be removed from Kindles. After the customer outrage about 1984 being removed, Amazon changed their policy on deleting books from Kindles.
In his July 19, 2009 New York Times article "Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle," Brad Stone quoted Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener about what Amazon will do when a publisher disputes a titled downloaded onto a Kindle. Herdener told the Times that, “We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances." Even if a customer has one of the titles Random House intends to pull from ebook distribution on the Kindle, it will remain. The agreement means that books may not be sold in the Kindle store until a new agreement is reached between Amazon and Random House.
As of August 25, 2010, all 20 of the Odyssey Editions ebooks are still for sale on Amazon, but that may change quickly. The titles that will be available should be found on at the ebook section of Odyssey Editions, and although the Kindle store doesn't have an advanced search by publisher, it is possible to find the available abooks by searching for "Odyssey Editions." Random House sells ebooks on Amazon, so the agreement does not mean that the books will be removed from Amazon, just that the ebook rights will not be exclusive to Amazon's distribution, and that non-Kindle ereaders will be able to download the books from other ebook retailers.
For more Kindle news, read about how "Kindle 3 Sells Out as Amazon Ships Kindles to Far-Flung Readers" and about ebook pricing in "Wired Explains Electronic Book Prices as eBook Sales Jump 203%."
Sources:
- "Random House Strikes Truce with Wylie Agency" by Jason Boog was published August 24, 2010 by GalleyCat .
- "Random House Prepared to Challenge Wylie Agency's New Publishing Biz" by Rachel Deahl was published July 22, 2010 by Publishers Weekly.
- "Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle" by Brad Stone was published July 19, 2009 by The New York Times.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
