WHAT ABOUT THE AUTHOR?

As a cartoonist and writer who has worked almost exclusively in ink and paper for publication in books and magazines, I was fascinated by the most recent issue of Digital Media. The discussion about the relevancy of current copyright laws to network transmission of literary works (and eventually, I suppose, sub-literary works like comic books) was something of which everyone in traditional media needs to be aware.

The prospect of instant access to text is an obvious occasion for excitement and delight, and it doubtless seems craven to raise any further obstacles to this modern miracle than already exist, yet I was more than mildly alarmed to note that in your article “Electronic Publishing on the ‘Net’,” you represented the argument over publication rights as if it were a matter only between one kind of publisher (electronic) on one hand and another kind of publisher (antediluvian print purveyor) on the other. Nowhere is the poor artist or writer who creates the material to be found.

In book publishing, it is almost the universal practice for the author to retain the copyright to a work, as well as every other ancillary right his or her rapacious agents and lawyers can get hold of, including transmission by electronic media and indeed “all rights not yet imagined.”

Therefore, when it comes time to put literature on the net, it is the authors (and their agents and lawyers), not only the traditional publishers (and their agents and lawyers), who will need to be consulted. We of course hope for royalty arrangements that compare favorably with those we already enjoy in the print business. Indeed, because electronic distribution can instantly credit a royalty account when a transmission is made, we tremblingly entertain the possibility that royalty statements may arrive sooner and more often than the biannual checks from book publishers, which issue them three, and sometimes four, months after the royalty period has ended.

From the author’s point of view, the distinction between publisher and lending library is also considerably less distinct than it is to the publisher. Unlike a traditional publisher, who has to crank up the presses, order paper and ink, pay press operators and binderies when it’s time to reprint, the author’s work is done long before a book even appears. We then sit back (after the promotional tour) and hope that our labors will be rewarded in proportion to the demand for the book.

If accounting is done by books lent or books shipped, it should make no difference to us. In the United States, it unfortunately does make an immense difference, because we receive no royalties from library loans, but a number of European countries provide for payments to authors whenever their books are checked out. I hope that electronic publishers envision a future with author compensation for every access. I also believe that the best way to protect the creator’s interests is for author organizations to take a position on the question and let it be known. But first they have to know that there is a question.

In the meantime, let’s hope that a brilliant hacker develops a simulation of the musty smell of old books.

Larry Gonick
San Francisco, CA