Agency Stirs a Fuss in eBook Publishing Venture

The literary agent Andrew Wylie announced on Wednesday that he had started his own publishing venture and would produce e-book editions available exclusively on Amazon.com for 20 titles, including those by Philip Roth and Vladimir Nabokov.

Now Random House, which had previously staked a claim for the e-book rights to most of those books, has issued a forceful response: it will stop doing business with the Wylie Agency, The New York Times’s Julie Bosman writes.

This should be an interesting fight. Can’t wait to see who wins. We agree with agents and Mr. Wylie that authors should receive closer to 50% royalties from publishers on eBook sales. We at Morgan James Publishing, I believe, are the only traditional publisher currently paying authors 50% royalty on eBook versions.

Wylie’s E-Book Venture Stirs a Fuss in Publishing – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.