Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Random House/Odyssey Editions (Wylie) Tiff Settled

The NY Times's headline suggests that Random House has "won" the standoff. But since neither party is willing to disclose financial terms of their agreement, my guess is that the jury is actually still out on the question of win/lose. NYTimes.com: "'We are pleased to announce that the Wylie Agency and Random House have resolved our differences over the disputed Random House titles which have been included in the Odyssey Editions e-book publishing program,' said a joint statement signed by Markus Dohle, the chairman and chief executive of Random House, and Mr. Wylie. It added: 'We both are glad to be able to put this matter behind us.' The dispute erupted in July, when Mr. Wylie announced that he was starting Odyssey Editions, which would release e-books exclusively through Amazon.com. ... Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement but said they were consistent with agreements that Random House had reached with other literary agencies on backlist e-book rights. He said Mr. Wylie met with Mr. Dohle alone at the Random House headquarters in Manhattan on two occasions, most recently last Friday. ..."