Writer Accused of Breach of Contract for Self-Publishing a Completely Separate Book

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MaryMumsy

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I didn't look for a link to the thread, but it was the Kiana Davenport thing back in Oct. Or maybe Richard is talking about something different.

Oops. Cross posted with Richard.

MM
 

Seaclusion

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For some reason, I cannot edit my posts.

Yes this happened a while ago, but this article is from todays NYT.


Richard
 

Jamiekswriter

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If this is true. . .

"Jan Constantine, a lawyer for Ms. Davenport at the Author’s Guild, argued that the book of stories had been rejected by Penguin years ago and that the publisher had already turned down a new work from the writer, leaving her free to do what she wanted. As for the noncompete clause, any writer would argue that an e-book of well-regarded stories would enhance a novel, not detract from it."

. . . and Penguin dropped her for self pubbing their rejections, that's a scary precedent.

BTW I hated their title, "The Chinese Soldier's Daughter".

However, something is niggling in the back of my head that there was more to this story but I can't recall what it was.

I find it interesting that her and her agent have parted ways.
 

veinglory

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In terms of contract we don't know for sure one way or the other. The author argued that the clause referred only to similar work, and a novel in one genre was not similar to a short story collection in another.

If if they were right on the letter of the law, Penguin may not come out on top in terms of PR. They sound to me like being right on facts and still looking stodgy and out of touch on culture. Just IMHO. They could have let it go and would most likely have suffered no real loss.
 

Torgo

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If Penguin did this because she self-pubbed a collection they had previously declined to publish, it seems like a huge overreaction. It's either Penguin being dim or there's more to it. Very odd.
 

b_radom

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If anything, I'm disappointed in how right everyone on this thread has been. I was really hoping for a defensible reason to say all the criticism of the cover was racism. I'm sad and I miss my dreams of KDP stardom.
 

bearilou

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In terms of contract we don't know for sure one way or the other. The author argued that the clause referred only to similar work, and a novel in one genre was not similar to a short story collection in another.

If if they were right on the letter of the law, Penguin may not come out on top in terms of PR. They sound to me like being right on facts and still looking stodgy and out of touch on culture. Just IMHO. They could have let it go and would most likely have suffered no real loss.

and my point was that instead of the writer (as the quote indicated) interpreting the contract, why not get a lawyer's input and use that as your quoted justification for breaking with the contract instead of allowing it to be promulgated about that 'well any WRITER knows'.

If it's a contract. If you're going to break contract, get a lawyer to advise. If she has, in fact, contacted a lawyer and this was advised, then fabulous. In all that I'm reading, not much has been said about that. Just 'any real writer knows that this is just GOOD BUSINESS'.
 

eward

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Why? It's unprofessional behaviour.

It's unprofessional to self-publish something that was rejected? Or are we talking about other stuff like her reaction and blog post about all the drama? Because I really don't see how the former is unprofessional. She thought there were some fans who might enjoy it and she took it into her own hands to be sure they had access to it. . .obviously went about it in the wrong way since she misinterpreted her contract, but the actual act of self-publishing doesn't seem unprofessional to me.
 

Bubastes

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Weren't the short stories published elsewhere in journals? IIRC, it's not like the stories never saw the light of day.
 
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