Thursday, December 15, 2011

Dymocks responds to criticism of D Publishing contract

Dymocks' new publishing arm D Publishing has amended aspects of its author contract in response to criticism of the service.


Dymocks general manger of ecommerce Michael Allara told the Weekly Book Newsletter D Publishing, which officially launched last week, was 'aware of some of the concerns raised'. 'We've sought to liaise directly with the individuals who have raised and promoted those concerns to better understand them. It's in our interests to make sure the Publishing Agreement can be placed in the correct context and interpreted as it is intended, so we take the feedback of authors very seriously.'

'This process has helped us understand how technical legal contracts can be interpreted out of context,' said Allara. 'We made changes to the Agreement this week to ensure it is clearer for authors to understand the nature of their relationship with D Publishing; and reassure authors that they remain the driving force behind their work.'

Publishing contract expert Alex Adsett, who assessed the D Publishing contract after the changes were made, told the Weekly Book Newsletter she thought it was 'as terrible as some of the online commentary suggests'.

'There seems to be a disconnect between [D Publishing's] FAQs and the Contract, but unless it is amended, I would not recommend any author sign the publishing aspect of the deal,' she said. However, Adsett pointed out that the production and printing options provided by D Publishing ('produce my book' and 'print my book') 'do not lock the author into any unfair terms'. And Allara pointed out that the use of these services 'do not require our Publishing Agreement'.
Full piece at Aust.Nookseller & Publisher

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