In my weekly cruises around the intert00bz, I came across this worrisome little gem, posted several places, but I found it here on PubRants. Apparently Simon and Schuster wants to take your rights and have them slowly digested over a…thousand years.

What do I find wrong with this as an author? Just about everything.

The majority of the time an author sells a story, it’s to a publisher who intends to put it into print and sell it for as long as they can, to the benefit of author and publisher (and reader, as well–books going out of print means they can’t reach audiences who may have missed them before). In most cases, a publisher releases the rights back to the author when sales fall below a certain level. It’s no longer worthwhile for the publisher to stock the title, and releasing it back to the author makes it the author’s choice as to whether to pursue a possible new/secondary market for the title.

What S&S wants to do is to keep your rights…forever.

The new contract would allow Simon & Schuster to consider a book in print, and under its exclusive control, so long as it’s available in any form, including through its own in-house database — even if no copies are available to be ordered by traditional bookstores.

So that’s it. S&S wants your book ’til death do you part.  And even afterwards.

And make no mistake, there will be authors who don’t have the benefit of knowledge from RWA or the Author’s Guild, whose books will live and die with this conglomerate.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m something of a maverick when it comes to publishing.  I’m published with a small e-press, I have no agent currently, and if I have a single unit of what’s considered “clout” in the publishing world, then I’d reckon “clout” is measured in atomic mass units, and still in the single digits.  But my publisher and I have an understanding–I will write a book to the best of my ability, and they will sell the book to the best of their ability.  If they can’t do this, or after a certain, finite period of time passes, then I can ask for my rights back and try to sell the book to another publisher, who will also try to sell it to the public to the best of their ability.  But if S&S has its way, then once I would sign a contract with them, they would be free to sit on my book and never allow it to see the light of day, and there would be nothing I could do to stop them.  Because technically the book would be “available.”

How are they supposed to make money if they don’t sell books?  Unless their only goal is to keep other people from making money on those books. Seems a bit daft, shooting yourself in the foot like that, but what do I know?  I’ll be paying attention.  I find their lack of threshold…disturbing.

PS - Bonus points for those who correctly guessed that it’s the Star Wars 30th Anniversary.  Hence the metaphors.  I am geek and I am proud.

So my pal Roxy Harte, who has been a good friend for TEN WHOLE YEARS now (remember that ‘97 conference where we met? How far have we come, girl? And damn, ain’t things the same-old, same-old, too ), has tagged me for the “Eight Random Facts About Me” meme. So here goes:

1.) I’m a belly-dancer. I’ve been trained in Raqs Sharqi, which is “Eastern Dance” and refers to the Egyptian style of belly dance, and is also referred to as “cabaret” because of the majority of venues in which the dance is performed. And yes, I have performed. In fact, I performed while five months pregnant. It’s on tape somewhere, too, recorded for posterity. I own a set of bedlah (the spangly bra-and-belt combo) that I can still sort of fit in, as well as numerous tribal bellydance garb options. While the tribal style of belly dance has the appearance of being the older, more “authentic” style, it is actually a modern fusion dance style. The modern cabaret style, for all its glitz and glitzy terminology, actually predates tribal by over a century. I love to dance, and even though I haven’t been “in the circuit” for several years, I can still shimmy like nobody’s business!

2.) I’m a brown belt in Kenpo karate. I was thisclose to taking my black belt test when I had to suspend my training because it’s really hard to perform “Tiger and Crane” with morning sickness. My lineage is through Tracy’s Karate.

3.) I’m a high priestess in the Cult of the Sacred Brewed Bean. If I don’t get my coffee in the morning, destruction of biblical proportions occurs.

4.) I have HDTV, and one of the HD channels is GameSpot, and I’m not ashamed (okay, I’m sort of blushing a bit) to say that I’ve spent the last few Saturday nights on the edge of my seat, watching the Guild Wars World Championships. Yes. I’m a g33k. I *watch mmorpg gaming on TV.* Since my piddly little guild consists of me and Mr. Xandra, we have no hope of ever competing at the level of the average American college student, much less the pros in Korea (and yes, there are professional gamers out there. Bet you didn’t know that. Bet your world was a much more comforting place before knowing that, and it will now forever be a place of much less innocence for knowing that. Ha ha, I am the destroyer of innocents. ph34r m3!). But it’s still fun to see hawt PvP action.

5.) I costume. I’ve been a purple twi’lek two years in a row, and I’m going for three this year at the Con circuit. I have a closet full of SCA garb, and Hallowe’en is a national holiday at Casa de Xandra. I never grew out of playing dress-up and now I have better stuff than my mom’s old disco threads.

6.) I had a homebirth. With a midwife. Because I didn’t want to have to drive to a hospital while in labor, and because while my house may not be the cleanest place in all the kingdom, no one’s ever gotten flesh-eating bacteria there. Six guys from the city were bush-hogging in the ditch behind my house at the time and waited around to find out what I had. The neighbors called the cops because I yelled so loud and the windows were open. It was all very exciting and I think I freaked the Town’s Finest because when they asked, I said, “yeah, I did this on purpose.”
7.) I watch cartoons. Some of them are the best shows out there (Avatar, I’m looking at you. Now come back already! I need a Zutara fix).

8.) I laughed LOL’d for ten whole minutes at this. I’m still laughing ridin’ the lollercoaster.  Or the ROFLcopter.