Resurrection publishing

I.e., republishing out-of-print books. Article in The Guardian, via Booksquare:

For some companies, resurrection is a sideline alongside new titles; for others, it’s their whole raison d’etre. It’s a labour of love, not money, for most. Few of these books get reviewed, and partly for that reason they won’t catch your eye, or even be there at all, when you’re in Waterstone’s. Mostly there’s little hope of achieving the level of sales – perhaps 2,000 copies – where you start to tot up your profits. Often you’re doing well if you’ve sold 300.

A little madness in the name of love. What’s not to like?

One little nit — c’mon, Guardian, hotlink the publishers you mention! Okay, actually it’s more of a medium-sized nit. Here, I’ll do my part:

Pomona.

Great Northern Publishing.

Parthian.

Sutton Publishing. [UPDATE, seems to be disappeared.]

Nonsuch Classics. [UPDATE, also disappeared.]

Traviata Books. [UPDATE, also disappeared.]

Related: See also my post Wagging the Backlist.

Writing in the digital era

Booksquare, blogging about how Google might play in the publishing industry, has some advice for writers, starting with those who have “midlist, backlist and deadlist” books out there:

[A]uthors who are not actively acquiring their rights should be hiring lawyers. Rights are power. We’ve said this before and we will say this again: get your damn rights back as soon as possible. There is no money in sitting on the out-of-print shelf. Next book? Time limits. Open-ended “in print”  clauses are dangerous and expensive. Negotiate specific time periods with specific deadlines and sell-offs. They want to keep your book? Let them pay more.

Pretty savvy advice, I’d say.