Days after Random House and the Wylie Agency reached an agreement about disputed eBook rights, Penguin is now negotiating eBook rights with the agency as well.
While neither side would comment on the negotiations, the Wylie Agency built the fledgling eBook imprint, Odyssey Editions–bypassing traditional publishers to create digital books for classic titles. Last month, Penguin Group CEO John Makinson addressed the problem, noting: “I don’t think it’s a cosmic issue.”
Random House reached a settlement this week, and the agency removed 13 Random House titles from the catalog.
Bookseller had the Penguin scoop: “[Penguin] has two books–Saul Bellow’s Adventures of Augie March and William Burroughs’ Junky–for which it holds global rights in print, and one further title Brideshead Revisited, where it has UK and Commonwealth rights. A statement from the publisher read: ‘Penguin Group has had conversations with Andrew Wylie regarding the books in the Odyssey Editions program and those conversations are ongoing.'”