The NY Times broke the news that Random House will not challenge Open Road Integrated Media’s efforts to acquire digital rights to some books in the backlist of the late novelist William Styron. UPDATE: Random House has passed along an official statement about the eBooks.
Open Road will release the eBooks on May 4, and this page has more information about the collection–including Styron’s memoir, Darkness Visible (pictured). Read more at eBookNewser.
In December, Random House CEO Markus Dohle laid out the company’s eBook plans in two-page memo, asserting control over the digital rights in “the vast majority” of the publisher’s backlist. The Authors Guild pushed back in a memo, but the conglomerate publisher still has not revealed its plans for other authors in the company’s backlist.
Here’s an excerpt from the NY Times‘ report: “in a statement last week Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, said the company was continuing talks with many authors or their estates about publishing e-books of their older works. ‘The decision of the Styron estate is an exception to these discussions,’ he said in an e-mail message. ‘Our understanding is that this is a unique family situation.'”