thebookseller.com TUESDAY 10
04.2018
At the London Book Fair WORDS Benedicte Page, Lisa Campbell
HE INCREASED VISIBILITY of international editions on Amazon’s Global Store is
Publishers have voiced concern over Amazon’s Global Store listing international editions
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Amazon and Brexit fuel territoriality fears T
fuelling fears that the retailer’s approach is incompatible with local rights-based publishing. The concern comes amid recur- ring gripes about US editions being presented for sale on the retailer’s UK site. Separately, there are worries that a possible change to intellectual prop- ert (IP) law post-Brexit could remove safeguards against publishers’ export editions being resold in the UK. Regarding Amazon, publish- ers say the retailer is “slow” to take down listings of US editions, which are increasingly finding their way onto Amazon.
co.uk. This means that, in cases where the UK and US rights are split between different compa- nies, the US publisher gets the revenue for the UK sale. One indie publisher commented: “It definitely affects us, because
people tend to click on the first edition that comes up, and we inevitably lose sales… I spend hours contacting Amazon about things like this, and it is slow to respond—if it ever does.” Another added: “American editions oſten crop up ahead of UK editions, even if the books should be market-restricted. I understand that it must be diffi- cult for Amazon to keep track of every single product uploaded on its system, but it must make sure that if contacted by publish-
ers, it responds quickly. It’s a mess, really.”
An Amazon spokesperson said it “has proactive processes in place to identify and remove US editions of books from sale on
Amazon.co.uk where the sale of that US edition would infringe the rights of the publisher of a local edition of the same book. We also have an established process which enables third parties, including rights-hold- ers, to provide us with notice of infringements or non-compliant
products. We respond rapidly to any such notice.” Meanwhile, a possible change
to IP law post-Brexit could change the rules about the sale of export editions—potentially at lower prices—back into the UK market. Currently the UK subscribes to a “national” or “regional” exhaustion of rights, governing the sale and resale of books within the EU. However, the UK could shiſt to an “interna- tional” exhaustion of rights aſter Brexit, with sales implications. Shireen Peermohamed,
partner at law firm Harbot- tle & Lewis, explained: “That would mean that if a printed book is on the market anywhere in the world with the copy- right owner’s consent—the US, Norway, Japan—the copyright owner will, in most cases, not be able to stop it being resold in the UK. I suspect that rights-owners will be thinking hard about this and the need to make a strong case against the international exhaustion of rights.”
Inkin’ the Vardø: Picador wins Millwood Hargrave’s adult bow
Award-winning children’s author Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first foray into adult fiction has gone to Picador for a significant six-figure sum aſter a “hotly contested” 13-publisher auction.
Picador senior commissioning editor Sophie Jonathan bought UK and Common- wealth rights (including audio) to Vardø, and another novel, from Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit. There has been a pre- empt in Spain, with auctions ongoing in Germany, France and Italy and “major inter- est in the US”. Inspired by real-life witch trials, Vardø
INSIDE
takes place in the early 1600s in a remote Norwegian fishing village, where a storm wipes out all the men. The village prospers for a few years, until the authorities send the
sinister Absalom Cornet to bring its citizens to heel… through any means necessary. Millwood Hargrave has published four collections of poetry, while her first YA book, The Girl of Ink & Stars (Chicken House), sold over 100,000 units in the UK, winning the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the British Book Awards’ Children’s Book of the Year in 2017. Jonathan said: “Vardø had me mesmerised from the first ‘finger snap’ of the storm that sets this novel rolling. Best of all, it’s a defiant love story, and a story of passionate, powerful friendship. I can’t wait to share it with readers.”
Big-money mole-catcher to Vintage p05 · PA unveils 10-point Brexit Blueprint p08 · Can’t-miss at LBF: today’s essential events p17 Evie Wyld visits Vilnius Book Fair p23 · Bogotá39: South American literature in focus p27 · Horace Bent at Olympia p46
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