How amusing - five conservative authors, including famous Swiftboater
Jerome Corsi, have filed suit against the conservative publishing
company Regnery.

According to the New York Times:

Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a
Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company
deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep
discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same
parent company.

(snip)

Traditionally, authors receive a 15 percent royalty based on the cover
price of a hardcover title after they have sold enough copies to cover
the cost of the advance they receive upon signing a contract with a
publisher.

(Authors whose books are sold at steep discounts or to companies that
handle remaindered copies receive lower royalties.)

In Regnery's case, according to the lawsuit, the publisher sells books
to sister companies, including the Conservative Book Club, which then
sells the books to members at discounted prices, "at, below or only
marginally above its own cost of publication."

In the lawsuit the authors say they receive "little or no royalty" on
these sales because their contracts specify that the publisher pays
only 10 percent of the amount received by the publisher, minus costs -
as opposed to 15 percent of the cover price - for the book.

Mr. Miniter said that meant that although he received about $4.25 a
copy when his books sold in a bookstore or through an online retailer,
he only earned about 10 cents a copy when his books sold through the
Conservative Book Club or other Eagle-owned channels.


To be honest I'm not really sure what Richard Miniter is complaining
about.

Who else is going to publish this crap?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/07/314_miniter.gif

And look, Miniter's book is a New York Times bestseller!

Now, do you think that's because people paid $28 for it in a
bookstore, or because they got it in bulk for 50 cents from the
Conservative Book Club?

Gee, I wonder.

These conservative authors need to face up to the fact that they're
getting paid exactly what their books are worth: ***** all.

Or don't they believe in unrestrained, unregulated free market
capitalism any more?

Surely this big corporation should be allowed to do whatever it can to
maximize profits, right?

Funny how these chumps are all for dismantling worker protections...
until they're the ones who need protecting.


By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Harry