HarperCollins Author? You Might Want to Check Your Contract

Or have a little chat with your agent. Earlier this week, HarperCollins announced in the Wall Street Journal that they are partnering with Scribd to make the majority of their U.S. backlist titles available for Scribd’s new book subscription services.

HarperCollins significantly updated their boilerplate contract about 2 years ago. I’m sure they had this in mind when they did so but there isn’t necessarily a clear clause that handles subscription only. Probably worth pinging the editor to find out if your backlist title will be included and you might also want to review your HarperCollins contract–especially if you signed one more than 3 years ago and pre their new boilerplate.

This is going to be just the beginning, as I know other publishers will probably follow.  Sourcebooks already does subscription stuff for their romance line.