In March, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, sitting in Manhattan, handed a victory to HarperCollins in its lawsuit against Open Road Integrated Media over the e-book publishing rights of Jean Craighead George’s award-winning children’s novel, Julie of the Wolves (1972). This “victory” for HarperCollins, however, highlights for authors one of the perils of pursuing the traditionally published route: desperate publishing corporations will stop at nothing to make sure “its” authors go down with the ship.
Let’s start with the facts of the case:
- In 1971, author Jean Craighead George signed a contract with HarperCollins (then Harper & Row) to publish Julie of the Wolves “in book form” for a $2,000 advance (just over $11,000 in today’s dollars) and royalty payments between 10-15%.
- Although the grant of publishing rights was in Paragraph 1, the contract also contained a provision (Paragraph 20) that said:…
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Lee Fullbright's Room 
Hey Lee, Thanks for the reblog. I’ve forwarded it to Terry to have a look at, being that his area (while in practice) was primarily contracts. I’m one of the lucky underdogs who does have a family member who can read and understand the fine print ambiguities.
Hope all is well with you down south.
Love,
P
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