Romance publisher Harlequin is forced to pay back-dated royalties to its authors, after trying to cheat them through a tax dodge:
Harlequin Lawsuit's Happy Ending – Patricia McLinn | Author
Quote:
The “All Other Rights” clause said Harlequin and the author split whatever monies came in from the exercise of these rights 50-50.
However, when books under those contracts eventually were digitized, it became quite clear the authors were getting way, way, way less than 50%.
What Harlequin did was say that our contracts were signed with Harlequin Switzerland, but the ebooks were published by Harlequin Toronto, and golly, gee, Harlequin Switzerland sold the rights to Harlequin Toronto for 6% of cover price. So Harlequin Toronto sent Switzerland 6%, Switzerland kept 3%, the author received 3% … and Harlequin Toronto kept all the rest. (BTW, this agreement between these Harlequins was created well after the contracts were signed. Authors were never informed about it.)
Harlequin Lawsuit's Happy Ending – Patricia McLinn | Author
Quote:
The “All Other Rights” clause said Harlequin and the author split whatever monies came in from the exercise of these rights 50-50.
However, when books under those contracts eventually were digitized, it became quite clear the authors were getting way, way, way less than 50%.
What Harlequin did was say that our contracts were signed with Harlequin Switzerland, but the ebooks were published by Harlequin Toronto, and golly, gee, Harlequin Switzerland sold the rights to Harlequin Toronto for 6% of cover price. So Harlequin Toronto sent Switzerland 6%, Switzerland kept 3%, the author received 3% … and Harlequin Toronto kept all the rest. (BTW, this agreement between these Harlequins was created well after the contracts were signed. Authors were never informed about it.)
