Over the past week, a public dialogue has reportedly ensued about publisher John Wiley & Sons' communications with the group of 117 authors joining the company from Bloomberg. This follows Wiley's acquisition of the rights to all formerly Bloomberg book titles on March 11.
After an exchange of ideas, Wiley has reportedly concluded that the best way to proceed is to call each and every one of these authors to make sure they understand the changes that have been proposed. If any of them are uncomfortable with the proposed changes, they can choose to retain their original Bloomberg contracts.
The Authors Guild recently proposed to Wiley to wait until the next royalty period to complete a sample comparison of royalty payments to authors under the Wiley proposal and the existing Bloomberg contract. The publisher, however, believes that its approach is more timely and in the best interests of its authors.
On April 29, Wiley had sent letters to the affected authors explaining some changes - in plain English, which it felt would be most helpful and informative for its authors. Wiley invited authors to speak directly with a specific (and named) publishing officer if they wished to discuss these changes or raise questions. Their response to the new alliance is stated to have been positive.
