: Will e-books prevent books from going out of print (and rights from reverting)? In the old days, books went out of print shortly after it stopped being profitable for the publisher to print

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The contract says what the contract says. I've had some shown to me that were amazingly bad; all rights in perpetuity, all media. Nowadays, if you die, your heirs can break one of those.

A lot of editors will show you a default contract in their favor -- and change terms instantly as soon as they know you caught'em.

If you're concerned, write in a reversion clause, but remember with technical books especially the lifetime of a book is relatively short. If it reverts after 5 years, it may not make any difference.

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On the contacts that I've signed (granted, they were for short stories in anthologies), rights reverted to me after a specific period of time (one year, five years, etc).

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Definition of terms is always crucial. As Ralph Gallagher says, books go out of print when the contract is ended. That point may be defined differently with different authors and publishers, perhaps 'one print run' or 'when sales drop to less than X dollars per annum' or even 'until there's been no interest for one full year'. I believe an author I know of received a ten-year term in her contract, and when it was up she renegotiated for some other deal with an omnibus edition of several works. I'll have to see if I can dig up the details.

This question though is Exhibit A on why you need an agent when dealing with a publisher. An agent will be able to advise you on this and will negotiate an effective ending date of the contract in the age of e-books. A good agent will protect your interests (and your profits) from publishers who will claim (correctly, as it happens) that nothing is out of print and try to hang on to rights forever.

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I've never seen an expiration date on a tech book contract.

For instance, here are the O'Reilly standard book contract terms:

You grant us the exclusive right to print, publish, distribute, and sell copies of the book, and works derived from the book, in printed form and in electronic media such as CD-ROM, and to license others to do so, for the duration of the copyright in the book, in all languages, throughout the world. Your name will appear on the title page of the book as its author, but we'll obtain copyright for the book in our name.

Most of the contracts I've signed say my rights will revert back to me when the book goes out of print. And just like you mention above: between ebooks and POD, publishers now say that nothing's ever out of print, so rights never revert.

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Books go out of print when the contract runs up an either the author or the publisher doesn't opt to renew it. Books don't get pulled just because they're not making the sales, but if the books aren't making the sales, the contract most likely won't be renewed. Contracts can last anywhere from 2-7 years or longer, depending on negotiations.

When a contract runs out, there are two options. It can either be renewed, or it can end. If it ends, all rights revert back to the author and the publisher has to stop selling all books. They are allowed to sell off any remaining print books, but they're not allowed to print any more. Ebook sales stop immediately.

If for some reason an author is unhappy with their publisher and wants their rights back, it is possible to cancel a contract earlier if the publisher is agreeable. But, if the publisher is making money off the books, they're most likely not going to agree unless the author has a lot of pull or they're on very good terms. That means the author is stuck with them until the contract expires. Publishers don't own the rights to books indefinitely.

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