DBW Insights: Richard Nash
In this exclusive interview, Richard Nash, Founder and CEO of Cursor and Publisher of Red Lemonade, discusses copyright and nontraditional licensing; scalability; discoverability; and the relationship between author, agent, and publisher.
From the interview:
The traditional relationship between a publisher and an established writer can sometimes veer dangerously close to a zero-sum game. The agent tries to get as much of an advance out of the publisher as they can, which especially in the case of the independent publisher means they’re extracting working capital out of the publisher.
My wife happens to be an intellectual property lawyer, and she used to do a lot of transactions in the fashion licenses and the fashion cosmetics business. And in there, the upfront money, it’s a part of what goes on, but it’s not the biggest part. And, they also have these 4-year licenses, 3-year licenses, 2-year licenses that go on, you know with Michael Kors and a handbag manufacturer to make Michael Kors handbags, right?
So why do we have these life-of-the-copyright contracts over intellectual property that’s worth, I don’t know, $5,000-$10,000 over its lifetime and projects that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars in these 2- or 3-year licenses. It’s crazy.
A joint production of Digital Book World and Astral Road Brand Media: http://www.astralroad.com/. Founded by Rich Fahle, Astral Road Media is a full-service digital media agency, providing content strategy, design, video production, and other creative forms of social outreach for authors and content creators of all types.
