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NEWS ARCHIVE: NOVEMBER 1999
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Authors: HarperCollins shortchanged usNEW YORK, November 8, 1999 -- Two fiction writers, Ken Englade and Patricia Simpson, went to court to gain acess to HarperCollins books so they can ascertain the extent of the publishing house's discounted in-house sales among subsidiaries. Englade and Simpson claim that HarperCollins breached its
contract with authors by negotiating these in-house sales "at a considerable discount well below fair market value, thus earning each author less royalties than is mandated in each contract." Their request, to a state court judge, is for an indepdennt audit of HarperCollins books. They also want the judge to recognize HarperCollinbs authors as group that could seek damages as a single group -- a so-called "class action" suit. The authors claim to have partial knowledge of the self-dealing among Harper units
in Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Zimbabwe. They said the self-dealing "causes its authors to be paid less in royalties than they would otherwise be entitled if the books would have been sold for distribution to a non-affiliated company for a fair market price." The principal players:Ken Englade, with five Western fiction titles with Harper.
Patricia Simpson, with 10 romance novels with Harper.
Jerome Noll and Rob Lax, attorneys, who asked other Harper authors to sign on to the class action: (212) 818-9150 |
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