Books & Literary Life | July 26, 2010

Literary agent Andrew Wylie launches e-book venture

The literary agent's plan to produce e-books and sell them via amazon.com causes a stir in the publishing world.

Literary agent Andrew Wylie ’70, recently profiled in Harvard Magazine, has announced a publishing venture called Odyssey Editions that will offer e-book versions of works by some of the Wylie Agency's biggest clients through amazon.com's Kindle store, the New York Times reports. The Harvard Magazine profile, which the Times cites, describes Wylie's dissatisfaction with his negotiations on electronic rights with publishers and quotes him sketching out a plan for such a venture. The day after his announcement, the Times followed up with a report on the reaction of publishing houses to the plan; the most forceful counter-response came from Random House, which not only claimed ownership of the relevant e-book rights, but announced that it would stop doing business with the Wylie Agency until the matter is resolved.

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