Amazon’s Contract for Authors – What does it really say?

I happened to read your posting about Amazon’s contract…

“4.License Grant. You grant to us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free right and license to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, perform, modify and display all Submitted Materials in any media formats solely in connection with the Services and the marketing, promotion and distribution of the Services. The rights you grant to us in this paragraph extend to us and to any person or entity designated or engaged by us or acting on our behalf and are in addition to any rights we may otherwise have.”

… non-exclusive, worldwide … license – Interesting language. When read with the last sentence, it seems to me that it means that the author is not granting Amazon a “non-exclusive license” [typically meaning the author can license other distributors, etc.] but rather gives Amazon the right to “sub-license” the work without the author’s approval and do so free of any obligation to pay the author any royalties, regardless of the profit it makes.

… irrevocable – another interesting limitation of the rights of the author…regardless of what Amazon does to the work, the author has no right to “call it quits.”

It seems to be a case of “heads I win, tails you loose.”

An attorney who does not wish for their name published

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The Pager Chronicles, Volume II

Hi Angela,

I just received a copy of a BookLocker-published book, The Pager Chronicles, Volume II by Patrice Rancour. She sent it to me because I’d contributed an early review, which was used as a promotional blurb on an opening page.

I’m really not certain whether or not I’ve ever before seen a book you’ve published but I want you to know that I am very impressed by this one. It is a beautiful book of high quality.

Keep up the good work!
Glenna

The Pager Chronicles, Volume II
How do you tell children that their mother has just died? What do you say to a man wanting to join the breast cancer support group? How do you respond to a grieving widower who is so angry about the death of his wife that he has left menacing notes inside the hospital’s waiting room magazines? And through it all, how do you keep your heart open to the suffering of those around you, and show up to do it again the next day?