E-versions of pre-e-book books
 

I've been wondering what publishers and authors do when a book in e-book format -- Kindle or otherwise -- was originally published before e-books were an item.

For instance, I saw on Amazon that Robert Mezey's edition of Hardy is now available in Kindle (although, according the reviewers, Amazon bungled the text). I wonder: did Mezey get royalties on sales in the Kindle format? I imagine this alternative wouldn't have been covered in his contract. What would his rights be, in that case?

I imagine other members here have come up against this issue. I don't think I've seen it mentioned here, despite quite a bit of talk about e-books per se.

I've no idea of the answer to the question you pose, Andrew. But I can reveal that it was I who placed the first review of the Kindle versionof Mezey's edition. I think it was only the second time I'd ever written an Amazon review but I was so furious I had to say something. And I'm still mad at having spent about 10 euros on an appalling text; it is obviously nothing to do with Mezey himself (his introduction and notes are very good), but Penguin should be ashamed of themselves. They've obviously decided that people who read things on Kindle are not worth bothering about; so all those stanza shapes Hardy took such care over are all ruthlessly left-aligned. I guess we're supposed to be grateful that they bothered to put in the line-breaks (I have downloaded copies of poetry-books where everything is printed as prose).

I'm pretty sure the author gets royalties. If the contract is such that the publisher has the right to publish electronically (i.e., it used broad enough language to encompass a technology that wasn't yet out there) then the contract would no doubt provide for royalties, since it's hard to believe that any contract would grant any sort of rights without providing for the author to get his share. If the contract doesn't grant electronic rights, then the question doesn't come up.