Scott Turow Ponders the Future of Publishing, Royalties, and Piracy

Earlier this month, novelist Scott Turow became the new president of the Authors Guild–taking charge of the group during a tumultuous time for the publishing industry.

In today’s installment of Media Beat, the bestselling novelist and attorney advised writers about the biggest problems facing the publishing industry. In previous segments, Turow talked about his new novel, Innocent and offered advice for aspiring writers.

Here’s an excerpt: “Right now frankly royalty rates for eBooks are too low. The don’t represent the same kind of division of profits that traditional hardcover royalties have represented. So that will be a meat and potatoes issue for us. But the larger problems for us is the pirating of books. It has killed large parts of the music industry. Musicians make up for the copies of their songs that get pirated by performing live. I don’t think there will be as many people showing up to hear me read as to hear Beyonce sing. We need to make sure piracy is dealt with effectively.”

Part 1: Scott Turow Explains How Legal Writing Changed Since “Presumed Innocent”

Part 2: Scott Turow Offers Novel Writing Advice: “Persistence Is Critical”

Media Beat is mediabistro.com’s interview series with the movers and shakers of the media world. View all past episodes at MediaBeat.com.

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