Some years ago, in the last edition of The SFWA Handbook, I published a warning about electronic rights. Publishers were trying to get rights to this ill-defined market, without paying additional money or even defining percentages of participation. Nobody knew quite what the market would be like. It was clear to at least a few lawyers and tech whiz types, however, that it would be lucrative, and many major companies wanted to be involved.
Some years before these early warnings, CD-ROM drives were released to the computer-buying public–
expensive, slow, but with obvious potential. Entertainment companies became interested in competing mass-storage CD standards, but many major corporate players seemed willing to sit on the sidelines, waiting for market forces to shake the losers out. Now, the markets are more clearly defined, the products are here in embryonic form, and major forces are laying track for the information railroad.
(Don’t be deceived that the railroad, for the time being, looks more like a goat-path.) Electronic rights can be marketed for some products, notably computer games, adding to the rare but lucrative movie and TV rights deals, but the new media market has not yet advanced enough to affect the revenues of most text authors.
