Clark's Publishing Agreements: A Book of Precedents, 9th edn

happy band of 22 contributors and organizations have collaborated in the production of a new edition of Clark's Publishing Agreements, this time the 9th. It is a true tour de force from key people in the publishing industry and is an example of both a supreme team effort and generosity of publishing spirit, with all royalties going to the Book Trade Charity. Although the 8th edition was only published in 2010 there has been a plethora of legislation reviews since and proposals for copyright changes, together with ongoing legal cases. All these have a greater or lesser impact on many of the precedents included in the book, which sadly means the 8th edition is already redundant and needs replacing if new publisher agreements are to keep abreast of these changes. The 9th edition starts with a comprehensive review of legal develop-('The Hub') in 2013, the extension of the UK's legal deposit scheme in 2013 to cover electronic works, the settlement in 2012 of the long-running case between Google and the Association of American Publishers and fi ve large international publishers , the ongoing Google/Authors' Guild case, and several others including better access for visually impaired people, the proceeds of crime and being aware of bribery implications in contracts. Phew! No wonder Clark's needs updating as often as it does. Overall, the user-friendly structure has been retained and the book continues to come with a handy CD which includes the full text of each contract, of which there are 24 in all. The book also includes a comprehensive set of appendices which cover areas of licensing that cannot easily be covered by a single precedent, including the US market, hardback and paperback reprint licences, the granting of permissions, collective licensing, and so on. Clark's really is a truly indispensable work of reference for any publisher or literary agent who wishes to undertake their work in a professional and commercial manner for the benefi t of all parties involved. Looking ahead, academic publishers in particular are increasingly using XML production methods which enable the tagging of content and the sale or licensing of bits of content as well as the whole, particularly electronically. This might spawn the need for new types of agreement such as licensing a chapter or article, or content drawn from several different titles. Working with several licensing agencies around the world, such as the Copyright Clearance Center in …