Some people read books to escape from the harsh truths of reality. And some people (or, apparently, a lot of people) read books to better discern the totalitarian threat of the current political environment, I guess?

Much has been said about George Orwell’s “1984” returning to the top of Amazon’s best sellers list, but another dystopian fiction novel has since joined it. This week, Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” hit Amazon’s best sellers list at number two, with “1984” dropping down to the third slot from the top spot it held after the #alternativefacts controversy late last month.

Considered as somewhat of a “feminist ‘1984,’” “The Handmaid’s Tale” is set in a dystopian future where a totalitarian state run by religious zealots, the Republic of Gilead, has replaced America. In Gilead, women are property, a large number of them are infertile, and they are placed in a caste system where their worth is determined by their ability to bear children, race, and class. As warfare rages on throughout the country, fertile women are put in camps and trained to be “Handmaids,” who are tasked with bearing the children of rich white men. Sounds like a fun and breezy read, no?

Like “1984,” which has been banned and challenged many times by school boards since its publication, “The Handmaid’s Tale” has been caught up in similar controversy. Most recently, in 2014, the book was banned by a school board in Pennsylvania because of the novel’s profanity and graphic sexual references. In 2012, according to the Winston-Salem Journal, two mothers in Guilford County, North Carolina attempted to ban the book from schools because of its extreme view of Christianity.

On NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Russell Perreault, head of publicity for Anchor Books, which now publishes “The Handmaid’s Tale,” said that sales of the book shot up 60 percent in the last year and, since the election, sales increased by 200 percent.

While some of the book’s success can be attributed to the impending April premiere of the Hulu show based on the novel (Hulu premiered the show’s second trailer during last Sunday’s Super Bowl), it’s not out of the question to consider the book’s renewed prominence could be connected to an increase in political anxiety.

This spike in sales for “The Handmaid’s Tale” is similar to the sales numbers posted by “1984.” According to CNNMoney, which spoke to a Penguin spokesman, Penguin reprinted 75,000 copies of “1984” the week after the inauguration–which is a significantly larger reprint than normal for the novel. This upsurge in sales for “1984” is similar to but larger than the spike that sales of the novel saw in the midst of the NSA surveillance scandal in 2013.

Following this gloom and doom of the future reading trend, Sinclair Lewis’ cautionary novel “It Can Happen Here” as well as Aldous Huxley’s even more cautionary novel “Brave New World” can be found further down the Amazon best sellers list. However, it should be noted that the children’s books “Llama Llama I Love You” and “Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar” sit at fifth and sixth on the list, so do not despair, for children’s reading habits have not been affected…yet.

Austin Elias-De Jesus

Austin is an editorial intern at Law Street Media. He is a junior at The George Washington University majoring in Political Communication. You can usually find him reading somewhere. If you can’t find him reading, he’s probably taking a walk. Contact Austin at Staff@Lawstreetmedia.com.

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The Paladin Group has filed a complaint with the California Labor Commission against the RSWG Literary Agency and its agent Geoffrey Sanford. Paladin claims that neither RSWG nor Sanford are licensed agents or attorneys under California law, and thus illegally took 20 percent commissions for licensing the late John Steinbeck’s literary works.

Before getting into the complaint, let me first walk you through what literary agents do to get a better idea why Paladin is suing RSWG.

What is a Literary Agent?

Literary agents are an author’s first step toward publication, and they are essential to the publishing process unless an author decides to self-publish. It’s extremely difficult to land one since hundreds of thousands of books are published each year. If an author obtains a literary agent, that person helps with the manuscript and/or proposal before pitching the book to acquiring editors. Auctions, or bidding wars, can occur if multiple editors want the book and believe it can be a best seller; however, most books get acquired by one editor who expresses interest.

The author then signs an author agreement with the editor’s publishing company, which states the author’s advance (i.e., how much the publisher is paying the author for his book before royalties), grants (usually) the author the copyright to his or her literary work, and gives the literary agent a 10-15 percent commission. The literary agent’s commission can be peanuts if a book’s advance is say, $10,000, which is an average debut novelist’s advance.  However, take Bill Clinton’s advance, which was reportedly more than $10 million. Who wouldn’t want 10-15 percent of that?  Thus, it is easy to see why agents are extremely picky about who they represent because best-selling authors can generate the agent millions of dollars.

What is a Co-Agent?

However, that isn’t the end of the road for an agent’s and author’s potential revenue. When a book publisher grants an author the copyright to his literary work, the author receives a bundle of exclusive rights (e.g., motion picture, television, audio book, e-book, large print, Braille, book club, abridgements, first serial, second serial, etc.) to do with what she pleases. Usually, the author’s agent hires a co-agent or sub-agent to license these rights, which are known as subsidiary rights in the book publishing industry, to third parties.

Sub-agents may specialize in licensing certain rights.  For example, a sub-agent may license rights of an author’s book, such as motion picture rights to help get a novel adapted as a feature film. More frequently, however, sub-agents try to sell an author’s book in countries around the world. You may have seen book covers with the words, “Published in 37 Countries.” You can thank sub-agents for that. Sub-agents generate commissions of 10 – 20 percent depending on the right that is licensed.

Enter Steinbeck

In Steinbeck’s case, Steinbeck’s literary agency is McIntosh and Otis, which is located in New York City.  McIntosh and Otis hired RSWG as a sub-agent, and RSWG negotiated motion picture rights for remakes of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden” and received 20 percent commissions for its services.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Paladin Group, created by Thomas Steinbeck who is Steinbeck’s only living son, argues that RSWG had no right to negotiate the motion picture rights for “Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden” without the Paladin Group’s consent.

Attorney William Briggs who spoke on RSWG’s behalf, however, argued that the heirs of the Scott family are the rightful owners of Steinbeck’s literary works, so the Paladin Group could not object to RSWG’s negotiations. In 1968, Steinbeck left the majority of his estate to his third wife, Edith Scott, who died in 2003, and left all of Steinbeck’s rights to her heirs.

Briggs also alleges that the Paladin Group misunderstands California law because there is no rule that RSWG must be licensed to sell rights of Steinbeck’s literary works.

Although I do not have access to the Paladin Group’s complaint, the company is rightly concerned about RSWG’s actions. The Paladin Group receives a portion of revenue for every license that is negotiated for Steinbeck’s works, so it is invested in who licenses that work. If RSWG is not properly licensed, the license agreements are null and void and the Paladin Group receives no money. However, even if RSWG is licensed, the Paladin Group may have been able to receive more money than what RSWG negotiated. The 20 percent commissions that RSWG received are likely a huge number, but given that Steinbeck is a Nobel Prize-winning novelist, the price for remaking motion picture rights for any of his works, let alone “Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden” — two of his most popular books — can be potentially millions more.

Hence the value of choosing a literary agent and sub-agent.

Joseph Perry

Joseph Perry is a graduate of St. John’s University School of Law whose goal is to become a publishing and media law attorney. He has interned at William Morris Endeavor, Rodale, Inc., Columbia University Press, and is currently interning at Hachette Book Group and volunteering at the Media Law Resource Center, which has given him insight into the legal aspects of the publishing and media industries. Contact Joe at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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