Textbook Business Model Shift Angers Authors

Publisher Cengage is seeking to pay authors a portion of subscription revenue instead of a contractual royalty based on a per-unit sale, according to plaintiffs Knox and Schact

On Wednesday, textbook authors David Knox and Caroline Schact sued Cengage over its forthcoming subscription service Cengage Unlimited. The plaintiffs claim that new business model for Cengage for the leading educational publisher is unfair.

“The authors claim that Cengage, ‘is systematically dismantling and frustrating’ sales of their works in favor of selling subscriptions to Cengage’s digital products,” Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer, explains. “This matters [for Knox and Schact] because instead of earning a contractual royalty based on each sale, the publisher is now seeking to pay authors a piece of the subscription revenue based on a formula the publisher alone has devised.”

The core claim, Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally, is that with “the pivot to a digital subscription service, Cengage has ‘wrongfully’ implemented ‘a unilateral change to the compensation structure for its authors,’ from ‘the contractual royalty-on-sale’ compensation model to a relative use’ model.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.