territorial combat

The Brits are argueing with the Yanks about what to do with Europe. Hachette has given distribution of US Hachette titles in Europe to the Brits much to the disappointment of the Europeans.

Karl Heinz Petzler, managing director of the Lisbon distributor Lisma Lda said. "I can only classify this decision of voluntarily renouncing turnover as an unheard of act of self-castration," Petzler wrote in a letter to Hachette. "It also shows a lack of respect for authors, agents and customers alike, who all will lose because of this move."

Brian DeFiore, head of the literary agency DeFiore and Company: U.S. publishers insist that Europe remain an open market, which makes it very difficult to get a U.K. deal, and American houses are likely to reject any deal made with a U.K. publisher that has already won European exclusivity.

An interesting echo of our territorial difficulties with the Poms.