Literary executor - duties?

Richard53

Please excuse me if I am a bit vague in this post, but I don't want to say anything that could identify anyone, as it's a bit of a sensitive subject.

When I was growing up, we occasionally used to visit a spinster friend of my father's, who lived in a very beautiful and rural part of the country. Although we were not related, I used to call her 'Aunty', and she was very kind to me. She was quite a well-known figure in the community (a small village) and had published several local-interest books through a local magazine publisher. A long time ago, she had said that when she died she wanted me to be her literary executor. I understood that to mean that I would take care of any issues relating to the publisher and these books after her death, and I was happy to agree. The subject matter of the books is of very limited interest, and I doubted if they would ever be reprinted or promoted in any way. I didn't see my responsibility as being much more than remaining a point of contact for the publishers if there were any issues concerning the books.

She died in June of this year after being in a nursing home for several years. Shortly afterwards, I got a letter from her solicitors telling me that she had formally appointed me her literary executor in her will, and saying that her wish was that I contact the publishers and do what I could to promote and look after her 'literary legacy'. I'm not sure what this means, but I suspect it is more involved than I had originally anticipated. The problem is that I doubt that anyone there would have any interest in the books, or even remember them. They were published back in the 60s/70s and were of strictly local and limited interest even then. I suspect that (putting it as nicely as I can) her estimation of the worth of the books and the market's estimation may not agree.

I'm quite troubled by this, as I want to honour her memory and do all I can for her as I promised, but I can't see any demand for reprinting or re-promotion of the books. I will probably contact the publishers and ask them how they see things, and then take it from there. I'm not really asking for help or advice here, but I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts, especially if anyone else has been someone's literary executor in the past.

Savvy_Sue

I think you're doing all you can by contacting the publisher, however ... this isn't a thought which is going to make your fortune, but would one way of 'promoting' her work be to see if there's a way of getting it online? I have no idea how feasible that is, but certainly if anyone ever wanted to find her work again, that's where they'd start looking for her name ...

If they were of local interest, the county archivist might be able to point you in a sensible direction.

Richard53

Thankfully, there is no money involved either paid or received. Putting it all online would mean a bit of work (I imagine it would all have to be transcribed by hand) but I don't mind that. If I did that I would probably feel that I had done all I could. Great suggestion, thanks. Will think about the county archivist too.

tiger_eyes

Richard53 wrote: »

Thankfully, there is no money involved either paid or received. Putting it all online would mean a bit of work (I imagine it would all have to be transcribed by hand) but I don't mind that. If I did that I would probably feel that I had done all I could. Great suggestion, thanks. Will think about the county archivist too.

If there are existing paper books, they could be run through an OCR scanner to convert to computer files and thus uploaded online. You wouldn't type them up by hand, that would be a job and a half!

Richard53

tiger_eyes wrote: »

If there are existing paper books, they could be run through an OCR scanner to convert to computer files and thus uploaded online. You wouldn't type them up by hand, that would be a job and a half!

I don't have copies of the books, or even know how many there are - that's how vague the original request was. I have glanced at one and can remember the title, but that's all. I think my concern is that what was (probably 30 years ago) a promise to take care of things has become, through formal contact from the solicitor, a legal duty which I am not sure I have the first clue about. I have filed the letter away, but when I get off this set of shifts I will dig it out and see exactly what she has specified in her will.

The actual word count of the books is quite small, if I remember correctly, and probably easier to type out than scan with OCR and then mess with the results

Errata

An acquaintance of mine is a literary executor and they merely work with the publisher of the literary works eg giving permission for some of the material to be published as e-books.
HTH, and suggest you talk to the publisher(s).

Savvy_Sue

I suspect that some of the 'value' of the books could be in their appearance, so that's another vote for an OCR scanner. Certainly wasn't suggesting anyone should re-type them!

Mojisola

Richard53 wrote: »

I don't have copies of the books, or even know how many there are - that's how vague the original request was.

Didn't she have copies of her own books? Check with the solicitor about what's happened to her personal possessions.

tyllwyd

http://www.copylaw.com/new_articles/finaldrafts.html
Looking at this, it really seems more appropriate for someone with an ongoing body of work, not someone who published a few local book years ago which are now out of print.

If it was me, I'd start by contacting the publisher to see if they have any information regarding the books. (They might not have anything - all the files might have been lost years ago.)

If they do have copies of the book and you really feel that you would like to reprint one or two in memory of your friend - and you have checked that there is no objection from the original publisher although that seems very unlikely - it wouldn't be that difficult to get the books rekeyed or scanned and use an online book self-publishing service to make it available online and to print a few copies. Maybe local cafes or your local branch of Waterstones would be willing to display a few copies, and you could get an article in the local newspaper.

(If you need help doing this, there are lots of editors out there - you could look at the SFEP website for a directory of freelance editors. But they are likely to charge up to £20 per hour, so it probably isn't economic.)

Oh, and you haven't said exactly what the books are about, but of course if you are responsible for reprinting them you will want to check that there is nothing libellous or any problems with someone else's copyright.

Richard53

Thanks for all the suggestions, much appreciated.

I can see I will have to be more specific They are books of very young children's poetry, collected in the 60s/70s and published at the time. I have no idea how popular they were or how many were sold, but I know that my 'aunt' was incredibly proud of them and felt that children's poetry deserved a wider audience. In some ways, she was ahead of her time. But now I say that, you can probably see how limited I imagine the interest would be today.

Another complicating factor is that she lived in a part of the UK that I have never lived in, although visited frequently, and it's about 400 miles from where I live now, so I have virtually no local knowledge or contacts. I visited there a lot as a child, but once I was an adult it was probably every 10 years or so. She had very little family otherwise, and I had an English degree, so I think she asked me as the most obvious available person.

I can see a plan forming. I'l discuss it with the publishers first, of course, to get the bottom line on copyright issues. After that, I will see if I can get a copy of each of the anthologies and 1) transcribe them as text, and 2) scan the pages as images, and then put the two together and publish using the blogging platform that I use for my blog. There are a few weeks of fairly pleasant work there, and no cost to me other than my time. I'll make sure I get the lady's name and the book titles nice and prominent so that they can be found by search engines, and leave a contact address on the site for anyone who wishes to pursue an interest further. Something may come of it, or nothing; but I will feel I have done what I promised to do.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. Very helpful in clarifying things for me.

Mojisola

Your plan sounds good.

I would also contact the primary schools that were local to her. They might like to use the local connection to encourage their children to write poetry.