Literary executor - duties?

Richard53

Good idea. There's (how shall I say) one school in particular that might be very interested, although I imagine they might already have the originals ...

Thank you for the idea. Added to the mix.

Seanymph

perhaps make them available on Amazon as e books?

Richard53

Hmmm. I know someone who does this, and it seems quite easy and problem-free. Another possibility, thank you.

Goldiegirl

Seanymph wrote: »

perhaps make them available on Amazon as e books?

I was thinking something similar - but a Kindle book.

Also, I think there's something called Googlebooks, where books are put on line. I found a fantastic local history book, published in the 1860's, which really helped with my family history research.

Frith

My mum was literary executor for my granddad. He wrote about 20 university chemistry textbooks.

I know she was guided by his publishers and for a while received a small payout each year. I guess they are all out of print by now (he died in 1979).

Interesting ideas in this thread.

Errata

Richard53 wrote: »

Hmmm. I know someone who does this, and it seems quite easy and problem-free. Another possibility, thank you.

As you state the books are anathologies I'm assuming the woman didn't write the poems, merely had them published in a book as a collection of poetry. If that's the case your first step must be discussion with the publishers to clarify copyright and other matters. The publisher may not wish to be connected with a 'home made' copy, electronic or otherwise, of books they published.

tyllwyd

Richard53 wrote: »

... They are books of very young children's poetry, collected in the 60s/70s and published at the time. ...

Is there any information about the children's names, or where they were from? I can imagine that it would make a good local interest story on the news or newspapers, because the people who had poems published might love to see them again, and have something to show their kids/grandkids.

Richard53

Errata wrote: »

As you state the books are anathologies I'm assuming the woman didn't write the poems, merely had them published in a book as a collection of poetry. If that's the case your first step must be discussion with the publishers to clarify copyright and other matters. The publisher may not wish to be connected with a 'home made' copy, electronic or otherwise, of books they published.

As I said above, the publisher will be my first port of call, to make sure I am not contravening any copyright issues. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the books will have been out of print for a long time, and perhaps that will mean they are less concerned. We shall see.

tyllwyd wrote: »

Is there any information about the children's names, or where they were from? I can imagine that it would make a good local interest story on the news or newspapers, because the people who had poems published might love to see them again, and have something to show their kids/grandkids.

I seem to remember that the poems were all printed with the child's name, so that may be something to bear in mind. The writers will all be in their 50s now, an age when we all get a bit nostalgic Good call.