Heartbreak for Harlequin authors as judge tosses e-book case

Harlequin Romance has prevailed in a class action suit brought by three authors who accuse the book publisher of depriving writers who published books between 1990 and 2004 of their fair share of e-book revenue.

A New York federal judge threw out the authors claim that Harlequin had used a corporate sleight-of-hand to pay them 3-4% of e-book royalties instead of the 50% they believed they were due. The case, which turned on technical questions of law, is an example of the collisions that can arise as a result of book contracts signed in an age that pre-dated the current boom in e-books. In a four-page decision, the New York court declined to consider the authors’ arguments that “third party publishers” were alter-egos for Harlequin. Instead, the court relied on a narrow interpretation of contract law to dismiss the claim. The decision is very brief and contains an unusual footnote stating that the judge’s clerk, a second-year law student, had largely researched and drafted the opinion (clerks often help with such tasks but judges rarely acknowledge this).