I’m pleased to see that the UK Society of Authors is pushing for a ‘use it or lose it’ clause, as is the case in France. This aims to combat the way that many publishers currently keep old works out-of-print, and cease to market an author — while refusing to give the rights back to the authors so the books can be self-published or issued in new editions.

A ‘reversion clause’ would apparently be inserted in contracts. So I guess there’s the option for publishers to offer that to their authors now, without waiting for legislation on the matter. Thus to differentiate themselves in the market, and make themselves more attractive to authors.