Andrew Rosenheim talked to Nicola Solomon
Published in The Author, summer 2011
Nicola Solomon joined the Society as General Secretary in March, following Mark Le Fanu’s retirement after 29 years in the post. She is a solicitor with more than 25 years’ experience in intellectual property issues.
AR: As the external solicitor for the Society, you already knew the organisation as well as anyone outside it. But now that you’re ‘inside the tent’, have you found your view of it changing?
NS: Yes, very much so; it’s very different from the Society I knew outside. What I dealt with were legal problems – often quite complex ones. I had some slight involvement with campaigning issues regarding indemnity and warranty clauses in contracts, but nothing to do with the other campaigns or with the members assisting with them. And nothing to do with our prizes, our estates work, the Authors’ Foundation or The Author. I’d met some of the staff but not all of them, though I am spending a lot of time getting to know them now.
The range of the job is a bit daunting, but the great thing is that I’ve joined a wonderful organisation – and one that is already working very well. I haven’t been brought in to save a sinking ship – the Society is remarkably buoyant.
So no changes to existing practice?
Oh, there will be changes – I think there are a lot of things we can be doing. I’d like our website to be more approachable, and we should see results soon. I’d like to strengthen links to other organisations – the Association of Authors’ Agents, ALCS, the Writers’ Guild, and PEN for example. I want to negotiate digital payments with the BBC; they are likely to be very important in future to our members, especially those in the Broadcasting Group. And I’d like the Society to be more involved in campaigns such as libraries and libel reform.
How do you think the Society is perceived by the outside world?
A lot of people don’t know anything about it; or if they do, they often don’t really know what the Society does. I think our greatest strength is the help we give to individual members; to my mind we do that brilliantly. What we’re a little less good at is projecting our role, and explaining why it’s so important.
What are likely to be the greatest challenges facing you and the Society?
I’d divide them into internal and external. Internally, the key issue is how members interact with the Society. Membership isn’t a closed shop, and we can’t expect people to join simply out of loyalty. One thing I think we can provide is a greater sense of community, including some of it by virtual means – like Twitter and social networks. I’d like the SoA to be more of a hub, both socially and professionally.
Externally, I think there are huge financial and organisational pressures on writers being brought about by digitisation. I think authors are well placed, however, since I firmly believe consumers will continue to want quality content. The Society has a role to play in making sure members’ writing is well positioned
(and well rewarded) in all the platforms, networks and applications that are springing up.
How much are these challenges legal ones?
If by ‘legal’ you mean copyright, I see it – and protecting it – as essential. Copyright law provides the framework for everything we do. I don’t think that’s going to change, though it’s certainly true that generally the law is having to play catch-up with digital events which existing legislation was never intended to deal with.
What will be different is the role international law will play – and the need for us to keep up with legal developments abroad. The Google Book Settlement would have had great impact on British writers even though it was drafted (and then thrown out) under American law; in future I think more and more countries are likely to have a say on developments that have local British effects.
Talk about copyright inevitably leads to talk about copyright protection. How big an issue is this in the digital age?
How big a problem will piracy be? It’s hard to tell. Downloading ebooks illegally is not only possible – it’s already going on. But I’m an optimist, and I believe on the whole people want to have legitimate copies of books – digital or print – and will pay for them if the price seems fair. In the music industry, there was a perceived unfairness in the pricing structure. Interestingly, the new head of the Publishers Association has a music background, so I hope we can avoid in the book industry what happened in
music.
One of the eventual solutions was the growth of micropayment systems for downloaded songs, and I think that is likely to come to the book world as well – especially for those books which people only want to consult rather than read in their entirety. Everyone thinks about fiction when they discuss digital developments, but academic books, non-fiction, reference – they are important too, and are well-suited for micropayments.
Do you see the Society operating in the same fashion in ten years’ time?
Absolutely. What we’re here for is to further the interests and protect the rights of authors, and we will do that in whatever way is needed – advising on contracts and tax, chasing publishers for payment, campaigning more broadly about the issues of the day. We have an exceptionally able staff here – and thus a resource of industry knowledge – that will always be of value.
So are you sanguine about the future, concerned, or just plain scared?
I’m very upbeat. I think authors are in a brilliant position and the Society well placed to help them. We have to confront the digital revolution face on, and times may well be turbulent for a while, but there is such a strong cultural heritage in this country that I cannot conceive of writing and writers playing a lesser role.
You’re enjoying the job then?
Immensely. Except for the days when I can’t get everything done…