John Locke, who writes the Donovan Creed thriller books, has made a small fortune selling ebooks himself. Now he’s signed with the publisher Simon & Schuster and will no doubt find an even larger readership. But while writers usually face crappy terms when it comes to their ebook rights — 25% is the norm — Locke has managed to retain all his ebook rights. He will continue to sell ebooks himself while S&S handles the print side.

This is the first situation I know of where an author has managed to keep ebook rights when signing with one of the big publishing houses. It just shows that publishers need to think about each book and writer on their own terms. Interesting times.