Royalties from the sales of a Scrabble dictionary are unlikely, a corporate spokesman clarified after a meeting of the World English-language Scrabble Players Association (Wespa) biannual general meeting in Mumbai, India, last week.
Herve Bohbot (France) said at the BGM that the French International Scrabble Federation published its own dictionary but Philip Nelkon, WSC organiser and Mattel promotions manager, subsequently pointed out that the French word reference is compiled by FISF but published by Larousse.
“It isn’t the FISF’s own publication as such,” Nelkon underlined, “as stated in the press communique of November 12.”
FISF earns 80,000 euros a year in royalties, and a player at the BGM suggested subsequently that Collins, the publisher of the Collins Scrabble Tournament and Club Word List, might consider a similar arrangement with Wespa.
Nelkon was misquoted in the November 12 article as saying the matter could be looked at or explored.
He clarifies that CSTCWL is a Collins dictionary, and Mattel would have no right to make any royalty arrangement on the publisher’s behalf.
In any case, should any Wespa member think that the association is likely to receive an equivalent amount, he said it should be pointed out that FISF gets a royalty on sales and that the French Official Scrabble Dictionary has always sold many times in number of the UK equivalent, whether published by Collins or Chambers.
