Monday, December 14, 2015

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Update to Spero Publishing Has Merged With Eternal Press and Damnation Books...

Well, I was hoping that getting my rights back to Alien Deceptions would be the end of it, but apparently not. So, here's the update, because as an author I think this is critically important for other authors.

I mentioned this before, but it's very very easy to take books down from distributors. I do it for a small e-publisher whenever one of their books completes its contract. A lot of authors don't know this and believe publishers when they say it takes a lot of time, but it doesn't. All you have to do is sign into your account and in most cases check a box or click on unpublish as is the case with Amazon to remove a book from distribution. In 99% of the times I've done this, the book is removed from distribution within 24 hours, usually no later than 48 hours. Even if you have multiple distributors we're talking 30 minutes at the most to do your part as a publisher.

That all being said, after two weeks went by and my books were still for sale at three different distributors, I sent out DMCA notices to two of the distributors. Since one is connected to Barnes and Noble, I decided to wait and see if it comes down there once it's removed for sale from Barnes and Noble.

Here's the thing, the book was for sale for half a year after the contract expired. Eternal Press had a lot of time to take that book down everywhere, I think I was more than generous in giving them that time. Especially considering they never did return the rights to me for Homecoming, I fought with Kim Richardson via e-mail for months and then just gave up and sent out the DMCA notices. I was trying to avoid that this time around. Unfortunately, things were not moving fast enough and I sent them out. The interesting thing is that once they came down from B&N they came down everywhere else. The main thing is that e-book versions are no longer available and I believe they are no longer available because I did send out the DMCA notices. Had I not, I know that the books would have remained for sale probably for months more, and I just wasn't willing to allow that.

The moral of this story is don't assume publishers are going to give you back the rights to your book in a timely fashion. Know your contract, read it and understand it before you sign anything. Once you do sign it, mark on a calendar or make a note somewhere you won't lose it for yourself that has when your contract is up. If your publisher hasn't contacted you within a reasonable amount of time, contact them, and request the rights back if you want the rights back. If you want to sign a new contract with the same publisher then suggest that. But don't allow your books to be sold once your contract has expired.

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