Monday, February 17, 2014

Question: option book at a MIA publishing company

Some years ago I published several non-fiction books under a pseudonym with a major publisher. Then I decided to “retire” and learn novel writing. To my utter and complete amazement they are not the same. (Who knew?)

The question is, my contract obliges me to give my old publisher right of first refusal on my next several books, which I am certainly ready to do. I want to honor all my obligations. But the publisher has cut off all communication. They ignore e-mail, so I sent a s-mail letter and it came back unopened, marked “Refused.”

I have a smoking and steaming pile of drivel here ready to submit. I am convinced this book will sell better than covered wagons at a NASCAR convention. But is it OK to proceed?


The editor I used to work with is dead from cancer, and the other people I used to know there have all moved to parts unknown due to the musical chairs nature of publishing. So there are no current inside contacts.



You've left out the key piece of information: are the non-fiction books still in print, and for sale? Are you receiving royalty statements?  If the answer is yes, then your contract is still in force.

Check your royalty statement for contact information and get in touch that way.

If you are NOT receiving royalty statements, make sure your books aren't for sale.  If they're selling your books and not giving you an accounting, you have a bigger problem than the option book.

The bottom line though is you need to send a registered letter to the publisher, and I mean the person who is the publisher, not the company, to start the option period ticking. If they have 60 days to respond, it's 60 days from receipt of your letter. If they reply, good. If they don't, you're clear.

Generally you can find this person and the correct address on the website under Legal Notices, or Contact us, maybe even the Press Releases page.  If you can't find it, email me with the particulars and I'll take a look too.

And I'm puzzled about how the option covers "next several books" rather than one, but I guess that's a tale for another night at the bar.

With all the mergers and acquisitions and general craziness in publishing in the last ten years, this problem is much more common than you think (and I like.)

8 comments:

Lance said...

The author didn't mention anything about an agent. Is this another example why it's good to have an agent?

Janet Reid said...

Lance, my opinion is that yes, that's another reason an agent can be valuable to a writer.

LynnRodz said...

Is there a piece missing here? It seems strange that a major publisher would refuse, for any reason, a letter from one of its authors.

Loretta Ross said...

Oddly enough and purely as a matter of coincidence, he has the same name as the mail clerk's stalkerish ex-wife. ;)

Janet Reid said...

Lynn, absent the right name or office number, they may be refusing all mail thinking it's a query or a submission. I don't know for sure, that's just a guess, but you'd be surprised how much mail comes to us here that's out of date.

Terri Lynn Coop said...

Another option is to go the state's business entity database and find out who the registered agent-of-service is and hit them with a copy of the registered letter as well. It is a good way to cover bases.

Terri

John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur said...

Sounds like the first chapter of a mystery cozy.

swedishfish said...

Several years ago I sent a ms to a small publisher. They accepted it, and I rejoiced. They sent a contract that asked for right of first refusal for 21 years. I questioned it and they got angry. I happened to have a connection to one of their authors, and she said if they don't like a book they demand you change it but won't officially reject it. I withdrew the ms and self-published. Though I didn't break any records with the self-pubbed sales, I did save myself a 21-year headache--especially as I have since written 2 books that I'm pretty sure they wouldn't like.