The Word Cloud

Since my termination of the Agreement with my publisher half a year elapsed and my book is still being issued and traded in as a paperback and e-book by various Internet booksellers (including Google and Amazons) despite their assurances of withdrawal of my book in both formats. Their practices cross all boundaries of decency. They violate my intellectual property and law at the same time. Some Internet booksellers trade openly in my book. Some of them use various circumvents to enable to order it. In some cases there are used various tricks to create appearance that one have to do with another book. I have intervened in the Society of Authors but they seem to be completely helpless. Does anyone know where I could get assistance in this matter?

What language is your book published in, WH? Is English not your first language? It is a little hard to take seriously an apparenly 101 year-old with a dish-mop for a wig, who declares himself to be a self-published author and yet talks about an Agreement with his publisher.

Well, firstly my books are in English (BE), no matter which language is my first one. Secondly, there has crept a mistake in my age, I tried to enter a proper year but I couldn't make correction. It looks like a fault in the software. Thirdly, it's just my avatar. Do you think I have to look grave. BTW you have a parrot on your arm. I could support my post with dozens of links but don't know if it was not infringement of rules of this forum.

Yes, the Cloud does sometimes play tricks with ages, right enough.

It's OK to post a link or two. And, of course, you can have whatever you want for your avatar. So that's not you, then? (My pic is me. Not the parrot - I'm the other one!)

It was just that your post was - unusual - particularly as a first post. And it gave little detail and contained information that conflicted with your profile. You'd need to tell us a bit more if anyone is going to be able to offer any advice.

Hi WH, you may have to wait a bit for someone with the expertise in this area to have a moment to respond. One of the cool people of the Cloud will answer you - it's just a matter of waiting.

Um Tony, are you aware of how you sounded in your first post?

Winged Hippo, you could try asking the Society of Authors about this, although I'm not sure how much help they can be if you're not a member.

There is a real problem when publishers go bust, and they usually only do so after months of muddle - including things like not getting round to doing what you asked them.

But if a publisher goes bust the rights in your work revert straight to you, so you could get in touch with the booksellers direct, and try to find out what's going on.

Another thing to find out is what happens to any stock of physical books that the publisher holds. The legal ownership of them can be tricky - do they belong to you as the copyright holder, or are the one of the assets of the liquidated company? Often the liquidator is happy to sell the copies to you for peanuts, though. I'm not sure how it works with e-books, though, since there's considerable outlay in them, but only digital files.

http://www.societyofauthors.org/

Sorry, missed you saying that you've asked the Society of Authors and they can't help.

It sounds to me as if you need to get in touch with the liquidator and find out what's going on. Is the company still being run by someone, or has it ceased trading?

If the Society of Authors can't help directly, can they put you onto a lawyer with experience of publishing contracts? It is a genuinely difficult position, and would depend on the terms and conditions in the booksellers' agreements with the publisher, as well as your contract with the publisher.

If you can sort out the legal position, then you should be able to get in touch with anyone selling the book and ask for it to be withdrawn. Although if they've bought the books, then they might expect to be refunded.

I see from the links that you are an economist whose hobby is cosmology, the subject of your books. I don't know if you have come across the writings of a neighbour of mine, Robert Beck, who is a retired town planner whose hobby is cosmology. He, too, has many thoughts about a Theory of Everything, drawing much on String Theory and, in particular on Spin. I'm not in any way endorsing his work, but if it might be of interest to you he has a website here:

http://www.einsteins-revolution.com/index.html .

I believe he discusses his theories fully in Chapter 17 of his autobiography, which is on the site.

I hope Emma's advice can help you to sort out the problems with your own book.

http://www.societyofauthors.org/

Thanks. I am a meber of SoA.

Sorry, missed you saying that you've asked the Society of Authors and they can't help.

It sounds to me as if you need to get in touch with the liquidator and find out what's going on. Is the company still being run by someone, or has it ceased trading?

If the Society of Authors can't help directly, can they put you onto a lawyer with experience of publishing contracts? It is a genuinely difficult position, and would depend on the terms and conditions in the booksellers' agreements with the publisher, as well as your contract with the publisher.

If you can sort out the legal position, then you should be able to get in touch with anyone selling the book and ask for it to be withdrawn. Although if they've bought the books, then they might expect to be refunded.

Thank you for your advices. As to liquidator (it refers to my first book) I don't know if I can terminate agreement with them. The publisher ceased trading.

As to my second book, the Internet booksellers are changing and in addition to that it's practically impossible to get in touch with them if you don't place an order. If you are happy enough and manage to contact them you will be happy again to receive any answer. I'll have to contact the SoA regarding legal steps, however it seems rather costly. I tried the way “no win no fee” lawyers but they ignored my correspondece.

I see from the links that you are an economist whose hobby is cosmology, the subject of your books. I don't know if you have come across the writings of a neighbour of mine, Robert Beck, who is a retired town planner whose hobby is cosmology. He, too, has many thoughts about a Theory of Everything, drawing much on String Theory and, in particular on Spin. I'm not in any way endorsing his work, but if it might be of interest to you he has a website here:

http://www.einsteins-revolution.com/index.html .

I believe he discusses his theories fully in Chapter 17 of his autobiography, which is on the site.

I hope Emma's advice can help you to sort out the problems with your own book.

Thank you for your information. I will no doubt familiarize with the linked website.