Through all the events and changes in my life over the past 20 years, I had completely forgotten the prior requests for reversion of the rights to that particular book. As early as 1992, even before the contractual term of five years from publication had been completed, my then-agent had been working on getting the rights reverted for a possible resale. Nothing happened. In 1994, I wrote to the agent who had sold Firefly to the ill-fated Pageant Books venture and asked him to seek reversion so I could republish the book. Nothing happened.
Last spring, when I started this whole new adventure, I also wrote to the agent of record and to Random House, the gobbler of Crown Publishers who had been Pageant, and still nothing happened. I got no response.
The terms of the contract do not permit the publisher simply to ignore the author for ever and ever. The requests were made and there being no response -- and certainly no reprinting -- on the part of the publisher, I considered my rights reverted.
Firefly is now live at Amazon.
Çongratulations on your accomplishment. I am constantly amazed at what a writer has to go through after the words "the end" have been typed to actually get those words in front of a reader.
ReplyDeletePublishing is currently in the biggest state of flux since the invention of movable type and as all the players power broker scheme for money and control I hope that someone sticks up for the storytellers and the readers. Sometimes I think we are lost in the shuffle.