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Ebook Novel Copyright Question

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roamply

Junior Member
I am author of a novel I published through an ebook publisher several years ago. They acquired an ISBN, copyright, and placed it on Amazon and a couple of other ebook sites. They only sold one copy. Under terms of the contract, I cancelled the agreement and have retained the rights to the book. Since my book has been published before, it makes it much more difficult to find a new publisher.

What if I just change the title and a few names in the novel and offer it as an unpublished title? How legal would that be?

Thanks for any advice.
 


quincy

Senior Member
I am author of a novel I published through an ebook publisher several years ago. They acquired an ISBN, copyright, and placed it on Amazon and a couple of other ebook sites. They only sold one copy. Under terms of the contract, I cancelled the agreement and have retained the rights to the book. Since my book has been published before, it makes it much more difficult to find a new publisher.

What if I just change the title and a few names in the novel and offer it as an unpublished title? How legal would that be?

Thanks for any advice.
The answer to your question depends on what sort of agreement you had with the original publisher (do you share the copyrights in the work, for instance?) and your country.

I am not sure I understand your comment about the ebook publisher "acquiring a copyright." Do you mean your book's copyright was registered? If so, under whose name was it registered and where?

Works are automatically copyrighted upon creation (once an idea is fixed in a tangible form). No registration is needed for the work to be copyright protected.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Subsidy publishing (vanity press) is the parasite on the publishing industry. It was bad enough when they bilked people out and actually did some work. Now, they do nothing that you couldn't easily have done for yourself. Most likely they didn't retain any rights, they make their money by ripping you off for the fees when they "published your book." You should review your contract however as Quincy says.
 

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