In Episode 16 of the WritersWeekly Podcast, titled When An Author Dies, The Vultures Will Rise, Brian and I share several egregious stories we’ve encountered over the years where the wrong people have tried to get control of a deceased author’s rights and royalties. The episode not only mentions immediate and extended family members, but also an editor and, in another case, an “author rep” who tried to hoodwink authors before they died. How did they do that? I caught both of them when it was happening! We even include some examples of what happened after some famous authors died.

Today, I’m sharing a case that I didn’t mention in the episode. Honestly, it slipped my mind. Since it involved the most money, I’m not sure how that happened (I am blonde, after all). Here it is.

A BookLocker author, who had earned more than $200K in royalties, passed unexpectedly. His wife contacted me. She and I had corresponded before.

You’d think his will and trust would have protected his widow from the wolves, right? Nope! There was a lot of money at stake! Soon after his passing, she told me that she’d been sued by extended relatives who thought they, not she, were entitled to his royalties and copyrights.

She did end up winning in the end but she had to spend thousands in legal fees just to have a court award her what her husband had legally left to her all along.

Sadly, there is no shortage of slimy lawyers who will file frivolous lawsuits on a contingency basis when hundreds of thousands in future income are potentially at stake for the plaintiffs.

If you want to do what you can now to protect your rightful heirs from a similar situation, please listen to Episode 16 of the WritersWeekly podcast.

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