My POD publisher recently released an ebook version of my book without telling me. I only want a print version of my book available. What can I do?

There are whispers online that one of the largest POD publishers has been “surprising” authors by announcing they’ve now published electronic versions of some of those authors’ print books. We’ve heard from a few authors that they never gave permission to the POD publisher to do that and some feel the rock-bottom price the publisher has placed on their ebooks is hurting the print sales and, thus, their royalties.

Unfortunately, on reviewing their old contracts, some of these authors are learning that their POD publisher reserved the right to publish their book in other formats without first notifying the author. Of course, they did notify the author by including that clause in the contract. Further troubling is that some POD publishers are offering HUGE excerpts of those ebooks online for free (up to 90% of the book) without first obtaining permission from the authors.

This is just one example of why it’s imperative that authors take the time to read every contract, and to question specific clauses that might come back to bite them later.

Incidentally, at BookLocker.com, we never force print authors to offer an ebook edition if they don’t want to nor do we force ebook authors to offer a print edition. It’s the author’s book and they should have complete say over how their book is sold and, of course, in what format.

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