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Reviews University Press of America, Inc.

University Press of America, Inc. Reviews (4)

19 August 2014
Dear [redacted],As I indicated in my initial response on August 1, [redacted] signed a contract with University Press of America in November 1999. In that contract, he agreed to the following:Author shall grant to the Publisher during the term of the United States copyright, and during any renewal or extension thereof, the exclusive right, in the English language, to print, publish and sell, including the right to permit others to publish and sell, the Work in book form.He signed that contract willingly, and now he is asking that we ignore the terms of the contract and return the rights to him. We are not willing to do that, because we are still selling copies of the book. Reverting the rights to him would prevent us from selling the remaining stock of the book. As I stated in my initial response, UPA has not defaulted on the terms of the contract and we are not straying from normal industry practice in refusing to revert rights.In the author's response that you forwarded to me on August 13, he indicates that I told him via email that we "ceased to aggressively pursue the sale of this book because it was published several years ago. The publisher's claim in this regard [that we are still selling the book] is therefore inaccurate." In this case [redacted] is confusing the active marketing of a book with the selling of a book. We actively market books—listing them in print catalogs that we mail to academic libraries and professors, displaying books at conferences, sending review copies to journals—for the first 23 years of a book's life. After that we move to more passive forms of marketing, including listing the book on our website and those of [redacted] and other online retailers, including the book in our backlist sales, and so on. That is standard industry practice. If we actively market everybook in perpetuity our catalogs would be enormous and too costly to produce or mail. But the fact that we no longer include [redacted]'s book in our catalogs does not give him the right to demand that we break the terms of the contract and return rights to him.We will continue to offer [redacted]'s book for sale, making it available to scholars and others who are interested in the topic via our website, [redacted] and [redacted] websites, and other online retailers. Again, we are behaving just as every other academic publisher (and trade publishers too, for that matter) would, continuing to keep a book in print as long as it is still selling, even in small numbers. I'm sorry that [redacted] is unhappy with UPA and felt that it was necessary to bring in a third party. UPA has a longstanding reputation of being an author-friendly publishing house, and we have many repeat authors because they have enjoyed working with us and have been happy with our results in marketing and selling their books. I encourage [redacted] to contact me directly if he has any questions about his book's sales, the marketing that was done, or anything else.Sincerely,Julie *. K[redacted] Vice President/Publisher

8 August 2014
Dear [redacted],We received your letter concerning complaint number [redacted] filed against University Press of America with your office, and as requested we are responding to this complaint.We have met the terms of the contract that the author signed with us. We have...

not in any way defaulted on the terms of the contract or strayed from normal industry practice. Most book contracts signed in the United States are for the life of the copyright of the book. This author's book is still selling so we do not want to revert the rights to him while we still have unsold stock, nor are we obligated to do so under the terms of the contract or industry standards. We did offer to revert rights to him if he agreed to purchase the unsold stock at a discounted price (a reasonable and fair offer, since reverting rights to him would deprive us of the ability to sell that stock), but he declined Our offer.Sincerely,Julie *. K[redacted] Vice President/Publisher

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
I have read
Julie K[redacted]'s response, which, as is typical, is laced with formal, legal
jargon that fails to address the fundamental issues I raised in my initial
complaint, which is that University Press of America has ceased to make the
marketing of my book a priority, is no longer benefiting commercially
from the book and is subsequently serving no beneficial purpose to me, the
writer. Returning full rights of the book to me would absolutely not affect
this publisher adversely, would allow the publisher to focus on works that they
consider more enterprising and would allow me the opportunity to seek other
options regarding the text.
K[redacted]'s
attempt at making a sweeping difference between "marketing" and
"selling" is as humorous as it is deceptive, and another attempt on
her part to avoid salient issues here. If such a distinction exists, it is
marginal at best, and not deserving of the type of disparity that K[redacted] has
tried to proffer. This is just another attempt on her part to use what she
considers business (publishing?) expression to confuse issues here.
K[redacted] again
goes into some long explanation of the agreement I have signed with the
publisher, whereas she should understand that contracts are subject to
interpretation and in situations like mine a review of certain items may be
necessary (especially after 14 years) to do what is viable for both publisher
and writer. Interestingly, but to be expected with K[redacted], she is very
selective in her interpretations of the contract and carefully avoids commenting
on the fact that University Press of America has never reported to me the
number of my books sold, the profits made and the fact that in 14 years I have
not received a cent from this publisher. If, as she mentions, the publisher is
involved in a more "passive" sale of my book, where is information to
this effect – number of books sold and money realized? If this practice is not
illegal, it should at least be morally wrong and certainly violates a
partnership that is obligated to give timely financial updates.
K[redacted] is wrong
in her claims of standard industry practice. First, the rights to my late
father's book have been reverted to me twice by publishers that deemed such a
decision practical based on the circumstances at the time. Second, her claim
that a passive marketing of a book after 2-3 years is standard practice is
simply false. No such rule or philosophy exists in the publishing industry.
K[redacted] must be unfamiliar with the policies of other publishers.
I don't know
what other experiences writers are having or have had with this publisher, but
K[redacted]'s claim that this is a company with a longstanding history of being
author-friendly is subject to proof and certainly suspect by me. I have not
received friendliness, understanding or cooperation from University Press of
America.
Let me refer to K[redacted]'s
request that I contact her directly, which is quite condescending on
her part. You are the self-proclaimed, author-friendly publisher. Why are you
not making any effort to contact one of your authors? Why have I always been
the one to initiate conversation or interaction if you care so much about me?
Well, I am tired of doing that. You have my contact information and can contact
me if you truly want to. Meanwhile, if need be, I will consider seeking other channels to address this matter.
Regards,
[redacted]

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The publisher, University Press of America, has carefully ignored certain salient points and has also distorted information to a certain extent. 
1) While they claim that they are still selling the book, the information given to me by the publisher through email, which I have saved and which I referred to in my initial complaint, is that they have ceased to aggressively pursue the sale of this book because it was published several years ago. The publisher's claim in this regard is therefore inaccurate.
2) In my last correspondence with the publisher, which I also have saved, the publisher claimed that they could attempt to facilitate the sale of the books in order to sell what they have left on their shelf and, that way, would consider reverting full rights to me. That the publisher is now referring to an offer to have me buy the books, which I rejected, is therefore unfair and a misrepresentation of information. I don't trade in books and it would therefore be of no value to me to buy the books. The publisher, on the other hand, would be the prime beneficiary of such an agreement. 
3) If the publisher is rigid about our contract and maintains that they have unlimited rights to the book, why are they willing to give up this right only after they make money off of me (by selling the remaining books to me)?
3) University Press of America refuses to communicate with me regarding this text, and only does so when I make an effort to communicate. To date, for instance, this publisher has failed to provide comprehensive account of the number of books sold and money earned. For this reason, and in spite of what the publisher claims, there is grounds for making a case of duplicity against them, if not a default on our contract. Let me add that in 14 years this publisher has not paid a cent to me even as they withhold information on money made from this book.
4) Again, I am appealing to this publisher to do what is right and reasonable at this point, rather than defer to legalistic language that serves no meaningful purpose. University Press of America is no longer making any concrete effort to sell this book (as stated in their correspondence with me). They are not profiting from holding on to the rights of the book and I am not profiting from their apathy. From a commercial and rational standpoint, it is only fair that this publisher revert full rights of the book to me and concentrate on texts that they find more vial from a business standpoint. It is therefore my hope that this matter is resolved peacefully at this level. 
Regards,
[redacted]

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