In which we seek council...

[jesshartley]

Okay, writer folks and legaleze speakers, I need your help...

Some years ago, I got my foot in the door as a writer doing articles for, among other things, School Planning and Management Magazine and other education journals. Three years ago (almost to the day) I was out "ego-surfing" (putting my name into Google to see what came up) and found an article I'd submitted to SPM but had been told was going to have to be put on hold and had never been picked back up. It was being offered for sale by Northern Lights, a kind of clearing house for magazine articles, and they referenced to it being published the year before by SPM.

I contacted SPM and they were very apologetic. The editor who put me on hold had handed the article along with some others over to the new editor when they left the company, and the new editor had gotten the impression the articles were "ready to print", where the old editor intended them to be followed up on (like paid for and such).

Mind you, no contracts were ever signed, everything was just done through email.

SPM paid me $500 for first publishing rights to the article (post-publishing) and that was basically the end of it.

Tonight, however, I find the article on sale at Amazon.com (creditted to me, through the company that owns SPM) for 5.95$.

WTF?

I wrote Amazon.com's general department for questions, but since it's... well, general questions, I don't have a great deal of confidence in this being the right way to handle the situation... I also wrote the two gentlemen at SPM who originally helped me and asked them what the heck was up...

Does anyone have any experience with such things? Advice? Insight?

Comments

[sgtjesse.livejournal.com]

If I were in this situation, I would speak to the a lawyer and ask their advice. There are a few lawyers out there who would give you some advice without asking for a fee upfront.

[deepabyss.livejournal.com]

If you keep copies of the stuff you write then you should be able to show proof that is your stuff and a lawyer is good to go to. I know to reference you to the copyright laws. Now I'm wondering if this has happened to me because I had some peoms that were put on hold and never published. I think I might look now.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

Talk to an agent. This seems right up their alley.

Now that you've been published, it seems like you could get someone to answer your calls in that regard, but I don't really know anything.

[secret-fire.livejournal.com]

Being a published author, it might be that your current publisher might take an interest in the matter. You could at least talk to the folks at WW, as they seem awfully interested in protecting their IP of late, and get some advice or input from them. Who knows, they might even lend you some legal assistance in the interests of keeping some of the best writers happy.

[eseme]

SFWA has a website devoted to writer fraud and copyright issues, called Writer beware:

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/