Republishing an out of print book?

hopeful said:

Is a POD press like Unlimited Publishing (a publisher that claims one of its specialities is republishing out of print books): an okay route to take? Any thoughts?

I should add that the print rights have reverted back to me, and the reason that the book went out of print is that the small publishing company went out of business.

Also, even though the print rights have reverted back to me, the electronic rights have not, as it is still available in e-book form on fictionwise.com. I don't know whether or not that has any bearing on on my being able to get the print version back into print.

Any advice (pro and/or con) is much appreciated.

Thanks!

-hopeful

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Strange company. I personally would shy away.

Here is an excerpt from their site.


A: For previously published books with documented appeal to readers, authors pay no fees of any kind. In other cases, UP's fee is $500 plus book design cost. Book design fees for manuscripts submitted as a single, simple file in a common format typically cost about $395, including both cover design and professional typesetting of the text. If the book isn't "typical," you will receive a firm quote before signing or sending payment.


Basically the way I read this is unless you had a terribly successful selling book, you will pay a fee. If I'm wrong, you can bet someone will come along and correct me.

It might be more efficient to change the focus of your search. Decide which publishing houses would most likely publish your work if it weren't a second edition. Then research to see if they ever do second editions.

If your work is fiction, you'd probably be better off putting your energy into writing a new novel. But non-fiction could have potential, especially if you're an expert in a specialized niche with little in the way of competing titles.

Books of a scholarly, reference, or technical nature often go into second editions and beyond, as the nature of the work requires they be continually updated.

FWIW, Unlimited Publishing's founder and current head used to be with 1st Books. Not an association that I'd consider sterling.

Try to find an agent who sells similar books to represent this one for you. My agent has resold a few of my OOP titles to a small press.

Be working on another book as well.

And NEVER pay to get REpublished.

This could be a case for using Print on Demand, so long as it doesn't cost you anything.

hopeful said:

Is a POD press like Unlimited Publishing (a publisher that claims one of its specialities is republishing out of print books): an okay route to take? Any thoughts?l

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I'm coming in really late on this, not even sure if you're still watching this, but UP no longer offers 'for fee' services'. It's all contract - no fee.
So did you publish with them?