GOOD NEWS...OR SHOULD I REMAIN CAUTIOUS?
PA has heard nothing from me for at least four years. Out of the blue, and with no prompting, I received this email from them this pm:
"Dear Neil Larkins:
Your contract with PublishAmerica for The Key and the Crest will soon expire. If you would like for the contract to be renewed for another seven years on the same terms and conditions as specified in the original contract, please send a signed response in reply to this e-mail indicating your assent to renewal. Your typewritten name at the end of your reply e-mail will suffice as your signature. If you do not reply, the contract will expire, all rights will revert to you, and your book will be out of print.
Have a good day,
PublishAmerica Support"
I feel I should let this stand as is. Since they regard a signed reply, an extension of the original, as sufficient to renew the contract, that is, an official document in and of itself, I should regard this email as the same on my part. Since it came from Publish America and is signed by the support group, though no one in particular, it is an official document promising to allow all rights to revert to me when the contract now in effect expires next year (March, if I remember correctly). I do not think I need a more "official" pronouncement than this, though I am fully aware that others have experienced unfulfilled promises from PA emails. This is about the most clearly worded thing I have ever seen from them. It's pretty straight forward.
Any thoughts from the Peanut Gallery?
Neil