Brighter Books Publishing House

Pieces of the website are working but not the entire thing. Looks okay so far.

I'd like to know about their Living Book Project (here) but that's one of the areas not yet finished.

I'm not sure if Brighter Books is still in business-no web/Twitter/face book updates in a month. Authors getting no replies to e-mails- only one book out, second due in July VERY behind schedule. Do authors have any recourse? How does one findout if a publisher has folded?

Domino said:

I'm not sure if Brighter Books is still in business-no web/Twitter/face book updates in a month. Authors getting no replies to e-mails- only one book out, second due in July VERY behind schedule. Do authors have any recourse? How does one findout if a publisher has folded?

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Domino, are you one of their authors? I had a contract a while back with a different small press (I didn't sign) but the contract had a clause of something like "if book is not published by such-and-such a date rights automatically revert back to the author."
Does your contract have that clause?

Their website has a nice front page, but the rest is not that great and when I went to their twitter account it seems they were posting many times a day and then abruptly ended. Same goes for their blog. I would say all signs point to trouble.

If you're one of the authors and you're not getting replies to emails, that would be really anoying and honestly rather frightening.

Yes, I am one of several, who have contacted each other through twitter. I do have that clause- but it is two years from date contract is signed, which means my manuscript will be sitting collecting dust for awhile UNLESS I can prove they've filled bankruptcy, in which case the contract then states the rights revert to me immediately. Problem is- no one knows what steps to take next.

Domino said:

Yes, I am one of several, who have contacted each other through twitter. I do have that clause- but it is two years from date contract is signed, which means my manuscript will be sitting collecting dust for awhile UNLESS I can prove they've filled bankruptcy, in which case the contract then states the rights revert to me immediately. Problem is- no one knows what steps to take next.

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That sucks. And the publisher won't return your emails? Going bankrupt is one thing, but it's another if the publisher is just closing up shop. I assume you've all emailed and been ignored. Perhaps it's time to send a letter requesting your rights be returned. They might do that. A small POD publisher shouldn't have a ton of creditors that would bankrupt them. Might want to contact Victoria at Writer Beware.

Good luck. It makes me sick when this kind of thing happens to authors. hopefully it's just time you've lost and not opportunity.

EDIT: I just looked back at the twitter account on Brighter Books, and in April they seemed to be saying that more books were coming out. I guess it's only been one month since their last tweet. How long has it been since you've heard anything from them?

Hey, it's summer. Any chance the BB folk are on vacation?

I still hope is something like that. But one author was promised ARCs in April and is getting no reponse to e-mails. I guess just a little communication would be nice. All the authors-including the two who have books out with them are "worried"-and have not heard from them. Hard to promote/do appearances when you can't pass out accurate release info...

That is really unfortunate. Delay's happen, but if a publisher tells you something, like your release date is April, and they don't say anything to you about being delayed as the days tick by past April, May, and June, then that's a problem.