this is the email they sent me when I told them to destroy my book. I never received any email from them but this one and the one earlier today saying they were sending me a copy of my published book.
L&R Hartley, PUBLISHERS
A reminder of what it says on our website:
"Manuscripts, once sent and if accepted form the kernel and substance of a legally binding contract, effective after a five-day cooling-off period. You will be advised by email if acceptance has taken place. It is important, therefore, that you keep your email address up-to-date and advise of any changes. Please also ensure that any anti-SPAM filters do not block emails from L&R Hartley. Where no email address is provided, advice is by airmail (or local mail) and the cooling-off period is extended to 21 days.
Unless your email address is current and functional we cannot be responsible if you are not advised of changes or updates.
Upon submitting a manuscript for beta publication we agree not to charge the author anything for publication and accept that the author will not exact any charges upon us.
What happens if an author changes his or her mind after the cooling-off period? We have already promised that we will not pressure the author to buy anything from us, and also that the author still holds intellectual property rights on the text of the manuscript and can therefore submit it to other publishers. If an author changes his or her mind after we have only just commenced work on the book but it is incomplete, we may choose to allow the book to be withdrawn without penalty. If extensive work has been done on we may request to be partially fiscally reimbursed for the work done thus far. Once the book is completed, it can only be withdrawn at the author’s request if we are partially fiscally reimbursed for the work done. Note that this is only a request for reimbursement, however if reimbursement is not made, then we have a legal right to reparations through the sale of copies of the publication. Although the costs of production, contracting artists and artisans, materials, administration, initial print-runs, advertising, etc. may run into several thousands of dollars, in order to provide advance notice, we have chosen that author liability will be limited to $2,000 per publication. If the book is withdrawn at our request (e.g. because of marketing competition with the same title by another publisher) we will neither require nor will we request reimbursement. If the book is withdrawn at our request because we have detected plagiarism we reserve the right to legal redress."