Chippewa Publishing / Lady Aibell Press

They could just be closed to submissions...

Dear Author has just posted the news.

Havlen, when I posted, several places which all referred back to a post on Romance Divas copying a letter allegedly sent from Chippewa to an author. Dear Author has now posted it as well, although I don't know where Jane picked it up from.

Beat me to it, Julie. I just heard they released a press release.

Sad, they really seemed to fill a niche.

It is utterly official. As stated at RD, the message was sent to (some of) their authors including myself.

Yes, chiming in that it's official -- I have a book with Chippewa, and I got the email, too.

did these guys close down?

If an e-pub goes under, to the authors automatically get their rights back?

Yes they went down, and no--your rights revert only after the term specified in the contract.

veinglory said:

Yes they went down, and no--your rights revert only after the term specified in the contract.

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If the publisher has folded they are considered to no longer exist, so the contract should be considered null and void. No longer having a website nor any method or intention of selling books puts them in breech and also nullifies the contract since the intent of a publishing contract is to sell books. Even without an individual reversion of rights, it was stated publicly that the company was closed so that also covers your reversion of rights.

I sought and received legal advice for a similar situation with another publisher and this is what the lawyer told me and that publisher closed without making any public statements they were doing so.

The thing is, the company vanished and evenetually became non-responsive. It cannot be assumed to no longer exist in any form IMHO. I doubt they would cause any trouble but there would seem to be some risk to assuming that.

You'll want legal advice for your particular situation. There's no way around it.

veinglory said:

The thing is, the company vanished and evenetually became non-responsive. It cannot be assumed to no longer exist in any form IMHO. I doubt they would cause any trouble but there would seem to be some risk to assuming that.

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That's only partially true. A good portion of former Chippewa authors (myself unfortunately included) did get reversion of rights letters before the owner ceased responding and disappeared (I hear she's reinvented herself and is infecting the horror genre now under a pseudonym). I'm unsure how many, if any, authors never got reversion letters. I hounded the woman daily once it was announced they were closing, which I believe is the only reason I ever got the letter. I'm sure there are some who never got letters and I have no idea what the legal ramifications of that might be were they to try to sell the MS elsewhere.

In my case, thank goodness I did email and demand a reversion every single day until Rebecca finally sent one a couple months after the closure announcement, because the MS in question went on to sell to EC and still does well there for me.