Cook Communication / Authorme.com / Reservebooks.com

Dunno what you mean by him paying them $15 for each book. He paid $15 for them to set it up for him, he pays them $15 for every book sold to a customer (reverse royalties for the win!), or the book costs $15 and that's what he has to pay to get a copy?

And, if he never signed a contract with them then I don't see how they could legally distribute the book.

Well, a tradeback costing more than $15 at the book store is a book you can't sell to the book buying public.

Regards,
Scott

Apparently, he was told it would not affect his sales.

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ISBN, no ISBN -- it probably won't affect his sales. Either way I expect they'll be "almost none," and those he does make will be face-to-face (where ISBNs don't matter).

A verbal contract is legally binding but difficult to prove. I won't speculate any further since it'd really need to come from a legal authority.

But I wouldn't think that it would need to come to that. If the guy publishes the books through Lulu then have your friend contact them and tell them that the publisher does not have the right to publish the book. I'd think that would be the best route to start with, and I imagine Lulu is pretty quick about resolving things involving copyright infringement.

brianm said:

I would think he's in need of legal counsel.

He allowed the book to be published in the first place and he's bought copies from the publisher. Telling Lulu Cook Communication doesn't have the right to publish the book, this late into the game, could land him in hot water, IMO.

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If there isn't any agreement as to what rights Cook Communications have then I would think they would be at the whim of the copyright holder. I'd think at the very least Lulu would contact Cook Communication and if they can't provide a written contract, I don't see Lulu keeping the book up there based on a verbal contract. Hell, they might take it down after being provided proof that he's the author under the idea that simply contacting Cook Communications would cost more money than they'll ever make with the book.

brianm said:

I would think he's in need of legal counsel.

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Truer Words and all'a that. This needs the touch of a professional in the field of IP, Copyright, and Publishing Law and Practices.
Unfortunately, I suspect that it will be far far easier to just chalk this book up to experience and move on. I doubt if pursuing this issue makes financial sense.

Better luck with his third.

Thanks for giving me a chance to explain what really happened here...

Hello everyone. I am sorry that I was not notified of this thread. (Well, at least I didn’t check my g-mail account - sorry!)

I serve Cook Communication Inc. as publisher, and I feel this writer has badly misrepresented us.

For example, don’t you find it strange that he omitted the fact that our “fee” is only 10% of profit on Lulu.com? That is 10% of profit, not price, so our “take" on one book would be 50 cents if lulu gave us a profit of $5.00 on one sale. Nor did he mention that the few dollars he paid me for books were direct reimbursements, dollar for dollar, for my cost to have lulu print and mail copies to him. All of this is documented. He knows this, but elected not to share it with you.

I will try to explain as best I can in this forum.

Author-me.com helps new writers publish their first articles, stories, or books, and every one of the thousands of writers we've served are grateful for the help. This writer, who agreed to have us publish a book he authored on Lulu, is not grateful. And I think we helped him, because soon after working with us he was able to place his book Miami Heat commercially, which does have higher market potential.

In fact, during the publishing process, he asked us to repeat the prepress process several times for one-word changes in the 408-page text, and, since we do this as a service, for free, I felt upset when he came back earlier this month and asked for still more free changes, and he wanted me to pay for an isbn number, even though he has done next to nothing to promote his book. (As I explained to him, an isbn number gets you into Books in Print, but not into a distributor, and most chain bookstores will only buy through one of the main distributors. Further, it is up to Print on Demand authors to promote their own book. I promised him to do certain promotions, which I did. Instead of promoting his book, he is now attacking me. Go figure!)

Now, he had agreed to publish the book as it was. But recently he said he wanted me to revise it again (for free, of course). As I explained to him, I had to do something to keep him from asking for unlimited free revisions, which are time consuming when you use professional page layout programs, so I posted rates on the page you have cited in this thread which did make us look bad, I suppose. I apologize for that. But please understand that I must do something to prevent my authors from requiring me to do unlimited revisions to their books. (After all, how many authors are allowed to do this after they have agreed to the publishing of their book, even once?) By charging for this service, I can prevent an author from asking for more and more and more. And, if he or she does, I will have some compensation.

It amazes me that someone you help get into print, when they couldn't on their own, is so ungrateful. We do not simply upload a Word file; we do design, indexing, and various prepress and design helps on the manuscripts we receive, and I believe we are justified in keeping 10% of profit. Is that so much, really? Why does he object. I wonder? Any author will tell you that 90% of profit is a really great deal, and he did agree to it.

So far we have never needed to charge for prepress work because everyone else is professional (and grateful) enough to appreciate the free work and advice we give them.

I don't know why there is so much concern over having a contract template here. A contract is an agreement, and we do secure an agreement from the writer before we help them with their manuscript. Since we only have a profit of 10%, there is hardly enough to pay for IP attorneys, etc., and I believe it is not fair to require new writers, who are often poor, to have to pay for such legal fees. Would anyone suggest that we have such a review and charge them $500 so we could pay a bevy of lawyers, and, if so, how would we be helping them?

Gosh, if you guys had any idea how much money and time I have donated to these writers and these websites, since 1999, there would be no question about who is being served, and who is being ungrateful. For many years I was paying $200 per month to EarthLink to run author-me.com. I have never made a profit on my activities. "Pay to play", sir, I am not. I spend several hours every weekend, plus several hours during the week, supporting the websites. I do not make money from it. Just ask my wife, who tolerates all of this!

I hope this will help to clarify the situation. I am certain that this person’s account has seriously misrepresented my help to him, and I hope this will not deter other publishers and websites from helping new writers.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

G'day Cook,

It sounds like a bit of a mess, doesn't it !?

The problems may stem from the way that you are doing this as a favour (and so not having a written agreement, not charging rates that would make it worthwhile) but other people are viewing it as a real business arrangement.

In a business arrangement, there isn't really such thing as 'grateful' or 'ungrateful'. When I change channels on the TV, I'm not being ungrateful for the entertainment that was offered on the channel previously - I'm just making a simple decision to jump to another ship.

So the author is doing the same thing - you've provided great value up until now, but now that you aren't continuing the updates, the author is making a simple business decision to go elsewhere. As a business, it is a natural thing to do.

I'm not sure I see the downside of a written agreement compared to a verbal agreement. With a written agreement, both sides know what the agreement was. With a verbal one, both sides will be convinced that they are in the right.

If you want to treat a verbal agreement as enforceable (such as not returning full rights on request) then how is it different? Because with a written agreement you'd need a lawyer? Why does that argument not apply for a verbal agreement?

If you want this to be a business, then you'll need to treat it like a business.

If it isn't a business, and you are just helping people as a hobby, then good on you ... but you'll need to make sure that your authors realise that is just a hobby, and you aren't being business-like in the way you approach your publishing.

Good luck - it's great to see people helping each other,

Mac

It's perfectly understandable not to keep making edits for free, but there is a big gaping hole in what you are saying: If you aren't in this to make money and just want to help authors then why wouldn't you give him a written letter releasing his book? The only reason you wouldn't do that is to make money (or out of spite).

But we have invested lots of time

Havlen said:

It's perfectly understandable not to keep making edits for free, but there is a big gaping hole in what you are saying: If you aren't in this to make money and just want to help authors then why wouldn't you give him a written letter releasing his book? The only reason you wouldn't do that is to make money (or out of spite).

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I see your point, Havlen. Actually, I simply feel that, after investing at least 60 hours in his project, I deserve the right to offer the work as part of the few selections we have produced so far. At least for a reasonable period of time.

Please remember, I have evidence of written agreements throughout this process. And he has misrepresented information about these agreements in coming to this public board, and I feel this is unfair. My mom always taught me to honor agreements!

The author knew it would be published on Lulu. The author had decided not to buy an isbn. Now, however, after requesting to buy one from me, he decided I should pay for it. Etc. etc.

Had he ever shown any respect in his dealings with me, my reaction may well have been different. Instead, his communications have been typical of the "flame" messages that get in the way when someone asks for technical support. And, as we all know, a "flame" message does not receive priority attention.

Also, at 10% of profit on just a few sales, it is hardly fair to conclude that I will make any money here. So far he has sold one copy on lulu for profit, and has received and accepted my payment of 90% of profit to him. My "profit" was less than fifty cents.

cookcomm said:

Actually, I simply feel that, after investing at least 60 hours in his project, I deserve the right to offer the work as part of the few selections we have produced so far. At least for a reasonable period of time.

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It doesn't matter if you 'deserve' to or not - the only question is if the author agreed in the contract that you could.

If not, then you don't have the right to do it - even if you deserve to.

Good luck,

Mac

Hi, cookcomm, and welcome to AW.

cookcomm:
I don't know why there is so much concern over having a contract template here. A contract is an agreement, and we do secure an agreement from the writer before we help them with their manuscript. Since we only have a profit of 10%, there is hardly enough to pay for IP attorneys, etc., and I believe it is not fair to require new writers, who are often poor, to have to pay for such legal fees. Would anyone suggest that we have such a review and charge them $500 so we could pay a bevy of lawyers, and, if so, how would we be helping them?

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Just to pick up on this - you don't have to pay a fortune in legal fees to come up with a standard form contract. Certainly in the UK, there are a number of template contract websites that offer free downloadable contracts that can be customised by parties and I would assume that the same is true in the US.

The whole purpose of having a written agreement is so that each party is clear from the outset as to what their respective rights and obligations are with regard to an enterprise and what happens in the event that one party decides that it wants to leave. A written contract could set out precisely how many free edits you're prepared to offer (if any), how remuneration is calculated and split between the parties, who takes responsibility for purchasing an ISBN and what (if any) obligations you take to promote the book.

Verbal contracts are binding, but they can be very difficult to prove - even if you do have written correspondence on particular points. In any event, it can be a false economy to try ans save money by not having a written contract if in the end you have to hire a lawyer to get out of something.

In addition - do any of the US posters here know whether contracts relating to IP have to be in writing? I know that under English law, exclusive licences of IP rights have to be in writing if they are to have effect, but don't know if this holds true in the US.

I appreciate that you do not see this as a money-maker, but if you're going to at least try to minimise your costs then a written, standard form contract would be in your best interests.

MM

MM,

We have a strong tradition of verbal contracts in the United States; however, the common wisdom is that is that a verbal contract is only worth the paper it is written on.

Most people come to grief when they think a verbal codicil to a written contract has any weight. The fact is that any written contract voids ALL verbal agreements.

That's how Publish America survives.

Regards,
Scott

Popeysays:
We have a strong tradition of verbal contracts in the United States; however, the common wisdom is that is that a verbal contract is only worth the paper it is written on.

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Yeah - we have that same common wisdom over here. Most of the case law on verbal contracts turns on evidentiary issues and if it's one person's word against another it can be tricky (to say the least!)

Most of the UK contracts that I deal with clearly state that any amendments have to be in writing and signed by the parties, although in some cases email correspondence has been used successfully to prove a variation based on verbal communication (i.e. a verbal amendment or variation can be binding if you've got the evidence to back it up).

I've been a lawyer for nigh on 10 years now and the idea of anyone entering into any kind of arrangement concerning money without getting it written down first just fills me with horror.

MM

I have deleted the "Publishing Services" pages you disliked

OK, I deleted the pages in my store relating to isbn and preprint. I only placed them there (2 weeks ago) to prevent the author from continuing to request them for free. I have never had a sale from them. Visitors to my store are very few.

Sorry about that. As you have may have neglected to consider in your judgment against me, I had to set a charge because the recipient of my free services kept on unabashedly asking for more.

Gosh, as long as you give the author a cloak of anonymity for some reason, I can't quote his "flame" e-mails, so I guess everyone has to take your word for it that he did not flame. If I were in tech support, I would take his last email as a flame, to be sure, and so would any supervisor. But then, I believe he has not given you all e-mails, and very likely he has not told you the truth about key things like money he paid to reimburse me for my expenses. So I certainly understand why it must be difficult for you to really know the truth. It seems very much like he is quoting me out of context, and perhaps you are accepting it.

Now, I do have to wonder why someone would give the complainer a cloak of anonymity and not even do fact-checking with me, even though my website is named, for I never received any communication from you directly. (I learned about this through an "alert" system that reports to me on my g-mail account.)

Further, in response to other comments in the thread, am I getting the impression that authors have rights but not publishers, and that whatever someone agrees to in an email doesn't mean anything? I'll have to try to explain that one to my mother under the topic - you don't have to do what you agree to. Or perhaps you do share my feeling that the situation is not so black-and-white as all that?

I have not yet made a determination on what to do about this client and his book. I am certainly willing to listen.

In summary, although I invested 50-60 hours on this production, and although the author agreed to have me publish it, you feel that I have no right to keep it available online. Is this correct?

As far as helping writers, if you truly do this, you might work with your client on the proper way to deal with a publisher, or any business contact for that matter. And naturally all of us would do well to remember that, when someone does something for us gratis, we should show gratitude and respect. Or perhaps we have abandoned integrity too, right along with violating our agreements and misrepresenting those who help us?

Further, in all fairness, we have to assume that, when you help a new writer, you do not charge for services you may render. I imagine I'm correct on that, since you certainly seem to feel that I shouldn't charge new writers for anything. I do hope you will clarify that too.

Hi guys. Just curious. Are we talking about www.cookministries.com? Very weird indeed. I thought this was a royalty publisher. I've never sent anything to them - but I always thought they were legit. Hmm - learn something new every day I guess!