My Publisher is going out of business

First, you have to first make sure that the rights revert to you. Just because a press is going out of business, you can't assume this is going to happen. If you don't reclaim your rights, then you can't sell or publish it elsewhere.

kartim said:

I have all rights and will even be given the ISBN number

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This doesn't sound right. The ISBN includes a code that identifies the publisher, so I don't see how they can transfer the ISBN to the author when they go out of business. Can someone with more experience confirm?

I also echo Cyia's statement. Do you have something in writing confirming the rights have reverted to you?

You need a notice that your rights have been reverted to you, and you need that notice in writing, from your publisher.

If you don't have that, then you won't find a decent publisher willing to even consider your book.

Ownng the ISBN won't help at all, and I'm not sure that it can be transferred to you: as others have already said, that is specific to the publisher and if the publisher is defunct, the ISBN will be too.

Having said all of that, most publishers prefer to consider only new titles, and not those which have been previously published, unless they've enjoyed huge sales, so self publishing might be your best option.

You cannot transfer that ISBN to another publisher. You just can't. Even if you do find another publisher for your book, that publisher is going to a) want to do their own edits and b) supply their own ISBN. Technically they HAVE to, since it will be a new edition. Every version, every edition, every format needs its own number. Even the same book has a different number for hardcover and paperback.

I am going through this now, because my first two books went out-of-print. The original publisher returned my rights (not out of business, just contract was up), and I found a new publisher to do a reprint. But we are doing revisions and our own edits (and some contracts say that the edited version belongs to the publisher; check your contract. Just means that you can't publish the previous edition wholesale, you have to do new edits) and it will get a new ISBN that has already been assigned to that publisher when it was bought.

They aren't transferable. Unless, perhaps, you are going to self-publish, in which case it MIGHT work. But I'm not even positive about that. You'd have to check with Bowkers, who sells the numbers.

I wonder why you wouldn't just call this chapter closed, your book got published, it sold copies, but you might find that publishers/agents are more interested in new titles, not ones that have already been published.

Kartim, who is the ISBN registered to at the moment? When you type it into Amazon's search box, or any other online bookseller, what name appears as the publisher?

It's not a matter of your publisher trying to hurt you. Your book is an asset of the company, when it closes, if there are any company debts, all assets - including the books - can be seized as payment against those debts. If you don't have it in writing that your rights revert, then you can't assume they do. (INAL)

There's no loss of credibility with putting your out of print title (which is what this will be when the publisher closes) out yourself. Tons of writers do this, on Kindle, themselves. You might even get yourself some new readers.

If your publisher goes into administration then the Administrators can claw back any and all rights which the publisher reverted before administration took effect. It happens rarely, but it does happen.

Not that that's pertinent here, but it's still worth considering.

As others have said, the ISBN is useless to you. Forget it exists. It's meaningless.

Next, as others have said, make sure you get the reversion letter in writing.

If your book had good sales, and good reviews, you can use them to help get it reprinted. What "good sales" means, though, is the question. I'm assuming good sales are 5,000-10,000? That should definitely get some interest.

If not, then finish your second book, and offer it together with the reprint rights to your first book.

You should be looking for an agent. Good sales, good reviews, and a new book, should get you an agent sooner rather than later.

My suggestion is to try to land an agent with your new book. If you land an offer of rep bring up your first novel and see what they think. They might just want to put it on hold and see how your second book does. If it is published with any success you very well may be able to find a new publisher for your first, and now out of print, novel. Or they might be willing to shop it now.

Anyway, that's what I'd do.