Getting the online bookstores to remove our canceled PA books!

No. No one has any control over that. As long as the book exists, as long as there's an ISBN, there will be a page at Amazon.

There are Amazon listings for books that were out of print from publishers that were out of business before Amazon was founded.

There are even Amazon listings for books that never existed, that only have ISBNs.

Don't sweat it. These are used books. You can't control them. They're unimportant.

Honestly, I don't think you do. Here's the way I think it works. If even one copy of your book was bought by a reseller, for whatever reason (before your PA contract was cancelled), that reseller can then post it for sale on Amazon (usually at an ungodly expensive price, of which you get zero). Why do they do it? I have no idea. But somebody must be making some money on the deal somewhere.

Unk got it right first (doesn't he always? )

ByGrace said:

I've been getting emails from people who are so frustrated that they cannot get the online bookstores to remove their canceled PA books. I am one among them that is extremely frustrated. I contacted PA back in 05 and they said they could do nothing about it. I then contacted Lightning Source who said my books were listed as out of print and they were not selling them. I contacted Amazon several times requesting they take my books down, that I am the author and copyright holder and that I no longer give them permission to advertise my out of print novels. Nothing. No help at all.
...

Click to expand...

They're not "advertising" your out-of-print novels. If anything, they're reserving a space so when a used bookseller finds your book at a thrift store, yard sale or donated to them by a friend of relative (I've sold on Amazon and had BOXES of books given to me), they can list that copy as a "used for sale" copy under your the title of your book. If they did delete it, an Amazon "Pro Merchant" reseller who finds a copy to sell could ADD A NEW LISTING for your book on Amazon just so he could sell it. I can't imagine Amazon would ever remove such a listing once it's there, short of a court order or similar thing.

But I'm pretty sure you (but I don't know how to do this) can sign up on Amazon as the author of the book and put an "Author's Note" on that page where you can tell people the book is out of print, will stay out of print, and if they want to buy a copy to NOT contact you, their only chance is to wait for some bookseller to list a used copy. If nothing else, I KNOW you can sign in/sign up as an Amazon customer and start a "Customer Discussion" where you say "I am the author" and say those other things.

Gravity said:

Honestly, I don't think you do. Here's the way I think it works. If even one copy of your book was bought by a reseller, for whatever reason (before your PA contract was cancelled), that reseller can then post it for sale on Amazon (usually at an ungodly expensive price, of which you get zero). Why do they do it? I have no idea. But somebody must be making some money on the deal somewhere.

Click to expand...

Generally it's called capitalism, but more specifically it's called "throwing crap on the wall and seeing what sticks." I have to admit I've done it. If I have a book I want to sell and I can't find any other copies for sale anywhere online and no history of what used copies may have sold for, the most profitable thing is to "assume" it's rare and valuable, set some high price for it, and see if it sells. One can later lower the price if it doesn't sell, and that's better (for me the seller) than settting a lower price initially, see it sell immediately, and wonder if it would have sold for a much higher price.

There isn't.

Having a book out from PA goes on your permanent record. Anyone can find out.

Your choice right now is to change your name.

Yeah, kinda like Scooter Libby's conviction. It's on his permanent record, even though he'll never see jail time.

ByGrace said:

Guys,
I know all this stuff. You're not telling me anything I don't already know.

There must be a way, however, to get these bookstores to remove our titles.

Click to expand...

Grace, I have books that have been out of print since 1984, that have had the rights reverted to me, that have subsequently been sold to a reprint house, which has since released those rights back to me, and they're STILL showing up in on-line catalogues throughout the world, for both editions.

Mo

I have always used a pen-name even in my articles, thus ensuring I never run into messes like this.

But this whole thread does bring up an interesting book I came across a while ago. Some poker book I saw on amazon. The problem was, it was getting horrible reviews. The english appeared to almost be that from an ESL student (probably it was). I was also certain this HAD to be some sort of self-publishing, as I couldn't understand how this sort of quality could get in print.

Anyhow, under the comments one of the posts ended up claiming he was the author and was removing the rights from the publisher, or something to that effect. He was also telling Amazon to remove his book from their list. I found this most odd, as one would expect him to write an e-mail to amazon, not posting this under the comments section. Though I assume now he probably did both steps.