What Have I Done????!!!!

You'd think someone with 1000 posts and a dozen published books would know better, but I was just glancing at the contract for my last book, published in 2005, which I handled without an agent. I saw that in my contract it said the publisher retained the copyright!

Apparently, I didn't notice this at the time, otherwise I'm sure I could have gotten them to remove it. Fearfully, I opened up the book, and, yes, there on the copyright page it gives the copyright to the publisher. I raced over to my other books, and was at least relieved to find that I had the copyright on all of them.

Oddly enough, this is a hard cover reference book where the publisher agreed to give me the softcover trade paper back rights. Plus, it's the second edition of a book first published in 1997, in which the copyright in that edition is in my name.

Does anyone think I have a chance of getting this changed, two years after the fact, especially if the book goes into another printing? On the other hand, since this book may shortly go out of print, what is this likely to mean to me, in the short run and the long run.

Nomad said:

But you own the trade paperback rights? Are you sure? Because that's a little weird for them to own the copyright but give you printing rights--it's usually the other way around.

If the book goes out of print, it means that you can't try to shop it around again at another publisher; the rights will never revert back to you

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This occurred at a strange time for the publisher; I'm not sure my acquiring editor, who was leaving at the time, even realized I'd neglected to change their boilerplate contract. But I definitely have a letter saying the trade paperback rights are mine. In fact, my agent has been trying to sell the book.

I'm going to have to write them a note.