Major Frustration with a Flaky Publisher

I have a conundrum and I could use some advice. My third poetry chapbook got accepted for publication last year in August of 2013. The publisher is a small outfit in Australia with only a handful of titles under their belt. Since the original acceptance notice, there has been no movement whatsoever on the book. First they said it was going to be launched as a paperback in October, then that got pushed back to December, then January. Then they got in touch with me and told me that they were planning to release it as an e-book this month, and release the paperback in the summer at an official launch party. But nothing has been done. The only thing that's come through it the cover art, which I'm not that thrilled with, but it took them four months to even get that done so I'm reluctant to ask for it to be altered.

They are very slow getting back to me and generally uncommunicative and vague about deadlines. One of the original staff quit, and the other person I've been communicating with almost never returns my e-mails. I finally e-mailed him last week politely requesting a firm publication deadline and pointing out that it's been six months since the original acceptance of the book and there has been no movement. He has not yet responded, and I'm beginning to think he has no intentions whatsoever of moving forward with publishing the book.

I was very excited about getting this book out, and I'm extremely disappointed in their flakiness. I don't understand the point of accepting a book for publication and then proceeding to take no action on it whatsoever. It's been well over two years since I finished this book, and I all I want is to get it out there. The idea of starting the submission process all over again just makes me want to cry. What I would like to do at this point is just publish it online myself and sell it through my blog. I see no point in going around and around with this publisher any more when I could get this thing formatted and up on the internet myself in a weekend.

If anyone has any advice or thoughts, I'd appreciate hearing from you!

Thanks for your sympathetic words, Ice Twin! I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed yet, but I feel the need to get some control over this. I'm tired of being strung along.

Good advice, Cathy! I did review the contract--it's a very simple, 1-page document. It does say in the contract "These rights last for a minimum period of 18 months, after which time this agreement may be terminated by either party at a notice of one month."

I have a feeling that they won't do much if I simply yank the book and tell them I'm terminating the contract. I doubt they have the resources to sue, and any case, it's a poetry chapbook--it's not like they stand to make a huge windfall off it. I can't get them to even return an e-mail. I can't imagine they would put much effort into pursuing it further if I just tell them I'm through.

That's a fair question, Fruitbat. I guess I feel that if they are only committing to publishing it online at this time, I could do that myself much more quickly than they are doing it. I have some poetry readings coming up soon and I wanted to have book released before the readings so I could publicize it. The thing that frustrates me is they keep moving the bar on me. It was originally going to be out in October, then they pushed it to December, then January, now February--although I have had very little communication from them over the last few weeks, and when they do communicate, they have some have vague reason why they aren't moving on it, and they take weeks to reply to direct inquiries. I'm feeling really strung along. I feel like they have all of the control over my book and they're being extremely unprofessional. I haven't had this experience before. Every other publisher I've worked with has been very prompt and communicative. I don't understand what's going on. If they would just commit to a deadline, I'd be fine waiting a bit longer. But I'm afraid if I don't do something, they're still going to be in a holding pattern a year from now.

Thanks for your advice, everyone! I did finally hear back from the publisher this morning, and I have an actual release date--February 26th! Great news after months of delays and lack of communication.