While I was busy at work and then grocery shopping a discussion arose regarding my historical romances and what’s being published where.
Basically, the more than 140 character version is that my publisher only bought North American rights to my historicals. My agent tried to get them to go for World rights but they weren’t interested. I knew I had the foreign rights. In fact, there was a nice handful of foreign sales by my agent
It was only after I wondered out loud to my agent why Not Wicked Enough was on sale at Amazon.co.uk only in paper and not in digital that I learned that Berkley had North American rights only: essentially, the US and Canada. That book should not have been on sale in the UK at all. And, as it turns out when it occurred to me that I ought to check, the same was true for Scandal and Indiscreet.
So, hoo-yah! Kind of late. I self-published Scandal, Indiscreet and Not Wicked Enough in all the territories where I have rights, including the UK. I will do the same for Not Proper Enough when it releases this September.
I’m still waiting for an accounting of what I am owed for books sold in countries where my publisher did not have rights.
The odd thing is that originally, it was very disappointing that we were unable to get my publisher to buy World Rights. They just weren’t interested. Things are changing fast in the publishing business. Speaking only for myself, I’m glad to have those other rights. And, in fact, I was quite disappointed when my publisher agreed to reprint Indiscreet rather than revert the rights to me. Scandal was/is still in print.
