Hi.
I am the author of a book which was published in 2012. It wasn't a self published book, but due to lack of publicity and marketing it did not get much attention. It was appreciated and was reviewed by many scholars and newspapers. I want to ask how can I get my book published again by another publisher. What is the procedure? Is it possible?
Dear Areeba,
I really would write to your publisher and ask for your rights back if it is no longer in print. I think they are obliged to return the rights if they are not publishing the book. I talk to a lot of what are known as 'mid-list' authors and they all have this problem even with the big publishers. The big names get the marketing budget and they expect the rest to just push their own books through talks and social media.
I think if it was published in 2012 you will find it hard to find anyone at the publisher prepared to push teh book now, they will all me on the last release of books. Either do teh whole Social media thing yourself or write and insist they return the rights. The only problem is that if you can't show sales the first time round, it might he hard to convince another publisher to try and sell it.
All the best,
Cherry Mosteshar
Surely what you need is a better publicity campaign. Your publisher should want to help with this, and you can do some of it yourself on social media and in publications relating to the subject concerned. You mention scholars - it sounds as though it is an academic work; therefore you need to target the right sort of reader and library. Would it be of interest to the wider public? Are there sites that review this sort of book? Ask your publisher what they are prepared to do - and check what they said they would do in your contract.
It always comes back to the contract, you see.
You'll need to check your contract for the number of years that the publisher 'own' it.