I'm very new to the publishing industry, so please forgive any stupid questions I may ask or naive comments I'll probably make! My first novella was published in February 2013 by a very small ( I get the impression it is a one man band) publishing company and since then I have only ever received one royalty payment. The book is far from a best-seller, but I know that it has sold more copies than my publisher is leading me to believe. When I first signed the author agreement, things moved very quickly and the publisher was enthusiastic and in regular contact, however things rapidly declined once the book was actually published. Now when I contact the publisher regarding the payment of royalties, it takes him months to reply and he avoids actually answering any of my queries. I have recently contacted two other authors who have been published with the same company and they have never received any royalty payments. Becoming a published author was never about the money, but it would be nice to earn more than a fiver! Due to the fact that any legal fees will probably be more than I have actually made on the book, I am tempted to just put this down to experience and use the fact that I am now published to contact established publishing houses when I have completed my next book, however part of me also feels that I should attempt to get the money that I am owed. Any advice?
I notice the book is available on Amazon - are you able (as the author) to contact them to see how many they've sold? If they can give you a figure, you can at least do the math, work out how much you've made from your percentage, and then challenge the publisher accordingly.
I would have thought that any publisher worth their salt would want to keep a good working relationship with their authors - shame on him!