A friend of mine had a children's book packaged some years ago and I recently noticed that the packager's website catalogue still sells the book, but in certain countries it seems that the rights have been reverted. Does anyone know what this means exactly and is it in favour of the author or packager?
Google has the following:
You cannot assume that your work is out of print and those rights have reverted to you. You must have a formal acknowlegement from the publisher that, yes, indeedy, the book is actually out of print, and the rights they had previously purchased have now reverted back to you, before you can go out and try to sell the work again to some other publishing house.