author

Diana's story

My first novel, a fantasy entitled Moonsword, was released by PA in late 2002. I promoted like crazy, got some national TV exposure, lots of TV and radio time, plenty of newspaper coverage. PA kept promising to help with promotion, but they never did, of course. Due to my promotional efforts the book was nominated for the 2004 Spectrum Award.

Eventually, I wised up, realized PA was a scam, and hired a lawyer. We filed a repudiation of contract based on their false claims. They ignored this and continued selling my book. Sadly, partially due to the expenses I encurred in my promotional efforts, our finances failed and we were left with no alternative but to file bankruptcy (the bigger reason was monumental medical expenses, but I would be lying to say that book promotion expenses didn't play a considerable part in our debt). I have since had some more modest success with my second novel with a small publisher, but nonetheless, my literary confidence was shattered. I am still trying to recover it, even now.

Anyway, PA was scheduled on the bankruptcy. It went through, thereby destroying, in a completely legal manner, my PA contract. Still, they continued to sell my book, now completely illegally, since November 2005.

So, it was with great surprise that I discovered that I had received a certified letter from PA returning all rights to Moonsword to me, citing paragraph 26 of my contract...lack of demand. They claimed to have no copies on hand as of 2/27/06 the date of my formal rights return.

I have to admit, I'm still in shock from this surprise. Finally, after years of fighting them...they just up and gave the rights back. My book is no longer listed on their website, and Ingrams has only one copy left in stock. At long last, it is over...