What about the rotten, unprofessional e-pubs that take advantage??

We all know stories about these kinds of publishers, don’t we? I certainly found out more about them after writing theses posts.Personally, I've noticed some pretty shoddy work put out by small pubs, badly edited, poor covers and little or no support for the authors in the way of promotion. When a person sees that behavior up front, it makes you wonder what goes on behind the scenes. Like what kind of royalty calculations are being used? Whether or not the author is getting their proper percentage of monies earned by their books?  
A lady wrote to me recently with a horrific story about her experiences. Along with other authors, she hadn’t received any monies since September from her small publisher. Her twenty-one books are being held ransom and the owners refuse to discuss this state of affairs with her because they won’t admit to there being a problem.
All she wants is the rights back for her work. According to her contract, they must acquiesce. But they won’t!
Think about it!
Twenty-one freakin' books they are controlling without her consent. Letters and demands from lawyers have done nothing to save the situation. Pleading and threats haven’t worked. Even taking on a media blitz to expose their treachery and rotten business practices hasn’t moved them to do the right thing. Can she afford to sue? Can anyone? Can she afford not to?
I feel sad for her and I’d hate to think anyone reading this post would ever let themselves get into a similar fix. Remember when I said “Do your Homework”? This is the perfect example of why it’s so important.
 
If anyone else has stories they’d like to share with us about their experiences, please e-mail me at mimibarbour@ hotmail.com and I’ll be glad to have you as a guest.