I've recently discovered that a (local) company who I paid to get my novel self published through-they advertise a service for this-has used my money to put the ISBN for the work in their own name. They now own the rights to this edition of the book. I have been led to believe by this company all the way through that I was self publishing the book and would have full control over it myself. Any advice on how or what I can do about these people-needless to say, I cannot afford to run up a legal bill over this and am therefore reluctant to speak to a solicitor.

Hello LdlB
Sorry to hear about this and I don't have any expertise in the field.
I just thought I'd mention that I hadn't seen you post in a while and to urge you back.

Hi John,
Life has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for the last few months, leaving little time for creativity. Hopefully things are now easing up.
Yes, I must get back on here-you will not urge in vain. Thanks for your comment.

Hello - the 2012 edition of the "Writer' & Artists' Yearbook" contains plenty of information about publishing.
SELF-PUBLISHING: it mentions that: "For a book to be genuinely self-published, a name designated by the author as his or her publishing house must appear on the copyright page of the book as "publisher" and the book's ISBN number must be registered by the ISBN Agency to that author as publisher. All copies of a self-published book are the property of the author. If an author does not wish to be involved with the sale or distribution of their book, this can be indicated in the "Distributor (if differentfrom Publisher) section of the form sent to the ISBN Agency before publication."
FURTHERMORE: "Any company which publishes books under its own name or imprint cannot, by definition, claim to help authors to self-publish."
OBVIOUSLY, your own situation depends upon what you signed up to. As the W&AY warns: "Caveat Scriptor - Author Beware!" You may wish to study these W&AY references more closely and check the content of the title page of your book to see what is printed there, as well as any agreement in writing that you entered into before publication. If you can show discrepancy between your agreement and their actions, then breach of contract seems likely. But restrained reasoning
in any approach to your "publisher" seems best to start
with, once you are equipped with all the info. you need.
Publishers are in business and usually aware that bad
publicity and the threat of referrals to those who oversee such things are not in their best interests.
Cheers and good luck...
MC

Hi MC,
Many thanks for all of the info-it's most helpful. From it I've been able to establish that the company I've dealt with (which, in effect, is just one man working from home) has made some serious errors which has resulted in him gaining control-and apparent ownership-of my work. My attempts to deal with him via e mails only resulted in a string of lies, each one generated by his need to cover for a previous lie. It really is difficult to work out if I am dealing with a con man or a person whose abilities fall short of his advertising claims.
So I've sent him a letter requesting that matters are put right and ownership of both the ISBN and the copyright be put into my name-in these instances he is clearly in breach of the contract we signed. Failing a satisfactory response to this, I shall lodge a complaint against him with the Trading Standards Office-if only to prevent him from trapping other authors. I am hoping that this will be sufficient to rectify the situation. We shall see.

I've used the "threat" of the Trading Standards Officer to good effect in another unrelated matter so I hope something positive comes of your own action/warning. There remains access to the various organisations that represent writers and, of course, the correspondence columns of associated journals. NO ONE likes the fresh air of unwanted public exposure! One thing I can say from experience: keep at it...tenacity and showing you are unlikely to back off will serve you well with those who do not "play fair".
Cheers...
MC

Following-up on my previous post...if you have written to him as you say, it might be useful to follow it with a letter setting out the courses of action open to you, e.g.the local Trading Standards Officer for HIS area, submissions for legal advice (whether or not you intend todo that), contact with authorities representing authors' interests - and the magazines (The Bookseller is one well-known example). You appear to have to hand a copy of your book that presumably indicates that it is at odds with your intention to SELF-publish and this, together with any copy of the publishing agreement, will be invaluable in backing up your "case". And he will know this.This should leave this person in no doubt that you are set on rectifying the situation in your favour.
Always remember: polite tenacity - the sure way to success dealing with suspect sources that mess you about and hope you'll go away!
I've been there and can say it's true.
MC

Hi MC.
I've made him fully aware of the first course of action, Trading Standards-quoting the relevant Act which applies in this case-and given him until Friday to give me a satisfactory response. If this is not forthcoming I then carry on with the referral to that office.
He can be quite a difficult person to deal with I've discovered-put into this position his first reaction is to jump onto social media networks and put spiteful remarks on his statuses, clearly aimed at myself.
It is certainly going to be interesting to sort this out!

"Empty kettles make most noise" might describe his reactions to your
efforts to seek justice.
Best of luck!

There's a big difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing... as a general rule, avoid vanity publishers at all costs, and if you're unsure as to whether or not they are, just search the company's name with 'vanity publishing' at the end. If they are, other people will almost certainly have posted something.

You should never have to pay a publishing house anything to publish your book, so alarm bells should go off if you're paying something!

I disagree in some respects with the preceding post. In rarefied zones of publishing - and poetry can fall into that category, there is an area of opportunity in which a writer and a publisher can share expenses in getting a book "out there". There is an historical precedent - with some famous names - when the aim to have work placed in the public domain meets with no interest from those seeing no profit in the task, leaving the writer to go for broke on his/her own OR contribute towards
professional editing and an agreed print etc. run PLUS market promotion/supply by a publisher (with a checkable history in such projects) that may OR may not result in any future commercial financial return.
Poetry especially is not so much about making money as (more often)investing in yourself and what you have to say. I speak from experience about these "shared
costs" agreements. It is purely a personal decision
albeit not one to be too casual about when spending
money. Does the end justify the means? - that's the
final point of reference.

Hi Charlotte & M C,
The deal with the company in question was that it does all of the ground work to get a title self published. Starting with getting the MS typed into a book form (we are talking about a novel here, 63,000 words), proof reading, then preparing the files for the printer,front and back cover & spine etc. So far so good. Then they sort out the ISBN, get the first batch printed up and have an ongoing publicity campaign. All of this is done on the basis that it is a self published work. Trouble is, they put the ISBN and the copyright in their own name instead of mine-this is what I now have to fight to regain. And the publicity for the book has been virtually nil.

This business concern seems to have strayed from the right path by not restricting itself to "distributor" for trade/ISBN purposes and failing to show the author as publisher as well as the holder of copyright. Be interested to hear how it pans out.

Interesting discussion. It does seem as if this is straightforward theft of your work by publishing it under the name of another person. Neilsen's are the company that manage ISBN numbers for the Government. The website is www.nielsenbookdata.co.uk/controller.php?page=1 They give a publisher the authority to use ISBN numbers. I wonder what they would say if you tell them what has happened. It may be worth discussing it with them They can prevent this person from using ISBN numbers again.
Although it is a bit complicated to get your head round the ISBN system it is much less costly than giving other people money to do this for you. Neilsen's circulate your publication to all the bookshops so that work is done for you, and you may get some orders through this if the title or description takes their fancy - say you were writing about their local town for example.
I appreciate getting a novel typed is a big piece of work, and getting it printed also has huge costs, but these are things you can pay for through local businesses and have a much better understanding of what the costs are about. Once the book has been produced with the ISBN number on it, the publisher (your friend) sends copies to the British Library and a few other places (thats the law) and it is then officially published, no matter how many other copies are produced and sold. Vanity publishers take the money and produce a few copies but make no effort to sell copies beyond the few you order for friends etc. Thats why they are a waste of time.
The real work is in selling enough copies of the book to recoup the cost of production. If you want to be known as a writer you want readers, and that is the hard work that real publishers do. They get copies of your book out to bookshops and reviewers, so that it makes a splash. If you want to self publish you have to do that your self.
I hope you have not lost too much money. Get in touch with Nielsens and tell them the ISBN number that was used and that the person has put his name on your work.

Hi Freda,
Thank you for all the info-it is much appreciated.
The book was published under my name, but the copyright for the work has ended up being credited to the so called publishers-I say so called because I was put under the illusion that the book was being self published by a company that actively distanced themselves from the concept of vanity publishing. In the event, this is exactly what I have ended up with, the very thing I was wanting to avoid-vanity publishers!
As for the ISBN-my advice is that the company is now liable for the cost of republishing the book with both the ISBN and the copyright in my name. The process to try and effect this is now under way.
As part of the contract (and my payment to them) there was also supposed to be 'ongoing publicity' by the company. This was one of the selling points which attracted me to the company-publicity these days being a hard to come by thing. But in this area too the company has been greatly lacking. I obviously promote the book myself but I felt it worthwhile to sign up to a contract that gave a little more.
As things stand at the moment on this-having tried unsuccessfully to get the company to address my complaints about their breach of contract, I am now having to pursue the matter through the official channels.

I realise this is a complete tangent and of no direct use to Ledger, but this thread reminded me of a case a few years ago when the poet Luke Wright realised his work was being thieved in a live context.

See the following link:
http://www.lukewright.co.uk/the-terrible-tale-of-like-wright

Ledger, good luck with it all.

Thanks Russell-I shall keep everyone updated with progress.

I am assuming that 'Luke Wright' is a pseudonym"?

I loved the thread...but, really, he should have Luke Wright, Luke left, and then Write again...and, if all was clear...


: )

Jx

Luke here! I note a reference to this poet on the WOL home page.