Sue wrote: <If lace authors are only getting pence for their books, and their books are now out of print so are not getting any further recompense, and they have a pdf file (and the right to publish more copies themselves) would it not be a good idea for them to burn and sell CDs with their book in pdf form, charging whatever they feel is reasonable for the CD?>
My contract with my pubisher (not lace books) signed in 1982 states that if the pubisher decides to stop publishing, then I can ask them to continue to do so. If they refuse then I can ask for all materials they have (original manuscript, printing plates, etc) be returned to me and then I can find another publisher or publish myself if I wish. They also have first refusal on any other books I write/wrote. The first of them has only just gone out of print and I won't bother asking for a re-publish or the materials because I think thirty years is a very good run.
Of course, that was long before manuscripts were produced on a computer, before CDs, before PDFs, before self-publishing, before publish on demand, etc. Contracts are probably different now.
So an author needs to check any contract he/she has with a publisher to see if they would be breaking the terms of any contract before embarking on any form of self publishing. In the unlikely event I'd write another book - too much hassle with income tax - I don't think I'd bother with a publisher .
UK copyright has been 70 years after the author's death since 1988. Prior to that it was 50 years after the author's death.
Jean in Poole, Dorset UK
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