Exasperation

I had an exasperating phone call last night, the latest in a string of them, spanning the last seven years.

These calls are either from my publishing company, their sidekicks or from other companies trying to garner my money.

How the outsiders gained my personal cell phone number, I have no idea but the rings have been constant, all purporting to be from legitimate companies who could do wonders for my book. Some of them ring me asking what the title of my book is. These I know immediately aren’t worth the time of day because if they were legitimate, they would know that already.

It seems the company I published with has many related companies and it is often people from these, who ring me. They will even switch mid-sentence saying they are from one, then the other company. I really don’t know who to trust.

The man last night introduced himself brightly as the new publishing agent for my publisher’s company. I didn’t give him much of a chance to explain what he wanted as I had my own stuff I wanted sorted. However, it later transpired that he wanted my other books, because, if they had three, he could do miraculous things. What he was really saying, is wow, I could get so much money out of you if you were to publish your other two books with us. From experience, these people are always asking for more money for the latest must-have-appearance which would most likely generate no money for the author, rather only money for their company.

A few months ago, I emailed my publisher. I asked a series of questions, none of which were answered. I emailed again, asking the same questions. Most were answered but the last one, asking whether my book could be withdrawn from Amazon so that I could publish it with my other books, was ignored.

I put the same request to the last woman who rang me. Oh, she would find out and get back to me the very next day. Which of course she didn’t. So, I asked the gentleman who rang last night.

‘’Why?’’ was his reply. I re-explained. ‘’Because you won’t pay me by direct debit, because you can’t do that to New Zealand customers. I get a cheque which I can’t cash here in New Zealand. So you sell my books, get paid and keep your portion and end up keeping my portion too because your cheques go uncashed.

He argued that they did indeed pay directly into NZ bank accounts. ‘’Well, that’s not what they told me before Christmas,’’ I said.

We left the conversation with him saying he would look into withdrawing my book on Amazon but that I would need to republish it myself. It was then I looked and realised that the only version of my book I had was the unedited one. I had paid them considerable money to do this job but they had been careful to make sure that the only complete copy I had was stamped with their company name over every page. So even though I own the rights to the story, they are making it incredibly difficult for me to access this. I am already deciding this is getting close to the too hard basket and it might just be easier to open an Australian bank account instead. Then at least I would see some royalties.