I worked with a friend who had a small publishing company. I began to have trouble with bad formatting, no deadlines, and no financial reports to show what had been sold. Even the few books that sold were never paid out to me. I admit that I didn't sign a contract with her. Now she refuses to publish anything more until I start marketing my books more. When I decided to pull them all due to an illness I'm battling and all the problems I was having with her, she demanded I pay her for the covers of the books. Despite me not asking for those covers, she wants me to pay for them and any changes that had been made to them. Am I obligated to do that?
Have you considered selling your books directly on Amazon and Smashwords? I have done it for years and sold thousands of books by publishing them myself. I use fiverr to have my covers made and format conversions. Self publishing has it problems too, but it gives you control and avoids all the problems with publishers.
No one can really give you exact legal advice, but basically if there is no contract she can't require you to do anything.
I would strongly suggest getting advice from Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware, she is really good and proactive about helping writers who are having trouble with their publisher. You can contact her at beware@sfwa.org
by CherylAnne Nelson 17 years ago
Hi, Does anyone know anything about the company Publish America? I sent my childrens story manuscript to them without illustrations and they apparently liked it because they want me to submit illustrations--which is not a problem. I am a bit freaked out by it because I know...
by Dorsi Diaz 14 years ago
I know some of the hubbers here have books published, and I am in the process of working seriously at my first book ( I have 2 other books that have been on a back burner for a while)But the one I'm working on now I WILL finish, and I'm wondering if anyone has some advice about publishing, self-...
by Yasmin Anderson 11 years ago
Hiya,I just signed up to Hubpages today (because I only just found it!) and I'm looking to start reviewing books on here. I was going to start with a few of my favourites simply because I think they're a good place to really get my creative juices flowing, then I'd want to move onto more unknown...
by akeejaho 17 years ago
Well, this has got to be a first. I signed into HubPages because I needed to prove to myself that I could attract readers. I needed to prove this to myself. I have a few that read my things, and it does humble me to know that. Thank you to those of you that have. But...
by Dani Alicia 12 years ago
If there are any professional, published authors here on hubpages (and I'm sure there are tons of you guys) I was wondering if someone could tell me if self-publishing is good or bad, and maybe give a couple of pros and cons. It would be my first book.
by prosmentor 15 years ago
What is your view about the cover of a book? Is it very important?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |