Spero Publishing Has Merged with Eternal Press, and Damnation Books...

I took down my book Alien Deceptions from this website, and I am asking my readers, both new and old to please not purchase this book in its present incarnation from publisher Eternal Press. The contract expired February 1, 2015, though to be fair, according to the contract the contract actually begins on the date of release which was June 6, 2010. Either way, the contract is long expired. However, the book continues to be offered for sale on both the Eternal Press website and at many online outlets including B&N, Amazon, and ARE to name a few.

This is the second time that Eternal Press has rolled over to new owners, and I cannot say I'm surprised. Now it has rolled over yet again and has been acquired by an unknown company Spero Publishing. The CEO of the new company to be called Caliburn Publishing under which Eternal Press and Damnation Books are "imprints" is Alan Leddon. When he sent out the letter to the authors of Eternal Press and Damnation Books, myself included, I responded immediately requesting the rights back even though technically I could have just sent out DMC notices since my copyright is being infringed upon. I wanted to give the new guy a chance to do the right thing. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I waited this long. Like most authors I work a day job too and have a life. Also, I kept hoping Kim Richards would do the right thing and send me the rights back and take the book down. I should have known better as I had to send out DMC notices to get my book Homecoming taken down from distributors. She had already had it taken down months before from the Eternal Press website. It took me almost 9 months of back and forth via e-mail and in the end it took DMC notices to get it taken down, because she refused even though she admitted the contract was expired.

Needless to say, it looks as though I'm going to have another fight on my hands to get  Alien Deceptions taken down. First I was asked to reconsider and take a look at the Caliburn Publishing contract, as he is a different person. I politely declined and again asked for the rights to my book back. Again, keep in mind I'm giving him a chance to do the right thing. What did I get back? He finally said he would look at my contract tomorrow and make a decision. Oh, but I'd better be careful because there is a "termination clause" and I might get a surprise I'm not expecting. The termination clause he is talking about is if I ask to terminate the contract early ie before the five years is up. Since it is well after the five year contract even allowing for the contract not going into effect until the release date, a full six months in fact, he cannot use the termination clause and try to force me to pay money to get out of the contract. The contract is expired. Though it appears he may try. Since Kim Richards the previous owner never requested the option to renew the contract as was her right before the contract was up, he cannot use that either. Since no new contract was requested as was the option per the contract, the contract as I said is past expired.

Here's the thing, they are now infringing on my copyright for this book. I own the rights which is what I told him. He needs to do the right thing, be professional and return the rights and take down the book from all distribution channels.

So, again, please do not purchase copies of Alien Deceptions as published by Eternal Press, they are infringing on my copyright for this book. Thank you in advance and please help to spread the word. I know I'm not the only one to have problems with Eternal Press once it changed hands that first time. Honestly, this experience has left such a bad taste in my mouth I may choose to never publish with small e-pubs other than Leap of Faith Publishing, my current publisher again. It's just so frustrating.

UPDATE: My rights have been returned, although the letter had the title wrong as it listed Alien Deception, instead of Alien Deceptions. I've asked them to fix it, but I've received the rights back. Unfortunately, the only website the book has been removed from is Eternal Press, and the letter returning the rights back says it may take some time to take it down from the distributors. Since I do this for another publisher I know it takes a matter of minutes to remove a book from sales channels from the publisher end, and then usually no longer than a week for the book to disappear from distributor websites, so we'll see. I'm willing to give it a week or two and then I'll send out DMC notices if the book has not been removed to the distributors.