Authors Without A Yacht (AWaY) discussion

I have an old publisher from whom I pulled my book in Sept. 2009 and had my letter of Reversion of Rights tucked away in my files. Suddenly, this pub has made this book available FOR SALE in Amazon's Kindle store! (new owner, but believe me, I've contacted her about this)

Copyright violation is copyright violation, and piracy is piracy, be it reader or publisher.

That is a serious case and you should definitely bring in a lawyer on this. This is not a petty crime, this is a serious violation that - unlike piracy - you can address head-on.

Write to Amazon, also. Keep a file. Also, send a registered letter with return receipt postcard to prove that you did so.

You should demand all royalties on all copies sold (and on all copies shared because for each sale, Amazon allows limited sharing). Amazon has violated your copyright just as much as your old publisher has.

Assume that Amazon pocketed 65%. This new publisher should pay you at least 35%. Amazon should pay you 65%.
That does not mean that you can expect to receive a settlement, but you should ask, and by rights, they ought to compensate you.

A lawyer is going to cost you at least $5,000 in retainer, unless you can find a class of authors who have been similarly violated.

If you belong to RWA, SFWA, Authors Guild any of those organizations may help you at no charge to you and you should take advantage of their legal services.

If Amazon continues to sell your book after you have contacted them, they could face a fine of $150,000 for each copy sold. Ditto this publisher.

Don't forget to register with the Book Rights Registry.