SPECIAL NOTICE!

A WARNING TO OTHER WRITERS ABOUT THE SPANISH PUBLISHER “LA FACTORIA DE IDEAS”

In 2005 I was approached by a Senor Juan Carlos Poujade of La Factoria de Ideas in Madrid, Spain. Without any prompting from me, they had seen my novel, The Jesus Puzzle: A Novel About the Greatest Question of our Time, which had been posted in its entirety on my website since 1998 (it still is). La Factoria proposed to translate it into Spanish and publish it world-wide for the Spanish market. I agreed to an advance payment on royalties of $2500 USD, and signed a contract in March of 2006.

It took the better part of a year after publication of El Puzzle de Jesus in mid-2006 to collect the advance from them. It seemed there was always some excuse to explain the delay. After a further two years during which I heard nothing from them, I contacted Senor Poujade in the summer of 2009, requesting sales reports for the previous three years since publication, according to the terms of our contract. I was assured that these would be forthcoming. They were not. After several months and nothing but silence to my further requests, I resolved to try to apply pressure in other ways.

In the meantime I had surveyed the Internet and found that my Spanish novel was selling on Amazon sites around the world, as well as other major internet booksellers. It was also being offered by many small sellers who handle individual copies, sometimes used. All this was a sign that the book had been selling steadily for a few years, at reasonably good levels, and that the advance amount had almost certainly been reached and further royalties were likely due. Had they not been, there seemed no reason why La Factoria would refuse to issue me sales reports. 

This past summer I approached the Spanish Embassy in Ottawa, Canada and outlined my problem to a liaison officer there. She promised to relay my complaint to certain “authorities” in Spain. Unfortunately, I have heard nothing further through that channel. I also approached the Fraud Division of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) at their Canadian Head Office, but after some consideration on their part I was informed that technically, for their purposes, the case would fall under the category of Breach of Contract rather than Fraud. I had alerted La Factoria about my efforts in these directions, but continued to be ignored.  

My novel continues to be sold around the world, for some four years now, but with no acknowledgement from the publisher, let alone any attention to further royalties that may be owed. They made no effort to claim that further royalties were not owing, nor have they supplied me with any information which might indicate the matter one way or the other. As far as I’m concerned, this speaks volumes.

As an author with limited resources and no influential literary agent (that, too, is a story, but for another time), I am in a difficult position, without the means to apply pressure on La Factoria, and can ill afford the considerable financial cost to locate and hire an attorney in Spain to investigate La Factoria’s books (which I would have every right to do). No doubt the publisher is well aware of this. 

This past September I informed Senor Poujade that I intended to post an account on my website of this whole sorry affair, as a warning to other writers who might consider approaching, or might be approached by, La Factoria. I also told him that I would be seeking out other websites, blogs, discussion boards, etc. on which to post similar notices, including in Spain, as I can have my posting translated into the Spanish language. Again, I was ignored.

If there are any fellow writers out there who would like to recommend any such sites, blogs or boards, please let me know. Also, if there happen to be any other writers who have had similar experiences with La Factoria de Ideas, I would be more than willing to give them a voice here as an addendum to this account. 

Incidentally, I am facing possibly similar situations in regard to books of mine (including The Jesus Puzzle) translated by two Korean publishers and a German publisher. Is there no honor among foreign publishers these days? 

Earl Doherty

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