Will authors keep their e-books alive?

Disclaimer: I am not an author and have only a generalized sense of what is involved in regaining the rights to one’s work. 

I keep, at Amazon, lists of books I care about. I plumb these lists for Steals and Deals, use them as resources for recommendations and for blogs. Currently, I am keeping track of almost 2000 ebooks and lately, they’ve been vanishing. Books that were available as ebooks suddenly are no longer for sale.

This has happened to several of my favorites: Shannon McKenna’s Extreme Danger (There’s good news here–she is republishing this and others in the McCloud series on her own this year.), to Madeline Hunter’s all five fabulous medievals including By Arrangement, By Design, and Lord of A Thousand Nights, to Sarah Mayberry’s Suddenly You and She’s Got It Bad, and to several of Theresa Romain’s books including Fortune Favors the Wicked, just to name a few.

It upsets me when an ebook is no longer available–it means I can’t recommend that book to a vast swath of our readers–all those who read exclusively on their devices. I’ve spoken to several authors about their efforts to regain the rights to their ebooks–and, believe me, effort is the right word. It’s often expensive and time consuming so I can see that some authors may take Carrie Lofty’s route and simply quit publishing their works. (It still breaks my heart that His Very Own Girl is no longer available in any format.)

Has this happened to you? Have you had a hard time finding ebook version of older books you love? And, to the authors out there, how are you managing your ebook rights?

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