How We Work
Every book on this list is here because an author said yes.
Here's what that involves.
01. We find the book
Sometimes through a closure announcement, sometimes through a reader, sometimes because we went looking. If the rights have reverted and the book fits the list, we get in touch.
02. We talk before anything is signed
No forms, no submission portal. A conversation about the book, what happened to it the first time, and whether a second edition is something you actually want. Plenty of authors would rather let a book rest, and that's a legitimate answer.
03. You license, you don't sell
You keep your copyright. Always. What you grant is a license to publish specified formats in specified territories for a fixed term. When the term ends, it ends — you don't have to ask for anything back, and you don't have to prove the book stopped selling.
04. We build the edition
New cover, fresh conversion, updated metadata and categories. You approve the cover before anyone sees it. If you want changes to the text you get them; if you don't want a word touched, we don't touch it. The book already went through editing once and we're not going to pretend it didn't.
05. Costs sit with us
You don't pay for the cover, the conversion, the ISBN, or the listing. There is no fee to be published here, in any form, ever. If a press ever asks you for money to publish a book you already published, walk away.
06. You get paid and you get shown the numbers
Terms are discussed directly — no advances, no fees, and royalty reporting that shows units and revenue by channel, not just a total.
What happens if Wyrd Ones goes under
You may already know how this can end, which is probably why you're reading this page. So: the license agreement includes a clause that reverts all rights to you automatically if the press stops trading, misses royalty payments past a defined window, or fails to keep the book available for sale. No lawyer, no negotiation, no waiting on an unanswered email.
We keep no inventory and carry no debt, so there's nothing to be tangled up in a wind-down. Your book comes home on its own.
Who's asking
Wyrd Ones is one person: [YOUR NAME]. My background is acquisitions librarianship — years of negotiating licensing contracts with academic publishers and aggregators, managing acquisition budgets, and arguing about metadata for a living. Rights licensing is the same work wearing a different hat.
What fits
· Your book was published before, by anyone
· Rights have reverted to you, or you're certain they're about to
· It's gothic, folk horror, witch-forward, or close enough that you thought of us while reading this
· You'd like it available again
Who's the wrong home
· The book has never been published
· You're not sure who holds the rights (sort that out first — the Authors Guild and Authors Alliance both have free guides)
· You want an advance. We don't pay them, and we're upfront about that rather than burying it in a contract
Anthology contributors: reverted rights on anthologies usually sit with each writer separately rather than with the editor. If you have a story in a collection that went out of print, that story is probably yours to license. Get in touch.
Write to
info@wyrdonespress.com. Tell me the title, the original publisher, roughly when rights reverted, and anything you know about how it sold. No manuscript needed yet.