Can a contract be cancelled by the publisher on a whim?

My short story got accepted by a new publisher for his first anthology. I signed the contract and got my payment.

Then, I discovered the publisher had gotten into irregular practices and taken liberties with his own contract. IMO he was in breach of it by going beyond the limitations set by his contract. I confronted him with this, but at this stage, I never mentioned I wanted out of the contract. I simply told him I was not going to support his anthology, and would never submit to him again.

Supporting his endeavour was not a provision of the contract, although, from the email he sent along with the contract, we were expected to do it. I think it's a fair expectation, given he was a new publisher, but still, it wasn't part of my contract. For the record, there is no termination clause in the contract. The contract is very basic, with "you're giving us the rights to your story for x amount of time, we pay you and send you a physical copy of the book," nothing more.
The next day, I got an official email telling me I was released from my contract as it was clear that I had no interest in being affiliated with his company or the anthology. For the record, I didn't say I was going to shoot it down either. My story was in it, I'm not that stupid.

I thought a contract was binding unless there was a breach or unless one of the conditions in the termination clause was applicable. Seeing that my contract had no such clause, and that I wasn't in breach, this really bugs me. It's the principle. I mean, if publishers, and people in general, are allowed to cancel a contract on a non-mutual basis, just on a "whim," what is the whole point of having a contract in the first place? I don't really care about my story not being published. I think, with hindsight, it was for the better. But if this can happen, what protection is there, really, for authors?

Thanks Bufty

Yes, this experience has been a real learning curve, and a real eye-opener after all the researches I've done into "malpractice."

Next time, there's not going to be any bullying me into signing asap because the publisher is excited to get all the signatures and release the TOC.

I was just trying to find a clear answer as to who was in the wrong here. Of course, I'm biased since I'm involved, and because of witnessing personal attacks and unprofessional attitude, but I can't find closure. It's not about me being disappointed my story won't be published or receive exposure from the "big" names. I submitted my story for the experience and the fun side of it. It's about having the confirmation that I've been wronged, and preventing people from finding themselves in the same kind of situation. I have nothing to lose. If my story coming out means no other publisher will publish me, that's fine by me. But it's about knowing for sure if a contract can be cancelled just by snapping fingers, when I thought it was binding once signed. If that's common practice I sure am not going to bother with one in the future.

Thanks Marlys, your information is very valuable. I guess in the light of what you're saying, yes, if he has the right to decide not to publish my story, he has the right to use it. Like you said, I wasn't injured. I got my rights back, kept my payment, and I wasn't going to take it to court or anything as it wasn't really worth it. But what you've said makes sense, and I feel much better now. Plus I've learnt something new



Sheryl, thanks for your comment. I've contacted Victoria about it, but she's a busy lady and hasn't had the chance to reply yet. I really feel that other than this contract issue, there are problems with this publisher that need to be addressed.
There was the shambles with edits, which started all this contract thing. The contract stipulated that only grammatical errors would be done without the consent of the author, and any changes to text and title would get the author's approval. My partner was formatting the stories for the anthology, and he had advised the publisher to get consent on the edits. Thing is, my partner was only getting the stories ready for formatting. When he received mine, which, according to a message from the publisher a few days earlier, was "neat" and "required minor editing," I checked it, curious to see where I had gone wrong (always willing to learn, me). I was appalled at what I had found. To name a few things, a word was Americanised when I write in British English (no problem with that - but I'd have expected it to be done so that the whole text sounded American and not just a few words). Insertion of unnecessary Em dashes, because he likes them, and well, I only like them when there is a real need for an interruption or a break, and to top it all, where I had used one, it was moved around, changing the meaning of my sentence. Tense error, when an past action related in my story in past narrative was switched from past perfect to simple past. Word changes that altered the meaning of sentences, such as a "could" (talking about the probability of something happening) ended up being "would", or changing the term "shock" (as in "Something that jars the mind or emotions as if with a violent unexpected blow") into "startle" (as in "A sudden mild shock" - which it definitely wasn't, in a horror story!). Or changing "one last effort" to "one last shot of effort" which I searched on Google (I wasn't familiar with this expression and English is not my first language) and only got two results returned, both from an Asian website. And while he was busy doing all that stuff, he failed to pick up a typo.
All in all, there were 50 changes that I queried. Much more than the couple he mentioned when my partner confronted him with the fact of not getting the author's consent on the edits. Maybe I was wrong in some places. But he'd definitely taken liberties with regards to his own contract.
I had already started to get a negative opinion of him from being able to look behind the scene through my partner's involvement in the project (he was also the cover artist and all round adviser on publishing matters) and his attitude on a personal level, and then after him making a public announcement about a couple of grievances he had with specific authors. When something needs to be addressed, it's normal that an announcement is made. But when specific instances are mentioned, despite no-one being named, this verges on public shaming, when you know who the persons involved are from having witnessed those instances. I don't agree with that.
When the publisher attacked me personally, using private information against me when the discussion was about the business and his "ethics", I withdrew my support.
My contract was cancelled, that for my partner's story was cancelled too, and he got the formatting done by another person, as well as the cover re-done by another artist. He threatened me for libel because the truth coming out was reflecting on his business badly, and he announced a cease-and-desist for the old cover and requested that all contributors withdrew the pictures of the former cover they had previously posted (but he didn't - the mind boggles).

I was waiting to see how things would pan out before sharing my experience openly. After all, he was new. He's just said that he didn't know what being an editor meant. He doesn't have that many stories out (a few shorts which don't seem to mention an editor, and one published). He's also just stated that he thought an editor was there to make things look good, based on the definition he found in a dictionary (as if reading a definition makes one fit for the job!). He also mentions the problems he met as a first-time editor, but somehow makes it sound that the problems were due to authors simply expecting an editor to proofread their story. Which I know is not the truth. They just didn't expect the publisher to put out stories after questionable editing, which, in my case, made me much less happy with my story. I'm just waiting to see if he's going to learn from his mistakes. He eventually relented and allowed authors to check their edits in the end, despite lamenting the fact that the book release would be delayed. But it was in the authors' interest, and I'm glad I started this. He was of the opinion that only his neck was on the line, since the book bore his name as an editor. I'm sorry, but authors have a stake in it too. It's their name under the title after all. And no one wants to get a bad review for something that is out of their control. I'll see how things go. Maybe someone else will ride the drama-llama in the future. It's a bit disheartening that you can't promote books containing your friends' stories. Pondering whether to warn others, when your friends are associated with this company you're reporting is conflicting.

I decided to self-publish my story, in the end. I'm not aiming for fame or recognition as a writer, I'm quite happy with entertaining only a few people. This experience really put me off publishers. I know they're not all like that, but I need to get over all the negative feelings I experienced throughout the process before I decide to submit my stories again. And that won't be to a new publisher with no track record, and not without doing a lot of prior research, I promise you that. The wasted time, the grief, the anger, and the disappointment are not worth it, if this were to happen again. One should always learn from their mistakes


Hi Old Hack, I've searched around the forum while I was waiting for my membership to be confirmed, but couldn't find a story that was similar to mine other than that of the guy whose story was going to be published in a magazine but eventually wasn't. Is this the one you're referring to? It's my first time on the forum, so it wasn't me, but if you can point me to it so I can have a look, I'd be really grateful

Thanks everyone for your help Sorry I couldn't reply for a while, I had to stop and do some work

No, sorry, it's a complicated story.

The publisher/editor was a client of my partner's. My partner is a writer/graphic artist, and he was in charge of the cover and the formatting of the anthology for the publisher, for which he was being paid for. But on the side, on the basis of friendship (which ended up being one-sided) he dispensed a lot of advice to the publisher, since he was more knowledgeable, being himself published a few times, having contacts among publishers, and being knowledgeable about book formatting, Createspace and all that.
But the company was that of the publisher/editor himself.
My story was submitted in the same way as anyone else who submitted for the anthology. My partner's story was selected because the publisher liked it and thought it would be nice to have it in the anthology.

My partner being in charge of the formatting, the publisher/editor was sending him the stories ready to be included the file that would be the final book. He had no dealings with the authors and didn't know what the publisher/editor was doing on his side.

Edit: I was not involved with any of the business side of things directly, just through being supportive and involved with what my partner was doing.
Hope that makes things clearer

Oh that we did Bufty Thanks for commenting