Oh, and they took most of the profit of each book sale.
As I heard, they are still doing this. At least in my country (in Hungary). I heard about book writers, who do regular work besides writing. So writing a book is rather a hobby for them, than making a living. Szakács Eszter is one of them. Nowadays she is one of my favourite fantasy writers. She have an eight hours per day job. She can still write a complete book in two or two and a half years.
A few years after I published “Thumbs” my life changed drastically. I went through a divorce, moved into a new apartment, and was focused on rebuilding my life. That children’s book was the furthest thing from my mind. The last royalty check I received was mailed to me in early 2005. Time marched on and the publisher apparently lost track of me.
How is this possible? I thought that there is a proper two-way communication between the writer and the publisher. Can you contact them by telephone or by postal mail?
An attorney letter will be the next step if there’s no cooperation.
I can completely understand that. The publisher is holding (withholding) your royalty checks.
Yes, this is true even in the case of traditional publishers. Authors will usually make around $1 per copy in these situations, if they're lucky. Writing books, sadly, is more of a hobby than a money maker for most authors unless you're really exceptional at marketing.
My phone number changed, my physical address changed, and they made no effort to find me. I just recently contacted them via email and they told me they reset their password log-in credentials with my current email address but it's still not working. They've now stopped responding to emails. I'll try calling them this week. I'm nothing if not persistent. : )