Edwin Mellen Press Unprofessional behavior Lewiston, New York

Publisher accepted my scholarly text for publication knowing I put up the text on the web (this was how they reviewed the material initially) and knew that to keep costs down I had visual material for the book posted online so that the book readers could access additional images. I signed a contract and mailed in my manuscript. I also sent the publishers a copy of my first fiction novel published by another press just as a kindness to the editor.

I heard nothing from the press for three months, no email inquiring as to when the book would be out was returned, no letters from the editors were forthcoming. Finally, one editor called and said because my material was online already they were opting out of publishing the book. He said they had tried to contact me by phone and email, which was a lie, I never had received any previous communication from them.

I explained that they knew the material was online in the first place, that I had not received any previous letters or calls concerning this issue, and so the editor promised a call back about situation in a week when the other staff had returned from a conference. But no phone call back to me was forthcoming and all my subsequent phone messages to them went to voice mail with no response in an any official manner.

My materials were returned without comment. I think the real reason the editors have stonewalled me was that one of the editors was put off by the satirical nature of my novel which poked fun at academia, so they came up with a lame excuse for refusing to publish me manuscript and break our contract in a most unprofessional manner.

As for other complains about this press ripping off authors as previously posted on this I can confirm this is the case as I've had a previously book published by this press over decade ago and still haven't receive a dime from sales of that book.