Agents, Authors, & Publishers: Beware The Portuguese Publisher Medialivros/DIFEL

Jan. 15, 2011 - PRLog -- This is Burns-Cole Publishers, publisher of  “Sao Tome-- Journey to the Abyss-- Portugal’s Stolen Children,” and publishing contractor for “Rapto em Lisboa,” by Paul D. Cohn. “Rapto em Lisboa,” was published by DIFEL in October 2008 with this new title, and is DIFEL’s Portuguese production of “Sao Tome.” DIFEL offered to purchase our copyright for the Portuguese edition in March 2008, and we sent them a signed contract the same month. As part of the contract they agreed to an advance of €1,000, a royalty schedule, and 6-mo. reporting on sales. Because of the popular and controversial subject, DIFEL fast-tracked the production, produced a fine translation in an elegant format and had it in bookstores within six months, including a flyleaf note promoting the sequel, “A Cantora” (The Singer).

Despite our requests, they did not send a signed contract until September 2008, and  paid no advance nor supplied sales data until we threatened  a fraud complaint after finally receiving the first DIFEL sales report showing significant sales, €15,118, for the introductory three months ending January 31, 2009. Royalties for this initial period exceeded the €1,000 advance holdback. By then royalties were also past due. At first the publisher had a variety of excuses as to why no payments, and lately they refuse to respond at all. We contacted a number of authors and agents whose books have been translated and produced by DIFEL. All were either paid at least a year past due or not paid at all. Medialivros/DIFEL has a long history of fraudulent non-payments. It is our opinion that DIFEL decided from the beginning to steal our “Sao Tome” copyright. DIFEL finally paid one-half the advance, €500, and refuses further payments despite our filing the fraud complaint with the Lisbon authorities.
   
Our suggestion to writers and agents in dealing with DIFEL is to get a signed contract and payment before beginning the translation and edit. If readers wish to verify this information, contact Tiago Navarro Caeiro, President of Medialivros, tncaeiro@medialivros.pt T:  21.885.5055, or the Assistant to the Administrator, Maria Vasconcelos, Malzira.difel@medialivros.pt, or the Administrator, Rita F. Vital, rfvital.difel@medialivros.pt, T: 21.885.5055 and for INAPA, the parent company, contact the company president Afonso.Chaby@inapa.pt. You may contact us at Burnscolepub@aol.com.

To view the Portuguese edition, "Rapto em Lisboa," please go to
http://www.difel.pt/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=...

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We are the publisher of “Sao Tome-- Journey to the Abyss-- Portugal’s Stolen Children,” by Paul D. Cohn. Visit our product page on Amazon or in Portugal at the following links:

http://www.amazon.com/S%C3%A3o-Journey-Abyss-Portugals-St...

http://www.difel.pt/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=629&osCsid=e8a180f51eb05005272baa8b8939c532