Infinity Publishing’s Authors FastPencil Issues – What to Do

There have been many authors complaining about not getting royalties since FastPencil took over Infinity Publishing. Here’s what we know, and what you can consider about the buyout if you are affected.

We reviewed the now-defunct company here back in 2011.

You Retained All Your Rights

On their website, Infinity’s FAQs stated:

“At Infinity Publishing, you own your copyright and all the rights to your book. If your book has movie potential, wouldn’t you want the right to make that deal? Many book publishing companies keep certain rights and can exercise these rights without your input or approval. Infinity Publishing is a non-exclusive book publishing company and you can publish your book in other forms and formats with other book publishers. You can stop the selling of your book by us at any time and for any reason – instantly and free of hassle! Many book publishing companies require a 90-day notice and then hold certain rights for up to a year.

You should always view your book as having the potential to be traditionally published. With this in mind, never sign an agreement with a book publisher that holds any rights of any kind to your book or, upon cancellation, retains rights for any period of time.

When you self-publish your book with Infinity Publishing, you are only providing us with the right to print and distribute your book worldwide for as long as you want us to. You can cancel at any time. This is important if you think that a literary agent might be interested in your book.

When you receive your first proof book, you will send one book and a check to the Library of Congress along with the completed copyright form. You can print the copyright forms right from your computer. In about nine months, the form will be returned to you with a registration stamp on it.  You may use the copyright symbol with your work even before it is officially registered. Your work is protected as soon as you put it down in fixed form (including typing it on your computer), but must be registered if you need to prove later that someone stole your work and you are seeking damages.”

That’s all you need to know. So you can cancel with them by writing a letter with your name, address, and book title and ISBN to:

FastPencil Customer Service (Infinity)
1094 New Dehaven Street Ste 100
West Conshohocken, PA 19428

Your Royalties Might Not Be Lost

This is what FastPencil says on their site about payouts:

“FastPencil calculates author royalties quarterly and receives 3rd party sales reports within 30 days after the close of the quarter. Payments are then calculated and distributed 60 days after 3rd party sales reports are received. So long as your accrued amount is greater than or equal to $25, you will receive a check. If your amount is less than $25, the royalty will roll over quarter to quarter until it equals $25. You can see your reported royalties on your Royalties page.

• Quarter 1 = January-March
• Quarter 2 = April-June
• Quarter 3 = July-September
• Quarter 4 = October-December”

So if you made less than $25 it will not be paid out to you until it rolls over to $25 or above.

As the distributor of record, FastPencil shares royalties with authors:

• 80% of the net sale goes to the author
• 20% of the net sale goes to FastPencil

You’re Probably Not Entitled To A Refund

If the book is published and on sale, and you have received all of your services at Infinity but you are not getting royalties, you won’t get a refund for what has already been done. However, if you have paid and NOT received your book, then you can ask for a refund from your bank, card provider, or PayPal under “services not received”. However, this would have to be claimed after a substantial period of non-delivery, and also have to be filed within 180 days (6 months) from the date of purchase, and the non-delivery will have to be due to the service provider, and not due to you holding up the process in any way, such as not replying to a confirmation email or not approving an edit. As Infinity has been sold, it is legally flimsy as to whether FastPencil holds any responsibility for Infinity’s non-delivery, and you probably won’t win any refund claims from FastPencil.

A Note On Class Action Suits

An idea of a class action suit has been bandied about, but a class action requires at least fifty people to sue together. Who’s going to coordinate that, and have you really got a case? It will also cost you a huge amount of money unless a lawyer agrees to “no win no fee”.  Any suit takes years to come to court, years to be appealed, and frankly is probably a waste of your time and money.

Since you retained all your rights, you may be better off informing FastPencil that you want to move on and re-publish yourself with a new edition and ISBN number, which is free when you publish with Amazon and Amazon KDP directly.  However, you may also want to check with FastPencil that your royalties are actually over $25, as it is possible you have not reached the minimum limit for payout yet.