My Battle to Keep My Novel Series in the Marketplace

The Odyssean challenges I faced in my decades-long quest to see my entire 14-book Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series back in print would try the patience of a saint. But I’m no saint, I’m a crime writer, and after more than a dozen years of back and forth with a half-dozen publishers, my journey of has proven overwhelmingly worthwhile. I have my rights back and my complete Greece-based series is back in print in spanking new covers as of November 20, 2025.

Let’s start at the beginning…

Forty years ago, a friend suggested I visit Greece. She said I’d love it. She was right and for the past 20 years I’ve lived there longer than any other place on earth. My love for Greece led me to abandon my life as a name partner in my own New York City law firm to live and write amid the laid-back lifestyle of Greece’s legendary Aegean island of Mykonos, a place I consider home and its people family.

When I started writing about Andreas Kaldis, I didn’t intend on becoming a chronicler of Greece’s trials and tribulations. My original goal was to write a stand-alone novel telling the story of an island I knew intimately. I wanted to talk about its people, culture, and politics and chose the mystery-thriller format because it struck me as the best vehicle for exploring how a tourist island might respond to a threat to its new-found economic glory.

My plans changed when Andreas effectively turned my debut novel, Murder in Mykonos, into Greece’s #1 bestselling English-language book, followed by attaining bestseller status across much of the United States. I’ve now published 14 books in the series (more to come) and been honored by The New York Times as Greece’s thriller writer of record.

I owe a lot to Andreas, a second-generation cop and honest observer of his times who perseveres despite all that life and the system throw at him. He’s intelligent, determined, shrewd and professional, with unfettered access to all levels of Greek society, be it the seamy underbelly of its degenerate bottom rung or the glittering lifestyles of its movers and shakers; a fearsome force in my collage of fast-paced novels probing Greece’s rich cultural heritage and enormously colorful present.

Little did I realize in fashioning Andreas’ character and experience how much I would later call upon his fictional perseverance as inspiration in my real-life efforts to preserve his life story and my body of work in print.

In 2008, my debut Kaldis novel was published in Greece followed by the US, UK, and Germany; with a different publisher in each locale, some small, some behemoth. By 2025, I had published 14 Kaldis books with six different publishers, each with its own contractual form of “out of print” reversion clause.

Those pesky clauses often lead to unhappy authors and serious differences of opinion with their publishers. Authors who claim their books are out of print want their rights back to go it alone or shop them elsewhere, and publishers are reluctant to give up their claim to potential streams of cash that require little if any further investment on their part.

As a lawyer, I understand both positions. As an author, I JUST WANT MY RIGHTS BACK.

You might think my legal training offered me an advantage in negotiations. I’m sure it did in some instances, but a far more significant factor in reaching a fair resolution proved to be each publisher’s institutional attitude toward the reversion of rights.

In my case, all but one publisher agreed to revert its rights to me relatively soon after my incessant but courteous prodding led them to verify the facts I’d offered in support of my request. As for the one holdout, its intransigence for over a dozen years was a frustrating but minor inconvenience until one day it became a major one. That situation required a different approach. One that had me seeking out someone higher up on the publisher’s decision-making chain of command who promptly saw the wisdom in avoiding a public kerfuffle.

Today, my entire series has found a new home and new life with Severn House. It’s been quite a journey. But I’m happy where Andreas and I have ended up. Thank you, Severn House.

Learn more about Jeffrey Siger's 14-book novel series here:

JeffreySiger.com/Books/

Book Publishing novel series Out-of-Print publishing publishing rights Reprints

Jeffrey SigerAuthor

Jeffrey Siger is an American living on the Aegean Greek island of Mykonos. The New York Times Book Review honored his work by designating Jeff as Greece’s thriller novelist of record, the Greek Government’s General Secretariat of Media and Communications selected him as one of six authors—and the only American—writing mysteries that serve as a guide to Greece, and Library Journal named his ninth book in the series, "An Aegean April," as one of the best books of 2018. He’s also received Barry and Left Coast Crime Best Novel award nominations. A consortium of producers have agreed to bring his series to the screen with filming to take place on location in Greece. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jeff practiced law at a major Wall Street law firm and while there served as Special Counsel to the citizens group responsible for reporting on New York City's prison conditions. He left Wall Street to establish his own New York City law firm and continued as one of its name partners until giving it all up to write full-time among the people, life, and politics of his beloved Mykonos, his adopted home of forty years. When not in Greece, he enjoys his other home, a farm outside New York City. Jeff also has served as National Board Chair of Bouchercon World Mystery Convention and Adjunct Professor of English at Washington and Jefferson College teaching mystery writing.