An author who has received written confirmation from their former publisher that their rights have returned to them can go straight ahead with the re-publishing or e-publishing process. If not, it’s usually just a case of writing to the author’s agent or publisher and getting an e-mail or letter back that confirms that the publisher agrees to return the rights to the author.
If the writer has lost touch with his or her agent, or the publisher has been taken over by a conglomerate, or was published more than, say, 30 years ago, the process of reversion of rights, or confirmation that the author holds the rights, can take longer, but Cyberscribe will advise the author on this.
If published in the last 5-8 years, you may also want to check that you didn’t sign a contract giving your former publisher electronic publishing rights, or if so, make sure that they are also being reverted to you.