Greek Sphinx, Delphi
This post is for authors, editors, and cover artists who’ve left, or who are trying to leave, Ellora’s Cave. I’ve got a section for other resources for EC authors at the end of this post.
Authors
At least one of the following needs to be true:
1. Asked for your rights to be reverted in 2014 (or 2015) or had your rights reverted in 2014 (or 2015). Or, and I hope this isn’t true for you, your rights were reverted but EC is still selling your titles.
2. Have taken your EC titles off your website. Or, if they’re reverted, have re-published at least some of them.
3. Have spoken up since December 2012 about late royalties, missing royalties, or suspiciously declining royalties in a public post (blog, facebook, google+, whatver) or tweet.
4. Have had an EC title for which EC has sold the contract to another publisher.
5. Have publicly posted that you’re afraid to speak up. (Thanks for the idea, Courtney!)
You must also have a non-EC title to promote, since many of the readers of this thread may not wish to enrich Ellora’s Cave.
Click on author name for the author’s website.
- Cat Grant. She’s gotten her three Ellora’s Cave titles reverted (soon to be re-published) and has more than twenty titles from other sources.
- Kit Tunstall. “What I do know is I haven’t been paid for three out of the past nine months[…]” Later received a check, commented, “The low amount of my check is hardly indicative of the financial health of the company.” Note: she later deleted those posts, and they were not archived on archive.org.
- Evanne Lorraine. talks about deleting the covers of her EC titles from her website:
I loved my editor, thought their cover art was brilliant, and was very fond of the regular royalty checks.
Yesterday I deleted those covers from my website, which makes me want to sob.
I still adore those stories, but Ellora’s Cave isn’t paying me. I sent them formal notice requesting payment and the reversion of my rights. I received an automated response to both emails stating they’re overwhelmed with requests. - Avril Ashton. Spoke about royalty issues. “I’m going to say that once again Ellora’s Cave isn’t paying royalty checks. I’m going to say that once again, emails and phone calls and fucking homing pigeons are being left unanswered. Silence on all correspondence.”
- Jan Springer. Commented on DA, “Jan, one of the EC authors not getting paid and fighting to get her rights back.”
- Trista Ann Michaels. Spoke about royalties not arriving.:
Another month has gone by and no check from EC. Emails and phone calls go unanswered, just like always. I have no doubt if I was to go up there in person, I would find the office doors locked.
. . . .
It’s a shame that we at EC have to resort to such a tactic, but I’m adding my name to the list of authors who are asking that readers not buy their EC titles. We’re not getting paid for them anyway. - Lex Valentine. Lex commented on Passive Voice: “I got a lovely check September 23 dated August 31 for May royalties. It was $43 and change. The only thing I found curious was how it took nearly a month for that check to get from Ohio to Southern California and that I got a check at all considering some of my EC author friends haven’t been paid.”
- Lynne Connolly has said “I just want my rights back.”
- India Masters, also writing as Keira Cole. She comments below, “My last check, covering royalties earned for the month of April, was $48.94 – around 1/4 of my usual earnings.”
- Abigail Barnette/Jenny Trout. One of my favorite people, and I’m a fan of her Boss series. She says:
I’m an Ellora’s Cave author. I only have one book there, and it has never been a bestseller, but I love it and I would be heartbroken if it were to end up as part of a bankruptcy settlement. So, I asked for a reversion of my rights last week, after a summer of rumblings from other authors who weren’t happy with their experience with the company. I myself have never had any payment issues with Ellora’s Cave, but having been in the business for almost a decade, I’ve learned that when authors are saying that they aren’t getting paid, other things aren’t getting paid, either. As Litte points out in her post, if a company goes bankrupt, authors can lose their rights permanently, so some Ellora’s Cave authors are faced with a difficult, possibly bridge-burning choice right now. I’ve never met an Ellora’s Cave staff member about whom I could say a bad word, and it pains me to cut ties with a publisher that I feel has treated me well, but in business you have to make hard decisions to protect your interests.
- Lynne Connolly. Comments below, and has removed her EC titles from her website as well as gotten reversions on her unpublished titles.
- Shoshanna Evers. Comments below, and has gotten several titles reverted.
I would also like to add that everyone who works at or for EC has always been awesome to me, and Romanticon used to be my favorite convention. I’m sad this is going down the way it is.
- Cassandra Carr. Comments below. Has gotten two shorts reverted, but still has several titles at EC.
- Regina Cole. Has a non-EC book available for pre-order, Draw Me In.
- Suz deMello. Commented below, asking for rights back on five titles.
- Kate Sherwood. Tweets: “Please don’t buy my EC novella. I don’t want any profits from it to contribute to EC’s lawyers’ bills. #notchilled” She’s got other titles available.
- Liz Crowe. Commented below, and generously offered the Stewart Realty series ebook for our readers.
- Kelly Maher. Asked for reversion of her EC titles.
- Lissa Matthews. Spoke up about royalty accounting and also getting a cover that wasn’t compliant with Amazon’s standards.
I have one book filtered at Amazon and I don’t even have a year’s worth of sales numbers on it, but I can tell you it definitely meets the ‘sells less than 100 copies in a calendar year’… No one even knows the book exists unless I tell them. And it’s filtered because I didn’t specify No Nudity for the cover. Okay, I took blame for that, but how was I supposed to know I had to tell Ellora’s Cave what their distributors would and wouldn’t allow on covers in order for them to be found by readers and not stashed so deep into the abyss? I had never had to specify that before and believe you me, I learned that lesson. Because the next and final book that I submitted specified on the cover art form NO NUDITY!
- Berengaria Brown. Comments below. She’s got plenty of non-EC titles for you to read. Thanks, and welcome!
- Delphine Dryden. Comments below. I have read and enjoyed her Cosmo/Harlequin titles, but she’s got plenty of others.
- Leigh Ellwood. Comments below. She’s got quite a few titles out and is a very versatile writer.
- Lolita Lopez / Roxie Rivera Wrote a heart-wrenching blog post about her EC relationship. She has plenty of titles to entice you with, especially if you like paranormal or sci-fi in your romance.
- Nina Pierce. Comments below, and has asked for reversions on her EC titles when her sales started slipping.
- Angelia Sparrow. Comments below. Many of her EC books reverted before the recent issues with EC.
- Lynn Rae. Pinged me on Twitter, and has other non-EC books featured on her website.
- Emily Ryan-Davis. Has gotten reversion on her Ellora’s Cave titles. She’s got plenty of other books for you to read!
- Kate St. James. Has gotten reversion on her EC titles and has other titles for you to read.
- Blair Valentine aka Bonnie Vanak. Has spoken out about EC’s slow royalty payments and asked people not to purchase her EC titles.
- Jane Leopold Quinn. Has asked for reversion, but also has non-EC books to check out.
There is a Kindle book list of EC authors who have non-EC books for authors who’ve contributed to the Dear Author/Jane Litte Defense fund.
Additionally, A. Nonny Mouse comments below, “I’m an EC author who’s received obviously backdated checks, suspect royalty statements missing books, whose questions and concerns have gone unanswered by TPTB. I’ve removed all EC books from my website and have asked for all my rights to be returned. Obviously, they haven’t bothered to respond.”
To Participate
Please comment with, email me with or tweet me with your pen name and website (and link to the post if #3), and I’ll add it to this author list. Fan of an author not listed? Let me know!
Note: EC covered a wide variety of erotic romance tropes, and there’s no guarantee that any particular author will write something that speaks to you as a reader.
Editors
You’ve commented publicly, even if anonymously, that payments to you are currently, or have been recently, late.
- Just sayin’ comments: “I am a former EC editor and have not been paid since the beginning of the summer.” I believe, but obviously can’t be sure, this may be the same “Just sayin'” who comments below.
- And me commented below saying they have not been paid since early summer.
- This makes three adds, “I’m yet another EC editor who hasn’t been paid.”
- Me too also comments below, “I’m an unpaid editor too.”
- Lemon Squeeze Editing is a group of laid off EC editors now offering their services as freelance editors.
Cover Artists
You’ve commented publicly, even if anonymously, that payments to you are currently, or have been recently, late.
- Dar Albert Commented on Avril Ashton’s blog:
They owe me for covers for two months. They worked me like a dog, took the art, and now tell me nothing. Or that they have no idea when I will be paid. I am really frustrated. Got bills, got a life, got just me, no back up, and now I have no loyalty for a company I served for six years as an artist.
If you need covers for a book project, you can contact Dar at Wicked Smart Designs. I’m sure she’d appreciate the work.
Promotion Opportunities
- There’s a Google Doc form for each non-EC book by an EC author for bloggers to promote. Here’s the tweet. This is a great project to help get exposure for authors. Here’s the resulting web page.
- Felicia would like to feature EC authors on Top Off Tuesday. (I’m not affiliated with that, just passing along the info.) Covers should have a male with a top all or partly off.
- Angela would like to feature EC authors with non-EC titles on Boosting the Signal.
- Kastil Eavenshade tweets that her blog is open for EC authors to promote non-EC titles.
- Agents of Romance tweeted that they would love to help EC authors promote non-EC titles.
- Romancing Rakes wants to feature non-EC titles by EC authors for the entire month of November. Whoa.
- ScuttlebuttReviews comments below. “We currently cannot commit to reviews, but can accept author promos, guest posts, and the like. Please note that we only accept GLBTQ books, the bulk of which are MM/Gay.”
Copyright
Several EC authors have noted that Ellora’s Cave did not register their copyrights. Victoria Strauss tweets how to check if your copyright was registered. More direct link is here.
Romance Writers of America
By the way, if you are an Ellora's Cave author and an RWA member, you can file a complaint with RWA. #notchilled
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan) September 29, 2014
Here's how you do it. (1) Here is the Industry Code of Ethics: http://t.co/d2LABorDDD There is no easy way to report… #notchilled
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan) September 29, 2014
…so step (2) is to e-mail the RWA president (emails here: http://t.co/D94jUfVhif) and say you're reporting a violation. #notchilled
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan) September 29, 2014
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
If you’re a SFWA member and are having trouble receiving payment, or believe your royalties aren’t accurate, you may be able to use SFWA’s Grievance Committee resource. Not all EC titles fall under SFWA’s purvue, but many stories are science fiction, paranormal romance, or similar genres.
Comment Note
Note: Comments use gravatars. If you wish to comment anonymously, be careful. To the extent the law permits, I will protect anonymous commenters. Also, all comments are moderated unless there’s a previously-approved comment from you.
Last week, I asked my webmaster to remove all Ellora’s Cave books from my web page, stating that I will not provide anyone free promo if I’m not being paid. My last check, covering royalties earned for the month of April, was $48.94 – around 1/4 of my usual earnings. I received the check in July and have received nothing since. I emailed Raelene that I’d been patiently waiting for a check since the “CEO” sent out that rambling email blaming everything on Amazon. Her response to me was “I’m so sorry.” She went on to explain that she had no access to the information I was seeking – do I have a check coming and if so when was it mailed – but that she would forward it to the royalties department. Got a brief response asking for which pay period but nothing since. I really do not expect that I’ll receive anything and if I do, it won’t be enough for me to pay the few bills I have nor the 8 medications I take daily. I’m now trying to figure out which ones I can NOT get refilled and still stay alive. Like Lex and Cat, I’m disabled, I’m single, and I’ll be 61 this December (which is fast approaching – oh my!) I do have a few India Masters books-backlist stuff- with Beyond the Page Publishing, and two titles under the name of Keira Cole. Come the end of October, I’m retiring the India Masters brand. The books through BtP will still be available but I won’t do any promo for them. Any further books I may write, as my health permits, will be published under the Keira Cole name. I have publicly encouraged readers not to purchase any of my Ellora’s Cave books and will say so here, once more. I’d rather not get a dime than to throw even my little pittance into their coffers. I’m not trying to be mean or throw a temper tantrum. It’s a matter of principal and I’d rather have nothing coming in, it’s as simple as that. What good does 48 bucks do me in the grand scheme of things? Nothing, that’s what. If a check does magically appear in my mail box, I will drive like Richard Petty, straight to the bank, and cash that sucker and I’d advise anyone else to do the same. So, sue me. If they want my rusty old 22 year old Buick Roadmaster station wagon, come on down to Florida and hook that sucker up to the tow truck and more power to you. Want my thrift shop furniture? Rent a Uhaul and come and get it. That’s all I own. Most of my life I’ve had nothing so having nothing again just makes me shrug my shoulders because stuff is no big deal to me. As an old hippie, my philosophy has always been to never own more than I can carry in the back of the van. BUT, come after my iPod and, to quote Cat Grant, “I will cut you.” LOL. Have a wonderful day, my dear, and lets throw up our fists in support of authors, artists, and our incredibly talented editors. Solidarity will get it done.
Thanks so much for your story, India. I’m so sorry that this is disproportionately affecting disabled authors who rely on their writing income, especially when that turns out to be unreliable.
India, as a disabled reader who went through a very scary time myself a few years back, I know what it’s like to worry about how you’re going to pay for meds and wonder which one(s) you can do without this month. Check the websites of the pharmaceutical companies that make your meds. Many of them have programs to provide their medications for free for those who can’t afford to buy them. Also, check out the Healthwell Foundation. One of my medications is stupid expensive, even with Medicare drug coverage, and their grants have helped me more than once. http://healthwellfoundation.org/ Some of my doctors have been able to help me out with samples in a pinch, too.
It shouldn’t come to this. You should be paid for your hard work. I hope you’ll be able to get some help with your meds, so at least that pressure is taken off.
That’s a good point. When I was on temporary disability after my first husband died, I went through one of those programs for anti-depressants. It really really helped me.
I really hope India in particular, and all EC authors, are able to get the royalties (and sales!) due them.
Thanks Becky! I’ll definitely check it out. I do have to say that I finally got the May royalty check on the 27th of September. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Of course, it should have come in July and I suspect the push is on to get checks out under the quarterly deadline to avoid breach. My opinion, of course. Can’t say with a certainty because there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which days of the months they choose to mail them. Of course, there’s no date stamp on the envelope so who really knows if there’s any correlation between the dates on the checks and when they went out. It never occurred to me there was some nefarious reason for not having a date on the postage because I’m not an intentionally deceptive person. SMH. All of this crap is giving me a headache.
I’m glad it showed up!
I’m another editor who hasn’t been paid since early summer, and I’ve commented on DA and elsewhere about it. I’ve been keeping my mouth shut in the hopes that I might one day see some of the money I’m owed. But with their most recent actions against Dear Author, I think it’s time to cut my losses.
Thank you so much for your comment. I have no idea how many editors are affected, but four have spoken up now (that I know of).
Actually, all I want now is my rights back, with no extortionate fee attached to them. I’ve been getting monthly checks all along, but God only knows if they’re accurate.
At this point I’m willing to simply take my rights back and walk away. This whole mess has whittled my productivity down to nothing.
I’ve been wondering about accuracy. Who sees dramatically declining sales on Amazon and does nothing about it? Doesn’t even call Amazon?
That seems so bizarre to me.
I’m an unpaid editor too.
Thank you so much for your comment. Like all the unpaid, paid late, and perhaps underpaid people, I sincerely hope you get your money soon.
Thanks for the support, Deirdre. I’ve been trying to concentrate on the books I write for other publishers, but this stuff is a serious time-suck. If anyone finds an EC book on my website, please let me know and I’ll take it down. It’s a big site and I manage it myself, so sometimes I might miss something.
I’ve since received reversion of rights to my unpublished EC work. A trilogy about a political scandal set in Washington, with dragons (in proposal), a book about a psychic woman who loses everything in a traumatic rape with a vampire hero I might rewrite as a dragon, and a contemporary about a rock star manager who meets a Britney Spears type trying to turn her life around (and he doesn’t make her a star, he takes her to bed and gives her some love and understanding instead!) And yes, I listed them in case anybody has an interest in taking them up.
They are mine again, which I’m very happy about, but I still have 19 published books caught up in this. None of which are on my website any more.
Lynne, I meant to add you last night but I’ve been exhausted (wrenched a hip muscle which makes it surprisingly hard to sleep) and just missed you. Sorry about that.
Thank you so much for your comment. I’m sorry you’ve got 19 books caught up in EC given the current circumstances, but I’m also glad you’ve got your unpublished work reverted. The rock star manager one sounds like it’s right up my alley.
Please add me to any group/thread related to this topic. I am a former editor who has not been paid since June and commented earlier on this fact.
Hard to know with a pseudonym, but I believe you were already #1 on the editor list. Sorry about the lack of payment and I hope that gets fixed soon.
I’m an EC author who’s received obviously backdated checks, suspect royalty statements missing books, whose questions and concerns have gone unanswered by TPTB. I’ve removed all EC books from my website and have asked for all my rights to be returned. Obviously, they haven’t bothered to respond.
However, I have zero wish to be on the receiving end of the wounded beast’s further attacks. I don’t believe they’ll stop at Dear Author. They’ll be going after everyone who’s uttered a bad word about them until the company is finally dead at their feet.
While posting this list is great for readers who want to support the EC authors that are bravely speaking out, I can’t help but feel this is a list of targets for the crazies to chomp on next.
I really, REALLY hope I’m wrong. 🙁
There are enough people for whom your circumstances are true that I don’t believe they will be able to identify you from what you’ve stated.
I completely understand not wanting to poke the beast. People (and companies) who feel they have nothing to lose are the most unpredictable of all. Machiavelli comments on this in The Discourses when talking about Madonna Caterina (aka Caterina Sforza). Who, when they killed her husband and held her children to get her to comply with their demands, dropped trou and said, “I can make more!”
I’m hoping that the benefit of having a list of people whose work to purchase outweighs any potential downside from the spasms of a troubled firm. (IMHO: the tax liens alone justify that phrase.)
I’m grateful to EC for giving me my start in publishing, and launching my career with my first five books. I’ve been paid on time every month.
That said, I did request reversion on my books. I got Punishing the Art Thief, Ginger Snap, Chastity Belt and Hollywood Spank back, and have reissued them myself. After the email-of-which-shall-not-be-spoken, I requested my last book, Bedhead, back from them.
According to my royalty statements, it’s selling poorly enough that I should be able to get the rights back. Fingers crossed!
I would also like to add that everyone who works at or for EC has always been awesome to me, and Romanticon used to be my favorite convention. I’m sad this is going down the way it is.
I’m really glad for all the authors who, like you, got their start with Ellora’s Cave. I’m glad you haven’t had some of the troubles other authors have. Hope you can get a reversion on that last title!
I’ve added you to the list above, and also wanted to say I enjoyed your recent Entangled book.
Thank you so much, Deidre! I’m thrilled you enjoyed The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride…and Baby 🙂 xo
I just want to be done with this. I’ve asked for my rights back and haven’t gotten more than a form response to the latest, though I did get two shorts back – Take Me at the Ballgame and Birthday Boy. I’ve put them together into Sizzling Shorts, volume 2. Let’s all be adult and professional about this and do the right thing.
Glad you’ve got some of your rights back. I sincerely pray they’ll do the right thing for everyone.
Shoshanna – I hear you. There was no bigger supporter of EC than me before all this went down. I was grateful for the opportunity to edit some really wonderful writers and to acquire stories I loved and believed in. But when I see TPTB lashing out with complete and utter bullshit, filing frivolous lawsuits, I cannot keep quiet. This is a travesty of justice and I will not rest until I’ve done everything I can to make sure justice is served.
What breaks my heart is that so many fantastic authors have gotten caught up in this crap.
And I miss what EC once was. When this company was founded, it did so many groundbreaking things. Now, I’m reminded of T.S. Eliot: “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”
There has been a ton of backlash against the lawsuit. Quite a number of sites who do reviews have said they won’t review EC titles any more. I don’t know how important those reviewers are in the grand scheme of things, but hearing that as a public statement is quite jarring.
I really hope it all works out well in the end. I hope those who want their rights reverted are able to get them (me too!).
The thing I don’t like about defamation lawsuits in general is that they have a tendency to silence dissent and free speech. It can cause people (such as the anonymous commenters both here and on other blogs) to self-censor. And that sucks.
I’d say more of a whiny “it’s not my fault,” than a whimper. 😉
(I also removed all EC books from my website.)
As an avid reader I have bought ebooks from the beginning. I have some of ellora’s cave original e-books on cd somewhere around here. While I was underwhelmed by Jaid Black’s books, many of the other authors were true gems that I was pleased to discover. I have decided to not buy anymore books from EC. And have subsequently cancelled any pre-orders of future titles published by EC.
I fully support the authors, editors, and artists, that have been screwed over and will continue to buy their non EC titles.
[Deleted speculation about an author. If she wishes to post here on that matter, she’s welcome to.]
I hate that so many talented authors and newbies are getting mistreated by a publisher. [Deleted speculation about EC’s motivations.]
If DA sets up a fund for legal fees I will contribute.
First, sorry I had to edit your comment. I try not to, but I really would like to stick to first-hand knowledge and not extrapolation into motivations.
Wow, e-books on CD? Those were the days. I didn’t really start reading ebooks until 2005, when I bought a Ruby (software development) book from PragProg and discovered I liked e-books.
I started buying from Fictionwise, and started with a Samhain title similar in genre to a book I’d written but was convinced there was no market for.
I understand about the editing – I couldn’t figure out how to edit the comment myself so thank you for that. 🙂 Yeah, I bought those back 1999 or 2000. I had heard about EC from a Suz Brockmann fan forum I was on at the time. I even wrote a fan fic short but wasn’t brave enough to post it.
See, I can’t believe I didn’t hear about EC until much, much later. I guess I was just that unplugged from the romance scene. All my fellow grad school (Seton Hill) students who did romance were looking to go the traditional print way. That’s only now starting to change.
Fanfiction.net has a really supportive community if you ever want to post your fanfic somewhere. It’s quite the kick to get almost instantaneous feedback.
I’ve asked for the rights back on five titles.
Best of luck on that! I’ll add you to the list when I get home.
When I FINALLY finally finally got a title accepted by Ellora’s Cave a few years ago I was over the moon! Then I was told to change the ending. Then I “got” the cover. Now it’s off my website and I plan to take it back using the publisher’s one-fingered salute on FB that I translated as: “Hey Liz! Here’s Lust On Tap back! Enjoy and here’s to putting it right, including the lame ass title you had to use! I’m sure you won’t miss all those $4 and $10 checks from me.”
Please add me to your list. I will happily give away the entire STEWART REALTY SERIES in e-book. A series that pays the mortgage and that EC rejected 3 times (on their rewrites).
cheers!
Liz
Thank you so much, Liz. That’s a very generous offer!
I’ve asked for my rights back and have been advised they’ll “review” the possibility of reversion in 6 months. To be honest, I’m quite terrified that EC will fold before the time passes and my titles will be lost.
The review in six months thing is unfortunately common. Carolyn Jewel talks about her experience during the Dorchester collapse.
I’m hoping that things won’t be as bad with EC. I hope the best for you.
As a dedicated fan and consumer of several romance sub-genres, I’m following the Dear Author/EC set-to as a riveted bystander. I’ve been trying to glean a better understanding of the publishing industry so that the bigger picture will make more sense to me. In doing so I came across this lengthy discussion of EC’s woes following the confusing letter sent to EC authors in mid-August.
It’s on a very informative site called The Passive Voice, run by an attorney with a particular interest in the publishing industry. This conversation specifically addresses the vulnerabilities of authors when their publishing house goes bankrupt, and there are several voices of experience, including a bankruptcy attorney taking part. It seems to have some very pertinent advice for authors, including what steps to take when a company’s management starts trying to reassure everyone that bankruptcy is the farthest thing from their mind. Of course, I don’t have the experience or savvy to know how likely this is for EC, but if I were an author in EC’s stables at this point, I’d want to have as much info as I could garner. One eye opener from the discussion is that you can have all kinds of statements in your contract about protecting your works should a bankruptcy take place, but they’re “not worth the ink on the printout” since they fly in the face of longstanding bankruptcy law. Anyhow, I know it’s a long discussion, but it’s lively, and particularly interesting since it almost predicts the situation that’s now unfolding. Here’s the link: http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2014/changes-at-elloras-cave/
Of course, if it isn’t appropriate or helpful to the EC authors, I hope that Deidre will simply delete my post. Please know, authors, that your readers are routing for you in all this.
Oh, it’s absolutely a great site with a lot of great commentary.
I prefer not to speculate on legal outcomes.
I have requested my rights back to five of my seven EC titles (the others aren’t eligible). Unlike some authors, I’m fortunate that I also have books with Siren, Torquere, and Evernight. Thank you for supporting authors. Berengaria
Thanks! I’ve added you above.
You reported here that I removed my books from my website. I haven’t removed anything…In fact the our webmistress just made some updates today. I had a book on there from Triskelion and didn’t know it. There are no EC titles because the site wasn’t updated. And The Butterscotch Martini Girls is not just my site…there are several of us.
Brit
My mistake, I overinterpreted what I saw when I went to your page.
BTW, the Ellora’s cave link under “My Publishers” is misspelled in the URL part of the link (only one L), so it goes to a non-existent page.
Now if I can just figure it out…:-)…I wrote that post right after a chemo treatment…which is never wise. I’m not saying much about what’s happening because I fear hurting an author like me, who has their fingertips hanging on the edge of a cliff. We’re caught in the middle, where I’d like to gather us all like a mother hen and offer protection.
Completely understand. I can’t imagine what you’re going through with the chemo. May it be as unkind to your cancer as possible, while simultaneously being as kind to the rest of you as possible.
That too would be our webmistress…I don’t have the energy to fix any web errors…cancer does that.
BTW, you’re losing significant Internet brownie points for using the Twitter hashtag #notchilled to promote your books. That’s not what it’s for, as several people have mentioned.
#notchilled is for discussions about how people are not allowing their free speech to be curbed by Ellora’s Cave’s lawsuit and the implicit threats against anonymous commenters.
I wrote a number of books for EC and have regained the rights to all but two of them so far this year. Trying to figure out a way to afford a buyback for the remaining two. This whole thing just makes me really sad. I worked with some great folks at EC, I still have tremendous professional respect for a lot of them (and I have tried to reach out to those individuals privately where possible and express my admiration because I figure most of them could probably stand to hear something positive right now).
My own stress about the situation has been almost overwhelming at times, but I’m doing my best to re-sell some reverted books, take a crash course in self-pubbing to re-release others, and generally treat the debacle as a second chance for a lot of books that never really got much attention when EC released them the first time.
In the meantime, any sales for my non-EC books would be so vastly appreciated.
I’ve added you above; thank you so much for your comment. I quite enjoyed your Cosmo titles. You also have a beautiful website. Is that Laura Worthington’s Mandevilla font I spy?
I have only one published title with EC, which I have removed from my website. As I am a newer author it may be too soon to request reversion of my contracts but I am weighing my options.
I am an EC author. I wrote for them for several years and was really happy with my editors and the cover art. But when my sales began slipping (before I knew there was a problem), I requested my rights back. As the problems began escalating and my emails went unanswered, I sent a registered letter detailing titles, ISBNs and original reversion request dates (allowing for the 6 months in my book contracts). By the end of the year I will have the rights back to all but 3 of my titles.
It’s just sad that it’s come to this.
It is sad. And others have stated that they wish for EC to fail. I’ve never wanted that, don’t even want it now.
I’ve added you above, and hope the best for your non-EC titles and for your titles to be happily back in your hands.
I’m an EC author who started my quest for my rights in August 2013. Many of them reverted in 2014. The books are still on my website, but labeled Out Of Contract.
I have blogged several times about this:
http://angelsparrow.blogspot.com/2014/10/public-notice-to-elloras-cave.html
http://angelsparrow.blogspot.com/2014/08/books-rights-and-last-call.html
http://angelsparrow.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-dear-john-letter-or-maybe-declaration.html
Thank you Angelia, I’m adding you above as we speak.
PS – Sorry about typoing your name. I am on some pretty strong pain meds right now and haven’t had enough coffee yet.
Looks like the case is moving from state to Federal court…
http://www.cpclerk.co.summit.oh.us/PublicSite/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseNo=CV-2014-09-4421&Suffix=&Type=
I see that! Thank you for the heads up. I’ve excerpted the “Amount in Controversy” section and posted it here.
Please feel free to add ScuttlebuttReviews to your list of those willing to host EC authors with books from alternate venues. We currently cannot commit to reviews, but can accept author promos, guest posts, and the like. Please note that we only accept GLBTQ books, the bulk of which are MM/Gay.