Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

OT I am wearing this EC track pants right now

victoriastrauss said:

Sigh.

- Victoria

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Seriously, it feels like the captain of the Titanic was just assigned to the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Seriously.

madmumbler said:

Seriously, it feels like the captain of the Titanic was just assigned to the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Seriously.

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LOL

As someone who has pubbed with both EC and Noble (EC first), I can say there was much cussing when I saw the Jill-now-at-EC shit. No. Just no. I know people make mistakes and all that, but I spent many a night in tears and days with attorneys during the Noble implosion. Her approach to the whole matter was appalling (and don't get me started on how she handled things BEFORE everything went to crap). If I hadn't already requested the rights back to my EC books (only one left to go), this news right here would make me run.

Would everybody feel this way? Probably not. But after a year-long battle, I thought I was through with ever having to even think about her or Noble Romance. No way, no how would I work with her again as long as I have a choice in the matter. And right now, I damn well do.

Filigree said:

Pub Net is just entertaining to watch, in all its sincere stridency. 'EC flush with cash' is not what I'm deducing from all those very late royalty payments (and those tax liens!) But I'm not bothering with the slap-fight on Twitter.

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I completely understand your position. I wish I didn't feel like someone needed to challenge the WTFery. Or that that someone should include me.

Stridency is such a great word.

Every time I think about pubnt, I remember Robert Pattinson talking about Edward Cullen and how earnest he was. It wasn't entirely a compliment.

Filigree said:

I'm not likely to sub to EC until it shows marked improvement in many areas. I'm not a target reader - no EC books for me right now. Even before this case, I knew EC was not the publisher for me.

I would *like* for it to survive and grow stronger, because the loss of any market is a loss to all of us in the e-rom field.

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While EC does publish some stuff that overlaps with my taste, in general my taste lies outside its core strengths.

I just don't see how they can survive.

MandyHarbin said:

Would everybody feel this way? Probably not. But after a year-long battle, I thought I was through with ever having to even think about her or Noble Romance. No way, no how would I work with her again as long as I have a choice in the matter. And right now, I damn well do.

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I feel this way as well - very strongly. Strongly enough that when that whatever the hell it is showed up on Twitter, the memories reminded me of the support I'd gotten from so many in the community and I felt the need to return the favor, so to speak, to show that I stand behind the authors suffering through this mess.

And seeing that name show up as an EC editor just turned my stomach. Had to share some of the nightmare. Maybe it's foolish of me, but my intentions in engaging the lunatic are to ensure authors who see BS that is being posted and soundly renounced and debunked will steer clear and avoid potential heartache and disaster.

I will say one thing, I learned a lot from my experience with Noble. I am better armed for the future, that's for sure and it's worked in my favor ever since.

Gianna

GiannaSimone said:

I will say one thing, I learned a lot from my experience with Noble. I am better armed for the future, that's for sure and it's worked in my favor ever since.

Gianna

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Me, too Gianna. Once bitten and all that. It has definitely made me think long and hard before I sign with anyone. Granted, mistakes can and will be made and things change, but I know I'm a stronger person now then I was then.

I honestly *hope* Jill learned from her mistakes, too, but I will not be putting that to the test. Uh-uh, no way.

If they hire Lodewyk Deysel from Silver, they can claim a hat trick from Hell.

I'm sorry, but any serious business should do due diligence and research the background of people they hire BEFORE they hire them (or contract them or whatever), especially a company as under fire as EC now is in terms of PR.

Do I hope EC pulls it out? Well, I hope that my friends who are owed money get paid.

The outstanding tax liens are enough of a red flag not to submit to them. The lawsuit is enough of a red flag not to submit to them. When you add up the multitude of reports of late/missing payments, that's enough of a red flag not to submit to them. Any of those on their own are red flags. Put them together, along with the Nut and all the other unprofessional conduct, it surely doesn't add up to a hunky-dory picture of corporate health.

Adding someone to their staff who was part of another public implosion of a publisher?

IMO, no. Just...no.

I'm rooting for my friends (and everyone else owed) to get paid and get their rights back, and that no one else in the future gets screwed over. As to the "health" of EC, it's like watching a lung cancer patient still burning through three packs a day, from this vantage point.

Deirdre said:

I've heard that authors are no longer assigned editors, and a given work is assigned to an editor at the time the work comes in.

I don't know if that's the case, but it would explain why, for example, Lolita Lopez hadn't been told who her new editor was.

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I can confirm that that was what was explained to me by both Raelene and the editor that I was working with on my one novella released from EC.

madmumbler said:

The outstanding tax liens are enough of a red flag not to submit to them. The lawsuit is enough of a red flag not to submit to them. When you add up the multitude of reports of late/missing payments, that's enough of a red flag not to submit to them. Any of those on their own are red flags. Put them together, along with the Nut and all the other unprofessional conduct, it surely doesn't add up to a hunky-dory picture of corporate health.

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Here's one that, IMHO is even bigger but no one's mentioned yet.

Unlike other houses, you won't get the above-the-fold home page promo.

As a writer, I'd want a real shot at having the big book of the week, you know? And have my publisher treat me like I'm a valued author.

Deirdre said:

Here's one that, IMHO is even bigger but no one's mentioned yet.

Unlike other houses, you won't get the above-the-fold home page promo.

As a writer, I'd want a real shot at having the big book of the week, you know? And have my publisher treat me like I'm a valued author.

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Good points, clearly made.

On a side note, though - what's that program/app/site you've got that lists all the author's books and sales info?!? It's like Sales Rank Express but a million times better!

Captcha said:

Good points, clearly made.

On a side note, though - what's that program/app/site you've got that lists all the author's books and sales info?!? It's like Sales Rank Express but a million times better!

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It's KindleSpy, a Chrome browser extension. It's pretty awesomesauce. I'd like to thank the #notchilled person who put that bird in my ear.

It scrapes and re-presents the existing Amazon page you have open, so if you open an author's page, then click on the icon, it'll scrape the page for books and sales rank info.

$37 well spent, imho.

Deirdre said:

It's KindleSpy, a Chrome browser extension. It's pretty awesomesauce. I'd like to thank the #notchilled person who put that bird in my ear.

It scrapes and re-presents the existing Amazon page you have open, so if you open an author's page, then click on the icon, it'll scrape the page for books and sales rank info.

$37 well spent, imho.

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What?!? Not FREE?!?

(Amazing how spoiled I've gotten, expecting all apps to be free! But you're right, this one might be worth the price....)

EC said they didn't want to pursue the TRO any more, so the judge denied the TRO.

As a bit of a personal update, I received word this weekend that EC will be reverting rights to my three paranormal titles. Everything was on time and as specified in the contract, no fuss. I requested reversion two weeks before the DA blog was posted. My contemporary titles are now eligible for reversion and I'll be requesting those back this week.

I know there has been some talk about authors who are having issues getting titles back, but it looks like small fry like me are being let go without an issues. I will note that my sales there have been exceptionally low since the "accounting software changeover," with my biggest selling EC book only managing 55 copies.

At the end of August, I requested cancellations on 3 contracted but not yet published projects; two were granted, one denied. I also requested reversions on 6 published titles based on sales numbers. The 6-month mark for them to respond is approaching, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

KimJo said:

At the end of August, I requested cancellations on 3 contracted but not yet published projects; two were granted, one denied. I also requested reversions on 6 published titles based on sales numbers. The 6-month mark for them to respond is approaching, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

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Did they have an explanation for why they granted two cancellations but not the third?

Trying to stop the hemorrhage of authors, maybe?

Captcha said:

Did they have an explanation for why they granted two cancellations but not the third?

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Yes. On the two they granted, they were in violation of the contractually-stated timeline to start the editing process. They were just barely within that timeline on the third.

And I heard back from them yesterday on the reversion requests... Five of the six were granted. I'd forgotten that the sixth story, in addition to being published as a standalone, was used in one of their print anthologies, which is why they didn't give that one back. I'm okay with that.

KimJo said:

And I heard back from them yesterday on the reversion requests... Five of the six were granted. I'd forgotten that the sixth story, in addition to being published as a standalone, was used in one of their print anthologies, which is why they didn't give that one back. I'm okay with that.

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That's a relief!

Over on Twitter, one person reported receiving royalties for May, June, and August.

https://twitter.com/seege1977/status/564967006030422016

Deirdre said:

That's a relief!

Over on Twitter, one person reported receiving royalties for May, June, and August.

https://twitter.com/seege1977/status/564967006030422016

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I haven't been following closely, just what trickles through my tweet stream, but that's the first one I've seen confirmed as being late per contract.

I received August, September and October today, split between two checks. I think I made enough this time to take one of my kids out to eat, provided they order from the dollar menu. The checks are getting progressively later, but still within the quarterly contract terms.

VoireyLinger said:

I haven't been following closely, just what trickles through my tweet stream, but that's the first one I've seen confirmed as being late per contract.

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I found that interesting, too. There have also been a couple of reports about 1099 discrepancies, but I haven't heard any author royalty ones on the scale of what happened last year. (But, then, I'm unlikely to at this stage, so there's that.)

VoireyLinger said:

I received August, September and October today, split between two checks. I think I made enough this time to take one of my kids out to eat, provided they order from the dollar menu. The checks are getting progressively later, but still within the quarterly contract terms.

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Sigh. I'm reasonably sure, based on spot checking, that EC's books have serious visibility problems at Amazon in particular.

Deirdre said:

Sigh. I'm reasonably sure, based on spot checking, that EC's books have serious visibility problems at Amazon in particular.

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On the rare occasion that they Tweet or FB the cover of a new release, I almost ALWAYS find myself going "THAT isn't going to make it past the Amazon filter criteria."

Courtney's got a great blog post about a weird turn of events:

http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblings/2015/02/12/the-nut-takes-a-bow-notchilled/