Rob, your work disappeared--as you specifically asked for in June, as I recollect. Remember? When you were sending demands to me to take the Covenants books down?--because all *your* work at AMP is also *my* work. In order for AMP to get paid for the Aurora Regency imprint, my rights to all my books had to return to me. It was AMP's responsibility to inform you of that.
Now, on to more important matters--
AMP defaulted this morning on its contractual responsibility to have all Aurora Regency and Aurora Regency Historicals book down from the third party sites and also on turning over the website, email and blogger accounts to Musa. Our contract with AMP stated specifically that these events would take place BEFORE September 20, 2011--an allowance we granted to AMP in order to give the owner the necessary time to remove the books.
This was not done.
The owner of AMP had no trouble rushing to the bank to cash the check, but couldn't manage to fulfill her contractual obligations after that. Despite numerous phone calls, emails and text messages warning her of the impending breach, the owner refused to respond.
In addition, the paychecks for the staff--editors, artists and administrative staff--which were due on August 25 were never paid. In five days, AMP will be two months in arrears on those paychecks. Here, too, despite repeated efforts to assist the owner in getting these royalties paid out on time, the owner either neglected to show up at appointed times or conveniently 'slept through' appointments where I was going to teach her how to do the royalties.
When the senior staff left AMP, we left the owner with the following: over a month and a half of books ready for formatting; all cover art for those books; a full staff; a release schedule set with multiple releases for each week through 2012; multiple email accounts that were all up to date; authors, editors and artists who'd begun to believe in AMP again; royalties and royalty statements provided correctly for the previous month and in progress for the current month; a brand new website with a shopping cart that was up to date; a tracking system where she could see the progress of each book within the company; a system for reviews in places and already active; the additional interest that a successful promotional campaign during AMP's anniversary week had generated; a historical fiction imprint that released over forty books in its first year that never garnered anything lower than a four star review, an imprint which, in its first year was responsible for more than forty percent of AMP's income--an imprint I built without any support, assistance, or financial input from AMP that I subsequently had to pay money to free from AMP; a new speculative fiction imprint ready to launch with releases set for frive months in the future; two new head editors a the imprints who were capable of running those imprints independently of AMP; and a group of loyal authors and staff who were willing to forgive her any small mistakes right at the beginning. Even more importantly, in the two months we took over AMP, we posted sales increases for the company in double figures--the first of those two months was never paid; the second of those two months is due to be paid on the 25th.
This is what she did with all that.
She released two books. Two. Both of them were released late. One was formatted incorrectly. Neither has been sent out for review. One was subsequently purchased in the Aurora Regency buyout by Musa.
AMP has continued to sell books that are out of contract, thus violating the authors' copyrights. AMP has continued to NOT pay earned royalties, both to the authors and the editors. AMP has defaulted--quel horreur!--on its contractual obligations in the purchase of the Aurora Regency imprint to Musa Publishing. AMP is no longer responding to any phone calls, text messages, emails, certified letters or snail mailed demands for information or satisfaction.
A plethora of authors are trapped at AMP as well--having sent in signed contracts to the owner and then never receiving a signature page back. They're trapped in limbo--no signed contract, no release date, no editing, no contact, no book. Despite numerous please to just release all those authors from contracts AMP obviously wasn't going to fulfill, the owner has refused to consider the release of anyone.
Some authors are begging AMP to let them PURCHASE their rights back. They, too, are ignored.
AMP had been given a second lease on life in the late spring and early summer. My only hope now for the authors and books still trapped at AMP is that the company closes, does not declare bankruptcy, and releases all those authors and books from contractual purgatory. There are a lot of people out a lot of money.
The senior staff that resigned? AMP owes them collectively for back pay, services (like website construction and design), etc. over six thousand dollars. My editorial royalties for the hundred plus books I edited while at AMP runs into thousands of dollars more. We were willing to forgive every cent of that money in exchange for as many contracts as possible, but AMP preferred to remain indebted to us and hold on to those increasingly bitter and angry authors and their books.
This demise is not pretty, it is no longer avoidable, and scores of people are suffering financially from the owner's continued ability to stick her head in the sand and avoiding the cold, hard facts that she's not only ruined her company, but the lives of people who just a few short months ago thought she was one of the good guys in epublishing.