Yikes! I hate hearing that about any publisher. I do have books with them and haven't experienced the same problems. However, I write for their Aurora Regency imprint and so only deal with the editors for that line.
Wow, I hope this isn't going to be another publisher implosion. Like I said I know authors with them and none of them have said anything negative about Aspen Mountain. In fact they were recently recommended to me as a good publisher to try by one of my friends who's with them.
It didn't necessarily surprise me, but I certainly hope it's just a temporary hiccup and not an indicator that this house is CTD.
I have to be honest that I've had no real problems with AMP, I've had to email twice to get an answer, but I got a swift reply to my second mail. It's the sales that have been depressing, and why I'll be pulling my one novella with them when the rights expire in January 2011 and offering it to Carina or perhaps making it into a novel. It was my first experience with ebook only, and makes me wonder whether historical readers prefer print or something.
http://1placeforromance.com/I knew you were with them--we've discussed Aspen Mountain before--and not happy with the sales. I think you might be right about readers of historic m/m preferring print.
That being said, I'm wondering what's going on at Aspen Mountain. All the reports I've heard from the other authors who are with them were good, but they seem to be starting the long swirl down the toilet, which is going to be a terrible shame should that happen.
(As an aside, they are the publisher running 1 Romance eBooks. Which makes me wonder if there's a connection between the boondoggles at Aspen and the ebook distribution site. Could they be overextended? I know 1 Romance eBooks changed their name after they were sued by All Romance eBooks, but can't remember what they changed their name to, and there is no redirect from the old URL.)
Aspen Mountain Press was not running 1 Romance ebooks. That's inaccurate. Aspen Mountain Press is owned and operated by Sandra Hicks. 1 Romance Ebooks was operated by Sandra's ex-husband. That is the only connection between the two.
Blog posts that were made at Aspen Mountain over the summer sort of blurred the lines. Also, the guy running 1 Place for Romance--formerly 1 Romance eBooks--used the connection to encourage us at Shadowfire Press to trust them--1 Place--with distribution. Their claim was that they were a stable and trustworthy company because Aspen Mountain had a good reputation. So if my perceptions don't match yours, I'd say it's understandable.
So, separate but not entirely unassociated. As I recall Sandra was named in the suit by oneromancebooks, but they could well have been in error in naming her.
As a new author, I have to admit I find this experience disheartening and the silence rather loud. It wouldn’t be so bad if I were being kept in the loop. I have no clue where I stand with this company or what I should be expecting. Am I asking too much to know where I stand? Is the wait time between contract acceptance and editing usually longer than my 6 months wait time?.
As a new author myself, I don't have a lot of experience to draw on. My current publisher started the editing process about a month after the contract was signed (September), and we've had several back-and-forth iterations since. I've been given regular status updates.
What I'd find most worrying would the the lack of response to inquiries and general sense of disorder that you've encountered. Previously, I dealt with a publisher who exhibited the same pattern...and soon after went out of business.
I really hope this isn't the case with Aspen, for your sake and all those with the company.
Have you emailed the EIC again?
I'd send her an email. CC the Publisher. Tell them the date you signed the contract and that you would like to know what the status of your ms is. Tell them the delay is interfering with your ability to effectively promote the work.
Check your contract; is there a date by which the book has to be published?
Or of course...contact them and ask for your rights back, since they obviously don't plan to use them, and you shouldn't be sitting on your thumbs for months waiting.
Thanks so much for the advice, Stacia. I'll definitely email the EIC again, but how do I find out who the publisher is? Or is that a stupid question? It was my belief that they were one and the same.
The Publisher and EIC are usually different people. The name(s) should be on your contract, or available in the author loop as some sort of staff list or something. Most epublishers seem to have those.