• Guest please check The Index before starting a thread.

Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Anna_Hedley

Fuelled by tea and crumpets.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
1,059
Reaction score
338
Location
UK
:mob

Seriously though, I can't see any way this will turn out well.
 

nkkingston

Bemused Girl
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
1,116
Reaction score
67
Location
UK
Website
www.solelyfictional.org
I agree, BenPanced -- it's way too late to cancel the con. Not only would they still be contractually liable for all the hotel/food costs, they've already paid their speakers/airfare, etc. Plus, if they cancel, anyone who has paid an airfare to get there as an attendee could sue (even a spurious lawsuit has to be defended and that's expensive).

And god knows EC have a bad track record with lawsuits! Chrissy Brashear, Borders, trying to sue their own lawyer...

ETA - I do agree with con ought to go ahead, though. No point throwing more money down the drain for even less in return. You just have to hope that with the top bods in the same space as the authors some straight answers will be dragged out of someone.
 
Last edited:

Bubastes

bananaed
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
7,394
Reaction score
2,250
Website
www.gracewen.com
Dear Author's Twitter stream included some other weird stuff:

https://twitter.com/dearauthor/status/510288164162793473

https://twitter.com/dearauthor/status/510287770439266304

https://twitter.com/dearauthor/status/510259320878284800

https://twitter.com/dearauthor/status/510227766487564288

This article from 2013 was interesting. If EC is pulling in $15 million a year, where's the money going? And she's shopping a reality show based on EC now too?
http://www.ohio.com/news/top-storie...make-a-fortune-selling-erotic-novels-1.420106

And this is one of her new projects. :Wha:
http://bustyandtope.com
 
Last edited:

Sam Argent

Rygel XVI
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 17, 2012
Messages
828
Reaction score
70
I usually don't comment on publisher drama but wow, this is a basket of weird shit and crazy. This is one of the reasons why I love AW. When I joined, a lot of authors were still happy to work with them but there had been rumblings in the Bewares thread and I took them off my submit list. I just don't understand why people like Jaid Black crash and burn their own companies.
 

EvolvingK

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
198
Reaction score
21
Location
Vermont
Website
www.rebeccacroteau.com
But Ellora's Cave isn't small. They did extremely well for a number of years. I know they have lost some of their reputation and status during the last number of years, but it makes me wonder what happened to all the profit? I would have assumed they have a lot of money set aside to cover expenses and reinvest in the company.

According to an interview with Patty Marks in Publishers Weekly, the company was aware that they were overexposed on Amazon, and had set aside money to get through the eventual drop off, but the drop off has been very intense. I have no facts or figures to support one side or the other, but I've read the same thing from other small presses about their books showing up on Amazon one day, and not the next, so it's possible there's something really to it.

Beyond the one blog post that's being reposted and tweeted EVERYWHERE, are there other authors saying that they haven't been paid that anyone's aware of?
 

EvolvingK

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
198
Reaction score
21
Location
Vermont
Website
www.rebeccacroteau.com
Last edited:

anikd

Registered
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
This article from 2013 was interesting. If EC is pulling in $15 million a year, where's the money going? And she's shopping a reality show based on EC now too?
http://www.ohio.com/news/top-storie...make-a-fortune-selling-erotic-novels-1.420106

Is Jaid still married to that murderer? I seem to recall some years back she was working to get him out of jail (met and married him while he was in there). Maybe money has been going on legal fees...

ETA: Article from 2007 on said marriage. Blog has disappeared but can be found on wayback machine
http://web.archive.org/web/20070617.../you-cant-help-who-you-fall-in-love-with.html
 
Last edited:

junierob

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2014
Messages
52
Reaction score
2

nkkingston

Bemused Girl
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
1,116
Reaction score
67
Location
UK
Website
www.solelyfictional.org
I think the comments on the Publisher's Weekly article are interesting. It seems like multiple publishers have seen sharp swings in Amazon sales, suggesting they are playing with the algorithms. Ellora's Cave's covers have almost certainly caused them some problems with the algorithms, but there's also a suggestion in one of the comments about new authors not selling as well as they used to. Stacey Hayden speculates it's because Amazon want to sell more from the big publishers, but I'm wondering if it's an attempt to drive authors with smaller publishers into Amazon's self-pub arms. There's got to be some long term hybrid authors out there with interesting stats to share.
 

brainstorm77

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2006
Messages
14,627
Reaction score
2,057
I think the comments on the Publisher's Weekly article are interesting. It seems like multiple publishers have seen sharp swings in Amazon sales, suggesting they are playing with the algorithms. Ellora's Cave's covers have almost certainly caused them some problems with the algorithms, but there's also a suggestion in one of the comments about new authors not selling as well as they used to. Stacey Hayden speculates it's because Amazon want to sell more from the big publishers, but I'm wondering if it's an attempt to drive authors with smaller publishers into Amazon's self-pub arms. There's got to be some long term hybrid authors out there with interesting stats to share.

I think their sales slacked off on Amazon due to their high prices as others have already mentioned.

My own sales with my three publishers have not slacked off at all. Even my backlist is still selling reasonably well on Amazon. And I am far from being a big name. I write erotic romance.
 

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 30, 2006
Messages
20,733
Reaction score
2,669
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Website
www.gallagherwitt.com
I think their sales slacked off on Amazon due to their high prices as others have already mentioned.

My own sales with my three publishers have not slacked off at all. Even my backlist is still selling reasonably well on Amazon. And I am far from being a big name. I write erotic romance.

Ditto. I haven't seen any significant drops (and actually some increases) on Amazon, be they for front or backlist titles in any erotic romance genre/sub genre (gay, hetero, ménage, contemporary, etc).
 

EvolvingK

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
198
Reaction score
21
Location
Vermont
Website
www.rebeccacroteau.com
Has anyone gotten the message Dear Author is talking about here?

"Several authors have now been told this: that EC will just copyedit their books and publish them without their okay."

https://twitter.com/dearauthor/status/510218010443796480

I certainly have not, but there is a clause regarding something similar in the contract; the publisher has final authority over editing choices (which is pretty standard, as far as I know), and this could be what they're referring to.

Correction: there's clauses in the contract regarding "substantial changes", and those must be agreed on; copyediting is specifically not subject to these terms. So, if someone has submitted something that was accepted, and the author is now trying to get it back, the terms of the contract do appear to read that EC could publish it with ONLY copyediting, if they have a signed contract in hand. IANAL, just reading over my contract in my apartment. :D
 
Last edited:

KimJo

Outside the box, with the werewolves
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
4,028
Reaction score
356
Location
somewhere in Massachusetts
Website
karennacolcroft.com
Yep. I had three books under contract with EC and asked for them back when all this started. Two of the books were well out of the 90-day limit stated in the contract, so I got those back without issue. (One has already been accepted by a different publisher.)

But the third book, although accepted in May, wasn't *contracted* until July because of lack of communication. Therefore, they weren't out of compliance with the 90-day clause. It's part of their Merry Menage theme, which releases in December of this year. When I said I had concerns about having time for the book to go through the editing process before December, I was informed that they have 90 days to edit *or* to choose to proceed to publication without involving the author in the editing process.
 

madmumbler

Self-declared Queen of Dark Snark
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 27, 2008
Messages
144
Reaction score
17
Location
in my own little world
Website
www.tymberdalton.com
Jaid Black claims to have a security detail reading all of her emails and tracking people down. This is some WTF crazy.

https://twitter.com/dearauthor/status/510283325148119040

Okay, it's official. EC has jumped the shark. They're in cray-cray territory now. Either that, or someone official from EC needs to come out with some SERIOUS backpedaling and distancing of the corporate from her. That's just...batcrap crazy.
 

VoireyLinger

Angel Wing Fetish
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 10, 2010
Messages
1,595
Reaction score
127
Location
Southern US
Website
www.voireylinger.com
Beyond the one blog post that's being reposted and tweeted EVERYWHERE, are there other authors saying that they haven't been paid that anyone's aware of?

I don't personally know anyone who isn't getting a check at all. I'm getting checks, but the amounts are questionable. I'm doing well to get a six dollar monthly check. I have trouble with the concept that a new release sold less than ten copies in two months when all my previous books had decent releases. I've spoken with several authors who hand-sold twenty or more books at a book fair and were credited with less than five.

Simple fact is, of all my friends who are published with EC and close enough to discuss money and sales, none feel their checks are accurate based on past sales and their personal accounting. Over twenty authors and not a single one of them feels they are getting paid. These are people with multiple publishers. They are NOT experiencing drops in sales across the board, only from EC.

Right now, there is a mad rush to reclaim rights. The boilerplate contract allows for rights reversion if a work sells under 100 copies in 12 months, which is why authors who want out are saying please don't buy.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/