So here I am at the World Horror Con, and, as it turns out, not only is Damnation Press selling books here, but also Kim Gilchrist is here. She was on this morning's panel about small presses.
During that panel, another panelist (J. L. Benet) spoke highly of Absolute Write's BR&BC thread when the topic turned to need to research small presses before signing with them. (Writer Beware and Pred&Ed were also mentioned, and also just Googling the press's name with "scam" added to the search string to see if any red flags come up.)
When the microphone came around to Gilchrist, she (politely, calmly) registered disagreement with Benet about AW, saying she can't recommend AW because she's been flamed there and because she's had authors threaten to badmouth her there if she didn't do what they demanded.
Now. I've read this thread. I think her refusal to release discontented authors from their contracts without them paying her $800+ first is a pretty despicable act. That
post of hers that MM quoted was pretty darn unprofessional. And even if I weren't familiar with her name from this thread, I have an innate distrust of anyone saying "Don't go to AW; they all gang up on publishers to flame them there." I've been here years. I know what's usually behind such an accusation:
They didn't just take my word for it that I'm a good, successful, author-friendly publisher! They asked me hard questions I was uncomfortable answering! They told people not to sign my contracts, and I can't see what's wrong with my contract, so there must be nothing wrong with my contract, and they're just mean! They don't want my business to succeed!
But here's the thing: On this very thread, we had people calling her -- and these are all direct quotes, I've got the thread open in another tab so I get it word-for-ford -- "a failed author turned 'publisher'," "too chicken shit to come on here and explain herself," "we call her the Dragon Lady," "going out of her way to start wars with her authors." (I also remember, but cannot find to quote, a pretty nasty bit about how she's just trying to grab anything she can get.)
Some of the people commenting turned out to be sockpuppets (see the great sockpuppet invasion of 2011 in the "birthers" thread at TIO and you'll recognize names from the earlier part of this thread). But some are regulars in good standing.
In most cases, our hardworking moderators and some others of our regulars squashed that crap pretty hard. I can't praise that highly enough. Our community is a fantastic one. But we have to stay fantastic. We have to strive always, despite heated tempers, to hold ourselves to a high standard of discourse in the first place.
Here's the thing. I'm not trying to defend Gilchrist's business practices. But when criticizing a publisher's practices, it's supremely important that we here at BR&BC confine ourselves to the facts: what the contract said, whether the publisher upholds it, what the advance/royalty terms are and whether the checks come in like they should. Every negative comment needs to be an observation of fact -- "they did this," "the contract says that" -- or a factually-derived opinion -- "this contract term/business practice is bad for authors
and here's why."
The moment we start in with the personal insults, accusation of malign motivation, sweeping statements of moral character, or claiming to know someone else's inner state, that's when we lose the high moral ground. That's when we lose the ability to go back to the facts to defend our words. That's when someone like Gilchrist can say she got flamed here
and be absolutely correct. The real people here in this very real audience who heard her say that she got flamed here, they can find the posts here in this thread calling her "chicken shit" or "Dragon Lady" and see for themselves that it's true, she was flamed.
Please, y'all. It's understandable that we're going to have publishers coming away from this forum feeling persecuted, and we can't let that keep us from sharing information and dispassionately analyzing contracts. We have to protect authors.
But for crying out loud, don't give them ammunition. Don't give their persecution complexes any basis in fact!
I'm sure I've done it myself from time to time. I'm human. But I shouldn't do it, and I'm going to renew my commitment to this right here, right now.
Stay classy, y'all.