Red Rose Publishing

Having read Jane's blog post, the obvious question to ask the "lawyer" who phoned her was why he seemed to have her telephone number but needed her to tell him her address. Either his client should have details of Jane's address from her contract, or the lawyer should already have done an address check via any one of the many public databases available to lawyers, e.g. the phone book.

My father once got a phone call from someone claiming to be a lawyer who wanted him to take out an entry in a book he'd written that mentioned his "client" (who he refused to name citing confidentiality). My dad put me on the phone with him and I spent a very happy 2 minutes regaling the many and varied ways I was going to make his life a living hell in terms of court procedure, disciplinary measures instituted via the Law Society and Solicitors Regulatory Authority and ultimately the police (given that impersonating a solicitor is a criminal offence in England). When he hung up the phone, I could almost smell the urine trickling down his leg.

Sigh.

Happy days.

Moral of the story - don't give in to shysters like this. They're snivelling little cowards and if you keep to the facts and call on them to do what they're threatening to do, they seldom follow through.

MM

Momento Mori said:

Having read Jane's blog post, the obvious question to ask the "lawyer" who phoned her was why he seemed to have her telephone number but needed her to tell him her address.

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Perhaps because Jane lists a contact phone number on the blog?

Also, isn't Jane the attorney general of some midwestern state? I wonder if the "lawyer" knows how well versed in the law Jane is.

Scribhneoir said:

Also, isn't Jane the attorney general of some midwestern state? I wonder if the "lawyer" knows how well versed in the law Jane is.

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Jane is a personal injury attorney in Iowa. Clearly the "lawyer" had no idea that she actually is an attorney herself, but she's not an Attorney General.

Scribhneoir:
Perhaps because Jane lists a contact phone number on the blog?

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Ah. Yes. That may well be it ...

:tries to recover:

Well, a lawyer could still check the number with the client to see if they've got an address from the contract or (I'm guessing because I'm not familiar with US law) there's a procedure they could go through to get the address from the ISP. Phoning someone up and saying "Give me your address so I can serve a C&D on you" is remarkably ... dumb.

Stacia Kane
Jane is a personal injury attorney in Iowa.

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In which case I hope she dicks all over him (to use legal parlance).

MM

She was an assistant attorney general to the state of Iowa in a former job.

Irysangel said:

She was an assistant attorney general to the state of Iowa in a former job.

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Ah, I'm glad that tidbit I pulled from somewhere in the dim, cobwebby section of my brain has some basis in reality.

I don't really follow Dear Author, though I pop in from time to time, so while I thought I recalled reading that Jane was an AG, when Stacia said she was a personal injury lawyer, I figured I was thinking of someone else. Thanks for clearing that up.

Momento Mori said:

Well, a lawyer could still check the number with the client to see if they've got an address from the contract ...

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Um, what contract? Jane is a blogger (well-known author-related blog), not an RRP author.

Terie:
Um, what contract? Jane is a blogger (well-known author-related blog), not an RRP author.

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If she's not an RRP lawyer, then the lawyer should be able to use the phone number on her blog to get an address or alternatively get the address from an application to the ISP.

Honestly though, this is all getting a leetle off the point ...

MM

If this is Thursday, then it must be time for another Red Rose update on DA:
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/09/16/red-rose-publisher-v-jane-round-1/

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/201...nd+Commentary)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Do they not realize that Jane is an attorney? Amazing.

- Victoria

The thing any publisher fears - or should - is being made to look like an igorant arse. This is wince-worthy stuff.

AnneMarble said:

If this is Thursday, then it must be time for another Red Rose update on DA:
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/09/16/red-rose-publisher-v-jane-round-1/

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This could get interesting... * and waits...*

Yikes...what a meltdown.

I have to admit I do enjoy reading smackdown posts and roll my eyes at the idiocy of the publisher, though.

Bumping this up with summary:

This publisher is still ignoring all unhappy authors, ignoring certified letters. She will not send out letters of reversion of rights and WILL retaliate by taking all books off third party sites, and authors out of Red Rose Loops. She will keep the books for sale on her own site--where they generate no sales.

Reported that publisher keeps books for sale after contract ends AND that publisher keeps rights after author pays hefty kill fee. Reported that publisher ignores statement errors and authors are missing statements of royalties or have statements with blank areas.

BEWARE. Publisher can make more $ by charging unhappy authors kill fees than she can by actually producing and selling books. AND she will still keep books on her site after the kill fee is paid!

Publisher only communicates to threaten law suits to unhappy authors.

Nightmelody said:

Bumping this up with summary:

This publisher is still ignoring all unhappy authors, ignoring certified letters. She will not send out letters of reversion of rights and WILL retaliate by taking all books off third party sites, and authors out of Red Rose Loops. She will keep the books for sale on her own site--where they generate no sales.

Reported that publisher keeps books for sale after contract ends AND that publisher keeps rights after author pays hefty kill termination fee. Reported that publisher ignores statement errors and authors are missing statements of royalties or have statements with blank areas.

BEWARE. Publisher can make more $ by charging unhappy authors kill termination fees than she can by actually producing and selling books. AND she will still keep books on her site after the kill termination fee is paid!

Publisher only communicates to threaten law suits to unhappy authors.

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There, fixed the terminology.

A kill fee is one paid to an author by a publisher, typically for killing a contracted project at the publisher's decision.

A termination fee is one paid by an author to the publisher for ending a contract before its terms have been met at the author's decision.

The meanings of these terms are opposite and so it's best to use them correctly when talking about a publisher's misbehaviour.

Thanks for bumping this up, Melisse, and to Terie for fixing the terminology.

I am one of the authors this publisher is jerking around with these issues. Statement errors, missing and late statements, charging termination fees in excess of the contracted amount AND even when the contract itself states no fees would be incurred by the author. Specifically, I'm referencing Section VII Term of Contract paragraph B which reads:

B. Author may petition Publisher to terminate contract at any time but will be responsible for production costs for applicable cover art and editors, including Publishers initial investment a one hundred dollar minimum is the cost at the time of this contract. $50 for the cover art and $50 for the editors if pulled before published but after a cover and editing has been done. After publication there must be a 90 day request for termination letter received by traceable mail, registered, etc., if the book has been out more than 30 days equaling a total of 120 day minimum, with no cost incurred to the author.

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Though contracted in July 2009 and September 2009, my two books with this publisher were published February 25, 2010 and February 4, 2010 respectively after rushing through edits in January. First quarter royalties arrived in June, past the 45 business date we were verbally told the publisher had to provide statements and royalty checks, but since the publisher had a 'family emergency', I gave her a break. Later I learned the publisher 'conveniently' has emergencies around the time royalties and statements are due each quarter to explain delays in payment.

That did not sit well with me, so when the 45 business days expired at the end of the 2nd quarter and emails sent to the publisher remained unanswered, I sent my certified letter stating termination of the contract and gave the reason as failure to receive royalty statements. Both books had been out more than 180 days, far exceeding the 30 days in the contract and the receipt provided by the USPS showed it was received and signed for by Red Rose Publishing on September 7, 2010 so I marked the 90 days on my calendar and waited.

December arrived and I sent a reminder to the publisher about sending the release of rights for these works but received instead an email from the publisher stating that one of my books was available for release (thought which book was never identified and no release has been received) but the second book was bound by the contract and required me paying a $200 termination fee to the publisher in order to get this second book released.

I'm at a loss for where I'm contractually obligated to this $200 fee because nothing appears in either of the contracts I've signed. And despite multiple (and most times daily) emails to the publisher for clarification on these termination charges since the original December 17th email stating these charges were due, I've received one email yesterday from the publisher stating one book is available for release while the second requires a $200 termination fee but does not provide any detail on the books nor the contract stipulation showing this fee is due since the above paragraph from the contract doesn't apply.

In addition, the email received yesterday from the publisher shows that she's deducting the royalties I've earned from sales from this $200 "uncontracted" termination fee and will continue to do so until the $200 "uncontracted" termination fee has been met. {Note: I never did get a 3rd Quarter Statement so I can only base this on the 4th Quarter Statement received yesterday deducting more than $28 from the $200 fee which I'm assuming covers royalties never received from 2nd Quarter 2010, 3rd Quarter 2010 and 4th Quarter 2010} Maybe I'm too close to the situation but to me this is theft. It would be like me giving my notice to an employer, working out any contractual obligations, and then still being made to work for that employer for free until I made him some arbitratory amount.

At this point, I doubt I will ever get a formal release for these books from this publisher and that's fine. I can self-publish without one. To me, it's more important to let other authors and aspiring authors know so they can make fully-informed decisions about their career.

Adding this tidbit to the bonfire that is Red Rose Publishing:

http://www.eroticromancepublishers.com/2011/03/red-rose-publishing-rumblings.html

I would like to add a name to your Publisher's Beware list. Red Rose Publishing has hit the trifecta when it comes to bad business practices. There are many blogs and other lists all over the web that detail this publishing company's unprofessionalism and criminal behavior.

Just some of the examples are: not releasing rights back to authors when the owner has sent certified letters of termination like is described in her contract, posing as law enforcement/federal agents or retired members of the police or federal criminal services, bulling, extortion, misappropriation of funds, and the list goes on and on.

There are many that have asked for their rights to be reverted back, but Wendi Felter, owner of Red Rose Publishing, has told authors that she has the choice to comply with the termination letters or to ignore them as she pleases. She has also ignored lawsuits and judements against her. Her NDA clause in her contracts are only for the authors, but she tells them that she has the right to broadcast any and all information about her authors anywhere she pleases.

She lies constantly about her social network and what she will do for her authors. She has refused to pay editors and cover artists after they leave her company even though she owes them royalties on books they have worked on. She refuses to pay some authors royalties, because she doesn't feel like paying them at that time. She also has been known to cuss out and abuse her author pool as a hole through many erratic posts on blogs and other mediums.

You know, I'm so glad that I came across this thread. I used to get some of my eBooks from Red Rose Publishing. (They offered free reads). I honestly considered them an option for publishing if I ever made their word count minimum. However, I now know that I shouldn't, or at least if I do, I'd be asking for a lot of problems, including losing the rights to my stories.

The problems with RRP seem to be continuing. One look at their site shows it's down (and has been for the last few days) with a comment for the owner of the site to contact them asap.

Who knows how this will play out?

And yes, I've demanded my rights back from RRP and am glad to be re-working the stories in detail.

The rumblings are that Red Rose Publishing is closing it's doors. The website has been down for several days and the silence has been interesting to say the least.

It would be great if reversion of rights were to follow but so far nothing. Just total radio silence.

I should note that while Red Rose continues to show every sign of being closed and some authors told me there was a closure notice but it was not in a verifiable venue, and many other authors report that they have never been officially notified of this. So they seemed to be... closed-ish?

Nothing updated on FB or Twitter since August 2013. Their webpage is also gone.