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Aspen Mountain Press

gianni pezzano

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The situation with Aspen Mountain Press should not go off the first page of this section.

Potential authors should be warned. Saying that we all hope that the situation can be resolved quickly, without pain and especially without havint to resort to a legal battle that could do no good except for the lawyers...

For those who are no up to date with the situation these links will do much to explain what is happening.

Originally Posted by Bubastes
Additional blog posts (including her own) mentioning the AMP debacle:

http://grace-wen.blogspot.com/2011/0...nds-books.html

http://kimberlynee.blogspot.com/2011...llo-there.html

http://andy-onthefrizz.blogspot.com/...something.html
 

Bubastes

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The Coming Soon page lists 16 books:

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/coming-soon/cat_16.html

AMP has missed 7 release dates already (including an 8/8 release date) and will likely miss 2 more release dates (10/1 and 10/3). One book has a TBA release date. The remaining 5 books have October release dates. AMP will definitely miss one of those (mine, on 10/24) because the final editorial deadline is Monday and I haven't been contacted by an editor.
 
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gianni pezzano

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All of us involved with this mess should work to keep the news in everyone's eyes. For this rreason I am writing this message to keep the line on the front page and to warn other authors, editors, etc, about Aspen Mountain Press until the matter has been resolved one way or the other...
 

mscelina

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AMP is now two months in arrears paying its staff, not counting the huge outstanding and unremitted pay to the senior staff for their work. Also, as best I can discover, only a few AMP authors were paid royalties this month. Since the last message on the AMP Authors loop, there has been no communication from the publisher at all. And AMP remains in breach of contract with Musa publishing; the domain and website we purchased remains in AMP's possession a full month past the execution of the contract.
 

Fallen

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I feel really awful....

I was hunting around for volunteer proofing jobs about two/three months ago when the advert went up (must have been when everything started to kick off and they lost people). The same went for editor adverts. Had no idea what was happening until Old Hack pointed me over here today, guys. Sorry.

Last time I'd checked, Aspen was a pretty decent publishing company with positive reviews from here. It was certainly one I'd have loved to have gotten involved with.

I'm glad my nose got pulled in another direction.

They've kicked a lot of people in the gut over this by the look of things. I'd like to know how they rest at night. Even on the basic level of proof, I wouldn't be able to.
 
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gianni pezzano

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As always, let's keep these messages on the first page so the news is always fresh.

The way things are going there may be developments in the near-medium future as some third party sites have begun removing book and possilbly also action being taken for authors to be paid royalties and/or the return of rights...
 

Terie

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As always, let's keep these messages on the first page so the news is always fresh.

Bumping a thread when there's not actually anything new to say is pretty pointless. If someone googles AMP or comes to AW and does a search, this thread will be found. In the meantime, there are many other publishers -- both good and bad -- to discuss. The point of AW isn't to have all the problem publishers perpetually on the first page.
 

mscelina

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The nice folks here in B&BC are really good about getting the news out to everyone about publishers in trouble, Gianni. We tracks publishers for YEARS here. The people who need to know, know--and when something new happens, they'll know that too.

Like this: yesterday, AMP sent Musa the authorization code for the transfer of domains--so apparently the owner IS watching some things on line. This thread at least. As of the moment, all the AMP staff has been unpaid for two months, only two authors have come forward as having been paid royalties in September, no authors have received royalty statements since June, and the arrearage in pay for the senior staff still continues to the tune of thousands of dollars.

But Musa DID get the Aurora Regency domain/website so there has been SOME action.
 

gianni pezzano

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Hi Celina, as I said to the previous point I understood and I have to admit loking at it once more I was a bit ungracious it was not my intention and hope she sees this to understand...

I just sent you a query at MUSA through the house email system. I don't expect a quick reply, take your time as tomorrow I start "polishing" part one. You'll understand...

Thanks again and I'll try not to be so "pushy"...(!)
 

cryaegm

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But Musa DID get the Aurora Regency domain/website so there has been SOME action.
YAY! I've been reading up on this and so glad to hear you guys finally got the domain/website. I still feel terrible for the authors of AMP along with the staff.

This is terrible to see happen. :/
 

Bubastes

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The Coming Soon page lists 16 books:

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/coming-soon/cat_16.html

AMP has missed 7 release dates already (including an 8/8 release date) and will likely miss 2 more release dates (10/1 and 10/3). One book has a TBA release date. The remaining 5 books have October release dates. AMP will definitely miss one of those (mine, on 10/24) because the final editorial deadline is Monday and I haven't been contacted by an editor.

AMP blew 2 more release dates on the Coming Soon page, so they're up to 9 missed books (that we know of -- some books might not have even made it onto the Coming Soon page).
 
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Bubastes

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Fictionwise has removed all Aspen Mountain Press books from its site.
 

NicoleJLeBoeuf

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So did the Aura imprint ever get off the ground, and if so, is it safe at Musa too?

I was foolish enough to flog the Aura launch over at Boulder Writing Examiner without checking here and seeing mscelina's post about the AMP founder's leave of absence -- not that it was known yet then how bad it would get, but I hope I'd have at least been savvy enough to warn readers that bumps in the road had been experienced up to that point!

So. Posting a follow-up now, linking heavily to this thread and to the Writer Beware post, but am anxious to find out what became of the Aura imprint specifically.

Thank you for keeping us in the loop, Celina.
 

mscelina

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Nicole, we tried to purchase Aura as well, but the owner of AMP said no.

Aura's scheduled launch was October 1, with an additional multiple-book release scheduled for October 3. None of those books have come out. Aura books were scheduled to release every week in October.
 

mscelina

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Some interesting things have been happening with the AMP situation this week. Multiple authors served third party sites DMCA notices, which resulted in AMP books being booted from (I believe) all of AMP's online retailers. One author also served a DMCA notice to the AMP website's host, which resulted in the website being taken down.

Interestingly, however, the AMP website was back up and in operation within a few hours. After sending a notice to the authors about the "illegal takedown of the website," and about "some notices going out in email" the AMP website was updated, removing out of date banners, and also the book of the author who'd gotten the website taken down. AMP appears to be attempting to address some of the more patently obvious contract breaches.

However, AMP staff and employees have now gone two and one half months without being paid. For me, personally, that unpaid royalty amount (which includes quarterly payments from third party sites) runs well past a thousand dollars--not counting my percentages as head editor of the AR imprint (which sold under the AMP banner until September) or the managing editor of AMP. Only a few authors have received royalty payments--two that I'm aware of. I have only heard of one author having communication in the past few days. I personally have sent emails, texts and left voice mails--to no avail.

As best I can tell, AMP has the ability to get the website back online and to continue to sell books despite the multiple breaches of every author's contract at this point, but does not have the ability to answer correspondence, even to answer the phone, to remove out of contract books from the website and retailers, to distribute royalty statements, to pay their authors and staff, to publish the already edited and completed books waiting to be released, to edit and prepare their contracted books for publication, to respond to third party sites asking for confirmations, to keep their authors reasonably informed...in short, to do anything other than to put that website back up after an author had it removed for violation of copyright and breached contracts.

For me, this is personally devastating on multiple levels. I relied upon the royalties I earned at AMP for my personal finances. I also have a very real and personal connection with most AMP authors, and in particular with the scores of books I edited there. And in the process of all this mess, I have lost a very good friend and publishing mentor. Aside from B&BC and commenting on what's happening now, I haven't spoken out publicly about what happened at AMP. Unless I see some serious movement on the company's part to stand up and address the grievous injustices currently ongoing between AMP and their authors and staff, I might have to end my silence.

*shrug* Musa may fail spectacularly in the future. Who knows? My business model may just bankrupt us.

But a quick, clean death is infinitely preferable to holding over 400 books and 100 authors and staff hostage. I have now reached the point where I can no longer justify my continued silence about the situation or what led to this situation. I hope that AMP finds a way to right the ship. But at the moment, AMP has no staff--and with the old staff not getting paid no prospects for getting a new one--no third party retailers, no submissions, no releases, and, apparently, no desire to do the right thing.

It's a damn shame.
 
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Dominique Eastwick

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I prefer to not speak in these forums, but I feel that my silence now looks to be showing support for AMP and its business practices. I am coming out of lurkdom to simply say, I stand behind what Celina has said. As one of the four Ex-Staff that left AMP in August, as well as an author, I am heart sick by what I am seeing happen to authors I loved to work with and a company I was once proud to promote.

It is well past time for AMP to let the authors go. Stop the nightmare and let the healing begin for all involved.
 
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