[Publisher] Night Shade Books

Another writer's account of a negative experience with Night Shade Books here.

Pretty disheartening story.

I first overheard these rumbling back at WFC in Sarasota Springs (as BadDucky mentioned). I didn't have anything ready to submit at the time, so I figured I'd keep an ear open when I got closer.

Sad to hear. Hope they shake out of it. They produced some really nice books.

So that's the second author to go public with major problems. I expect there will be more.

Elizabeth Moon reports that she's had problems, too. Genreville has this summary post, and they've asked Night Shade for an official comment.

announcement from nightshade on genreville
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/genreville/

It's a pretty good response but I am not sure I agree it is all just communication. People are missing payments. Their response doesn't deal with that.

veinglory said:

It's a pretty good response but I am not sure I agree it is all just communication. People are missing payments. Their response doesn't deal with that.

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There's also the fact that they wouldn't answer calls from Liz Williams' agent until the agent called from an unlisted number. That's not accidental; that's intentional avoidance.

Still, I hope it all works out; some of the affected authors are acquaintances of mine.

They did address the issue of royalties and selling e-books without having the rights. However, this isn't the first time authors have had problems with them. I'd wait at least a few months to see how well they follow through.

That's a reasonably detailed mea culpa, which is certainly to their credit, but I'm with egb on Team Wait And See.

Did anyone else get a little uncomfy with the 'we're still learning' part?

M.R.J. Le Blanc said:

Did anyone else get a little uncomfy with the 'we're still learning' part?

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Yes and no. The founders are not clueless noobs to publishing. They are, however, just now learning how to manage a rapidly growing company. In that respect, yes, it's unsettling.

What troubles me even more is that authors reported problems several months ago. NS issued an apology. Now we see that they didn't actually fix those problems. Worse, they continued to play ostrich until they got more bad publicity.

So....it might be wise to hold off on dealing with them until they show a *consistently* better track record.

And SFWA has issued an official response.

Any new information on this publisher? I just downloaded Phil & Kaja Foglio's Agatha book and noticed the publisher's name. They've got some smokin' hot releases that I'm putting on my wish list, but how are they doing for their authors seven months later?

Just because these things aren't said too often...

I just thought I'd swing through and drop a line to let people know that I've been working with Nightshade for over a year on the Dogsland trilogy, and everything is fine. I've had a responsive editorial staff, and no problems with payments or contract issues at this time.

Thumbs up from me.

Just thought I'd swing through and mention it, because often times these things aren't said enough.

Also, the SFWA has an update on the Night Shade Books Probationary period.

I know Jeremy Lassen of Nightshade, and although I've never had business dealings with him or the company, he's always struck me as a stand-up guy, smart, honest and decent, for whatever that's worth.

Any updates on this publisher? Anyone with some personal experience they'd like to share?

Maybe it's just me, but I would wait a while longer to see before submitting to them.

But that's not from personal experience. Maybe some NS authors would like to give an update?

I noticed that NS's probationary period levied on them from SFWA was lifted. Hope that's a good sign for their future, and that of their authors.

priceless1 said:

I noticed that NS's probationary period levied on them from SFWA was lifted. Hope that's a good sign for their future, and that of their authors.

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Sadly, there's been more rumbling again recently about nightshade, from numerous authors, esp in terms of payment problems.

Not a good sign. They seem to be slipping back into troubled waters.

rugcat said:

Sadly, there's been more rumbling again recently about nightshade, from numerous authors, esp in terms of payment problems.

Not a good sign. They seem to be slipping back into troubled waters.

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Yes, I heard from several of their authors. Very sad, indeed.

Assuminig you're talking about Night Shade Books, the reason you're not finding anything is that you've misspelled the publisher's name. There is a plethora of information online about Night Shade Books, being as how there were some significant problems a few years ago that they're still trying to work out.

The thread is here.

The latest post in that thread is 20 Feb 2012. I think the recent posts will answer your question.