Chipmunka Publishing

Maya's already signed a contract. That ship has sailed, guys.

I agree with Victoria about the tastelessness of that blog...but I'm still shocked that this company exists. And I'm shocked that, given all the facts and their readily availability on the internet, they are pulling in grants from the UK government! Or am I imagining that I read that somewhere throughout this thread?

Old Hack said:

I share Victoria's concerns about the Chipmunka Watch blog. I find it extremely distasteful and don't think it helps one bit.

Click to expand...

Quite the opposite, IMO. If the blogger's sole intention is to be salacious and incendiary, and to draw to attention to himself, the publisher, and/or Chipmunka, I suppose that goal has been met. The chance of anything more productive resulting from this trainwreck is laughable, however, given the blogger's narrow focus on the publisher personally and the misanthropic glee of his posts. He's traded any liklihood of ever being viewed as a credible witness against the publisher for the satisfaction of endulging in snark and vitriol.

It's a shame too, because if the blogger's initial post is to believed, a visit to legal aid with the email documentation of his dealings with Chipmunka over the alleged copyright issues that prompted this calamity might have actually gotten him somewhere. At the very least, it likely would have set him up as a potential witness for others in future complaints against Chipmunka.

The page I find most alarming (read: upsetting), I suspect the blogger believes is a compelling indictment against the publisher. I won't link it, it's already linked above and it's distaseful in the extreme, IMO. Reproducing first hand accounts of sexual malevolence and assault (from the publisher's memoir) on a public blog is jarring and counter productive. Interspersing the snippets with snark, sarcastic asides, speculations, and shout outs to the "ladies" disrespects and demeans the very women for whom he feins outrage. It's a titillating post, certainly--and *certainly* worth treating the women depicted in the memoir to a third pass through their assaults and exploitation for the benefit of a dude with an agenda (while making sure their experiences reach an even greater audience). Right?

Right.

If there's a legitimate problem with a publisher, why on Earth would you risk diluting complaints against him with verifiable evidence that he's being publically targeted by a disgruntled writer? I can understand giving too much away in the heat of the moment, but this blog has been plodding along for two years. WTF?

I think it's only diluting if it's false.

Yesterday I wouldn't have been able to tell you who the heck this publisher is, now the name is burned into my mind (in the worst possible way). The problem is, people like me read this and don't want to read more, don't want to do more searching online to see if it's true (because I just don't want to read those kinds of things). Instead I make a mental (almost subconscious) note never to touch a book by this publisher and I move on--opinion set. The blogger's goals attained, and I couldn't tell you the name of the blogger because I, like most people, didn't bother to look since I have no intention of revisiting and clicked away before getting through the whole blog page.

If these are lies, they're disgusting, and if they're truth, it's doubly disgusting. But I'm inclined to think the blogger knew exactly what he/she was doing: Going for extreme shock to wedge an opinion in the 3-4 seconds it takes to read a single snipit.

Another reason I don't give credence to the most incendiary of the blog's accusations: it's based on passages from Pegler's book, and we have no way of knowing whether these have been taken out of context, or distorted in some way to yield the impression the blogger wanted. Remember the Shirley Sherrod trainwreck, where she appeared to be saying something that couldn't possibly be justified--but only because the context in which she said it was edited out.

- Victoria

While I agree that the blog is definitely set up to do harm to both Jason Pegler and Chipmunka Publishing, I can at least say that (for myself, anyway) the concern about distorting context:

victoriastrauss said:

it's based on passages from Pegler's book, and we have no way of knowing whether these have been taken out of context, or distorted in some way to yield the impression the blogger wanted.

Click to expand...

is not a concern I share. When the post was made the e-book was released free (presumably for a limited time - it is back at 5 quid) and, for my sins I read it again today (it is very short). I can't find anything that would make any of the passages seem less awful - in the wider context of the autobiography there is nothing that makes it seem that the blogger has distorted these passages or taken them out of context.


I'm not sure what the laws are regarding an e-book that was once given away at no cost but if anyone wants this horrible book I suppose I could share.

I left a comment on the blog that we are discussing the blogger here, because I enjoy drama and also I think it would be interesting to hear him/her explain/defend their actions. It might even happen. No response yet, though

KTC said:

Maya's already signed a contract. That ship has sailed, guys.

Click to expand...

But didn't it say authors could back out if they decided they didn't want to publish their stories after all? I think that would be Maya's best bet; it sounds like this company isn't going to last much longer anyway, and once the company vanishes, all the books it e-published will vanish with it. SO I would suggest she try getting out of the contract, then either publishing the book through Lulu.com, or just putting it on a blog.

Ink-Stained Wretch said:

But didn't it say authors could back out if they decided they didn't want to publish their stories after all? I think that would be Maya's best bet; it sounds like this company isn't going to last much longer anyway, and once the company vanishes, all the books it e-published will vanish with it. SO I would suggest she try getting out of the contract, then either publishing the book through Lulu.com, or just putting it on a blog.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure that they will be going away any time soon, if they are receiving grants from the Arts Council. Plus at £8 a year for 'digital storage' if that is a per-e-book fee they are taking in around £5-6k which would at least be enough to pay for their server costs.

Lulu looks like a fantastic option for e-book publishing - I hadn't heard about it other than through here so thanks to everyone who mentioned this.

CaoPaux said:

While drama in the Pursuit of Truth can be cathartic, understand that this forum is not the place for personal vendettas. So fair warning to all: any attempt to use this thread for such will result in closure and/or revocation of posting privileges.

Click to expand...

Nicely put <3

I am a newbie here and totally shocked by this thread. I have been with Chipmunka for 3 years and they have published 5 books of mine.

I do think it's a shame that their policy is now changed so that you don't get a physical copy of your book unless you choose to buy 30 copies (that's at a minimum cost of £360 if your book costs £10 x 30 + postage and packing). Now they are concentrating on ebooks unless you pay for the full service.

KSx

That is a shame. Sounds like a total rip-off. One of my author friends hasn't been too happy with her experience. She said the editor ignores her emails until she contacts the CEO.

I've never had that problem

KSx

It wasn't always, my books were published the normal way but from 2011 that will be the new rule. What is a vanity press? Would people suggest I look elsewhere for new books I want publishing? According to this thread it would be a very loud YES in answer to that question, but they've been great with me. I really like Jason the CEO.

KSx

Katysara, I'm very interested in how well your books have sold. Would you mind sharing with us your sales figures for each title?

Nothing would please me more but as you may know Chipunkapublishing only pays anually and your book has to have been out for at least a year before they pay. I wrote 4 books this year, 2 before the November cut off which I will find out about in Nov 2011 and 2 that were published in December that I will not get paid for until Nov 2012!!!!!!

My memoir DARK CLOUDS GATHER that was published in 2008 sold thousands of copies - I was never given an exact figure. I was supposed to earn £1.50 per book, but if the buyer used a credit card then the 75p cost of this came out of my £1.50. Lordy knows what else went on. Well, I earned just under £100.

KSx

katysara said:

My memoir DARK CLOUDS GATHER that was published in 2008 sold thousands of copies - I was never given an exact figure. I was supposed to earn £1.50 per book, but if the buyer used a credit card then the 75p cost of this came out of my £1.50. Lordy knows what else went on. Well, I earned just under £100.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing this. It's very informative.

And hun, do you really need to ask whether you should continue with this publisher? If you've really sold thousands of copies of a book with a questionable micropress, you should be submitting your work to the big publishers. I'd say you should even more be looking for an agent.

katysara said:

Nothing would please me more but as you may know Chipunkapublishing only pays anually and your book has to have been out for at least a year before they pay. I wrote 4 books this year, 2 before the November cut off which I will find out about in Nov 2011 and 2 that were published in December that I will not get paid for until Nov 2012!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Even if they don't send payments, do they send you statements showing how many books have been sold and what your royalties are for a given time period? Or is that only done annually too?

katysara said:

Nothing would please me more but as you may know Chipunkapublishing only pays anually and your book has to have been out for at least a year before they pay. I wrote 4 books this year, 2 before the November cut off which I will find out about in Nov 2011 and 2 that were published in December that I will not get paid for until Nov 2012!!!!!!

My memoir DARK CLOUDS GATHER that was published in 2008 sold thousands of copies - I was never given an exact figure. I was supposed to earn £1.50 per book, but if the buyer used a credit card then the 75p cost of this came out of my £1.50. Lordy knows what else went on. Well, I earned just under £100.

KSx

Click to expand...

75% ?! Or $0.75. Maybe I missed this upthread, but if it's 75 percent that's BS. NO CC company charges 75% for consumers OR retailers to use them. If that was the case no one would use CCs.

If I misread, please forgive me. But like someone said upthread, I don't think you need to ask if you should sign again. You seem to know the answer is no already. Congrats on the thousands of copies! And good luck with the rest of your books!

agentpaper said:

katysara said:

I was supposed to earn £1.50 per book, but if the buyer used a credit card then the 75p cost of this came out of my £1.50. Lordy knows what else went on. Well, I earned just under £100.

Click to expand...

75% ?! Or $0.75.

Click to expand...

'p' is the designator for 'pence' in relation to the British pound sterling. A pound is divided into 100 pence, as a US dollar is divided into 100 cents. Therefore, '75p' is to £1 the same as '75 cents' is to $1.

Of course, the publisher taking the CC charge out of the author's royalty is ABSOLUTELY BS!

Queen of Swords said:

Even if they don't send payments, do they send you statements showing how many books have been sold and what your royalties are for a given time period? Or is that only done annually too?

Click to expand...

They never tell you how many books you have sold - I only found out because I kicked up a fuss after knowing how many copies I sold personally. I was told never to ask again though. All the information you are ever given is how much you have earned that year, once, in November. No sales figures/number of books sold/no breakdown of figures, just what you will be paid...or not paid if you haven't reached the £50 minimum.

agentpaper said:

75% ?! Or $0.75. Maybe I missed this upthread, but if it's 75 percent that's BS. NO CC company charges 75% for consumers OR retailers to use them. If that was the case no one would use CCs.

Click to expand...

In my contract it says I get 10% (£1.50) per book less £0.75 (75p) if a credit card used. I never thought about it before but I assume that in my other books, as my 10% is £1.00 they will be still taking £0.75 off me if a credit card is used, so I'll make £0.25 a book minus other charges they may have.

They must be deducting money for other things too - I read earlier on this thread something that Victoria wrote about it reducing the author's payment to a pittance and how it would be a miracle if any of their authors reached the £50 minimum at which you get paid, otherwise it rolls forward for another year. I have sent her a copy of their new contract.

KSx

There is something terribly wrong here. A author does have the right to know how many copies they have sold.

Katysara, I'm so sorry you are having this experience. Is there any way you can pull your as-yet unpublished books from Chipmunka? Because there's no way you should continue to give them your work for what's turning out to be virtually free.

Also? This is NOT how real publishing works.

Thank you again for posting the information. Hopefully, it will help steer others clear of this publisher.