The trouble with suing your publisher...

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aruna

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An interesting discussion on Tess Gerritson's blog...
Author Millenia Black (pen name) wrote a book called THE GREAT PRETENDER. The characters in the book were not African American. The book first appeared as a self-published novel, with a cover depicting two wedding rings in flames, and it sold well enough to attract the attention of a mainstream publisher (Penguin) as well as foreign publishers. Translation rights were sold to Turkey and Poland. Penguin soon learned that the author was African American and decided to market THE GREAT PRETENDER as an African-American novel, with a cover design depicting two non-white women. This was done against the author’s wishes.
Now the author has sued. She feels that being categorized as an African-American author has limited her sales and has banished her books to the “African American literature” section, rather than the general fiction area, of bookstores, .
 

Perks

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That's really likely to come down to contract issues, isn't it? If she didn't have any provision for approving cover art, I don't see how it'll stick. It's Penguin's job to market the book, although I can't really see how putting two people on the cover who are not representative of the characters inside the cover is a smart idea.

Ultimately, it may just be a good idea to kick up a big fuss over a stupid decision. Perhaps Penguin will rethink their strategy.

Writers have to go to bat for their work. I think cover design and art is extremely important and would, if ever given the chance, try to make sure I had input and some veto power where that was concerned. Books get judged by their covers every day.
 

aruna

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That's really likely to come down to contract issues, isn't it? If she didn't have any provision for approving cover art, I don't see how it'll stick. It's Penguin's job to market the book, although I can't really see how putting two people on the cover who are not representative of the characters inside the cover is a smart idea.

Ultimately, it may just be a good idea to kick up a big fuss over a stupid decision. Perhaps Penguin will rethink their strategy.

Writers have to go to bat for their work. I think cover design and art is extremely important and would, if ever given the chance, try to make sure I had input and some veto power where that was concerned. Books get judged by their covers every day.

I think it's a bad idea to sue your publisher, for ANY reason; as one of the commenters said, it's probably career suicide. But I think she;s right to be pissed off, and I hope this fuss makes publishers realize that it;s a bad idea to ignore intake from authors. This was a stupid stupid, stupid and really stupid publishing decision.
 
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I think it's a bad idea to sue your pulisher, for ANY reason; as one of the commenters said, it's probably career suicide.
Yeah, you know, I didn't think that all the way through. Amusingly, I think I didn't give enough weight to that because I don't have a career to jeopardize.

You are completely correct.
 

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Suing isn't the way to go. But I feel for that woman. I've read a fair bit on the issue, and what her publisher did was stupid. Just because she is AA they thought it would make more sense to put her in the AA section even though the main characters in her book are not AA (they evidently aren't described as any particular race). Change the cover and voila! Now no one can think anything differently. Bad form, I say.
 

Julie Worth

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After reading the first couple of pages at Amazon, I'd say she was lucky to get published at all.
 

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I feel for her, but I just don't think you can sue your publisher for making stupid choices in marketing.
 

Soccer Mom

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Hmmm, I checked the book out on Amazon and the cover shows a bed. No people. And I found no mention of the author's race or the characters.

ETA: I was looking at the Great Betrayal, not Great Pretender. Sorry. I see the women in the background on that one.
 

Polenth

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I can sympathise with the issue, but suing doesn't seem to be the answer. It raises awareness of the issue in the short term, but in the long term most will forget it. It'd seem more logical to have complained without suing, and kept going at building her career. That way she'd be in the spotlight for years to come, and able to make sure no one forgot about it.
 

jamiehall

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I think it's a bad idea to sue your publisher, for ANY reason; as one of the commenters said, it's probably career suicide. But I think she;s right to be pissed off, and I hope this fuss makes publishers realize that it;s a bad idea to ignore intake from authors. This was a stupid stupid, stupid and really stupid publishing decision.

There are reasons to sue your publisher. For example, if they cheated you out of a large amount of royalties and an audit proves this, and you give them adequate time to pay you, but they still don't pay up. Then you would be fully justified in suing them.

A bad cover is not a reason to sue your publisher. Especially in the beginning of your career. You'll just make a name for yourself as a trouble-maker.

I sincerely hope this incident does not reflect badly on other authors who move from self-publishing to real publishing. I know that authors who started out with self-publishing or vanity publishing have a reputation for being used to controlling more of the publishing process, and I hope that trade publishers won't begin to think of such authors as a lawsuit risk!
 

Claudia Gray

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I agree with Jamie -- there are reasons to sue your publisher, but they involve clear contract violations that could not be resolved through extensive negotiation, and it really is an act of last resort.

This author probably has a point about stupid marketing, but that's not a reason to sue your publisher. That's a reason to look for another publisher next time. She's turned what could've been a self-publishing victory story into a death knell for her career.
 

aruna

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I just read the blog of Author of Color. She managed to get hold of a copy of the lawsuit, it's up there right now and very interesting. To my non-expert mind it does seem to be racial discrimination. Read it.
 
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Soccer Mom

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Remember that these are unproven allegations. I still don't know that she states a cause under which she can prevail and I"m puzzled over the allegations about The Great Betrayal.

Here is the cover as shown on Amazon:

41mNC1bM0EL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg


I see no mention of race of author or characters on that one. Not anywhere on the listing.

Here is the cover of The Great Pretender

51ANB068Y3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg


It shows two women with clearly ethnic faces.

I thought ethnic lit was selling well right now, but maybe not.
 

aruna

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Remember that these are unproven allegations. I still don't know that she states a cause under which she can prevail and I"m puzzled over the allegations about The Great Betrayal.

Here is the cover as shown on Amazon:


I see no mention of race of author or characters on that one. Not anywhere on the listing.


.

I skimmed the part on The Great Betrayal in the lawsuit, but it seems she succeeded in getting them to change the cover in that case.

ETA: Yep. In the case of Betrayal:
52. After plaintiff threatened to sue Penguin for racial discrimination, Penguin withdrew its demand that Aldred rewrite the work to change the race of the characters, and advised that it would remove the African American couple from the cover art.
 
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jamiehall

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I just read the blog of Author of Color. She managed to get hold of a copy of the lawsuit, it's up there right now and very interesting. To my non-expert mind it does seem to be racial discrimination. Read it.

Ouch! That's such an awful thing for the author to suffer. I still don't believe a lawsuit will bring her personally any long-term good, but perhaps this will cause publishers to think twice about "playing the race card" when the author doesn't want to do so.

By the way, the quoted legal stuff indicated her agent is Sara Camilli (of The Sara Camilli Agency). Yay for agents who will consider self-published authors!
 

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I don't think that necessarily helps her. She refused, said she would sue, and they withdrew their demands. The biggest hurdle she will face is proving actual harm. I'm not convinced she will be able to demonstrate actual harm.

The bright side is that she's bringing attention a little discussed problem.

The dark side is that she's probably killing her career. She's going to be a pariah to the big pub houses.
 

Maryn

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FWIW, I learned long ago that when someone's going after punitive damages, they can pull any number out of the air that they want. It's not like they have to provide receipts for medical bills or counseling needed. The judgment, if there is one, is almost never higher than the amount the plaintiff sues for, so you might as well reach for the skies.

Maryn, whose family was sued for $23.5 million (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)
 

Julie Worth

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And WOW!!!!

250 million? If that were punitive, it would require actual damages to be 25 million or more. According to a ruling by the Supreme Court: few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages will satisfy due process.


But, according to the wording, these are actual damages. Which means that Penguin really shot itself in the foot. Taking the lawsuit at face value (which is apparently based on every white American buying a copy if they hadn't changed the cover), this pub would've earned several times the loss to the author. So the lost earnings would've exceeded a billion easily. Penguin would have to be the most racist group in the world to cost itself so much just to screw this author.
 
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IceCreamEmpress

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But, according to the wording, these are actual damages. Which means that Penguin really shot itself in the foot. Taking the lawsuit at face value, this pub would've earned several times the loss to the author. So the lost earnings would've exceeded a billion easily. Penguin would have to be the most racist group in the world to cost itself so much just to screw this author.

Or the author could be incredibly wrong in estimating the potential earnings of her book.

I'm voting for that option myself.
 

timewaster

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Writers have to go to bat for their work. I think cover design and art is extremely important and would, if ever given the chance, try to make sure I had input and some veto power where that was concerned. Books get judged by their covers every day.[/quote]

Unless you sell shedloads you have no imput. It's a good idea to come to terms with that early. There is no point in being overly precious about it. If you want creative control - self publish.
 
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