I've received a number of documented complaints about Crescent Moon, including late royalty payments and statements, abrupt changes in payment protocols, and implementation of a new royalty payout threshold that did not match the provisions of some authors' contracts. Some authors also reported formatting and other problems in finished books.
I've also heard from Crescent Moon's owners with alternative explanations of these issues.
I've seen enough to convince me that there are some problems here--though not exactly the problems some of the authors were most angry about (by my analysis, CM was within its contractual rights in the payment protocol changes it made). And I had intended to include Crescent Moon in a roundup blog post about recent small press storm warnings. That changed, however, when some unhappy CM authors apparently tried to use my interest in the situation as leverage with CM, and loyalist CM authors went to the owners to tattle on the authors who were siccing Writer Beware on their publisher. The result was an email from the owners asking me not to publish anything.
I'd planned to contact the owners anyway. But I don't appreciate being put in the middle of the internal drama (which seems to be so unfortunately common at troubled small presses--the malcontents vs. the loyalists vs the owners), or having Writer Beware used without my knowledge or permission as a threat. My distaste at the situation--as well as the fact that I don't think the problems at CM rise to the level of the other small presses I've written about and/or investigated recently--has nixed the blog post--though I still think CM merits a caution if anyone asks me.
- Victoria
