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Champagne Book Group

Maryn

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I volunteered to post this to allow the AW member who shared the information with me to remain anonymous. I do not have any connection with Champagne Book Group and have never submitted to them, under its original or present ownership.

The royalties due to at least some current authors are not being paid when their contracts stipulate they are to be paid. The publisher has not notified the authors of any glitch being worked on or other reason for any delay in royalties. There has been no contact with these authors concerning any date in the future by which to expect payment in full.

That's the information that was shared with me. My concern, for both the authors and the publisher, is that this could be yet another small press collapsing without a plan to ensure the authors get what is owed them as well as return the rights to their work before the business folds.

Those who currently have books with Champagne Book Group, have your royalties arrived when they should? If not, is owner Cassie Knight in touch with an explanation and assurance that you will receive what you are owed? If you have contacted the publisher, did you receive a reply in a timely manner?

By pooling our information, we may be able to determine what's happening and what the authors can do to protect themselves in the event that the publisher fails.

Maryn, reminding us all that we do not shoot the messenger
 

cool pop

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Sad to hear that. I hope whatever happens the authors at least end up getting the money owed to them.
 

Jaysienne

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Regarding Champagne Books, over the last few months I've either personally experienced or had the following shared with me by other authors and editors:

1. Covers are hasty and unprofessional, some with poorly-integrated "clip art", and often extremely generic, not reflective of the book's genres, themes, or other branding. In some cases careless mistakes have been made in the spellings of titles, author names, taglines, etc.

2. Pre-orders are not made available when they are scheduled to be; some sales channels have blocked CBG from offering pre-orders (no idea why this could be, but one of the sales channels is Amazon, and as you can imagine, not having pre-orders available on Amazon is a major hit to an author's marketing and sales capability leading up to a release).

3. Books are uploaded with the wrong covers, the wrong links, or with the wrong interior files, leading to further complication in an author's ability to advertise (it's difficult to advertise your brand new release when it has another author's cover attached to it!).

4. Release dates are pushed back repeatedly with very little communication from management, sometimes resulting in an author being told on very short notice when their book is finally made available.

Some of the more serious and very concerning problems:

1. Some authors have been told, after several rounds of edits, that Cassie herself will be making "minor changes" to their final manuscript before releasing it. Usually this is presented as simply making a few additional line edits. No galley copy is sent for review after these changes, however, and the author may not see what Cassie's changed until the book is released. In more than one case, authors have been told by readers who purchased the book that major errors appeared, uncorrected, in the final version, and sometimes editor's notes or changes were left in. Imagine opening a book in your local Barnes and Noble and discovering someone left the "Track Changes" mode on when they sent it to print. And this reflects on the author, not on Cassie, whose name doesn't even appear in the book as an editor. Similar "changes" have been made to book blurbs or taglines without the author's input or review, which resulted in changes to the meaning of those blurbs or taglines. Preview excerpts were uploaded lacking any kind of formatting, which means italicized inner monologue and un-italicized narrative were indistinguishable, and paragraphs left without separation. I think what concerns me most, having had this happen to both my own books and the books of other CBG authors, is that none of these changes were shown to us, and we had to find out after the book was made public. In one case, a whole prologue was removed without word to the author until print copies of the books arrived for a signing event.

2. Authors have received explanations from Cassie regarding delays in their production, which directly conflict with information given to them by their editors. In some cases authors have been able to produce email chains which strongly suggest Cassie has either confused their publishing calendars (to give her the benefit of the doubt), or else (we hope not) outright lied to place blame on an editor for delays which were really due to her. Authors and editors have reported being underpaid or having payments and royalties delayed for months at a time. It's been difficult for authors to get explanations or documentation to explain these delays or get concrete committals to a date of payment.

3. Communication on the authors' loop has come to a near stand-still in the last year. Starting in roughly December 2017, Cassie's availability and responsiveness to authors and editors took a steep drop-off. In the beginning, she explained she was going through a change of employment and a move, and asked CBG staff and authors to bear with her as she attempted to juggle several conflicting and demanding priorities. By April/May, she indicated the adjustment period and move were over and she would be available to give CBG top priority again. However, communication and production have not changed. Authors and editors have noted it can sometimes take 2-4 weeks to hear back from Cassie on specific questions, and there seem to be no additional staff available to turn to. Several editors have left, and authors have been told they will be assigned new editors, and spend months without hearing from Cassie again. Every email (to every person, it seems) ends with some apology along the lines of "Bear with me, I'm still getting my bearings and soon I should be able to commit full-time to this again". However, it's now been over ten months since this first became the norm, and six months since the job/move combo was supposedly over with, and Cassie seems no more available or present than before.

4. Authors have started requesting their rights back and moving on to other publishers.

At the bottom line, there seems to be an intrinsic problem with under-staffing and overwork for Cassie, who seems to be trying to take on all tasks herself. The quality of books has suffered, most of the time through no fault of the authors but of the unchecked edits made by Cassie or the sloppy attention paid to the uploading and pre-order process. Communication with the higher ups (are there any higher ups anymore, besides her? We don't know!) is practically nonexistent. It seems as though most of the authors and editors are holding their tongues, but some of us have finally decided the writing is on the wall. CBG appears to be falling in on itself.
 
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Shoeless

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Wow, I just read this latest post and then went back and started reading all the posts from page one. That's quite the journey for this publisher. A bit disheartening to see the trajectory this company took, year by year, at the accelerated pace of all those cautionary forum posts. I had no idea this small press even existed until it popped up on the first page of Bewares.
 

Brantwijn Serrah

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While I share many of the frustrations already reported in this thread, including changes made to my manuscripts without my knowledge and books listed incorrectly on sales sites, once I requested and received my rights back, I hoped to walk away from the company and move into self-publishing without further exchange. I received my rights back from Champagne books effective July 1st of this year, as noted in the official rights reversion letter I received, attached here. I've redacted portions that reveal parties' real names or contact information.

3aa1b5c2a726928a7c77459ceeafb6c4.jpg



After receiving my rights, I had no more contact with Cassiel Knight or other administrators for Champagne Books, until November. That's when I became aware that my books were still being actively listed by CBG for sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, despite rights having reverted to me. Having determined they were, in fact, actively selling new copies, I made a list of those I'd found, and looked into the next step in having the unauthorized editions removed.

It was suggested to me that I issue official takedown notices and send a formal Cease and Desist. I hoped, however, an email directly to Cassie would be more appropriate, in terms of clearing up the issue without resorting to filing any kind of legal complaint or report of copyright violation to vendors.

Below are screenshots of an email I sent upon discovering the active listings, and Cassie's reply to me. Again I have redacted portions that would reveal parties' real names and contact information.

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While I had experienced a good deal of unprofessional conduct previously, when books were mislabeled or had sections removed without notice or ordered print copies for a book signing only to have them delayed past the date of the signing, Cassie's reply to my discovery that her business was still selling my books without my authorization is quite possibly the most unprofessional interaction I have EVER experienced.

It should be noted Cassie's payment to me in July covered my regular royalties from Q1/Q2 of the year, covering sales up to June 30th, prior to my reversal of rights. I haven’t accused CBG of failing to pay me royalties from my time with them. I think it should be obvious why it would upset me to find out there have been four months of time in which I would have no means at all to identify or check sales data.

Wherein Cassie refers to me "putting negative things" about CBG, I'm not 100% clear what she is referring to, however to be fair I had stated on my social media that I'd just discovered the books still for sale and asked if any friends knew how to verify for sure whether there were multiple e-book listings as well as print books. After receiving several messages from other current and former CBG authors who hadn't realized I'd recovered my rights and wanted to know more, I posted that I was happy to discuss the matter with interested parties [FONT=&quot]in private messages[/FONT][FONT=&quot].[/FONT]


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As of this writing it has been over week since I received Cassie's response, and as of yet, the books still have not come down.

I consider it wrong for a professional indie publisher to treat authors—even ex-authors—this way, especially with this sort of inquiry.
 

cool pop

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While I share many of the frustrations already reported in this thread, including changes made to my manuscripts without my knowledge and books listed incorrectly on sales sites, once I requested and received my rights back, I hoped to walk away from the company and move into self-publishing without further exchange. I received my rights back from Champagne books effective July 1st of this year, as noted in the official rights reversion letter I received, attached here. I've redacted portions that reveal parties' real names or contact information.

3aa1b5c2a726928a7c77459ceeafb6c4.jpg



After receiving my rights, I had no more contact with Cassiel Knight or other administrators for Champagne Books, until November. That's when I became aware that my books were still being actively listed by CBG for sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, despite rights having reverted to me. Having determined they were, in fact, actively selling new copies, I made a list of those I'd found, and looked into the next step in having the unauthorized editions removed.

It was suggested to me that I issue official takedown notices and send a formal Cease and Desist. I hoped, however, an email directly to Cassie would be more appropriate, in terms of clearing up the issue without resorting to filing any kind of legal complaint or report of copyright violation to vendors.

Below are screenshots of an email I sent upon discovering the active listings, and Cassie's reply to me. Again I have redacted portions that would reveal parties' real names and contact information.

38a9f45960acf378172e8f4106394334.jpg


While I had experienced a good deal of unprofessional conduct previously, when books were mislabeled or had sections removed without notice or ordered print copies for a book signing only to have them delayed past the date of the signing, Cassie's reply to my discovery that her business was still selling my books without my authorization is quite possibly the most unprofessional interaction I have EVER experienced.

It should be noted Cassie's payment to me in July covered my regular royalties from Q1/Q2 of the year, covering sales up to June 30th, prior to my reversal of rights. I haven’t accused CBG of failing to pay me royalties from my time with them. I think it should be obvious why it would upset me to find out there have been four months of time in which I would have no means at all to identify or check sales data.

Wherein Cassie refers to me "putting negative things" about CBG, I'm not 100% clear what she is referring to, however to be fair I had stated on my social media that I'd just discovered the books still for sale and asked if any friends knew how to verify for sure whether there were multiple e-book listings as well as print books. After receiving several messages from other current and former CBG authors who hadn't realized I'd recovered my rights and wanted to know more, I posted that I was happy to discuss the matter with interested parties in private messages.


57f4753e9a13231094eb578e54aab117.jpg


7d82e55ef8006791546c5d2a6041c632.jpg



As of this writing it has been over week since I received Cassie's response, and as of yet, the books still have not come down.

I consider it wrong for a professional indie publisher to treat authors—even ex-authors—this way, especially with this sort of inquiry.

If they are still selling your books then contact the retailers and let them know. Send them your letter you posted proving you own the rights and that you want them to take the books down. This has unfortunately happened to many authors where publishers didn't take the books down when they were supposed to. The retailers will take them down. They take it very seriously when something is for sale and the entity trying to sell it doesn't have the rights.
 

Brantwijn Serrah

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I appreciate the responses. I've republished my titles through my own KDP and D2D platforms and the books are active from my dashboards, however the Champagne (print) Editions are the ones that come up first when they are searched, and those editions have old covers, incorrect front matter info, and the wrong prices. I did have to tangle a bit with Amazon over the rights to a few but once I submitted the rights reversion letter they allowed mine to be published.

The biggest problem for me honestly is that the old editions should be out of print, as they are no longer current or include the front and back matter I am now including in my editions. That, and, as I noted, if Champagne is seeing sales on these, I have no way of knowing other than to confront them over it.

End of the day, I want the old editions down and if CBG hasn't taken them down by next week, I'm definitely contacting the booksellers. I wanted to give CBG the benefit of a doubt and give her the chance to correct the mistake, but I really didn't expect to have her clap back at me to say it was somehow my fault they were still up and that I was out of line to ask her to report any new sales to me. That's why I posted it here, because I strongly feel that, as an author, I aspire to be professional in my dealings and this is a business to me. I expected professional behavior in return, from a woman running a professional business, and if this is her response towards authors who confront her on serious errors, I think her email definitely belongs on Bewares & Background Check.

But since I did tell her I would wait until the 17th, I intend to stand by it.
 

veinglory

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Amazon is generally very good at removing old versions, just report attach the reversion method and ask the listing to be merged under the current edition.
 

RosalieStanton

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Yeah, the comment that amounted to "it took you this long?" is particularly irksome. It's not unreasonable to expect that when someone tells you something is going to happen, that it does in fact happen, particularly in business matters like this.

I just ended my contract with another publisher and, upon noticing that a print version of my book was still available on Amazon, they rushed to rectify the issue. That was earlier today, and the book is already down. In this case, the fact that it's been months is entirely on them, as is the lack of action after these emails. It doesn't take this long to delist a title.
 

JustSaying

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I've never been published by Champagne but have amassed friends over the years who have always spoken highly of this publisher. I believe there has been at least 1 and possibly 2 changes in ownership since they first opened but that still doesn't excuse the terrible behavior and lack of professionalism that I've been reading about here on this forum.

I was directed here by a friend who knew that I was considering submitting to them. What an eye opener.

Some further investigation on social media has lead me to believe that they've lost several staff members of the past year or two and that their are some serious rumblings in Indie circles that this small press may be circling the drain.

I would obviously prefer to submit my m/s to a publisher, but this is making me very wary. If a long established small publisher like this can be going so horribly wrong, what's to stop a newer one from collapsing also?

Perhaps self publishing is the way to go.

Thank you to those who have been brave / upfront enough to share their experiences. It's certainly opened my eyes.
 

Filigree

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I research the people involved with the press (heavy research, drilling down into county courts and state corporation commissions) to see if they have dicey pasts. I see their contracts & whether they have easy rights reversion, clear royalties, and good editing. Then I decide if it's worth committing my mms.

Self publication is a huge undertaking that requires a lot of time, which I don't have. If my current publisher goes down, I'll consider self-pub.
 

Brantwijn Serrah

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Yeah, the comment that amounted to "it took you this long?" is particularly irksome. It's not unreasonable to expect that when someone tells you something is going to happen, that it does in fact happen, particularly in business matters like this.

Thank you! This is exactly what I thought.

So as far as I can tell, Cassie waited until the absolute last moment to take down my books, as they were still available from Champagne when I checked on Thursday, and I was already mentally preparing my notices to Amazon and Barnes & Noble to let them know the books were listed without authorization. Today I checked again, and they had finally come down. So that's at least done. I can't imagine why it would take this long (on top of the time they've already been up), but at least it's done.
 

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Learn from my experience...

I thought I’d chime in, having also received my rights back from Champagne Book Group. Though instead of restating what all the previous two posters have said, I wanted to put a helpful spin on things. A “learn from my experience” piece if you will. Thus I give you the following—

A survival guide for current/potential CBG authors:

1. Keep all email correspondence. ALL of it. Create an email folder and squirrel away everything. Star/mark emails in which statements of pending follow through have been made and you are waiting for the task to be completed—and hold that person accountable for an accumulating lack of follow through. Yes, we all “drop the ball” from time to time, but if you see a trend of repeatedly being told “I’ll do ___ this week” as if this was the FIRST TIME they are telling you this, and said task continues to be left undone, don’t let it go. As an author, you deserve better. A professional follows through. Consistently.

Additionally: Do not let someone tell you that your emails are getting “lost in cyberspace” and never make it to the publisher’s in-box, or your emails are randomly going into their junk/spam folder. This is not happening, especially if it is gmail sending/receiving to gmail. The reverse is also untrue, emails being sent to you—many emails—from the publisher, trying to get in touch with you have been cyberspace obliterated. Big NOPE to that.

A 3 week average wait to hear back from the publisher isn’t stellar either. If the situation is a broken store link, a broken pre-order button, the wrong cover art/interior files are actively for sale, a potentially long wait to fix things that affect sales can be agonizing.

2. Read the gallery copy of your manuscript—thoroughly! Request to have it sent to you; even if you are told (by someone you should be able to trust) that things are fine/clean/you can skip reading it and go straight to releasing. Do not pass up your last chance to make sure everything is in fact clean. This is how a situation can be created where readers may come to you later to report they are finding many errors and even editors notes left directly in the book. (Yes, this happened to me.)

3. For authors writing YA: If you yourself are closer in age to those who fall within the YA category, and your reading group members are also of a similar age—including a high school English teacher who is in direct observational contact with teens, it is okay to take what your (two decades older) editor says with a grain of salt. I could go into this more, but the short and long of it is the second CBG editor I worked with line editing was just not in touch with current teenagers. She looked at the evolving relationships in my YA story through the filter of how a fifty-something woman views romance—and she directed me (with editor authority) to drastically alter my story as such.

Advice here: Stay true to the essence of you what you know. Don’t agree with guidance given? Fine. Have actual facts/witness testimony to back you up? (Yes.) Perfect. And yet, do not miss out on a possible opportunity to make your story even better. Ask: what can I do to clarify? What can be tweaked, added? In the end, I did just that, and I am exceedingly glad. To the moon and back happy. I don’t know what the editor’s thoughts were post-changes, as she never commented; I was off her plate and on to the next task. I am grateful for the situation that saw me pausing to evaluate a few things—even if at the time I was extremely frustrated with the editor’s contemporary YA disconnect, still irritable when I think upon it. (As a courtesy, I have not mentioned the editor’s name. However, had I continued on with CBG I would have requested not to work with her in an editing capacity again, as blame for leaving editor notes in the text of the final book rests on her shoulders, this in addition to the difficulties noted above.)

4. Be watchful of your Royalty Statements. Ask questions if things seem off! Sure, in the letter to Brantwijn, the publisher insists she has never shorted any author monies—on purpose. But I must say that Cassie’s bookkeeping leaves a lot to be desired. My first royal statement of the year was missing sale reports from two vendors, including her very own CBG online store. Having spoken with friends, I knew I had sales on there. I did, when Cassie went back and checked—she told me those sales were in fact on her spreadsheet but they hadn’t transferred over to my account. Glitches and all that. As for the second MIA vendor? Oh, well, they don’t automatically contact her about sales. She’d forgotten about them and investigated—and yes, I had sales there too. So, had I not paid attention and asked about these MIA vendors I would have certainly been shorted. (Unknown sales, due to careless/hasty/glitchy bookkeeping ways are, in fact, a way to inadvertently gyp authors.)

5. If you’re unhappy, just say something. Desperately want to leave? Ask for your rights back. Of the authors I know who have gotten their rights returned, half of them asked for rights back without much issue (other than print versions not being pulled down for months after the fact), while the others were given their rights back (an “I know things have gotten really off track; I made you unhappy; Do you want your rights returned?” offer from the publisher).

I understand that a certain amount of anxiety comes into play when gearing up to ask for a rights reversal. And please know that you are not alone in your fretting—all of us who have gone before you have experienced varying levels of nail biting. One author describes her time with CBG as one of the most stressful periods in her life—and she’s gone through an awful lot. Another tells of her husband talking her back from mental ledges, reading her emails to ensure they were professionally worded before she sent them. Yet another author describes a panic attack—family health issues (cancer), a terminally ill pet, and an inability to write the second book in her series due to the awful mess that was her first publishing experience with CBG—all of this amounting to an episode of being face down on the bathroom floor for the better part of an hour, unable to breath past the painful tightness in her chest.

During the first (and only skype meeting of 2018, up until October—which I couldn’t attend, as it took place during the work day, I read through it later) Cassie had this to say about the past year: I just want to also express my deepest apologies for the challenges over the last year, the lack of communication and all assorted things. I could give excuses but that's not fair to you because I'm supposed to still manage--that's why I have the house so my excuses are just that. This is all she had to say, a brief acknowledgment of the year being crappy, then business as usual for the remainder of the meeting. There was no…accountability? No one holding her responsible? Nobody spoke up to say: yes, your neglect and messy way of handling things caused me anxiety and frustration… After the meeting another author pointed out: I think THAT'S what's making me so mad about her whole "I owe you an apology" message. Because it's not that easy to just say "Oops, sorry!" when your professional BUSINESS conduct has caused so much trouble and made so many problems for authors. It's easy for her to just say, "Oh, sorry, I'll get it right next time", but it's YOUR author name and YOUR brand people are seeing. It's YOUR reputation and name, but she isn't treating it like she really believes in you or wants you to succeed.

What bothered me the most was that nobody really called her out on how her neglect over this year has affected them negatively…thus I shared a little insight (above) provided some intimate details of what other CBG authors have shared with me, the struggles they went through during 2018. I share this in hopes that, if somebody on the CBG staff happens upon this post, they can gain some insight into how authors have been adversely affected. PLUS, any current CBG authors who come upon this, those who may still be in the midst of struggle, I want you to know that you are not alone. What you are experiencing…others have gone through it. And there IS a way out! Simply speak your truth; reference emails that you have saved to prove your points, support your truth. ASK FOR YOUR RIGHTS BACK. Quite a few of us have done so already. And at least five editors have left this year (Cassie told me in an email back in February four had departed. Recently there has been a fifth.) Plus our social media coordinator left.

Be strong, fellow authors. From what I am being told, not all small publishers are such a hot mess. Do your homework, talk to current authors of said house; be proactive to protect yourself (save those emails!!). Had there been more recent posts on this thread a year ago reporting all of the shenanigans that have been happening since the new owner had taken over Champagne Book Group, I would have never signed on with them—and this is my Truth.
 

thethinker42

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No arguments with anything, but I wanted to add that...

1. Keep all email correspondence. ALL of it. Create an email folder and squirrel away everything. Star/mark emails in which statements of pending follow through have been made and you are waiting for the task to be completed—and hold that person accountable for an accumulating lack of follow through. Yes, we all “drop the ball” from time to time, but if you see a trend of repeatedly being told “I’ll do ___ this week” as if this was the FIRST TIME they are telling you this, and said task continues to be left undone, don’t let it go. As an author, you deserve better. A professional follows through. Consistently.

Additionally: Do not let someone tell you that your emails are getting “lost in cyberspace” and never make it to the publisher’s in-box, or your emails are randomly going into their junk/spam folder. This is not happening, especially if it is gmail sending/receiving to gmail. The reverse is also untrue, emails being sent to you—many emails—from the publisher, trying to get in touch with you have been cyberspace obliterated. Big NOPE to that.

...100% applies to *any* publisher you work with. Also translators, narrators, vendors, cover artists, contest coordinators, co-authors, blog owners... everyone. Even benign one-line communications. Keep *everything*. Even -- especially -- people you totally trust and are comfortable with. I've had relationships with three publishers go sour, a contest try to gaslight me and claim I had consented to a book being kicked out of a category because it was queer, and a number of other situations where a saved email saved my bacon.

So yes, I agree with everything in that post, and this part in particular applies to everyone. Save. Every. Email.
 

KMTolan

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Time for my two-cents. I've been with CBG since 2008. I've seen the transition from the previous owner (Ellen) to the current one (Cassie). I would agree that Cassie seems to have taken much on to herself, and not without some initial degradation of services such as keeping in contact with her authors. That being said, there are some positive indications that she is working to turn things around, including trying to decide the direction the company needs to go in. I believe that she is working with some staff including Kat who has been a mainstay with the company. I have noted that there is a tendency to only send e-books to Amazon and reserve the paperbacks for the CBG store - not a positive for me as this limits exposure to readership. Not that Amazon is any small publisher's friend when it comes to wringing out a profit from them.

That gripe aside, I haven't seen the reported issues with cover art. In fact, my last novel "Storm Child" has an exceptional cover due to Cassie's direct intervention. She's even re-covered my previous novel, increasing its appeal as well.

I would like to think that CBG will be around for while, especially as I've no reason not to submit to them. My personal experience apparently isn't the same as some other authors, so sure, be cautious as you might with any small press outfit. I would like to see some improvement in marketing, but I suspect so would Cassie. It's easy to say you want better exposure, but getting it isn't that simple. She has been fielding ideas to authors and receiving input on her Skype meetings (which have thankfully restarted after a disturbing quiet last year).
 

frimble3

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I believe there has been at least 1 and possibly 2 changes in ownership since they first opened but that still doesn't excuse the terrible behavior and lack of professionalism that I've been reading about here on this forum.
Changes in ownership, or major staff changes are not a good sign, especially in a small business. New people in a couple of key positions, in a small company can make a major difference to the future. Also, why did ownership change and why did the new owner buy it? These are things you may never know the answers to, but are good to ponder.


I would obviously prefer to submit my m/s to a publisher, but this is making me very wary. If a long established small publisher like this can be going so horribly wrong, what's to stop a newer one from collapsing also?
Absolutely nothing. Watch for changes in ownership, changes in policies, changes in circumstances, or in the direction of the company. And, how much back up is there, if a crucial staff member takes ill or takes off?
And, watch out for people for whom publishing is a sideline: if they talk about their families frequently, or they have day jobs, or they're writers themselves, well, your book isn't exactly a priority, is it?
 

Brantwijn Serrah

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(I don't know why this keeps nesting under comments it isn't meant to reply to... I've tried several times to get it to post to the main thread and not as a "Reply", but it keeps showing up here. Oh well.)

An Update


I'd hoped I'd posted the last I had to regarding Champagne Books, but after another dust-up I feel I need to share some important details about how Cassie manages her business.

TLDR — When I confronted Cassie over a message which seemed to indicate she'd found another of my books still active under Champagne, she responded by telling me I was lucky she'd paid me my royalties at all, since I wouldn't have known any better if she hadn't, and then implied I should be grateful she was too "professional" to try and blacklist me, rate my books all 1 star, and "sic" other CBG authors on me. I'll post details below but if you don't want to wade through it all, there's your summary.

The gritty details:

On Tuesday of this week, I received a Paypal notice that CBG had sent me a royalty payment for a paperback sale. I received no email from Cassie, no statement, and no context for the royalty payment, except for a comment on the PayPal transaction: "Looks like another slipped in. I think this will be the last though."

After the last exchange I had with Cassie over my titles being listed by Champagne, and several distributors through Champagne, for four months after they should have been taken down, this random and unexplained royalty payment left me to decide what exactly Cassie meant by "another". Another royalty payment she hadn't sent previously? Another book listing that didn't get taken down? Another distributor who maybe hadn't gotten the memo and taken down my books? With no context, I had no record of which book sold, where it had sold, or when it had sold, which is all information I need in order to make informed decisions.

I posted to my private Facebook about my frustration, though I withheld names or identifying details and simply posted that a former publisher might still have a listing up that they should have taken down. I've worked with several publishers before and after CBG, and posted this to my private Facebook page, not to any public group or page, as a personal frustration that was simply making my day feel rather crappy. Cassie took issue with this; I'll get to that in a minute.

Just as a note, I am not friends with Cassie on Facebook, unless it is under a pen name I'm not aware is hers. Since the post was private, I assume other people on my friends list saw it and told her about it.
I emailed Cassie to let her know I appreciated her sending the royalty, but I really needed more context. Below, my email to her, with real names and personal or contact info redacted:

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In fairness to Cassie, I wrongfully interpreted her message to mean another book was still listed. This was not the case and Champagne had not continued to list any of my books. I admit making a wrong assumption based on her very vague comment. When it became clear I had misunderstood the message, I removed my frustrated Facebook post and replaced it with another clarifying there had been no missed book, and the payment had only been a delayed royalty.

However, wrong assumption or no, I still needed to see an actual royalty statement, just like any contracted CBG author would expect, and without that context, I don't think it was unfair to at least be concerned they had once again casually neglected to take my books down.

This was Cassie's response to me:

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This is the whole reason I chose to post about this again.
I've highlighted the segment I think all authors either working with CBG or considering submitting to them really needs to see. Cassie thinks that sending me a royalty payment for my work, which she did not have the rights to list, was an "optional" good deed she didn't have to do. In her own words she literally said she didn't have to tell me about it because I believed everything was paid out.

A publisher paying royalties—especially paying an author for a book that publisher had no right to list—is not a favor. It's not a kind, considerate gesture. It's their legal obligation as a business.
Now, I'll be honest. This sale netted probably less than $3 (I don't know the exact amount, I never did get confirmation for what price the book was at when it sold). What I do know from the statement she eventually sent (which didn't include the total sale price), is that Cassie actually paid me only a portion of what the book earned, because as is typical, she neglected to remember that I was not under contract with Champagne and they had no right to any of the money made by that sale. But I don't care about the actual royalty amount. I care that, when asking a publisher to provide basic documentation to me regarding the sale of one of my books, that publisher told me I was lucky they paid me at all.

Again, and I cannot stress this enough: for Cassie to pay me what I am legally owed for a book sale is not a favor. It was her responsibility. Cassie's response to my expectations of professionalism was to gaslight me, and if any other authors out there are dealing with a similar attitude from any publisher, I want you to know they cannot do this. Just because they could get away with not telling you about your sales, doesn't mean they get brownie points for paying you.

I'd love to wrap up the story here, but in the interest of full transparency and so Cassie doesn't come along later and tell everyone that I wasn't telling the complete story, I'll include the rest of it.

I responded to Cassie, and by this point, I was losing my temper (being gaslit will do that to you).


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And here's Cassie's reply (please again note the highlighted portion):


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Cassie implies here that the treatment I received from her was perfectly professional, because she didn't resort to unethical and illegal tactics to deal with me. More gaslighting, and frankly, it seems like a bit of an implied threat. I'm fortunate that she hasn't "sicc'd" CBG authors on me or tried to blacklist me? What would she even blacklist me for? A single Facebook post? A post I hid from my timeline as soon as she told me there was no book still listed, and replaced with a clarification that I had misinterpreted the message?

I responded to Cassie explaining that she can't tell me I should be grateful to her for paying me what I was legally owed, or that after all the problems CBG put me through (consistently failing to send print copies I'd ordered, leaving me to fix their mistakes, posting the wrong covers or wrong files on my new releases, cutting content from my manuscripts without telling me, changing my blurbs and taglines without running the changes by me first, then casually neglecting to delist my books for four months after we parted ways), I should be glad she hadn't also tried to blacklist me or stalk me or rate all my books as 1 star in retaliation. I also told her in the future I wouldn't bother to try and protect the identity of the publisher who was giving me so much trouble, since it is perfectly ethical for me to share my experience with others and make true, documented, provable statements about the situation.

Cassie still maintains she's acted in a perfectly professional manner and it's me who has been unreasonable. She's been blocked from my social media and my email now, as I will only tolerate so much.

This is why I felt it necessary to post this update. I take serious, serious offense that a publisher would treat a former author this way, and imply that I'm lucky she didn't behave more unscrupulously. And I seriously hope anyone working with Champagne or thinking of submitting to Champagne will take Cassie's statements to me (especially the one about how she could have chosen not to pay me) into consideration.

This is a bad company. Authors beware.
 
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cool pop

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That's disgusting and it's stuff like this that reminds me why I went indie! I can't stand when people play the victim but unfortunately many crooks do. No it is not a favor to pay an author the money they made. Sickening. I understand how you feel I dealt with some small presses and even though they were supposed to be reputable, my experiences with all ended up on a negative or horrific note. I even had one publisher try to blackmail me for my rights back!

My advice to anyone going through this, authors need to always fight. If they know they are being treated wrong, don't just settle for it. These crooks are hoping they can walk over you but you have to keep fighting.

And my other advice is go indie so you won't have to deal with this crap.
 

Brantwijn Serrah

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Absolutely! I've taken full control of my books now and seen a much, much better engagement from readers, connected with many more great, collaborative authors, and had better sales. I'm 100% happy with that decision.

Confrontation is hard, but you're so right. Authors need to fight this kind of treatment. I've spoken with several CBG authors who didn't realize their experiences were not just "the norm", and that they had legitimate reasons to be frustrated with their treatment. If people don't speak up, unscrupulous publishers are able to get away with treating Indies like this, because some new authors just don't know it's not okay. 😣
 
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thethinker42

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Absolutely! I've taken full control of my books now and seen a much, much better engagement from readers, connected with many more great, collaborative authors, and had better sales. I'm 100% happy with that decision.

I had the same experience after I left. I had other publishers by then too, but my former CBG books were my first self-pubs, and I was much happier once I went that route. Now I'm almost entirely indie.

Confrontation is hard, but you're so right. Authors need to fight this kind of treatment. I've spoken with several CBG authors who didn't realize their experiences were not just "the norm", and that they had legitimate reasons to be frustrated with their treatment. If people don't speak up, unscrupulous publishers are able to get away with treating Indies like this, because some new authors just don't know it's not okay. 

Yep. I think a lot of authors are conditioned to believe that we need to bow and scrape, that publishers are doing us an enormous kindness just by giving us the time of day, and that if we rock the boat, we'll be blacklisted forever. And maybe there was a time when that was true, but authors have so much more power now than we did even 10 years ago, and we'd be wise to use it when the situation calls for it. The more authors push back against shady or negligent publishers, the fewer publishers will be able to continue with that kind of behavior.
 

Richard White

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I think the advice to go independent is ill-advised.

I agree this was a very bad experience that no author should have to go through.

However, creating a small business, which is what you are doing when you become a self-publisher, should not be entered into lightly. By becoming a self-publisher, you are assuming all the responsibility for editing, designing, publishing, marketing and advertising, and a myriad of other responsibilities that a GOOD publisher handles for an author. (Please note the caveat there--there are lots of not-good publishers out there and I'll leave it for each author to decide the level of not-good they're comfortable accepting.)

Self-publishing is not a default fall-back position, nor is it automatically "better" than seeking trade publishing.

It should be entered into because the person WANTS to be a self-publisher, has the GOAL of being a self-publisher, and has the SKILLS or the MONEY to be a self-publisher. Being a self-publisher can be incredibly rewarding. It can also be a huge pain-in-the-neck. Also, realize, every moment you're doing publisher stuff is a moment you're not writing that next story.

If you're organized and can handle juggling those things and it's your goal to be a self-publisher, then by all means, go for it.

But, don't just jump into the pond without making sure where the bottom is.
 
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Cassie Knight

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Hey all,

As you're are reading on side of the entire situation, please realize you are only reading one side and there are things that happened over my history with author that she is not sharing with you. Did I do thing 100% perfect? No, I didn't. I freely admitted to those things and took responsibility. And even when I said something I shouldn't have (in a prior situation), I apologized. My issue stems from the fact is that when the author had concerns, she didn't email me. She went to social media and "vented" then when she did email me, she sent veiled threats when our previous relationship with me and her as an author was, I thought, very good. So, was my tone a little strong? Yes, it was. I don't apologize for it. This is a situation where I thought the author and I had a better relationship, a professional relationship, but was dismayed when I learned we didn't. Despite everything that came between us, I do admire her and had a blast with her when she was with CBG, and I honestly wish for nothing but the best for her. If her books are doing better than they did with me, I'm so glad for her.

I struggled in 2018. Part of it was my fault and part was beyond my control. I did handle things badly with regard to communication and in Brantwijn's case, unfortunately I dropped the ball on getting her CreateSpace books down. And I know I was late on some royalties. But I paid each and every person, including those who claimed they were not paid out when I took over ownership from the previous owner.

This house is important to me. The current authors are important to me as are the future authors who will be joining CBG. I didn't always handle everything as well as I should but again, I state that there are two sides to every story and the real story usually fits somewhere in between.

I'm confident that 2019 will be a banner year for CBG and the wonderful authors that entrust their work to me.

Thanks
 

cool pop

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I think acting like all publishers are great and perfect is ill-advised. I didn't say self-publishing is for everyone. I said why I went indie. I wasn't telling others what to do but you can see she says she went indie and is happier than she ever been so at least that's a happy ending to her story and I'm glad for that.
 
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