Adventures in Publishing: Mardi Gras Press
I didn’t think it would take me four years to get to this post, but reading through this ongoing account of the collapse of Aspen Mountain Press reminded me that I never did get a proper rant on about my involvement with Mardi Gras Press. I think it’s past time, seeing as my experiences might help someone. (Mostly though the Absolute Write thread on the subject just looks so familiar.)
(Also, it’s been 4 years, so, um, the timing on some of this may be off. I’ll be vaguish or precise as I feel fit.)
January-ish 2007- I have this vampire romance long short story (between 8 & 9k). It’s a romance and I have no clue how to market it because I’m a *horror* writer not a “silly” romance writer. But I know romance writers and they have books out through Triskelion and Liquid Silver and Loose ID and Ellora’s Cave. Well cool, there’s a list right there. Well, heck, it’s too short for most of them, not erotic enough for others and others are closed. Well I’ll look for other well thought of presses. Hey, there’s this place called Mardi Gras. Ooo, look they have a line just for darker romance, and it’s called Voodoo Moon. Wicked!
(*This is an important part, m’kay?) Well, lookie there, there are nothing but good things about them on Absolute Write’s Bewares board. And P&E says there’s no problems with them currently. Hi Piers says that an editor just split from them and started her own press, but there’s not actual complaint. Editors leave publishers all the time. Am I sure there’s no complaints? Let’s Google “Mardi Gras Press” and “complaints”. Oh, look, nothing. I’ll go a head and take the chance and submit then.
March-ish 2007- What’s this? We loved your story and want to publish it? AWESOME! Let’s see the contract. Hmmm, 3 year contract for digital sales. Good royalties (note: I don’t remember if it was 35% or 50% but I do remember it was at or better than the average at the time, on net, but net was defined as gross minus publishers costs–explicitly defined as editing and cover costs.) No in perpetuity, right of first refusal on anything with the same characters, timeline for cover art, edits and actual publication listed, right to audit, reversion of rights in case of bankruptcy or failure to publish. Not bad. Not the best, but it’s a short story, so why not try it out.
Oh, I’ve been added to the “MGP authors” private yahoo group. Wow these folks are really enthusiastic and peppy. Maybe too idealistic when it comes to how far publishing with a micro-epress can get them. But they seem happy, positive and hopeful.
April-ish 2007- Note from owner. Publishing date set for September. Cool. I thought it would take longer.
May-ish 2007- Hey cover artist mail! Fill out the survey. One week later: Wow, cover art. I like it. Very fun!
July 2007: Note from editor that editing will happen soon!
Late July 2007: Note on author’s loop; “Has anyone heard from the owner? The books that were supposed to go life Tuesday never did.” “Hmm,” more than on person answers, “Let’s give it a few days to see if maybe she’s just running behind.”
Early August 2007: “Hey, has anyone heard from the owner? She’s been missing from the convos going on here and books for this week didn’t go up either.” “Hey I called her, she said her computer died on her. We’re trying to get her net access so she can get the books up and we’ll go from there.” “Oh, okay. Wow, I hate when that happens. Tell us if she needs help.”
Two days later: I personally email her suggesting she get to a library and communicate with her authors or designate a temporary assistant with a computer to get things back in shape. At this point I’m very wary and thinking no matter how enthusiastic any of these people are I don’t want to get stuck in the mentality of publisher loyalty and start writing stories just for MGP like a lot of others seem to be doing.
ONE day later: Person who claimed to call owner “Hey, I’m a little suspicious. I mean, I’ve been suspicious since I didn’t get my last quarter statement, but now I’m actually suspicious.” “You didn’t get a statement? Me either!” “Me three.” “And hey, my last payment check bounced.” “I’ve not been paid for my cover art.” “And I only got a down payment when I complained for my editing services.”
Me: Whhhaaa?? Why didn’t any of you all mention any of this months ago? Even to each other on the author loop?? I never would have submitted if there was even ONE report of nonpayment!
“Yeah, you know this is inexcuseable. Who can’t buy a new computer in 2 weeks?” (Um, many people.) “Or at least contact us and tell us what’s going on?” (Okay, they had that point in spades.)
“Let’s string this bitch up.” (Okay, so that’s a tiny bit of an over statement. But over the next 48 hours the conversation went from “I’m worried about her” to “I’m reporting her to Homeland Security and she’s gonna be arrested!”)
Then the authors go public.
Me: OMG, where’s my popcorn? (and am I ever glad my story wasn’t my favorite story evah or ever released.)
Next Day: “She ran off with our money. And she hasn’t been paying anyone for 18 months. And she’s got 20 pseudonyms! And she put her work out first! And we reported her to the FBI! And Homeland Security is looking into this! And we demanded the hosting site take the page down!”(They wouldn’t because no one could show actual proof that the owner was breaking a contract or acting maliciously–not that she wasn’t, just that no one could prove it so it just looked like people with a personal vendetta throwing a fit.) “And hey, let’s look at our contracts to see what we can do/where to send rights reversions.” “Good idea, I don’t remember what mine says.*” “I never read mine. Man, I trusted her!*”
*Not kidding about this part. People actually said that.
Me: *headdesk*
Next Day: “I am so upset! I had 16 titles contracted! Now what?” “Let’s all blog about this!”
Many do. Author boards and blogs pick it up. The loop starts posting links to other people blogging it and encourages them to comment.
About a week after the authors start getting upset the owner shows back up: On the author loop “Wow. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m disappointed.” Authors: “You’re disappointed? We’re missing payments and we’ve missed three weeks of releases.”
Owner in a public statement: “I had computer and personal issues. I’m disappointed in my authors. I’m trying to get my shit together. Some authors will be dropped for disloyalty.”
Me: I have a bad press bingo!! What do I win? Oh, wait…
Subsequent fall out: Authors complain a lot more. Threaten a lot more. Spend a lot more time on boards and blogs. Nothing much happens, except the website goes dark. Dear Author blogs when MGP announcing their impending bankruptcy. (Take note of the kind of comments over there. The authors have valid complaints, but they easily jump to personal attacks, accusations and speculation.) Also someone points out owner has started a new press with two of the MGP authors (and herself).
Fits are thrown. Second publisher vanishes.
I have not heard of the owner or press since then.
So, here is what went wrong:
-So many authors had not even read their contracts. They implicitly trusted the publisher not to rip them off. No clue why. Furthermore they began writing *only* for this publisher. And continued doing so after the owner stopped paying.
-There apparently was no backup. No check system. No one but the owner had the books and passwords to continue the publisher should something happen to the owner.
-No one publicly or anonymously mentioned lack of payment for up to or possibly exceeding 18 months despite there being forums like Writer Beware, Hi Piers, P&E, Absolute Write, etc. No one even seemed to have talked to their fellow authors about it to see if it was an isolated event or not.
-The owner wasn’t paying people. No clue why, but probably lack of sales. Maybe out right thievery. No one ever proved it either way. It doesn’t matter why. No one was getting paid.
-The owner vanished, with no word. No contact. The owner, like most people in America had access to library or other public use computers. and Flash drives. And had all of our phone numbers on the contracts. And never tried to ask for help. Never tried to get word to us, to get books up or anything.
-The authors, editors and cover artists (who were often more than one thing) were left in a vacuum where months of dissent started coming out, and then it became almost a mob-mentality of anger against the owner. Did they have the right to be angry? Abso-fricken-lutely. Completely and totally. Did personal attacks, accusations with no provable basis, an organized smear campaign and contacting Homeland Security accomplish anything? Nope. And WTF, Homeland Security? What do they have to do with anything?
-When the owner did resurface she insulted her authors, completely abandoned the press and started over with new authors. Way to do right by your authors.
What can you learn by this?
-Professionalism works. Be a professional. Demand your publisher be professional too.
-Nonpayment is the biggest red flag there is.
-Non-responsiveness from editors and owners is another big one.
-The owners or editors having multiple pen names is another big one.
But sometimes these red flags aren’t public even among fellow authors. So what else do you look for?
-Crappy quality covers and stories. Stories that seem “mill-produced” that it put out to build content, to have weekly releases, not for quality.
-A culture in the other writers of over-loyalty. If authors seem to only publish through this single publisher it could be a bad sign. If the publisher only seems to publish certain authors.
-A bad contract. (I didn’t have one.)
-Hate to add this one, but; Authors who are ignorant of how publishing works. Authors who push “loyalty”. Authors who don’t don’t understand/seem knowledgeable about their own contracts.
-Editors who threaten to “blacklist”. Editors who encourage smear campaigns against former/current authors. Editors who don’t know how editing, publishing or basic business works. Editors who aren’t good with language and grammar. Editors who are also authors with the press.
-Editors who are paid royalties for editing. (This is a sign that the editor is at best, severely underpaid since micropresses don’t make a lot of money on individual projects. If they can’t pay their editors and instead only pay them royalties they are cutting corners and very likely to have enthusiastic, and sometimes gifted, but usually amateur editors who are putting in double duty a authors as well.
Sometimes though, there are no signs until you’ve already signed the contract. Or until things are already collapsing. I think we’re moving past that after so many presses falling apart. Even the wait 1 year to see how the press fares rule doesn’t always work.
So what do you do?
-Know what your contract says.
-Don’t be afraid to walk away if you can/need to.
-While it doesn’t hurt to report issues, make sure you’re doing it to the right person. City officials, the IRS and writers’ orgs like Writer Beware tend to work better than the FBI and Homeland Security. Cities have rules for businesses. The IRS wants their taxes. Writer Beware and its ilk are often able to send up red flags when many people complain. And they know about the litigation aspects (which are often dismal).
-Do not stay silent if you have gotten multiple missing or wrong statements or if checks have bounced.
-Stay professional. Insults and trolling might FEEL good, but in the end it looks real bad. (Ahem, and if you’re with a press with insulters and trollers, where that kind of thing is encouraged consider that a big of fat red flag.) “Please don’t buy this book if it’s released because it’s unauthorized.” That’s good. I know it’s hard to stay calm in the uproar, but it really does help.
-Consider having a lawyer. I know it can be expensive, but there’s pre-paid legal. There’s Legal Aid which can often at least meet with you and lay out some options. You might be able to write a notice about breaking contract (if the press has done that. Sadly you might just have to wait it out until they do.) on your own.
-Educate yourself because once you know how publishing works when it’s not working right it is often obvious.
And most of all, remember that an author is not one book any more than Walmart is one product on the shelf. Keep writing. Look for something better and keep moving forward.