October 14

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.

 

 

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October 13

I never considered myself a feminist

I’ve blogged before about how I never really realized the depth of neglect in my childhood until I was raising a child of my own. The same is true of me and feminism. I never considered myself a feminist, but how could I not be while I’m trying to raise my daughter.

I know she’s only seven, but we’ve already talked about how the way women in tv/movies/comics dress and how it affects them/her (“It’s okay for adults to wear what they want, but I think I should wear clothes that cover all the parts of me that other people shouldn’t touch.”), how she feels that girls aren’t supposed to like science fiction, and recently we’ve talked about women’s inequality.

I never meant to have these talks with her. But I refuse to skip a chance to talk about a deeper issue just because she’s seven. Or just because I’m uncomfortable with the topic, or I don’t really have answers to give her. It didn’t escape our notice that most of the people who criticized our Dear DC blog were male, and all the people who got outright nasty were male. What surprised me was that after the Ms. Magazine blog picked up the article she asked me what a feminist was.

I explained that feminist has come to mean a lot of things, but basically it’s a person, male or female, who fights for the right of women to be equal. This confused her. When I explained that there was a time when women weren’t allowed to vote, when they couldn’t own property, they couldn’t hold most jobs and often weren’t allowed to go to school after a certain age she was stunned. She’d never considered such a thing. I have a hard time trying to explain why this is, too.

Worse, we had the misfortune of experiencing that kind of sexism this year. I’m an avid role player, hard core table top and I met my partner at a LARP. Earlier this year I was part of a D&D game that I loved. Unfortunately one of the late-addition players has a problem with women. We came to an outright confrontation when I wouldn’t spend my experience the way he demanded that I do it, and furthermore when I played my character in a way he didn’t like.  (For those in the know, my elven fighter was made commander of a moderate amount of troops and he, as the player, demanded that I turn over the troop to his character’s control and became extremely agitated and augmentative when I chose to command my own troops. Pretty much everything I did that last game was met by arguing, yelling and physical agitation by him.)

The DM decided, rather than supporting my right to play my character my way to break up the problem by kicking me out of the game. That’s right, not the person causing the fights. Me, for not giving into him, I guess. I don’t know.  They didn’t even have the balls to tell me they were kicking me out, they said the game was over and then snuck off to play somewhere else.

Then a few months later the problem player expressly invited my partner to come play in a game he was running and made sure it was clear that I was not invited. Here’s the kicker, there are two other women in the circle of friends who are tolerated to “hang out” (but aren’t allowed to role play) but they don’t talk much and they certainly never disagree with said jerk.

I admit my feelings were hurt. This was not a new set of friends. They were people who had lived with us at time after losing their homes. People I bought food for. People I supported at times with money, but mostly emotionally and with help like rides places, research, lend resources, etc. For years we got along fine.

This hasn’t escaped my daughter’s notice, especially since on these game days even she and her brother are welcome to go play with the other kids, but somehow I’m not welcome.

So she asked, and now she knows that yes, there are still people out there who think women don’t deserve to be equal. I’m not talking about the unconscious skewing of society to oh, de-criminalize domestic violence because the perception is that it’s a female crime. Or the habit of people to blame the victim when it comes to rape but not for male-on-male assault, or even, say gang violence or murder. Or the sexualization of women in media, but not men. (Or at least, certainly not to the same degree. There certainly is a fictional image of perfection present in males in media, but it’s skewed more toward strength and confidence and perfection of moral character–either toward good or evil–not sexualized.)

So now it’s hard not to see it, even for her. and once you see it it’s ridiculous for me not to tell her that just because some people fall for the B.S., just because some people outright buy into it, doesn’t mean she has to be let them make her less of a person. It doesn’t make her opinion, her voice, invalid. It’s jsut so important to me that she know that, and if that makes me a feminist, so be it.

Category: Business, Family, Girly Stuff, Personal | 6 Comments on I never considered myself a feminist
October 10

The Gutters

A poster on the Dear DC post pointed me to webcomic The Gutters where I’ve been comic-ed. I’m so tickled by this, even though it was clear the poster (who is not the artist) hadn’t read my post. I actually think the artist made a good point. An opinion is just an opinion. The only thing I’m truly disappointed with is DC’s response, which equated to “We don’t care you aren’t the customer we want” (and that’s what I think the comic was saying).

Let me explain why this is disappointing. Regulars here know I used to work for Borders. Their biggest problem was that booksellers tried to tell the company how to reach customers and the company routinely ignored them. Instead, the company came up with a number of schemes, including regional managers who routinely yelled at and threatened managers in their desperation. Managers meanwhile punished people who couldn’t get the failing customer base to buy the $20 loyalty card (to a business trading penny stocks who had been posting record losses for two years) at 50 or more people a day.

Borders didn’t want to meet the customers on their own terms, to meet the needs of the customers as they are. They wanted to force customers back into the mid 90s heydays. They wanted to force customers to buy whatever crap was on the shelves, not put stuff on the shelves that customers wanted. This is not a business model that can survive these days.

This is exactly what I feel DC is doing. They say they’re trying to improve their customer base, but they can’t if they aren’t willing to meet who their customers really are. It’s a business model that ends with good people getting laid off from a job they love because the uppers just can’t be bothered to listen.

So yeah, a little personal and a little disappointing.

But I also wanted to note, when it comes to the argument that my daughter shouldn’t have been reading a teen comic in the first place, DC defines “T” as 12 & up. According to state testing my daughter is reading at a 11-12 yr old level. Furthermore her teacher, her librarian and her dad and I feel she’s at a maturity level to read materials at a preteen level as well. She reads lots of other books aimed for 9-14 yr olds (she’s on a Goosebumps kick as of late, which is rated for 9-12 yr olds). Think the point here isn’t that I shouldn’t be letting my daughter read a “T” rated comics, but DC needs to rate comics with blatant violence, psychotic characters and clear adult content higher than for 12 yr olds.

Anyway, the comic tickles me. DC not listening irritates me and the world moves on.

Category: Business | 3 Comments on The Gutters
October 10

Review: The Snow Queen’s Shadow

ISBN: 9780756406745

I bought this book.

Jim C. Hines’ Princesses series quickly became one of my favorite reads and rereads. This time last year I picked up the first one because I had wanted to for a while and I’d be meeting Hines at World Fantasy Con. Now I’ve just finished reading the final book in the series.

Hines’ Princesses series follows the further adventures of Snow White (a mirror sorceress exiled from her home for killing her mother, the queen who tried to kill her), Sleeping Beauty (also a refugee from her land where the fairy gifts given to her, and the curse of sleep, was all just a plot to kill off the human royalty of her land so the fae could rule) and Cinderella (whose happy story became more complicated as she realized marrying her prince meant becoming queen). Hines manages to create characters and worlds deeply steeped in the ancient stories that were Disney-fied for the modern age while also making his characters immediately relateable to modern readers.

There’s always a bit of worry as a series goes on that the charge will lag, and that the end book will be unsatisfying. Especially as the previous books have allowed Hines to play with some source material (The original little mermaid and Red Riding Hood among others) and this book travels into more unknown worlds with a stronger Hines-only element.

When Snow’s mirror breaks as she’s trying to bring her beloved queen back from the dead the demon trapped inside infects her, wiping all joy from the world and sparking the bit inside her that craved vengeance on the country who punish and exiled her for defending herself while ignoring years of abuse her mother afflicted on her (and many, many other people). It’s hard not to blame her for her icy rage, born of legitimate pain at systematic abuse.

But, deserved or not, Snow’s punishment of people who betrayed her is vicious and casual. It would have been very easy for this book to slide into fantastic horror. It’s also a dark path Snow resolutely refused before, which becomes the major driving force for Talia (Sleeping Beauty). Rescuing her son, kidnapped by Snow for his immunity to her magic, becomes Danielle’s (Cinderella) reason for leaving her possessed husband and the grieving king in their time of need.

Soulful and magical, Hines’ finale hits a perfect tempo between fairy tale and reality with leads all more courageous than readers could hope to be. The Snow Queen’s Shadow doesn’t flinch from politics, religion or gender issues, but neither is bound by it.

In the end, The Snow Queen’s Shadow is damn near perfect. A satisfying read from cover to cover and a sad, but sweet send off for some of my favorite fairy tale lasses.

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