Thanks to Karen Scott, I found this blog entry by Desiree Erotique bidding adieu to epublishing and she is not doing this under happy circumstance. I understand her feelings - after a while, enough is enough and it must be hideously frustrating to keep getting the shaft from epublishers.

It's not as if there is any hard and fast rule about learning who the good guys are. Even a reputable long-time company like New Concepts Publishing can come under fire, it is as if too many epublishers come with an expiry date and you must somehow learn what that date is and leave before everything goes under. Getting bilked out of one's royalties seems like a norm now, like an initiation ritual to authors wishing to be electronically published. You ain't one of them unless you've experienced it yourself!

Obviously, the problem lies in both inexperienced publishers and authors. Yes, there are con men out there, but I personally believe that many of the inept epublishers actually mean well, they just don't have the expertise, money, or professionalism to do a business well. Then there are authors who are so desperate to get published that they will happily sign the first contract they get. Then there are authors who are so grateful to be published that they form some kind of hive mind with fellow grateful authors that writing becomes secondary to nourishing some kind of cult at the publisher where the main agenda is to lavish the publisher with praise and devotion. Slay anyone who dares to speak out against the publisher! Fellow authors, outsiders - slay them all!

Is there any way we can create some kind of easy-to-follow rule to avoid getting tangled up with these role-playing publishers? Serious authors who want to make writing a career, after all, will do well to avoid these people whose main agenda at the end of the day is to feed on each other to inflate their own ego.

I suppose one can start by the rule never to go with a new epublisher - let other people be the guinea pigs while you wait and see. That seems reasonable. Stick with the tried-and-tested big boys and gals that have been around, like Ellora's Cave, Samhain Publishing, Loose Id, and Liquid Silver Books, right? Not that there is any fail-safe guarantee to this, as Triskelion Publishing and now New Concepts Publishing demonstrate.

How about listening to rumors? But how can you find rumors when authors are willing to blab only after the ship has halfway sunk? By that time, you may be already stuck on the same ship and you'll be tempted to pull your hair, wail "Damn it, why aren't you telling all this earlier?", and bitch-slap those people for having the guts to complain only after it's happened to them.

We need a watchdog of sorts, and right now we only have Piers Anthony and the irregularly updated EREC site. We need more so that we have a wider array of sources of rumors. Oh, I know, we have Writers Beware and the likes but they focus mostly on print publishing and there is a general snobbery in the community formed around those sites against epublishing and/or romance that make it hard for me to spend time in those places for more than a while.

How about the publisher also publishing her own books under a pseudonym? The problem with this one is that this is not always a clear danger sign. Torquere Press, for example, is a house where the owners publish various books constantly under various pseudonyms. Ellora's Cave started out with Tina Engler writing under various pseudonyms such as Jaid Black and Tia Isabella. The problem only arises if only the publisher's books get promoted over other authors', but that's more of a consequence from bad management and vanity-feeding role-playing on the publisher/author's part rather than a direct consequence of the publisher also putting out her own books. With the romance epublishing industry being as incestuous as it is where you will always find an author also editing and/or doing cover art here and there, sometimes even for the same house that she is writing for, so who's to say that these authors aren't also getting special attention from the publisher? It is more of an exception than the rule to find a house like Samhain Publishing where the rule is that the editors cannot write for that house.

I think the best answer is from Sarah McCarty who responded in Karen's blog. Authors who feel uncomfortable about a contract should ask for revision and if the publisher refuses to change any thing, like New Concepts Publishing is alleged to do, the authors should walk away. In other words, the author should do her homework and learn as much as she can about contracts and what is and isn't acceptable when it comes to publishing. It's not learning about a publisher alone that is important, it's just as important, if not more important, to learn how the industry works, especially when the author is without a reputable agent to advise her on such matters. "They are nice and polite to me!" is not a good reason to go with a publishing house, it's whether they are doing the author any good when it comes to editing and marketing their books. Ultimately, it all boils down to professionalism. If the publisher is not delivering royalties on a regular basis, get out. If the publisher is not getting your works edited, get out.

And yes, you need to have your books edited, it's a cosmic rule and I don't care if your mother tells you that your work is great. Editing is important because it takes someone other than you to detect problems in your work and suggest the necessary fixes.

Anyway, back to topic, knowledge is important, I feel, to authors who have no experienced people (agents, friends who are lawyers in the industry, et cetera) to help them out. If you look at the type of people that con men target online, they share a similar trait: these people are the ones who have very little knowledge of how publishing works. Some even believe that it is normal for an author to pay to get published. When it comes to publishing, especially in the lawless landscape that is epublishing, doing one's homework about how the industry works is important.

I think the moment the publisher claims personal problems to cover up any major slip-ups is when the author should really flee for the exit immediately. Anyone who starts wailing about dead babies and heart problems the moment something is wrong is not a professional. If your boss will still fire you if you don't show up for work for a week even after you claim that you have to bury multiple dead babies in your backyard, why should you give your publisher the same leeway? A professional will appoint someone else to take over her duties if she is occupied elsewhere. If she can't find someone else, then she's not doing her job well and you should consider your alternatives carefully as a result. Think of the various dead babies, ill relatives, and abusive hubbies that have taken down great publishing houses like Triskelion Publishing, Chippewa Publishing, and countless others.

And, for heaven's sake, report, even anonymously, to people who have the ability to spread the word if you have been greatly wronged by a publishing house. Karen Scott is, of course, always willing to listen. Emily Veinglory's EREC site is also a good option. Just tell someone. You have nothing to worry about if you have documented evidence to back up your allegations if you are called on them.

So, that's about all I can think of. Did I miss anything?

Oh, and one more thing - is there really a Great Big Blacklist out there that works against an author when it comes to publishing across the houses? I keep hearing the word "blacklist" being bandied about, but unless epublishers are all working together in one happy loop, which I doubt, I don't see how a blacklist can be effective. But I may be wrong. Anyone care to shed any light on the existence of this blacklist?