Re: Re: ebook sales

Liz is absolutely right here.

For instance, another of the bestselling "erotic lines" at the moment
(besides the EC spin-offs like Samhain, LooseID and Changeling, which
were all started when EC authors and editors left to start their own
companies) is New Concepts. New Concepts is running at about 12 years
in business now and only stared an erotic romance line AFTER EC's
success, when their authors requested to go hotter. That means they
were established on their own, before that. How successful are they?
Not as successful as EC, but some authors with both EC and NCP report
that they make as much money or more with NCP as they make with EC.
Since Fictionwise reports NCP sales to IDPF (only the Fictionwise
sales and not the site sales, as well) and EC reports their sales
directly (and don't use FW, since their site sales made FW an
unnecessary expense for them), you might want to note that an NCP
author was in IDPF's top 30 sellers of the year (the same list that
showed Dan Brown and a version of the Bible).

Keep in mind that the three romance publishers of note, at the time
NCP opened it's doors, were NCP, Hard Shell (still in business...and
actually does a LOT more than romance, if you look at them...straight
genre, children's, etc. but notably NOT erotic work, of any kind) and
Dreams Unlimited (Sherrilyn Kenyon's original publisher...now
defunct). Two out of three still survive and do it right.

Also keep in mind that not all publishers mix apples and oranges, like
Liz said. Zumaya made the informed decision not to place erotic books
on the Zumaya site and started eXtasy to handle sensual and erotic
books. In the same way, Mundania Press opened Phaze, Whiskey Creek
opened WC Torrid Romance, and so on. The advantage? The "companies"
are owned by the same core individuals, enjoying the same external
channels and networking and internal structures, the same established
business practices as the "mother company." The day-to-day contact
persons are often different (sometimes not, depending on how much
staff the companies have available to them), but the safety net is
there. Often, authors work on both sides of the company. For instance,
both Piers Anthony and I work on the Mundania side and the Phaze side
of the company (as authors). We're not nearly the only ones, but since
some people use different pen names for erotic and not, I won't chance
outing someone's legal name. That's unethical and unforgivable.

Another few things you might want to check out about Triskelion,
before casting the stones you are...not that stones should not be cast
that direction, because I'm casting them, too...just different ones...
Check into how many times Kristi and Ron have already had financial
problems or bankruptcy concerns in the past.

Check into their business decisions, especially the oft-lamented
Fictionwise program. To be blunt, that program was canceled after
little more than 6 weeks, because they weren't willing to allow the
trickle-down to bring new readers to other authors with the company
from the power FW sellers like me (a few quarters of trial on it, like
any normal publisher would invest, and most find the sales worth it,
in the end)...and because having a third-party sales source uncovered
a contract concern they'd hoped the authors wouldn't find out about.
The author contract was the typical net contract. The problem? The
"net" (which is usually the purchase price less distribution or cart
costs) was (for Triskelion) also after the cover artist (who was more
often than not Kristi herself) and editors got their full share of
purchase price. It became painfully obvious when the first Fictionwise
royalty reports came back, and the numbers didn't add up. 40% of the
usual net from FW is very different than 40% of the usual net, less
the editor and cover artist share, as well. When they were questioned
about it, Kristi insisted that the editor and cover art contracts
demanded percentage of cover and not percentage of net. Interesting,
considering that she also complained about how little (almost nothing)
authors were allowed to do with their cover art, blaming that on the
cover artists' contract, as well.

Also, check into the side company Kristi started, while Triskelion was
up and running, a company that is STILL operating, that she was
referring authors with Triskelion to.

Also, look at the debt she dug the company into. As Liz said, the
responsible business owners get out, before they take the authors down
with them, before they get themselves in a hole so deep, this is the
only way out for themselves, regardless of who else it hurts.

And, don't even get me started on the way they hid what was going on
from authors. Some of them didn't know Kristi had canceled the print
program, until they'd spent thousands (literally, in some cases) on
promotion of books that weren't going to release. One author found out
two weeks before her release that the book was not releasing. Another
had a successful signing with her first book and learned, when the CRM
tried to schedule a signing for the second, that it had been pulled
from the production schedule at the printer. The CRM told her!
Deplorable.

Of course, communication was a major concern at Triskelion, all the
way around. That is not so, at most indie publishers. MOST indie
publishers are appalled at the choices made, in this case. MOST of
them go out of their way to be up-front and responsible, to not shaft
the authors. That's both practical (because a couple of years on
contract gives authors plenty of time to leave your behind and start
somewhere else, if you really are that bad) and ethical. There are a
lot of stones to be thrown, but throw the right ones. That's all I'd
ask.

Liz is also right that Piers' site and Predators and Editors are used
both correctly and viciously. I've had to talk to Piers about entries
that I KNOW are erroneous. I've had to talk to him about very real
concerns. There's no question that some people exploit what should be
a good thing. Some people are like that. That's one of the reasons I
tell people to take entries on those sites with a grain of salt and
ALWAYS (good or bad) talk to the authors with the publisher in
question...both new with a single book and established with many.

Another thing to watch out for? Name games and other unethical
practices. Some of the defunct publishers (NOT Chippewa but some of
the noted examples) were hip-deep in such things. Yes, I've
experienced it, from the author side. Example of good and bad? I had
someone ask me recently what I thought of Mundania. I answered, with
the note that I have recently been hired on as Mundania's Senior
Editor. I told her that I felt I could answer honestly, from an author
standpoint, but if my new place as staff presented a problem of
conflict of interest in her mind, I certainly understood and would
suggest her speaking to other authors, who are not staff...then gave
her a whole list of names of people she might want to try, since she
seemed uncertain about asking someone she didn't know for information.
Anytime someone misrepresents their affiliations with a company, they
are doing a disservice to the person they are advising, as well as the
company. Worse, when the company protects that individual, once the
duplicity is discovered... Not a good moment for the company. These
are the types of warning signs people should be aware of.

Brenna
-- 
http://www.brennalyons.com http://www.myspace.com/brennalyons
All dreams have a meaning, even those that cannot possibly be true.
Mollie hopes so, anyway.  Is she losing her mind or learning her
destiny? FAIRY DREAMS -Mundania Press, LLC.


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