Upheaval and questions abound over Noble Romance after one of the owners left, sending the blogosphere into a tizzy and accusations flying. All the best to the authors and I hope you either get your rights back and/or your royalty payments.
Now another small pub has imploded, Ruby Lioness Press. Even though they were still accepting submissions a couple of days ago, now comes the announcement they have closed their doors. Looks as though their books have been taken down off the third party sites. What does this mean to authors? Hopefully, they will walk away relatively unscathed.
It does drive the point home that any of these independent, smaller epubs can fall apart like a house of cards for any number of reasons. In-fighting between partners, illness, death or any other personal crisis can fold the tents real quick. Or in the case of one epub last year, the owner can simply stop answering emails, not pay their authors, and fade away into the ether.
One thing to remember, your epub is not your best buddy, they are a place of business, first and foremost. Sure, there are some great people out there running epubs and doing everything correctly, but as an author, we have to remember to look after ourselves and our rights. Know your contract, and have a plan in place should one of your epubs goes bye-bye. Look for the warning signs, poor editing, late payments, diminishing communication. Where there's smoke, there's sometimes...fire.
Unfortunately, emotions can run high when something like this happens. You feel betrayed and let-down. Perhaps self-pubbing is the way to go. It's not for everyone. It's not for me. So I will continue to submit to e-pubs, not put all my eggs in one basket, do promo when required, be supportive when time allows me to be, and continue writing the stories I want to tell.
Stay thirsty, my friends~
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