I apologise for the serious nature of this post, but I need to get this out, and I'll keep it short.
Over the past three months, I have heard not one, but a few nightmare stories about 'publishers behaving badly' (not just small publishers, but big ones too).
This blog post is going to be a warning to all authors signing contracts with any publisher (yes, any -- small ones, big ones, ones that have seemingly squeaky clean reputations ... on the outside, anyway).
If you are a new or less experienced author particularly, please take note:
Never, EVER remain silent about something that you are unhappy with. EVER. From contract terms, to delayed emails, to editing you're not happy with, to bad formatting and layout of your books, to promises that are made and consistently broken, to royalty payments being delayed / withheld / calculated wrongly, to books not being published on time or efficiently (oh, believe me, I could go on)... the chances are that most other authors under contract with that publisher will have had the same difficulties, but guess what... everyone remained silent.
Do you remember that whole issue with Undead Press that happened a couple of months back? (http://mandydegeit.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/when-publishing-goes-wrong-starring-undead-press/) Do not think it will never happen to you, even if you're a relatively intelligent person. It can happen to anyone.
Always Google / do background research on the company you're thinking of publishing with, but NOTE WELL: sometimes there will be no obvious history that you can just click on. Sometimes the badness starts even when you've done your research, already signed the contract and you're knee deep in shit. That's when you have to speak up... to your editor, to your publisher, to the CEO of the company, and if none of that works, you'll have to decide where to go from there. Will you want to seek legal aid privately? Will you want to blog about it all and go widely public?
I have been silent myself in the past about things I should have brought to the forefront. It's easier. And actually, you think it's just you. That you're the one that's making a big deal out of nothing because you're the newbie or whatever... But maybe, just maybe everyone is feeling that way.
Silence is never the way to go when you are being done wrong, or if you think you are being done wrong. And sometimes it will not be obvious... at first. Trust your instincts.
Be noisy and persistent, and get it fixed while you still can, because if you remain silent, there will come a point where fixing it just isn't possible ... at least, not that easily.
Next week, I promise to post about something HAPPY :D
Over the past three months, I have heard not one, but a few nightmare stories about 'publishers behaving badly' (not just small publishers, but big ones too).
This blog post is going to be a warning to all authors signing contracts with any publisher (yes, any -- small ones, big ones, ones that have seemingly squeaky clean reputations ... on the outside, anyway).
If you are a new or less experienced author particularly, please take note:
Never, EVER remain silent about something that you are unhappy with. EVER. From contract terms, to delayed emails, to editing you're not happy with, to bad formatting and layout of your books, to promises that are made and consistently broken, to royalty payments being delayed / withheld / calculated wrongly, to books not being published on time or efficiently (oh, believe me, I could go on)... the chances are that most other authors under contract with that publisher will have had the same difficulties, but guess what... everyone remained silent.
Do you remember that whole issue with Undead Press that happened a couple of months back? (http://mandydegeit.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/when-publishing-goes-wrong-starring-undead-press/) Do not think it will never happen to you, even if you're a relatively intelligent person. It can happen to anyone.
Always Google / do background research on the company you're thinking of publishing with, but NOTE WELL: sometimes there will be no obvious history that you can just click on. Sometimes the badness starts even when you've done your research, already signed the contract and you're knee deep in shit. That's when you have to speak up... to your editor, to your publisher, to the CEO of the company, and if none of that works, you'll have to decide where to go from there. Will you want to seek legal aid privately? Will you want to blog about it all and go widely public?
I have been silent myself in the past about things I should have brought to the forefront. It's easier. And actually, you think it's just you. That you're the one that's making a big deal out of nothing because you're the newbie or whatever... But maybe, just maybe everyone is feeling that way.
Silence is never the way to go when you are being done wrong, or if you think you are being done wrong. And sometimes it will not be obvious... at first. Trust your instincts.
Be noisy and persistent, and get it fixed while you still can, because if you remain silent, there will come a point where fixing it just isn't possible ... at least, not that easily.
Next week, I promise to post about something HAPPY :D
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