It’s the middle of the month and once again we play another round of “where is my EC royalty check?” The sad thing is, we’ve been playing this game now for about six months. We were told they were moving banks so that’s why checks were late. I understand. Granted, it seemed that the transfer was a fiasco, but knowing how difficult it is to move personal accounts and make sure there are no straggling checks, I imagine a large company would be even more of a problem. Then, we were told they were paying electronic and print checks together to make it easier for them to pay them regularly. A beautiful idea in theory. In practice, the checks since that change have been even later.
And, the sad thing is, I’m not the only EC author who has experienced this. And USPS traces of the envelopes have proved that checks are not mailed when EC says they are, even though they did remove the postmark date from their mail meter.
I’ve heard rumbles that those of us who get our checks late are “problem authors.” That we’re the ones that EC wants to get rid of. To be honest, since I stopped writing for them over two years ago (the icing on the cake being when I couldn’t get a release date for my Animal Reiki To Go book, and they were technically in breach of contract when they finally did publish it), I don’t “bother them.” In fact, unless my check is late, or they breach my contract, I don’t contact them. I happily take my checks to the bank and review my royalty statements. In fact, it would seem to me that if they were concerned about “rumblings” that they would a) communicate with us better or b) pay the damn checks on time so we wouldn’t have anything to bitch about.
And, if they thought I was that big of a problem, every publisher worth its salt, including EC, has an “escape hatch” clause in the contract. The one that says “should the publisher deem it injurious to its interests it can cancel the contract….”. If they don’t want to deal with me, they could invoke the escape hatch clause and be done with it. Since I am in a lot of anthology projects, they couldn’t do this on all titles, but on my single title ones…sure.
The truth of the matter is, everyone, including the EREC Sales figures, show that there’s good money to be made at Ellora’s Cave…when they pay it. They used to be one of the top-tier publishers, and at one time I was proud to say that I wrote for them.
In addition to the non-payment and late-payment of royalties, Ellora’s Cave plays fast and loose with contracts. They issued a new large-print edition of a book (Amazon had a publishing date of January 7) that they returned the rights to in October (and all existing print sales were to cease on January 14), that the ISBN#s for those same books still show active (and I was told by EC that it takes a year to update, which is a lie. I called Bowker’s and was told that if they update it online, then the online version of Books in Print updates in 72 hours. It only takes a year for the print version, understandably.), and that last month’s royalty statement (March), had sales for a book that all print sales were supposed to cease on January 14 (same book they issued the large-print edition of), and received NO REPLY to emails sent over the course of three weeks to several members of EC’s staff (including Patty Marks), though the large print book did mysteriously disappear from Amazon.com after I’d cc’d Patty in on the conversation. All I want is an explanation of how such “mistakes” happened and assurances that they won’t happen again. (I also alerted my editor to the situation, in the hopes that maybe she could also help since she had been promoted to EIC, and no reply from her either.)
All I ask is that my royalty checks come within a reasonable amount of time (7-10 mailing days is more than adequate for a check mailed from Ohio to Iowa), and that Ellora’s Cave abides by the communications and the contracts I’ve received. And really, that’s all any author needs to ask from their publisher. That they do the honest and right thing.
I don’t know, and I have no desire to speculate why some get their checks on time all the time and others, like me, seem to have to wait. To those who have had better experiences, I am very happy that you don’t have to go through this and honestly hope you never do. To those who believe this story sounds familiar, you have my support and encouragement.
Entries (RSS)
June 19th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
This must be incredibly frustrating. Ugggg, what can you do?
June 19th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Maurya, it is. Especially when other authors lodge accusations and call you names.
However, I think the best thing I can do is get the word out and be public about the situation. Education is the best ammunition.
June 20th, 2009 at 2:08 am
What does it mean when one half of a writing duo got their check last week and the other one hasn’t yet? Maybe they just like my partner’s work and not our joint stuff? Funny… the joint material has statistically sold better.
And my check is North-central Ohio to North-west Ohio. It really shouldn’t be taking this long.
June 20th, 2009 at 2:21 am
I’m sorry you haven’t received yours either. You and I aren’t the only ones. I have no idea what it means. I can guess, but that wouldn’t do anyone any good and only makes me worry.
June 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am
I’ve attened a couple romance/erotica conferences lately where EC really should have been in attendance (i.e., Lori Foster’s, which was in OHIO, only a short drive from their offices). EC isn’t showing up to conferences any more (hmm), and word around the industry is they are on the verge of going out of business. Gross fiscal mismanagement by the Blacks is the reason, not lack of sales. I think that explains why they aren’t paying checks on time.
June 20th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Thank you for saying what so many of us are thinking, feeling and experiencing!
June 20th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Day three into that realm of “you are now allowed to tell us your check is late”. Nothing in my box today. Hard to be fiscally responsible and plan for delays when the issuer clearly cannot do the same.
One author informed it had been 21 months of continuous payment delays.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Thank you. The thing is, some will say I want just that to happen. I don’t. It would hurt a lot of innocent authors. However, as with the tower tarot card, sometimes you have to rip something down to its foundations to rebuild it bigger and better. Obviously something isn’t working at EC when it comes to payment and contract terms. They may need to rethink their processes.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
You’re very welcome!
June 20th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Oh my goodness. I know I’ve been dealing with this for a while, but didn’t realize it had been that long.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
If Ellora’s Cave has some of the highest sales in the business, and they are not paying their authors on time (and from some accounts, not at all) perhaps they need to hire business managers who know how to make a large, important business run like a business, and get rid of the nepotistic dead wood at the top who seem to be the reason for the problems. When the owners of a large and successful company like Ellora’s Cave begin to lose their effectiveness as leaders, they need to seriously consider changes (like turning over the reins to someone who is qualified). Their reputation is getting smeared royally, and their standing in an industry that is this highly competitive is suffering!
Ellora’s Cave has been the industry leader for years, and it would be a terrible shame to see them crumble and implode because they can’t see the forest for the trees.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:10 am
I haven’t received my check either. I, too, get the feeling anyone who mentions checks being late is being labelled by EC staff and other authors as a ‘problem.’ If they’d just pay on time, there’d be no problem, would there? Logic fail.
I’m on the east coast, there’s no logical way a check mailed on the fifth from Ohio should not be here. A friend mailed me a magazine from New Mexico and it came a mere 3 days after she let me know it’d been posted. What do they send them by, Pony Express?
June 21st, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Thank you Anon. It is a logic fail. We’re pains. They don’t pay us. We become bigger pains. But I understand that is the passive-agressive nature of EC and why I want to share my story.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:01 am
[[perhaps they need to hire business managers who know how to make a large, important business run like a business]]
They had one. Her name is Christina Brashear and she’s now the head of the very successful Samhain Publishing.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
I can’t speak to Ellora’s Cave, but it might be a situation similar to one I experienced years ago someplace else. The company was bad about getting checks out on time, but some editors were better than others about hounding their employers to make sure their authors got paid. So if you were lucky enough to have a really on-the-ball editor who would go poke the administrative folks to make sure you got your checks, you got them quicker than other authors.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Isnt’ it interesting that EC is being touted as the benchmark for epublishing over at the RWAchange Yahoo group? Maybe this new and wonderful business model isn’t so wonderful after all.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Kate,
It is true, that I am concerned about EC being held up as the “gold standard.” However, I will say that Samhain, Loose Id, Changeling Press, are all top tier awesome digital publishers who utilize the same model and the financial issues are most definately isolated to EC. And other electronic publishers which may not make me as much $$ in sales, are also top notch when it comes to paying on time. Thanks for stopping by.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
[...] Other articles worth reading/mentioning… Publisher’s Weekly did a write up about epublishing, Marianne LaCroix has posted some sales figures from a recent epublishing poll, and it appears Ellora’s Cave is late with payments. [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
[...] was bouncing around the interwebs and found THIS. I suppose I should be happy that I’m not [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 10:59 am
[...] Probably because I listen when people like J.C. Wilder and Cheyenne McCray and Lauren Dane and Mary Winter say things I am sure are important to all writers and thus showing a company that is not how we say [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 12:33 am
As of Thursday June 25, still no royalty check here. Just thought I’d keep this thread updated as the drama unfolds.
Argh.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:37 am
I am so sorry to hear that, Naomi. That is just crazy. Here’s hoping you get your check soon!
July 26th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Hi all! I’m a new writer on the scene and I really love both Ellora’s Cave and Samahain authors and books. I am almost done with my first erotic novel and was planning on submitting to Ellora’s Cave, but now am having second doubts. In your opinion, which is greatly appreciated, should I submit to Ellora or Samhain??
July 29th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
The same thing happened to me and other some other authors with Alyson Books. They did not pay us and after months of shilly shallying I finally went on their website and asked them if it was fair to ask for submissions for books when they weren’t paying the authors they had already published. That finally got a response and we were paid. They also changed their website so you couldn’t leave any comments. My point is to all authors don’t hesitate to ask for your money and if you aren’t being paid, then spread the word and let others know what’s going on.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:46 am
EC’s cover prices are higher than Samhain’s but I don’t know if that means Samhain sells better to make up the difference. Does anyone who has written for both know?