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Way back before I said "Hey, I'm going to edit a multi-author anthology" and before I went "fuck it, I'm going to start a publishing company" there were other small press publishers around and I took a great deal of inspiration from them. I never fully believed in that myth of the independent publisher being somehow more pure or better than the corporate guys (I think there was a Neil Gaiman article where he noted that sure, DC is a big corporate comic company but at least they always paid out royaltie s as opposed to the company that published Miracleman and suddenly disappeared) but I respected and admired guys like Steve Berman, Vera Nazarian and Jeremy Lassen for putting out books that were more-or-less labors of love. They also found niche markets.
I would later find all these micro-presses that didn't pay anything and pulled shit like crowing about how they don't charge the authors. The fact that with POD means that anyone can start up a small press means that ANYONE starts up small presses. Mostly this means that you get to meet a lot of people at conventions who will trade their books for yours and everyone gives everyone else a good review on Amazon (if you want to know why Tony G's books tend to get all the great reviews even though they are utter shit - there you go)
But there is admiration for the people who can make profits at it. And some are great. Steve is a professional and one of the most respected small press publishers around. Apparently Lassen screwed up royalties for authors and it was a scandal. With Vera it has been a steadily increasing exhaustion to http://www.thepassivevoice.com/03/2014/please-help-me-pay-my-wonderful-authors-the-royalties-owed-them/
Basically, she's asking for Indiegogo moneys to pay the royalties that are owed the authors. She was successful for a time but then things went sound and now owes thousands in back pay. There are a lot of angry people on that discussion group and she is trying to defend herself which makes them even angrier.
The thing is that I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt as a human being. I don't think that she intended to let things go so badly. There was cancer and house foreclosures and business partners dying. These are not easy things to deal with. There have been hundreds of publishing companies that suddenly died off with the authors going "where's the money?" and she is definitely not like Leisure Books that never even pretended to apologize. I believe that she believed that she could make it all up to the authors and that after some temporary setbacks, she would right herself and stop using the money that was supposed to go to royalties on the necessities like cancer treatments, house payments, etc. So I am not going to pile on and call her names and get angry on behalf of the authors like Eugie who haven't received payments for the last three years.
However, as a business person, I think it would have probably been better if she did anything else. Getting into business is very similar to trying to make a living from creative endeavors. It always SOUNDS better than it actually is. When I first moved to Washington Heights, there was a very large contingent of people who were starting a business. Their businesses never seemed to take off and at one point I tried to introduce one to a friend who is a venture capitalist. He kind of made noises to the effect of being interested but never followed up. I realized then that for some people "I am starting a business" is the same thing as "I am writing a novel." There's an element of fantasy involved. Dreaming about better times when your own boss and not having to work for someone else, your name in print, etc.
Seems like that was Vera's problem. In almost all of her pleas for money she is talking about how she started it and things were great, but in this latest one she notes that her profits were cut to a third of their former selves by e-books. Since she wasn't publishing exclusively public domain books, the fact that she LOST money off of e-books seems ridiculous. The only reason why I pay out royalties (ie. the only reason why I owe royalties) is because of e-books. Oh sure, maybe BADASS HORROR might have made royalties by now, but I doubt anything else would have. I am a small press publisher and I publish books with titles like King David & The Spiders from Mars and Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre. These are the kinds of books that you look at, laugh at, maybe consider buying but then check the price. They are not the kinds of books that are eagerly anticipated. I gotta push these books at people. If I arrange for a reading from a book and the writer reads poorly (or reads the most boring part of her story) then I just wasted an evening because only my friends are going to buy the books.
But the difference with e-books is that I don't have to pay for printing and at least Amazon has better shares - 70% if you are in their price range. That means that I make three dollars if I charge 14 for a print book, but I make the same amount if I charge 4.50 for the e-book. And if you are someone who is just browsing through Amazon looking for things to read, what are you more likely to buy? The print book that is the same price as the trade paperback by Sanderson or Martin or the e-book that is the cost of a bagel and coffee?
The one exception is public domain. Amazon gives those away for free. So there goes those profits.
So she actually loses money on e-books. And she takes in a lot of money in investments. And it all got away from her. To the point where she keeps asking for money and getting slammed on for asking the money just because there are only so many times that you can help out a person before you start thinking "you really need to get this together yourself." And while it is hard to get out of a financial hole when you are in it (I've been in it all my life) and poor finances lead to more poor choices to the point where you can't really blame the credit card companies that gave you 700 in credit when you were too dumb to know how to manage money.
This is why I only publish a book when I got the money to do it. I am late with royalties, and I got a lot of dead writers (as well as a couple who disappeared - one is named Tim Johnson so fuck all if I am ever going to find that guy) and that messes things up but I do pay. Steadily. Because I am not going to be playing with tens of thousands of dollars that I can't handle on my own.
I would later find all these micro-presses that didn't pay anything and pulled shit like crowing about how they don't charge the authors. The fact that with POD means that anyone can start up a small press means that ANYONE starts up small presses. Mostly this means that you get to meet a lot of people at conventions who will trade their books for yours and everyone gives everyone else a good review on Amazon (if you want to know why Tony G's books tend to get all the great reviews even though they are utter shit - there you go)
But there is admiration for the people who can make profits at it. And some are great. Steve is a professional and one of the most respected small press publishers around. Apparently Lassen screwed up royalties for authors and it was a scandal. With Vera it has been a steadily increasing exhaustion to http://www.thepassivevoice.com/03/2014/please-help-me-pay-my-wonderful-authors-the-royalties-owed-them/
Basically, she's asking for Indiegogo moneys to pay the royalties that are owed the authors. She was successful for a time but then things went sound and now owes thousands in back pay. There are a lot of angry people on that discussion group and she is trying to defend herself which makes them even angrier.
The thing is that I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt as a human being. I don't think that she intended to let things go so badly. There was cancer and house foreclosures and business partners dying. These are not easy things to deal with. There have been hundreds of publishing companies that suddenly died off with the authors going "where's the money?" and she is definitely not like Leisure Books that never even pretended to apologize. I believe that she believed that she could make it all up to the authors and that after some temporary setbacks, she would right herself and stop using the money that was supposed to go to royalties on the necessities like cancer treatments, house payments, etc. So I am not going to pile on and call her names and get angry on behalf of the authors like Eugie who haven't received payments for the last three years.
However, as a business person, I think it would have probably been better if she did anything else. Getting into business is very similar to trying to make a living from creative endeavors. It always SOUNDS better than it actually is. When I first moved to Washington Heights, there was a very large contingent of people who were starting a business. Their businesses never seemed to take off and at one point I tried to introduce one to a friend who is a venture capitalist. He kind of made noises to the effect of being interested but never followed up. I realized then that for some people "I am starting a business" is the same thing as "I am writing a novel." There's an element of fantasy involved. Dreaming about better times when your own boss and not having to work for someone else, your name in print, etc.
Seems like that was Vera's problem. In almost all of her pleas for money she is talking about how she started it and things were great, but in this latest one she notes that her profits were cut to a third of their former selves by e-books. Since she wasn't publishing exclusively public domain books, the fact that she LOST money off of e-books seems ridiculous. The only reason why I pay out royalties (ie. the only reason why I owe royalties) is because of e-books. Oh sure, maybe BADASS HORROR might have made royalties by now, but I doubt anything else would have. I am a small press publisher and I publish books with titles like King David & The Spiders from Mars and Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre. These are the kinds of books that you look at, laugh at, maybe consider buying but then check the price. They are not the kinds of books that are eagerly anticipated. I gotta push these books at people. If I arrange for a reading from a book and the writer reads poorly (or reads the most boring part of her story) then I just wasted an evening because only my friends are going to buy the books.
But the difference with e-books is that I don't have to pay for printing and at least Amazon has better shares - 70% if you are in their price range. That means that I make three dollars if I charge 14 for a print book, but I make the same amount if I charge 4.50 for the e-book. And if you are someone who is just browsing through Amazon looking for things to read, what are you more likely to buy? The print book that is the same price as the trade paperback by Sanderson or Martin or the e-book that is the cost of a bagel and coffee?
The one exception is public domain. Amazon gives those away for free. So there goes those profits.
So she actually loses money on e-books. And she takes in a lot of money in investments. And it all got away from her. To the point where she keeps asking for money and getting slammed on for asking the money just because there are only so many times that you can help out a person before you start thinking "you really need to get this together yourself." And while it is hard to get out of a financial hole when you are in it (I've been in it all my life) and poor finances lead to more poor choices to the point where you can't really blame the credit card companies that gave you 700 in credit when you were too dumb to know how to manage money.
This is why I only publish a book when I got the money to do it. I am late with royalties, and I got a lot of dead writers (as well as a couple who disappeared - one is named Tim Johnson so fuck all if I am ever going to find that guy) and that messes things up but I do pay. Steadily. Because I am not going to be playing with tens of thousands of dollars that I can't handle on my own.
