I see that some of the Literotica authors over at Phaze have decided to start up their own e-publishing company.

This is what it says on the badly designed Excessica website:

We publish the stuff other publishers won’t—not because these stories and books aren’t good enough, but because other publishers won’t take on certain fantasies they’re afraid might not “sell” in the mainstream.

We like to take things to excess, what can we say? Pushing erotic fiction to the edge, pressing the boundaries of propriety and political correctness, is something we relish. The good news is, this makes for very interesting stories—and hot, exciting reads for you!

Most mainstream e-publishers market their erotic offerings as “romance.” We don’t require that our authors write romance—and we don’t require a “happily ever after” either. Our erotica is always hot, fresh, and often forbidden.

Often forbidden eh? In another words, incest, D/D play, rape stories, and most of the other taboo plots that can be found at Literotica I guess. Nice.

Well, we know there’s a market for these things out there. *Shudder*

This is what it says on their submissions page:

Just because we like to push the boundaries doesn’t mean we don’t want an actual story with our erotica. Excessive sex is great (we like excess!) so sex in every chapter is fine—but sex without any semblance of a plot is not. We are looking for fully developed characters, plots and settings.

eXcessica is not a vanity publisher, so we will not charge you to publish with us. However, because we are a partnership rather than a standard publisher (who have editors and cover artists on staff) we require that you have your own manuscript edited and provide your own cover art. This means that manuscripts sent to us as submissions are expected to be free of all mechanical errors in punctuation, grammar and spelling.

With eXcessica there are no contracts, and we keep none of your royalties. All sales are yours. You will be asked to sign a general electronic release form that says the work is yours and you give the partnership the right to sell it—and that’s all. All rights are non-exclusive—the work is yours to do with as you wish, and you can pull it from our “shelves” at any time.

So, is this just another form of Literotica, except they actually sell the stories?

Thanks to you-know-who for the link.

I got this from the C’um Hither Global blog. Feel free to use it. It’s almost pointless putting it on my blog because I never bought from them in the first place, but if it persuades a few people to stop buying their stuff, then I’m all for it.

Ellen sent me a link to a page at New Concepts Publishing, where they are selling the books that they originally took off the website just to spite her. They are now selling them less 20%.

What must be a little annoying for Ellen Ashe is that the books have no cover, and the author’s name is absent. So yeah, no attribution, until you click on the ‘Buy’ link. How it must have pained them to have to include her name at all.

Could Madris DePasture be any more petty and vindictive? What a nutter.

If the NCP ship sinks, she wont be able to blame anybody but herself, although I suspect, she’ll try very hard to blame everybody, but herself.

Hopefully nobody buys the books at NCP. Ellen has been trying to sell them herself, since NCP removed them from the website out of sheer bloody-mindedness. I would strongly recommend that anybody interested in Ellen’s books, buy them from her directly. I wouldn’t trust those crazies at NCP as far as I could throw them.

Hopefully authors who are coming to the end of their contracts will have enough brain cells to not renew, because I can only see this ending one way.

Doesn’t Gail Northman from the now defunct Triskelion seem pretty lucid these days in comparison to Madris DePasture? *Shudder*

Number one on the Billboard charts eh? I hear that’s harder to get into than a nun’s knickers.

I knew she’d make it worldwide, she’s got a great set of pipes, and she doesn’t look bad either.

Mind you, she got a spot on Oprah, that just about guaranteed her number one chart position.

Go on girl!!!

Anybody remember this cartoon? Well, I used to love it, when it used to air back in the eighties.

TTG bought the complete first series DVD box set last week, and we spent part of the Easter weekend watching it in bed. It was absolutely fantastic.

Anybody remember the words to the theme song?

One for all and all for one
Muskehounds are always ready.
One for all and all for one
Helping everybody
One for all and all for one
It’s a pretty story
Sharing everything with fun
That’s the way to be.

One for all and all for one
Muskehounds are always steady.
One for all and all for one
Helping everybody
One for all and all for one
Can sound pretty corny
If you got a problem chum
Think how it could be!

Ahh, memories, yes?

Who was your favourite Muskehound? Mine was Aramis. I was always quite partial to King Charles Spaniels, and he looked like one. *g*

I know you guys are just about done in with all the NCP shenanigans, but never fear my loyal readers, I bring you a new example of fucknuttery within E-Publand.

I received this e-mail a few hours ago:

Mesage posted to Dark Eden Authors group by Debra Durham today. Ms. Durham had previously emailed “Patti” AP Miller and threatened her with a law suit in regards to remarks “Patti” AP Miller had made to others on the Extasy group and in private emails to certain authors that Debra Durham’s illness was not real. These emails found their way to Debra Durham. Cat fight ensues.

You guys remember Patti Rebmann, AKA AP Miller right? What do you mean no! She was one of the crazies who emerged at the height of the Mardi Gras Publishing fiasco. Yeah, the batshit crazy one.

Waddaya mean which one?

*Ahem*

Anyway, here’s what Debra posted on her loop: Erm, you guys remember Debra right?

Anyway, this is a long old e-mail, so grab yourself some tea and popcorn, because you’re definitely going to need some refreshments. It may be necesssary for me to interpret now and then because as we know from old, Patti Rebmann’s strength doesn’t lie in her communication skills. (more…)

Here.

Bravenet suspended her account because her blog had ‘adult’ content.

Fucktards.

So I thought I’d post Madris DePasteur’s latest rambling post. Apparently she sent this to all the authors again.

“There are a lot of reasons we’ve abandoned the critiquing phase of editing and now generally accept books `as is’. Foremost among these reasons is a lack of cooperation from the authors whose books we’ve tried to improve who appear to have far more confidence in the pointers they get from friends and family members than people experienced in the business.

Since this actually is a matter of opinion, expert or not, and the authors seem determined to live with their decision, we let them. The only exception to this is when an author has a habit that is so distracting and/or annoying that we feel that it will be impossible for the reader to get any enjoyment out of the book.”

She can’t help herself can she? Although, admittedly, I had to read that paragraph about three times before I finally understood what she was saying.

“We consider if bad policy for any of our authors to annoy our distributor, who is not only very prompt and reliable in paying, but who also sells a high volume of books. If our distributor reports to us that one of our authors has been annoying them we will pull that author’s books from the list to ensure that our authors do not annoy our distributor, and that includes all of the online booksellers who get the books from the distributor, who report to the distributor, who reports to us.

Do not NAG the distributor or booksellers unless you’d just rather not have your work widely available, in which case, you should just tell us not to list your book with the distributor and STILL leave the distributor alone.

Professional to the end isn’t she? *g*

Thanks to you know who for the e-mail.

I had a conversation with Jane last week, where I said that I thought the problem with e-publishing, especially those who publish romance/erotic novels, is that it’s full of screeching women who don’t have the faintest idea about running a business.

She disagreed of course, as any sensible person would, but to be honest, I’m not so sure I’m wrong. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m being somewhat sexist, but so what? I still think there’s a grain of truth in there.

I know that there are exceptions, but that’s just it, they seem to be exceptions, rather than the rule.

If Tina Engler was to start up in today’s current climate, would she be as successful? Maybe, but I’m not so sure.

In the beginning she too was writing most of the books herself. The editing was terrible, and nowhere near as polished as it is now (well, not counting those Carol Lynne books because they were shockingly bad). I hear that she struggled no end in the beginning, and that was with virtually no competition.

I think that Crissy Bashear, great timing, and no competition, were what helped EC make it big.

In today’s e-pub market, minus Crissy Bashear, I do think Engler would really struggle.

Of course men fail in business too, but seeing as so many of them run most of the world, you’re bound to get failures here and there.

No, I’m serious. I do think that if more romance e-pubs had men at the helm, more e-presses would survive (James Lightsey doesn’t count, I’m still not convinced he was a bloke), and I can’t help but think that you wouldn’t have the same level of shrill, hormonally challenged screaming dingbats, that plague the industry now.

How many times do you get the CEO of a print publisher having a total meltdown in public? Come to think of it, how many of those CEOs are women?

Anyway, agree, disagree? Couldn’t give a crap?

Castle of the Wolf, by Sandra Schwab

This new school gothic romance is set in Germany during the late 1820s. The novel begins, rather depressingly, with Celia’s father’s funeral, followed by the reading of his will. In short order, we learn the basic facts revealed by the book’s blurb:

Into the Darkness

Celia Fussell’s father was dead, and she was reduced to the status of a poor relation in the house of her brother—the new baron—and his shrewish wife. A life of misery loomed ahead.

But, no. There was hope. Deep in the Black Forest, in the Great Duchy of Baden, was Celia’s inheritance. Among fir trees so dark they almost looked black, the Castle of Wolfenbach rose, a skeletal ruin adorned by gargoyles where even locals feared to tread. It was a fortress of solitude, of secrets, of old wounds, and older mysteries. But it was hers. And only one thing stood in her way: its former master, the hermit, the enigma… the man she was obliged to marry.

(more…)