According to one of their authors who shall remain nameless, she hasn’t been paid properly for over a year now.

Now either her books aren’t selling well, or there’s a cash flow problem at EC.

Does anybody have any further info?

And actually, when was the last time any of you lot bought a book from EC? I never recognise any of the authors there anymore, apart from the likes of Amarinda Jones who seems to have a book out every week. *g*

Also, my favourite author Carol Lynne doesn’t seem to be as prolific over there as she used to be, I wonder why??

By the way, the pic has nothing to do with this post, I just liked it

Is there trouble at the Elloras Cave mill, I wonder?

I got this e-mail last night:

I’m surprised this isn’t out. EC was supposed to mail January royalty checks on Feb 25th, then an e-mail went out from management claiming that because they changed banks the checks were delayed. As of last Friday or so, they were still ‘working on sending out’ the Feb 25th checks. Authors are grumbling about it but nobody is saying anything to management that I know of.

I’m personally not saying anything because if you start asking questions you tend to end up on the ’shit’ list.

Another author, one who has a huge following, …. is one of their highest sellers said she’s only been paid on time ONCE in the last twelve months and there is fear that something is seriously amiss in paradise, so to speak. I asked her what she thought was going on – poor fiscal management was the response. Now what that means is anybody’s guess, but I can say that I’m still waiting on my money.

I have no doubt that the authors will eventually get paid, but late payments would suggest that EC’s ship may not be as steady as it used to be.

Any anon authors out there willing to confirm or deny?

Thanks to you-know-who for the tip-off

Unless of course you’re Elloras Cave.

I read over at Mrs Giggles’, that they’d had a make-over, so of course I went to have a nosy.

Well, I surfed in about six minutes ago, and I’m still waiting for the page to fully load.

Also, for some reason, the page URL is defaulting to Jasmine Jade Enterprises. According to Mrs Giggles, they may be trying to house EC, Lotus Circle, and Cerridwen Press all under one roof. I guess probably because Lotus and Cerridwen weren’t doing so great.

I like the new colours, but I’m hating the fact that there’s so much information on the home page. (Just re-checked the page, there’s just one item apparently left to load.) I’ve given myself a headache just trying to figure out what’s what.

I see that they have new and funky names for the different lines and sub-genres. Apparently ‘Aeon’ books are futuristic sci-fi. ‘Spectrum’ are gay and lesbian fiction, and ‘Moderne’ are contemps.

Surely keeping things simple would have been the best route to take? Changing the names to make them sound more interesting might seem like a good idea, but I’m guessing that most people would prefer a spade to be called a spade. I know I would.

Anyhoo, having just checked back, I’ve now got that yellow error thingy on the bottom left hand side of the page, so I guess it’s given up the ghost.

Balls to it, I have better things to do with my time. I’ll check back next week, by which time, EC should have ironed out the loading problems.

I bet their books are selling like hotcakes today. Not.

Sheesh.

That Carol Lynne, the infamous author of Ben’s Wildflower is on the outs with her publisher, Elloras Cave.

Apparently, The Cavers are refusing to print any of her books, even though she’s apparently one of their best-selling authors.

I wonder how true this is?

It doesn’t really make sense that EC wouldn’t want to put her books in print if she sells amazingly well, unless they believe that her books are so pornographic, that readers would be too ashamed to buy them from a bricks and mortar store? I wonder if another reason could be that EC don’t really believe that her work is technically good enough for print publication?

What other reasons could they have, seeing as the woman seems to have a book out every week?

Hmmm…curiouser and curiouser…

Thanks to you-know-who for the heads up.

In response to this title, a cyber pal wrote:

“I’m going to write a threesome story about a girl who falls in love with twins and call it “The Assfuck Twins”

She’s got a point, it would be just as catchy would it not? *g*

I guess they were going for the hard-sell huh? Heheh…

Thanks muchly to CM for the link.

Well, you know how I was far too… erm… you know… nice… to post some of the more intimate details from Carol Lynne’s Yahoo list on here? Well, somebody out there obviously doesn’t have the same internal conflict as I did.

Nice huh?

I loved this bit from a letter that Raelene Whatsherface from EC, sent to Carol:

“IGNORE THE NASTY BLOG! Honestly, that’s the best advice I can give. Be assured that we know how much of those posts are untrue.

You’ve been a great success with your very first book. Jealous and petty people – unsuccessful or less-successful writers – resent that and try to bring you down in order to make themselves feel better”.

I’m wondering which bits were untrue exactly? The bits where I implied that Carol Lynne’s book stunk like two day old fish?

This bit was also fascinating:

“Your first book sold four times what an average EC new release sells, especially one by a new, unknown author. That is outstanding.

We’ve had only a couple of authors who’ve started out with such a bang. The second book looks like it will also do amazingly well. Believe me, that little group of bitches on the blog does not represent our reader market – the sales speak for themselves.”

How stupid is this woman? How does she not know that the only reason Carol Lynne’s book sold so well was due to the kerfuffle that resulted from my review?

I wonder who she’s referring to as ‘little bitches’? I think she means you too Jane.

As for not representing their reader market, well I’m flabbergasted. I’ve spent literally thousands of pounds at EC in the past few years, surely that makes me a loyal reader?

Anyway, this bit tells me how much Carol Lynne really owes me for making her infamous famous:

“You get to laugh all the way to the bank. Honey, your royalties for the year are going to exceed my annual salary by far. And sales like that generate the profit that enables EC to pay my salary”.

And she didn’t even have the grace to thank me.

Anyway, if you want to read the rest, you’ll have to bob over to Der Schadenfreude’s blog, cuz my adorable nephew’s about to wake up in a bad mood…

You guys remember her, right? Course you do, she was hot topic round Blogland for two days or so.

You know what they say about eavesdroppers never hearing any good of themselves, and how re-posting things online is kinda, well you know… passe?

Well, since I have no moral compass, to speak of, let me share this little Yahoo List conversation with you…

“I just don’t feel like doing anything today. So far, I think I’ve only written about…

I keep telling myself I need to work on this book for Helen but there just any motivation to get it done. I’m not even sure if/when they will contract it because it will most likely go into ‘09.

On the other hand, even though I know I won’t get a tenth of the money from Total E Bound, it’s nice to be able to write a book and very quickly see the fruits of your labor.

Maybe I’m just in a funk today. Saw an interesting article on Karen’s blog this morning. Complaining about Feels So Right and the Quickie by Barb sherridan and Anne Cain being the same story.

Of course she admitted that she hadn’t read either one, but the blurbs both had the brother of the bride falling for the father of the groom.

It’s not like we got together and planned it. I’m sure that if you took all the Naughty Nuptial Quickies and put them side by side, a lot of them would have the same combination of players.

But because Karen has a hard-on for me, this is the one that gets the attention. I feel like writing Anne and Barb a note appologizing for bringing them into Karen’s little hateful world.”
Carol Lynne

“Who the fuck is this Karen bitch anyway? Is she reviewer? Another publisher? What’s her deal?”
Christine Allen-Riley

“Wait a sec…is she the Dear Author hag?”
Christine Allen Riley

Re: Blagh!

“Karen is the blogger bitch from London who first started the carnage over Ben’s book. Since then she mentions my name every time she can.
I probably brought more bloggers to her site than anyone else. She also hates, hates, Jaid/Tina.

http://karenknowsbest.blogspot.com/

I keep thinking if I don’t respond in any way it will all just go away, but apparently Karen doesn’t want that. She likes the attention I believe.”
Carol Lynne

“Only 1200. Gee Carol, I wish I could do that many.

What a jerk Karen aqpparently is. I liked Feels So Right, btw. And the two aren’t even close to being the same book. Of course she’d know that if she’d read them.

I mean what about tentacles of love. The groom is trying to hide something in that one. In Heather Holland’s Desperate [something] the guy… hiding something. Wedding Jitters the heroine is trying to hide something.

All plot points. Additionally, when dealing with a wedding, there are only so many stock characters to deal with. With readership looking toward a little bit older characters, it stands to reason that a parent might come into play. With as many Nuptial books as their doing, it also stands to reason that there will be cross over plot points.

Karen needs to get over herself and take and enema”

Web
Michele w/a Brynn Paulin

“Yeah, it’s also why I’ll never do another themed Quickie. I’m sure someone will also have a M/M werewolf quickie out at Halloween and I’ll hear the same thing all over again.”
Carol Lynne

“I’m just really depressed today. When I read other books, they just don’t read like mine. I used to think maybe I just had a different style, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe I’m too close to them, but mine seem to read rather simple in nature. Maybe it’s because I’m a story teller and not a story weaver. Who knows.

I can tell the mechanics of my writing are improving, but I think that’s not the only problem. I’ll know more when the new stories come out next month from the other publisher. Those are written with a different editor/beta, and they include the new mechanical skills I’ve learned so far.

If they are well received it will make me feel a little better. I’m also really worried about any nasty reviews I may get when Finnegan’s Promise comes out. Maybe writing something so personal isn’t such a good idea. That book is way too meaningful to me to let anyone rip it to shreds. I can be the strong, silent author for only so long before I decide to fight back, whether it hurts my career or not.”
Carol
Carol Lynne

Carol, how many people knew your name before I reviewed your book honey? I give you all that gooey free publicity, and this is how you repay me?

Some people are soooo ungrateful…

Seriously, don’t feel bad , I totally get your anger, and know that I don’t hate you for it. I hated your book, not you, but I guess you feel they’re one and the same huh? Sorry I totally trashed your book, and made you feel bad, depressed even, by all accounts, but look on the bright side, at least you got my money, which means you had the last laugh right?

By the way Carol, you know there were much worse stuff in there that I didn’t post right? You know why I never posted them? Because that would have just been plain ‘ole mean, plus they had nothing to do with me. Better go and hide those posts quickly now, you never know, how many of your peers will be reading them…

Oh yeah, and you can slag people off as much as you want, God knows, everybody does it, but for the love of God, lock your goddamn posts, so that they aren’t accessible to all and sundry.

Blurb from the EC site:

Naughty Nuptials – I Do By Barbara Sheridan , Anne Cain
Accountant Randy Ohara has been alone and lonely since the death of his first and only lover. While in New York to attend his sister’s wedding he develops an instant and strong attraction to an unknown man at a Manhattan nightclub. The desire he feels is surprisingly intense, making Randy realize he’s never wanted another man with such passion before.

It’s even more of a surprise when Randy learns that the stranger he lusts for is none other than Jason Chen, the groom’s widowed father. Randy doesn’t dare make a move on the sexy older man, until the handsome detective reveals a few secrets of his own.

Naughty Nuptials – Feels So Right By Carol Lynne
On his eighteenth birthday, Austin Green’s father kicked him out of the house for his sexual preferences. Now, all grown up, Austin returns home to attend his sister’s wedding.

Although Tony’s been divorced for most of his son’s life, he has yet to find Mr. Right. That may change when he steps into the elevator with Austin. Can these two men survive a weekend of lust, love and bigotry?

Now I know there’s a dearth of original plot devices, and I know that they are part of the same series, but seriously, both heroes get the hots for the groom’s father? Okaaay then…

Thanks to Goddess Grrl for sending me the links!

I wrote this rambling Ode to Jaid Black back back in August 2005, when I obviously didn’t know any better. I considered deleting it, following her reaction to my EC posts, but then I thought, why the hell should I? It serves to remind me that I’m not always right about people.

It also serves to remind me that most authors will always be happy to be your friend, and laugh at you dissing other people, as long as it’s not them or their company that you’re taking the piss out of. Lesson learned.

“I’ve just realised how much I admire Tina Engler AKA Jaid Black, the legendary ‘Queen of Steam’.

How could anybody fail to admire a woman who has achieved as much as she has, when she had so little to begin with?

Here are some facts about Tina that some of you may, or may not have known.

1.Tina is the owner and founder of Elloras Cave, Cerridwen Press, and the newly launched Lady Jaided Magazine.

6.She also donated $10,000 to the Montel Williams Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and EC are currently donating 15 cents to the charity for every book that is sold via their Ebay Store.

The reason that I admire Tina so much, is because she literally built her empire up from scratch.

She got pregnant at the age of seventeen, and was forced to raise her baby alone when the father of her child abandoned them both. She was on welfare for a number of years, but somehow managed to put herself through college, and worked towards a better life for herself and her child.

Not only was she on welfare, and let’s face it, there is a lot of snobbery towards single mothers who live off the state, but her children are bi-racial, and I recall reading a piece that she wrote, about the racism that her children had to endure, because of this very fact.

In my opinion, she has helped change the way that people look at the romance genre. She dared to push the envelope, and by doing so, opened up a brand new world to romance readers who were just a little bored by the same old, same old.

I admire the fact that she was forward-thinking enough to realise that as Millennium women, some of us are looking for more than virginal heroines with ‘perking nipples’ and dastardly heroes with ‘throbbing members’.

Never mind the romance v erotic romance catfights that seem to happen in blogland on a daily basis, the fact is, without Tina’s influence, we probably woudn’t even be having the debate in the first place.

Personally, I view Tina as a pioneer. She may not have invented electricity, or found the cure for the common cold, but she exemplifies the determination and the self-sacrifice that is necessary in order to reach beyond one’s wildest dreams, regardless of the obstacles that are placed in one’s path.

Tina’s lead a very interesting life so far, and I know that if she ever decided to detail her memoirs in the form of an autobiography, I would certainly go out and buy the book.”

Oh the irony. What can I say? I meant every word I wrote at the time. Every word. How things change eh? *g*

Barbara B made this comment on the previous post:

BTW Karen, your girl Carol Lynne has a new book, Feels So Right, at Ellora’s Cave. It’s a gay romance quickie. You gonna take one for the team again and review this sucker for us? *big grin*

Erm, the answer to that is HELL NO.

I just read SarahF’s review of Carol Lynne’s latest book, and it would seem that it’s basically the same pornographic crap that Ben’s Wildflower was.

Erm, Lora Leigh review coming up at some point tomorrow, right now, I’m off to watch Beyonce in concert.