I wonder what this will ultimately mean for this e-publishing house? They seem to be losing people hand over fist. Lynne Connolly’s gone too.
If I was a Trisk author, I’d be feeling pretty nervous right now, what with reports of bouncing cheques, unpaid royalties, being disinvited to the RWA, and now one of Trisk’s longest serving people has jumped ship, after showing severe signs of stress, and mental fatigue.
It all seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. Authors, you may want to start running towards the door… erm, don’t forget to take your rights with you…
*Cough*Venuspress*cough*
Jaye
May 29
11:15 pm
Lynne, left? Oh my. I’ve run into Lynne at various places online over the years and one thing that she’s *always* been unshakeable in was her outspoken & fierce loyalty to Trisk. She’s always been one of the first to step up and speak out about their general wonderfulness and how good they’ve been to her and for her career, (she’s been pretty prolific over there). Either she’s decamped because things really are bad over there, or it could be nothing more than she’s following Gail (who’s her editor, I think). Author’s have been known to leave a house when their editor does (as long as contractual obligations allow).
Jaye
May 29
11:19 pm
erm, it could also be exactly what she says, she’s investigating other avenues to grow her career. 😉 I guess it’s the print thing….
Barbara B.
May 29
11:43 pm
I was surprised that L. Connolly’s leaving Triskelion, too. She was INCREDIBLY fierce in her defence of Triskelion and G. Northman at the Smart Bitches blog a few weeks ago. Wow!
The epublishing business appears to be pretty risky at times. It seems to be as vulnerable to rumor and innuendo as the stock market and almost as volatile. Then again maybe there are concrete reasons for all the personnel changes and the rumors. I hope they can get it together before it’s too late.
Lynne Connolly
May 30
1:01 am
Yes, it’s me.
I left because Gail Northman left, basically. She was my editor, and mentor.
Also, my book was pulled from the print schedule, and while I understand the reasons, I’d like the series to have a shot at print.
I am leaving some books at Triskelion, partly as a gesture of goodwill and partly because they continue to do well there. I just want to explore other avenues.
I want to find a wider audience and I think it’s a good move at this stage in my career. I’ve only ever wanted to write, but it seems you have to do more than that!
Very often, e-publishers engender loyalty in their readers, and many readers habitually visit one or two publishers for their ebooks. So it makes sense to spread your work around a bit.
When I sold my historical novels to Samhain earlier in the year, it was with that in mind. People weren’t buying historicals from Triskelion, so that wasn’t the best market for them. But Samhain does well, and I’m really pleased to have some historicals there.
Sarah McCarty
May 30
11:42 am
All this changeover in the epub world is just a reminder for authors that epubs are nothing more than startup companies. And while they have great hopes and plans, the reality of the situation is that they are more likely than not to fail within their first five years of business with a crisis usually occurring between years 2-5. (They’re usually well funded the first two years.) Just because they’re publishers doesn’t mean they are not buisness and not prone to all the reasons businesses can fail.
That doesn’t mean authors shouldn’t publish there–they can be great places to launch a career–but the reaility of the risk factor and likelihood of failure should be taken into consideration by authors when negotiating the contract.*shrugging* It’s just commons sense.
Anonymous
May 31
7:05 pm
Sarah said: “…they are more likely than not to fail within their first five years of business…”
Actually, it’s more like one-two years, at best! The problem is that everyone who edits or writes a blog (or email, for heaven’s sake) “thinks” they have the knowledge to open a new company, when they haven’t a clue what it takes, with time and money and staff and talent and marketing and legally or even the basic rules of grammar, needed to make a successful business. Most companies, I’m noticing, open only because some author gets their panties in a twist and thinks she can form a company and do better elsewhere. It ain’t easy folks, as is obvious because more than 50% of all new e-pubs close within months and leave their authors and staff scrounging for royalties, with the authors having to find yet another e-pub to re-re-re-re-re-publish the same old titles for the 100th time while the owners of those garbage e-pubs are either in bankrupty court or lounging on a beach in Hawaii and laughing with all the royalties they ripped off from their authors and staff. There’s a handful of e-pubs who are very good (those who have been around for more than 4 or 5 years and have nearly no complaints from authors regarding royalty payments) and the rest are crap. What I don’t understand is how anyone is surpised when things like this happen (almost daily). Doesn’t any author do research before signing a contract to find out the business qualifications of the owners opening up all these companies on a whim? I guess not, since the moment anyone who “claims” (and MOST do not) some sort of qualification opens up a new company, they are flooded with submissions, and for the majority of new companies, they contract any and all submissions they receive since it’s “good for a fast start-up to business” which promptly closes down within months or a few years, tops. Nonsense!