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.
Mrs Giggles
July 31
1:25 pm
I don’t think you can call her books “pornographic” as her sex scenes tend to be on the short and comical side especially in her shorter works.
My money is on her Yahoo! group messages – the ones that you outed a while ago – which saw her making some unflattering remarks about her editor. I bet she must have annoyed some folks pretty bad.
Not that being in print in EC means anything much nowadays, I hear, since apparently bookstore distribution had been greatly reduced in the recent years and EC is concentrating on selling those print books via their online website more and more nowadays.
veinglory
July 31
1:55 pm
It is possible they are more reluctant to go to print in general, and it isn’t specific to Lynne.
Teddypig
July 31
3:03 pm
Maybe they realized how badly those poorly edited poorly written stories would reflect on them if people were actually paying full price for print?
Whoops! My bad!
Hey, as long as they keep printing the Samantha Kane books I’ll be happy.
AztecLady
July 31
4:44 pm
Regarding printed distribution, a while ago one of the clerks at my much loved neighborhood UBS told me that they were having issues with EC orders in general–it would take months to fulfill orders–so the store manager was cutting back on having those, unless they were used.
Keep in mind that this is just the one store, of course *shrug* Can’t say whether it’s an indicator of widespread issues.
Teddypig
July 31
5:04 pm
It took a while to buy a couple of books off Amazon and at the time the order was supposed to be for something in stock.
StandardRankandFile
July 31
8:00 pm
One of my very good friends sets up signings for a couple groups of authors, and every single time shes set something up that and EC author is on the roster, the store, BN, Borders, even indies, tell her that the books are not available. She gives them the heads up about how to order them and they say the books are not available. So it could be EC in general. She has has to cut 4 authors off these signings because they cant participate.
If thats all true, thats pretty crappy of EC to do.
Anon
July 31
8:18 pm
It’s my understanding that EC is doing its own printing now and that they aren’t keeping even some of the biggest authors’ books (such as Sarah McCarty) in stock. I don’t think it’s isolated to just one author but rather a new–and idiotic–printing program.
Shoeless Soldier
August 1
2:06 am
Don’t read too much into the Carol Lynne situation. EC’s print/distribution “program” is utterly capricious.
DS
August 1
3:42 am
EC has received no feedback in their eBay store since 2/08. Only thing in the store is the calendar and a link to their webstore. They had about 100 neutrals and negatives filed prior to that, most related to books being out of stock and/or shipping late.
There’s also been some filings in the Brashear law suit.
squid
August 1
6:22 am
That company is suffering from a serious lack of good ideas and an overstock of bad ones. Can’t figure out why.
Dorothy Mantooth
August 1
11:57 am
DS, EC shut down its Ebay store when it opened its own web store connected to the site, so there’s nothing particularly nefarious about there being no feedback since it closed.
Not that I’m defending their print program, which is batshit. I know several authors with books in print from other publishers (some NY houses), who get requests from readers who’ve bought those print books for their EC books to go into print and who forward those requests on (or the readers email EC themselves), and it seems like EC is totally ignoring the sales potential there.
Lynne Connolly
August 1
5:11 pm
First, disclaimer – I write for Ellora’s Cave.
There are some things I can’t say, because we sign a non-disclosure contract when we join (something I was used to in my previous incarnation as a marketing professional – and I always wondered why publishers didn’t do it too).
But – Ellora’s Cave is a publisher of erotic romance. Although their current covers don’t feature naughty bits any more, they still reflect the books.
And how many women have the nerve to go into a bookstore and face the cashier with a pile of erotic romance?
Oh yes, me for sure, and having met you, you too, Karen, but there are women who just aren’t comfortable doing that.
It was Ellora’s Cave’s genius that spotted that online sales were the thing. You can buy what you want when you want and you don’t have to face the Woman On The Till.
Therefore, I’m not too concerned about my EC books coming out in print. Oh yes, I’d love it, but I have to wait and see if any reach print. I can wait. My EC ebook sales are pretty phenomenal (so thanks to everyone who is buying them).
Samhain do my historicals because I think readers of historical romance, even sensual and erotic ones, like print. My Samhain books come out ten months after the e-version and do nicely. And I love being there.
My other main publisher, Loose-Id, does print, but only occasionally. With the same philosophy as EC about it.
DS
August 1
5:21 pm
I didn’t think there was anything nefarious about the store being shut down. A lot of eBay stores have shut down since the changes in feedback rules and eBay stopping electronic downloads. I am wondering when eBay is going to catch up with the link to their new webstore (which is not eBay legal)and shut the eBay store down entirely. I assume they are paying the monthly store fee as a signpost to their website.
Ellora’s Cave’s feedback was 98.1% per toolhaus.org which is low enough to have caused them problems with eBay itself but the feedback problems were clearly with late shipping and not having items in stock not no shipping. No shipping would be a real red flag.
Jane
August 3
6:24 pm
I thought you were going to DC. I gave Nora your kiss and told her you were thinking about coming to DC. I know she’d want you to deliver your kiss in person next year.
Karen Scott
August 3
6:30 pm
Hey, I’d be pleased to go to both, so you never know!