Remember Karen’s post, way back when, about Jill Noble leaving Noble Romance?
There was a longish thread where at least one Anom (not my typo, people) defended poor lovely Jill and the publisher as a whole. Pretty much everyone else, from Erastes to Brita Addams, J. S. Wayne to Lori Green, and other Noble Romance authors, were pretty pissed at a) how Jill Noble had abandoned ship, and b) how things didn’t change by much with her exit.
(You can still read some of the posts by checking the link round up at Bryl R Tyne–some of them take you to dead air, but the ones still standing are worth spending a few minutes on)
Well, this is close to a year later, and things are…yeah, you guessed, pretty much the same. Different flavor, same bullshit. Jane at Dear Author shared a bit of what one author is going through, trying to get her work distributed to the venue where it sells best.
Charming, eh?
And then we learned some more (from author Kari Gregg):
For the love of all that is holy, yes, AVOID NOBLE ROMANCE. You can read about my experience with Noble releasing a second edition paperback of my Spoils of War that is a grossly inferior and substandard product here. Well, that has details I was willing to give the public, anyway. Noble released the second edition paperback in October 2012 without notifying me so I was totally unaware it existed or that there were problems until April 2013. Dimensions that are approx. 11?x9?, no title page, no page headers, no page numbers, no chapter breaks…and readers had been buying that atrocity for six months. Good God.
I’m filing a claim against Noble in Georgia magistrate court, not only due to the second edition frankenpod but also issues I haven’t mentioned or discussed in public. Unless writers would like to follow my footsteps into court…no. Just no. Stay away.
(read more here)
Authors, it behooves you to beware. The rest of us stare in amazement at the shenanigans and implosions, but these are your careers. Even in the many cases where the writing income is minimal, it’s surely not worth the headache, ulcer and general aggravation, right?
Edited to add: author Brita Addams has a current post on her own issues with Noble Romance here
Further edit, May 3rd: author J. S. Wayne posts about breaches of contract and reversion of rights
Edited to correct spelling–apologies to both authors!
