How Ellora's Cave May Have Just Committed Suicide

In case you actually had a life over the weekend and missed the blow-up, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc. and Jasmine-Jade Enterprises, LLC filed a civil suit Friday morning against Dear Author Media Network, LLC, and Jennifer Gerrish-Lampe for defamation. Ellora's Cave was a ground-breaking e-book erotica publisher. Jennifer is better known as Jane Litte, the proprietress of Dear Author, an incredibly popular romance blog and review website.

The subject of Ellora's Cave (aka EC) has been a major topic on the internet for the past few months. Jennifer wrote a piece that was, in my opinion, fair and factual in regards to their business problems. I linked to it when I compared EC's current behavior to the events leading to Dorchester's demise. Everything Jennifer mentioned is a matter of public record. She laid out the facts, and she gave an opinion about what may be going on behind the scenes and what the end result may be. Her post went live fifteen days ago on September 14th.

Three days ago on September 26th, EC filed suit against Jennifer in Akron, specifically the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Civil Division. You can read the actual court documents here at the Summit County Clerk of Courts. I first heard about the lawsuit in an article on The Digital Reader. The Passive Voice has posted the actual filing, which is now a matter of public record, along with his own legal commentary. Inexplicably, EC's attorney attached a copy of Jennifer's blog post to the pleading.

*facepalm*

I know it's been a while since I've practiced law (and nothing I'm about to say constitutes legal advice or legal representation of anyone WHATSOEVER), but what the fuck was that attorney thinking? The apparent objective of the lawsuit was to suppress Jennifer's analysis of EC and chill any further discussion of EC 's business practices. Yet, he just made sure everyone in the world can read it. As Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader said, the Streisand Effect will ensure everyone on the planet knows about the Dear Author blog post and shine a very bright light on EC's behavior.

In a case like this, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff, i.e. EC, to show that Jennifer deliberately lied to damage their business. Which means their going to have to open their financials to the court to prove one of the main allegations, that EC did in fact pay ALL their writers, editors and cover artists. Again, any evidence entered into the case will become a matter of public record. Considering how many EC authors are openly complaining about the lack of payment, these folks will be very interested in seeing the financial records of the company.

By Saturday afternoon, the Streisand Effect was in full force as bloggers spread the word about Dear Author getting sued. Outraged readers picked up the thread. Even Publishers Weekly broadcasted it through their Twitter account.

By filing this lawsuit, EC may have just hastened its ultimate fate. The company may not even survive long enough for this case to go to trial.

The Death Spiral of Another Publisher

In 2000, Tina Engler started a little publishing company. Her sexy contemporary stories were constantly rejected by bigger publishers as too risque. The publishers claimed there was no market for contemporary, fantasy or sci-fi erotic romance. Tina proved them wrong when she launched Ellora's Cave.

Not only did Tina prove there was a market for those sub-genres, but she did something unique. She launched new stories as e-books first. If they proved popular enough, a paper version of the book was published. Remember, this was over ten years ago. Very few e-readers were on the market at the time, the most prominent manufacturer of which was Sony.

EC was the first erotica publisher to gain mainstream prominence. Their books were shelved in Borders and Barnes & Noble. They were getting noticed by financiers and mainstream press. EC was featured in Forbes. They were raking in the dough.

So why haven't EC editors and writers been paid for several months now?

That's the question on everyone's mind. Jane Litte at Dear Author provides a breakdown of the sequence of events. She believes incompetence and/or fraud is responsible for the tailspin EC finds itself in.  On top of salaries and royalties, state taxes haven't been paid. Writers are asking their fans NOT to buy their EC titles. Requests for reversions of rights go unanswered.

Unfortunately, the real life drama at EC sounds just like the sequence of events at other publishers and a certain retailer by the name of Borders Group, Inc., before they crashed.

First came the complaints from the occasional writer, who was subsequently labelled a troublemaker. Then came the late payments. Just a computer glitch; nothing to worry about. Layoffs of publisher staff, or reorganization as they called it. Royalty statements didn't match sales figures from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. The payments stopped being late and didn't come at all. The smart writers got their lawyers involved in a desperate attempt to get their rights back. Some writers succeeded; other couldn't get their calls, letter or e-mails returned. Finally, the company collapsed and writers found their rights sold to another publisher.

Think I'm talking about EC? Nope, this was the exact sequence of events at Dorchester a few years ago.

We're seeing the same pattern over and over again in the current disruption of the publishing industry. EC is simply the latest.

And I fear Barnes & Noble may be next.

The Publishing Gold Rush Is Digging Up Lead

Writers refuse to learn basic business principles. Publishing companies refuse to learn basic business principles. And we wonder why the publishing industry is in such bad shape.

I've complained about Simon & Schuster teaming up with vanity press Author Solutions (which, by the way, is owned by Penguin).

This week, Kris Rusch vented her own frustration at writers refusing to take responsibility for their careers.

Now, yet another small publisher may be in the process of going the way of Triskelion (I don't even want to go there), Dorchester Publishing (extensive chronicling by Brian Keene) and Aspen Mountain Press (Samantha Combs's report of the efforts to save the company).

Now, it appears Silver Publishing sinking rapidly. A publisher paying late is never a good sign. When the publisher starts throwing around legal threats and writers are holding a fundraiser for the publisher, things are bad. There's been several flame wars over the matter already, and it'll probably get worse before Silver finally succumbs. The Erotic Romance Blog catalogs some of what's going on.

Unfortunately, where there's smoke, something burning hot usually lies underneath. The fingerpointing and spinning is too much like the other defunct publishers I mention above to not take this seriously.

If you're a writer wanting to contract with a publisher, for the love of Murphy, CHECK THEM OUT before signing the contract!

The Fat Lady Has Sung

If you're a Dorchester author, I have some sad news for you. All hope that you might get pennies on the dollar for what's owed you is now gone. Dorchester Media has been foreclosed on.

But get this--the person foreclosing on the company isn't an author or any other creditor trying to collect what's owed them.

It's John Backe. As is John Backe, the founder and principal of The Backe Group Inc. And guess who The Back Group Inc. owns? Yep, Dorchester's owner in the one foreclosing on the publishing company.

Supposedly, the investment banking firm handling the matter will auction off the company and the book licensing rights separately.

In the meantime, according to Brian Keene, more bad things have been done to authors, and a couple of writers are FINALLY filing a lawsuit. But it may be too little, too late, in this horrid situation. Brian has a chronology of his own situation on his blog. It ain't pretty and far worse things have been done to others.

*sigh* And people wonder why I'm pro-indie.

The Latest $h*! at Dorchester

If you haven't heard the latest about the Dorchester fiasco, go read Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.  Publishers Weekly picked up the story and tweeted it yesterday.

All I can say is please, PLEASE do not buy Dorchester books or even download them for free.  I've got friends who've published with these pirates who will not see a dime you spend.

Piracy is a crime.  And yes, that is exactly what Time DeYoung is--a pirate. Not the cute Johnny Depp version, but the slit-your-throat and piss-on-you-body kind.  Don't add to the vicims' injury by buying books from him.