07-20-2012, 03:53 PM | #16 |
neo
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Exactly so.
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07-21-2012, 04:18 AM | #17 | |
Banned
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http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/0...il-part-2.html
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07-21-2012, 05:36 AM | #18 | |
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07-21-2012, 05:46 AM | #19 |
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07-21-2012, 07:42 AM | #20 |
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• No one is forcing the authors to sign a contract.
• Harlequin pays advances, unlike many other romance publishers. • The average "earn-out" for a Harlequin book is around $10,000. • 40-60% of that earn-out is from the advance. • There are a lot of people willing to write for Harlequin. If supply is high, then prices are low. I do think that if the contracts were unclear, then there's a legitimate reason to bring suit. However, paper book sales are not part of the suit, and we're talking about a period in time before ebooks were really on the radar. I.e. we're not talking about Harlequin jacking a gazillion dollars. It's probably a small amount per author, which will be further whittled down by the attorneys who are handling the suit. |
07-21-2012, 08:42 AM | #21 |
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As this lawsuit drags out there will less and less.
Letting this kind of dirty laundry hit the street is a major corporate failure unto itself regardless of what can or cannot be proved in court. If you look at the self pub explosion, the biggest growth has been in the romance genres and most of the YA-labeled stuff would fit nicely in one or another of the Harlequin imprints. With a major portion of the romance market moving to ebooks, a long fight over ebook contracts exposing a lot of "gotchas" is not going to win too many hearts and minds among the newbies. And since the vets are the ones suing... This should have been privately settled and NDA'ed for eternity long ago. |
07-21-2012, 09:31 AM | #22 | |
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Upon further review:
That sort of thinking strikes me as W.C. Fields-style complacency. (There's one born every minute.) And a likely reason the mess got this far. Quote:
Also, we now have both Harlequin and Penguin lined up as big publishers that think ebooks are great for scamming writers. I sense a trend... |
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07-21-2012, 11:02 AM | #23 |
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I want these kinds of scams to come to light as much and as often as possible. I also want more writers to go into business for themselves. I'm sick and tired of the big companies ripping off the people who are making them the money by writing the books and the people who buy them!
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07-21-2012, 11:06 AM | #24 | |
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07-21-2012, 11:24 AM | #25 | |
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They work hard to keep their contracts obscure and complex, and to play corporate dodge games to make sure as little as possible actually gets to the authors. That authors were convinced it was a good idea to sign up with a publisher who'll give them 3% of list price, and won't let them use their pen name on future books published elsewhere, doesn't make it less of a ripoff. They weren't cheated, which implies rule-breaking, but they were given much less compensation than most people would think they deserve. |
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07-21-2012, 12:12 PM | #26 |
Seriously?
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.....
Last edited by david_e; 09-05-2012 at 05:36 PM. |
07-21-2012, 01:32 PM | #27 | |
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Quote:
Not all scams are ilegal. Some are perfectly legal trickery. Innocence or guilt in a court of law isn't all that critical; the documented facts alone are eye-opening. Letting people know the kinds of gotchas in Harlequin contracts is something of a public service. That way, anybody who chooses to deal with them *now* will know to count their fingers after the handshake. |
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07-21-2012, 01:37 PM | #28 |
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07-21-2012, 02:16 PM | #29 |
how YOU doin?
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07-21-2012, 02:20 PM | #30 |
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Is it really shocking to see such hypocrisy among the publishers apologists? I know it isn't to me.
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