Quote:
Originally Posted by Blossom
Speculation is modern journalism. She made some really interesting discoveries though. I applaud her digging into the matter. She wrote the previous one posted on the first or second of this thread.
It looks like the partner kicked out was the backbone of the company and the other just was at least horrible managing it or at worst embezzled the money. Very Ugly indeed.
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As I was reading it, I expected the conclusion to be that the owner finally embezzled/bled it dry. I found it interesting speculation that the writer of the article concluded maybe the money had gone because the partner had to be paid off. Not that we're likely to know either way--the money was squandered or carelessly spent no matter how you look at it. Money owed to authors should have been in escrow and/or we should have been getting paid monthly. Frequency of payment is always something I'm aware of, but when I don't make much from a venue, I tend to be less worried about it. Some of the affiliate channels only pay when a total reaches 50 or 100. That's common and I'm well aware that the venue might just decide not to pay me (or might go under before bothering.)
It's probably more disturbing to read that some entities tested and found they were not being properly credited for sales at ARe. We authors always worry about that--whether done on purpose or just software that doesn't work right--those books are our income. I can't tell you how many times others have said, "But you can just get a(nother) job." As if writing ISN'T a valid job or a valid income source or can't possibly be a large enough income to matter. As if jobs are easy to get...
It's going to be harder for smaller publishing companies to attract authors. It's always difficult to decide whether to bother with the hassle of uploading, reading all the contracts, making sure the ducks are in a row...this doesn't make anyone feel good about it.