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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Are you suggesting a scam (legal or otherwise) is okay unless the amount of money is big?
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It's up to the court to decide whether the contracts are being honored. If so, then it's not a "scam."
You incorrectly stated that "all" Harlequin authors are affected, but that's not the case.
It's only people with contracts active between 1999 and 2004 that were sold as ebooks. It's unclear how much is actually at stake.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Harlequin has been selling a *lot* of ebooks.
(But not as many as they want to. The indie publishers are eroding their business which is moving *strongly* to ebooks.)
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Actually, Harlequin was one of the first publishers to convert their front and back catalogs to digital. They increased ebook royalties across the board from 6% to 15% a few years ago, including on all older contracts.
They've also been raking it in for the last few years, including increased sales during the recession. They got hit a bit in Q1 of this year, mostly due to drops in print sales, and also due to declines in European sales. As an international company, they're also affected by currency issues.
It's also worth mentioning that they are still one of the biggest publishers in the world, and they are still on the wholesale model, instead of pushing for Agency. Most of their books sell for around $4. Yes, obviously they are total bastards, and people are fleeing the brand as a result....