Author Fired for Self-publishing eBooks

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

From my take of things, it isn't quite that way. The author mentions how the contract was for a novel, and what they'd self published was short story collections. How is it bad faith? In your analogy, its like trying to sell a car, and then the person buying the car gets pissed off you sold a motorcycle last year.

Exactly!

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

I don't see any reference that $20,000 was needed, no sum was mentioned, but that "an advance" would help the indebtedness.

Do you mean on the blog? It doesn't say that she needed exactly 20k, but the sum is mentioned:

Last week, I received from their lawyers an official letter terminating my contract with them, "...for permitting Amazon to publish CANNIBAL NIGHTS, etc...." and demanding back the $20,000 they had paid me as part of their advance. Until then, this publishing giant is holding my novel as hostage, a work that took me five years to write. My agent assures me I am now an 'anathema' to them.

I sit back and view this fiasco in two ways. CANNIBAL NIGHTS is my best, best writing. Perhaps it's worth $20,000 to finally have it published and presented to the world. For that, I thank Amazon. Or, perhaps it's worth $20,000 for a writer to discover who she's really in bed with. Sleeping with the enemy? Perhaps. But now I know who the enemy is.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

2500 books is how many she needs to sell for the publisher to break even on the advance - presumably they hope she will sell many more, but that was all that they were willing to pay for up front.

This is a common misconception.

The publisher should break even on the book even if fewer copies sell than are needed to meet the advance. That's because, in the general case, the publisher gets more revenue from each copy sold than the author does.

[reader22]

We're only hearing her side of the story and she has used a whole bunch of emotive language to make us feel sorry for her which makes me suspicious. It was her choice to sell her book to this publisher. The $20,000 is an advance against future earnings, if she's in breach of contract then there will be no future earnings and she owes the publisher the advance back. There have also been a some famous cases where the book has been turned in and the publisher deems it unpublishable and rescinds the advance. Like the Nanny diaries authors: http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/columns/longstory/10330/

The bottom line Publishing is a business, not a charity. A very ruthless business. As an author you're a business person - you should read and understand your contract before you sign it. Pay a suitably qualified lawyer to explain it to you if you don't.

If the story is as she says it is surely her Agent and Lawyer would be making a bigger stink?

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

This is a common misconception.

The publisher should break even on the book even if fewer copies sell than are needed to meet the advance. That's because, in the general case, the publisher gets more revenue from each copy sold than the author does.

Yes, but isn't it typically worded to where the advance is against the portion of profits that are due to the author, and not against total profits, and worded that way specifically because the publishers do not wish to merely break even

[BillSmithBooks]

In the author's blog, she mentions that these are collections of short stories, not novels. She presumably signed a contract for a specific novel (normally outlines are involved with contract signings) and often the publisher has a right to reject said novel and first option to buy future work.

These are short story collections. One was published BEFORE the contract was signed and still the publisher demanded she pull it down before ultimately relenting. The second book is a collection of short stories, almost all of which had already been published in magazines or on websites, so all of the work had already been publicly available.

Of course, it is considered very bad form to publish with another company if you are under contract with a publisher, kind of like playing for the Yankees and coaching during summer break for a Red Sox training team.

Generally speaking, it is common practice in publishing to allow authors to write and sell short stories while they are working on a novel and I have never before heard of a publisher forbidding selling to smaller markets. In fact, publishers often encourage short fiction sales in genre work to prime the well and create author awareness before a new novel...unless, of course, you are running late on deadline in which case you had better not stop to eat, drink or sleep until the book is done.

IMO (and IANAL but I've heard some interesting discussions on the subject at cons), by the publisher insisting that she pull down the other books, they are basically stating that the $20,000 advance is an exclusive arrangement and she cannot derive income from other sources, thereby potentially making her considered an employee of the publisher...which is the absolute last thing a publisher would want because of the tax and health care implications.

(As I understand it, the IRS has ruled in the past that if the bulk of your income comes from a single contractor and you are in any way restricted from earning income from other sources, you may be ruled an employee of that corporation and not an independent contractor.)

Bottom line, she's probably much better off going indie at this point anyway and waiting to sell future print rights until she has enough clout to dictate the terms she wants (a la John Locke) rather than having to meekly accept the terms the publishing company dictates.

[frahse]

We do not have enough information to make judgements in this case.

Some here have already made this point.

Others seem to be sounding off on their own grievances and theories about what kind of relationship should or does exist between authors and publishers.

The primary relationship between two entities is governed overall by

1) law. For example you can't sell yourself, your children, etc. into servitude.
2) contract.

Without our knowing more about the contract we are doing nothing more than singing into a hurricane. All the melody and words are just washed and blown away.