Shady dealings at Night Shade?

weateallthepies · 06-23-2010, 12:05 PM

There's an interesting post at The Speculative Scotsman about alleged stolen rights to an ebook under Night Shade at Baen books.

More information at the author's website.

Quote:

Basically, despite the great things Night Shade Books has done for this book, this is not a publisher I can do business with anymore. They are either unable or unwilling to honor their contracts.

Night Shade has stolen the ebook rights to The Mall of Cthulhu. They do not own them and are offering an electronic edition for sale through webscription.net, which is affiliated with Baen Books, a real publisher who should know better. Nine months ago, Night Shade made a verbal offer to pay me a small sum for the rights. I agreed. They've never paid me. They claimed their unauthorized edition was an oversight, and that was somewhat credible at the time. Nine months later, it's clear that this is not an oversight. It's a theft of my intellectual property.

Doesn't sound too nice, particularly since Baen get largely glowing praise from customers.

Anyway thought it might be of interest.

luqmaninbmore · 06-23-2010, 04:25 PM

Do we have any kind of response from Night Shade? I think we should here both sides before deciding who support (or boycott) in this issue.

Worldwalker · 06-23-2010, 04:57 PM

As I understand it, webscription.net originated with Baen, and is affiliated with Baen, but is not actually Baen. They also sell ebooks from Baen's competitors, such as Tor and Del Rey. They're a bookstore which sells books from publishers with whom they have sales arrangements, just like Amazon or Smashwords. So suggesting a boycott of Baen because another publisher who sells through the same bookstore has been accused of not giving an author an accurate royalty statement is a bit much. For that matter, so would be boycotting Borders, which sells Night Shade's pbook of the same novel.

It seems to me that this is between the author and the publisher, not between us and any bookstore (e- or p-) that the publisher sells the books through. If we boycotted every bookstore that sold any book that was at the center of a dispute between a publisher and an author (not to mention an agent that the author admits "isn't the brightest bulb") we wouldn't be able to buy any books at all.

weateallthepies · 06-23-2010, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

Do we have any kind of response from Night Shade? I think we should here both sides before deciding who support (or boycott) in this issue.

Yes I wasn't sure whether to post it without any information from the other side of the argument but I thought I'd just pass on the news at least.

Hopefully it's an easily explained situation.

bwaldron · 06-24-2010, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

It seems to me that this is between the author and the publisher, not between us and any bookstore (e- or p-) that the publisher sells the books through.

Indeed. I don't see Baen/webscriptions as having any guilt here at all.

Lemurion · 06-27-2010, 01:07 PM

Baen's completely in the clear here, and for my money so's Arnold Bailey who runs webscriptions. Nightshade tells him they have the rights, he signs contract and offers book for sale.

mikemc2 · 06-28-2010, 12:31 AM

Well, if it's true he could send webscriptions a DMCA takedown notice, that should prompt some action from somebody.

Critteranne · 07-09-2010, 11:48 PM

There is more about the complaints about Nightshade on this blog (fans of RASFW will recognize the name):
http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/2525655.html

There is a Publishers Weekly blog post about the complaints and a response from Nightshade.

I really hope this works out. I like a lot of the books they offer, and I'd hate to see them fall apart as so many other small presses have done.

I was also sad to see that Prime Books has come under similar criticism as I like much of what they offer as well.

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06-23-2010, 04:25 PM	#2
luqmaninbmore Da'i Posts: 1,144 Karma: 1217499 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Baltimore Device: Toshiba Thrive, Kobo Touch, Kindle 1, Aluratek Libre, T-Mobile Comet	Do we have any kind of response from Night Shade? I think we should here both sides before deciding who support (or boycott) in this issue.

06-23-2010, 04:57 PM	#3
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	As I understand it, webscription.net originated with Baen, and is affiliated with Baen, but is not actually Baen. They also sell ebooks from Baen's competitors, such as Tor and Del Rey. They're a bookstore which sells books from publishers with whom they have sales arrangements, just like Amazon or Smashwords. So suggesting a boycott of Baen because another publisher who sells through the same bookstore has been accused of not giving an author an accurate royalty statement is a bit much. For that matter, so would be boycotting Borders, which sells Night Shade's pbook of the same novel. It seems to me that this is between the author and the publisher, not between us and any bookstore (e- or p-) that the publisher sells the books through. If we boycotted every bookstore that sold any book that was at the center of a dispute between a publisher and an author (not to mention an agent that the author admits "isn't the brightest bulb") we wouldn't be able to buy any books at all.

06-27-2010, 01:07 PM	#6
Lemurion eReader Posts: 2,750 Karma: 4968470 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Note 5; PW3; Nook HD+; ChuWi Hi12; iPad	Baen's completely in the clear here, and for my money so's Arnold Bailey who runs webscriptions. Nightshade tells him they have the rights, he signs contract and offers book for sale.

06-28-2010, 12:31 AM	#7
mikemc2 Zealot Posts: 128 Karma: 7878 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Milwaukee,WI Device: Sony PRS-505,Kindle 3,Nook HD+,iPod Touch,Kindle PW2	Well, if it's true he could send webscriptions a DMCA takedown notice, that should prompt some action from somebody.

07-09-2010, 11:48 PM	#8
Critteranne Guru Posts: 815 Karma: 23183490 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: MD Device: Kindle, iPad	There is more about the complaints about Nightshade on this blog (fans of RASFW will recognize the name): http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/2525655.html There is a Publishers Weekly blog post about the complaints and a response from Nightshade. I really hope this works out. I like a lot of the books they offer, and I'd hate to see them fall apart as so many other small presses have done. I was also sad to see that Prime Books has come under similar criticism as I like much of what they offer as well.

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