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By David Rothman

Remember eBbookAd, the retailer, distributor and infrastructure-provider? How solid the company seemed?

Then we heard of eBookAd’s sleazy treatment of writers and publishers—owned tens of thousands. Finally the site vanished, including backup copies of books people had bought.

So readers, not just e-book writers and potential writers, may be interested in What Authors Should Look for in an E Publisher, from Jane at DearAuthor.com. No, eBookAd wasn’t quite a publisher in the usual way, but many of the same concepts apply. Elibron, by the way, is another name for buyers to be wary of.

E-book houses’ special risks

“If you have been paying attention this last week,” Jane writes, “you will have read some eyebrow-raising posts from and about e-publishers, unfortunately, few of it good. The fact is that because of the low entries to barriers in the e publishing industry (i.e., lack of funding), many e-publishing companies are started by individuals with little to no business experience, let alone editing or publishing experience. Authors who find themselves in the unfortunate position of having submitted books to these shaky publishing ships often end up not getting paid and being shamed by ‘friends’ of the publisher into not speaking up.

“There appears to be no organization that will step in to protect authors from themselves and unscrupulous or negligent publishers,” says Jane. I’d welcome perspectives from publishers and writer’s groups, including anyone she mentions in her piece, which I think is valuable in raising these issues.

Unfortunate fallout from the scandals

Alas, one fallout from the scandals is that the good people sometimes get tarred unfairly. I continue to be keen on Drollerie Press, for example, despite its not giving out advances. Drollerie, not mentioned in Jane’s post, is a collaboration between a gifted artist-lit major and a former editor for Kensington Books. All the advances in the world won’t count if the books aren’t good enough to find readers. Some quick Googling, furthermore, shows that Drollerie has enjoyed excellent relations with writers. I also like Drollerie’s upfront warnings to authors that it cannot promise bookstore placement of P books. That’s true even if Random House publishes you.

Meanwhile I would urge, urge, urge you to read Jane’s post and her warning to authors. Here’s a summary with a few wrinkles I’ve added.

–Check out the quality of already-published books. How’s the editing? The cover art?

–Buy a book see how smoothly the transaction goes.

–Learn which authors the company already publishes. The Web site should tell all. Ideally it will point to the authors’ own sites or at least include little bios.

–Find out if all books go into paper editions, too, and if not, then what the criteria are.

–Make sure you understand every clause or the contract or at least have it lawyered. A seemingly innocuous phrase can hurt you later on. If nothing else, look for loopholes affecting payment of royalties.

–Google away, as I did with Drollerie!

Also check out Sara McCarty’s further advice, in response to Jane’s warnings. Actually I’ll quote at length for the benefit of our RSS readers:

“The only thing I would add is that asking an e publisher what a clause means would not be the way I would gain understanding. There is a strong likelihood the answer given would be skewed either because the person answering doesn’t fully know, or if the author is dealing with a disreputable party, doesn’t want the author to know…

“Bottom line, it is impossible for a publisher to be an author’s friend in a business deal. No matter how nicely their representatives present themselves, no matter how much they say they care about their authors, when push comes to shove their corporate survival rests on getting as much as they can from an author and on taking advantage of every opportunity presented to enhance their position.”

Related: Jane’s post Ebook to print: does it matter to you?—an interview with the CEO of Ellora’s Cave.

 
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