Okay, FYI, this is an opinion, this is only an opinion and should anybody not like that opinion, you can click away real fast. Okay? And the screaming cat might be a warning. This isn’t a warm & fuzzy post.
So I’m not in the market for a new epub. Two is good. But if I were looking, and I saw a publisher saw this, this publisher would fall very far from my list.
(Comments from Decadent Publishing, copied from this blog The End is Not the Final Word)
Would you like out of your contract with Decadent Publishing since you don’t seem to respect either them or their authors?
Another DP comment, same thread, was:
This blog is not about doing legitimate reviews. This is a platform for ambushing an author for personal reasons. One of the owners of this blog is actually under contract with Decadent Publishing at this very moment. I’ve got to ask “why” would she ever submit to us if she thinks so little of our authors/company and has made public statement of the fact? Is that something a rational human being would do? For real?
My opinion to answer those questions… well personally, I don’t think the author should review the books from DP, a conflict of interest, IMO. But I also don’t think DP should publicly confront a review site. A REVIEW SITE. COME ON. DID YOU NOT THINK PEOPLE WOULD SEE IT?
Now Decadent looks like a bully..in my opinion-can’t threaten me over having an opinion, and I’m not contracted-nor would I ever me and FYI, if I were, after this, I’d be BEGGING to be let out of the contracts.
More concerning though…this…”Your Privacy is Not Protected at Decadent Publishing.” Click the link…read it. It’s…ah…strange. FYI, Enders people, your enders names are confusing. Very dramatic, but confusing. Anyway, the post is twisty. I don’t know what’s the real story there…don’t know, to be honest, don’t entirely care, but if Decadent is sharing personal information of their authors or their readers, then they are the last place I’d be giving my books or my dollars to- a business should have some standards, some ethics.
I don’t care what this author or the readers supposedly did or didn’t do. IMO, the only reason to justify sharing private information would be if laws were broken, and if laws were broken, they share it with legal personnel or the cops. Not with their authors. IMO, that’s so fricking irresponsible, it makes me sick.
Were laws broken? Do they have proof? Did they share this info with the proper authories? If not, then I question their standards. Again, again… my opinion…
If they can’t respect the privacy of their authors and their readers…well, it’s something to think about.
My my my…
Now… a note to anybody who may choose to comment.
- Comment away. Disagree with me. I don’t care, but two things-my blog, so my rules, which are stated pretty clear in my disclaimer. If you want your comments to remain on my blog, I’d suggest you keep them civil (this is where my readers hang out and I don’t want them having to deal with nasty tones). If you can’t be civil, be warned, your comments get deleted. I even enjoy doing that. Disagreements don’t bother me, although don’t expect a lot of commentary from me. Deleting nasty comments gives me and my admin all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings, so if you want to make give me warm & fuzzies…You can disagree & be civil, or disagree and be ugly…and be deleted.
- You threaten me, I will laugh at you, then I may mock you, and possibly delete you. Anybody who might try to threaten me over this post isn’t very likely to be a threat & likely they know it. Threats tend to be more an attempt to shut somebody up or intimidate somebody into going silent or removing something. Not going to happen here, and FYI, all I did was state my opinion, and I copied a few comments and linked back, with attribution.
Another note, to innocent authors for this pub who are likely going to get caught in this? You’ve got my sympathies. Really.
Good god. I saw the original tweet and the following barrage of outraged author tweets. I cannot believe any company (that wants to make $) would commit such a PR blunder. That is on top of the original crime of invading someone’s privacy. That publisher is now on my radar for the wrong reasons. They will not get dime of my $.
I had never heard of DP until this hit the fan yesterday, and in watching the fallout from it today, can honestly say that DP won’t ever see a cent from me.
That said, the quality of editors at said publisher appear to leave much to be desired, based on the review at Enders, but the Enders also seem to have a misunderstanding of what an editor does, i.e. “the editor should have clarified a lot…” The editor is not the one who needs to clarify, that is the task of the author upon notification by an editor that a passage is unclear.
I haven’t read the whole situation yet but if they did what was supposedly done they won’t get a dime from me either. I won’t put my money in a place that will do that to their authors.
@Herb, that’s true. Story clarification comes from the writer-the editor should make it clear it needs to be done, but in the end, the AUTHOR is the one who has her/his name on the cover, yes? It’s a mess all over the place.
I appreciate you blogging about stuff like this because I already made one mistake, and I’m trying to look before I leap now. I’ve found joining a publishers group list if they have one helps to get to know them too- I’ve seen fights on lists, and misunderstanding not handled well which told me a lot. (It wasn’t Decandent.) While digital publishing is really exciting, there are tons of new companies and it’s hard to know who’s doing it right and who isn’t.
Not a writer but would like to be sure I understand this. If I bought a book they publish from Amazon and then wrote a review and posted it on Amazon if they didn’t like it I’m running the chance that they’d call me out for it? If that’s correct, why would I want to read a book that I can’t share an opinion about?
dunno, Christina… almost sounds like it, but I’m not inclined to research their books to find out. I’m also not inclined to spend my money on their books, though, considering how they responded publicly. Whether they liked the blog or not, whether they cared for the blogger, blah blah blah… none of that matters, IMO, it was so unprofessional… ugh.
It is just sticking your foot in your mouth…So wrong..
Thank you for blogging about this…
Holy catfish has this whole thing stunk going back to December at AW. Sheesh. This is why I tell newbies not to be so gungho to be pubbed that they take any contract offer they receive. The Karen Knows Best Post and comments are very telling. You can glean a lot about a publisher from who they choose to publish.
And you’re brave to blog about this given the info at Karen’s blog about some of the defenders of this pub. Although the power of delete helps I’m sure. 😉
Thanks for talking about this. Someone pointed out the threads on EREC to me since I’d not heard about this. I get newbs asking about pubs all the time. I’m glad to have info to back my sense that this wasn’t where I’d recommend someone sub to.
@ Lex…um… lol… don’t take this wrong, but I’m not the least bit worried about speaking about this. Unfortunately, a lot of small presses have a habit of doing things like this and if the people who’ve seen it happen before don’t speak up? Then too many people will continue to get burned. I don’t blindly attack and I won’t sit back and cackle with glee at anybody’s misery, not publisher, reader, reviewer or author, but if I see a mess like this, speaking up over it doesn’t concern me much at all.