Moving On

I take full responsibility for myself and my work. It seems not everyone agrees with that. I wasn't going to post anything else about Damnation Books. I planned to only post the full history that you can see here and be done with it. Move on. My contract expired. I was done with the publisher. Nothing more needed to be said.

Kim Richards, however, as per usual, has refused. She never contacted me about my contract. I started the following email exchange a day after my contract had officially expired.

Personal information is blacked out.

I never heard from her again. I would have expected anyone involved in a publishing business to at least say, of course we're not going to sell new copies past September 9. But, you know what they say about expectations. Don't have any and you'll never be disappointed. Well, I was disappointed.

I waited patiently until September 24. Nothing in my mailbox. With a Cease and Desist I prepared in advance, I mailed it to her. Or rather, the Damnation Books P.O. Box. I also forwarded a copy to Amazon and B&N with the following letter:

The one I sent to B&N is identical. Within three days, the listing was removed from the two retailers. I thanked them both. I'm impressed by how swiftly they handled the matter. Neither were aware that the book is out of print and they also  thanked me for informing them. I thought, fantastic, it's done. I can move on now. I don't need to do anything else. It's over.

Today, I received an email from Kim, which she sent to my old yahoo account instead of my gmail.

Kim:

 Me:

Kim, again:

I can't be bothered to respond to empty threats filled with false information. My last reply was simply, “Saved for evidence. Thank you.”

I prefer to end such uselessly dramatic episodes with a lesson learned, but I'm not sure what to say. Run away screaming at the first hint of childishness? Easy to say in retrospect. In truth, I think I just have shitty luck. But that's okay. I'm ready to move on.

The Sordid Tale of Damnation Books

While this will be a long post, I hope everyone sees it a warning message to other online authors. Bear with me, there is a happy ending.

I first met Kim Richards Gilchrist, currently the CEO of Damnation Books, in an group called Dark Fiction Guild back in 2009. The DFG has since moved to Facebook and it's no longer the active discussion group it once was. It happens, the internet moves fast. Kim had made an announcement in DFG that she and her husband William are starting a new ebook company called Damnation Books. She invited authors in the DFG to submit. I spoke with her directly, asked if a story like Eden Fell would be of interest. She said she might be interested so I sent it along.

I always did find it weird to get an acceptance within two weeks of submission. I wrote the story in 2002 and honestly expected a rejection. But I figured, okay, I guess it's ready. So, I made a full commitment to editing and preparing for publication, whatever I had to do, I was willing. I loved the idea of supporting a mom and pop shop right at the beginning then watching them grow. Then... shit hit fan.

There's been problems with Damnation Books from day one. I'm not the only author. I wouldn't wish this publisher on my worse enemy. A few authors have since made their woes public. Tim Marquitz, Mark Edward Hall, Terri Bruce, Alex Smith. There might be others, but they haven't made it public, and I respect their privacy. Yet it's my hope that more authors will come out and stand up for themselves.

The following is my personal experience dealing with Kim. I never met William, he doesn't seem to really be there. It's not so much what Kim does, it's the way she does things. Kim doesn't communicate. Ever.

The first thing I told Kim, would you prefer the story rewritten in American English? It's loosely set in an unnamed Canadian city and you are based in California. She said, “No, the Canadian English doesn't distract from the story.” Odd thing to say, I thought. That wouldn't have occurred to me. I was thinking more so consistency and marketing, but whatever, less work for me. So I shrugged it off.

When I received the first round of edits, I was given two weeks, and what was the first thing I saw? Corrections of the Canadian English. I sighed and thought, fine, she does want it in American English after all. But when I reached the half-way point with the first round of edits, I reached my boiling point. So much had been inserted into the manuscript. The ignorance of these mistakes was offensive. I thought, this is ridiculous, I have to say something.

I sent an email to Kim, expressing my frustrations. She lectured me and said, “You signed a contact! You have to do the edits!” Also, she attempted to convince me I was just gripping because the story was cut to ribbons. One, I never said I wouldn't do the edits. I just had a serious problem with inserting another person's obvious mistakes. Two, not even a two letter word had been cut. No editing whatsoever. So, I offered a compromise since at least one of us had to be an adult, and said, I'll finish the edits and put in notes showing why and how the mistakes are wrong. In essence, two rounds of edits in one, in a measly two weeks, despite the fact my contract says a max of two rounds of edits, I ended up doing a total of three. Kim saw what I had done and said she'll pass it on to another editor, as if she was doing a big favor to me.

In the second round of edits, I was given a week. Kim ignored each one of my notes and had them all removed. In this second round I was sent a form to fill out, numbering each correction that was needed. I found over 180 grammar, spelling, punctuation, and inconsistency errors that Kim had inserted into the manuscript. I found only two of my own tiny typos that I hadn't caught before. Seeing the story shredded to ribbons would have been easier to deal with than that. I let go of a lot of little things and just kinda... lost heart. I never received the chance to improve the story. At least the other editor agreed with all of my corrections and the majority of mistakes were removed.

Still, I soldiered on, hoping to sell at least a few copies. I meticulously went through the list of reviewers Kim had provided. 75% of the links were dead. One reviewer responded, said in no uncertain terms that he ever reviews ebooks, then weirdly asked me to send the PDF ARC. A couple of weeks later he destroyed me in a review, using me as an example to show that ebooks are oh so bad. Humiliated, I shared the review in the Damnation Authors Yahoo group Kim had created. She mocked me for the review and didn't take any responsibility for the fact she had provided that list of reviewers in the first place. I gritted my teeth and ignored. I kept trying to get reviews... or something... without any support from the publisher.

Through the internet grapevine I heard about Bitten by Books, a popular and well-respected reviewer of paranormal books. I submitted and crossed my fingers. They accepted! I received a wonderful 4 star review that was very fair. The reviewer mentioned the grammar and punctuation errors, and I'm glad she did. I wish more reviewers were that honest. Excited, I shared it with the authors group. I thanked the reviewer for her honesty on the webpage for the review. A little while later, Kim showed up and also posted on that webpage, stating that she thought the story is suppose to be this way. She... trolls... reviews.

I stopped all promotions. Hell-bent on sabotaging her own authors? Screw it. I'm not playing that game. In the five years Eden Fell was published by Damnation Books, I've earned maybe $30 in royalties. The book died before it had a chance.

There's a rather long list of other problems. Lies about the print version, lies and arguments about distribution, horrible formatting, refusal to fix any problems, all kinds of useless drama, and overall a lot of unprofessional childish behavior. Working with Kim is like working with a petulant child. Then word came that Kim and William had decided to buy two ePublishers that had gone bankrupt. One of them is still alive, Eternal Press. Shortly after, Damnation Books was registered as a corporation. That mom and pop shop I wanted to support? It became a vanity press, complete with kill fees of up to $1000. And it's all fake.

I needed to share the full history in order to explain my next statements. Those who have read Eden Fell, for the most part, liked the story. Not long after Damnation Books started, the popularity of online self-published books exploded. Also, this weird idea that everyone has to support indies under penalty of death. Well, while I'm grateful for nice reviewers, the truth is, every nice review made it that much harder for me. And I couldn't say anything until my contract expired. I got full blame for all the mistakes. I was patted on the head and given a patronizing, good job! Not everyone, but enough. And Damnation Books has yet to take responsibility for their own screw-ups. Why should they? Authors get the blame and Kim can keep trolling along as a vanity press, making money from charging authors unjustified fees instead of book sales.

Over-indulgent reviews can hurt authors far more than the worse one star review.

I decided to wait until my contact expired. Since I was part of the first batch of authors, there aren't any kill fees in my contract. I had other things to work on, other projects, and, you know, a life. I was never dependent on Eden Fell to be some kind of launchpad for my writing career, nor did I ever think the story would become a best-seller. It's dead weight, so I waited. As of Sept 9^th, 2014, last Tuesday, my contract has expired. I am no longer connected with Damnation Books and will never deal with them again. Eden Fell is now out of print, any new copies sold are illegal. If anyone wants a copy I suggest searching for used copies or contact me and arrangements will be made.

And now for the good news! *trumpets blare* The essence of the story will be republished on my website as.... wait for it... a graphic novel! The new title is The Ash Garden. I've set a tentative date of October 1^st. Full issues with be self-published with comixology, hopefully all will go smoothly. Stay tuned, big things are happening very soon.

Meanwhile, enjoy the mock up of the new cover for The Ash Garden!

Vagabond Shop Has Closed

I'm sad to report I've had to close Vagabond Shop. I operated the online shop through the print on demand company, CafePress. However, I've recently learned that Cafepress has now become what we call in the publishing industry, a vanity press. I've removed all links and associations with the company who attempted to convince me to fill out tax forms for the IRS in order to justify stealing 30% of royalties. I refuse to comply, and with a little help from friends, I was able to determine the truth behind CafePress' so-called new tax withholding rules. It's a scam, simple as that. As a freelance artist and Canadian citizen, under no cicumstances would I ever need to file with the IRS.

Please be aware, if any online print on demand or self-publishing company attempts to convince you to fork over a percentage of your royalties for American tax reasons if you are not an American citizen, it's a scam. I hope everyone will spread the word and help keep our fellow independent artists informed.

I will be adding some designs I had in my shop to the Art Gallery page and providing means to place an individual order using PayPal. I'm not sure exactly when I'll have this set up or if I could provide more products besides T-shirts only, but I'll work as fast as I can and keep everyone posted.

For the meantime, everything on my website is still intact. Please enjoy all writings and artwork available for your browsing pleasure.

Why I Don't Support Amazon

I will often talk shit about Amazon, but then, these days, who doesn't? However, I felt the need to explain in an article my reasons for not supporting Amazon.

I remember way back when Amazon was a joke. For those who were internet savvy back in the dark ages, Amazon was the last place you ever considered buying from online. Why? Amazon is not a retailer. It's a online warehouse shipping company. They sell whatever they have in their warehouse. Of course, with the introduction of ebooks, the line is severely blurred. It's digital material, it can't be stored in any kind of warehouse, so how can a warehouse shipping company sell digital material?

In my honest opinion, if Amazon hadn't invented Kindle, they probably would have gone out of business by now. The people behind Amazon are smart, I'll give them that much. They damn well know what they're doing. By inventing the Kindle they've bridged that gap between physical material and digital material. Good for them. And there's the problems.

First and foremost, Amazon does not care how they make money or why. Keep that in mind. Second, Amazon does not screen reviews. While it's not instant, it is automated. Even if fake reviewing accounts are flagged, it's not removed. If someone posts a rant that's completely unrelated to the product and flagged, it's not removed. If someone bashes an author of a book directly in a review, making it obvious bullying, it's not removed. If a rival posts lies as a review, it's not removed. The review policy states that a person doesn't have to experience a product in order to post a review. All anyone needs to do to leave a review is to buy one product. It could be earrings or a box of diapers, it doesn't make a difference. While many reviews are legit, this policy makes all reviews that doesn't say “verified purchase” fake by default.

There's been a lot talk about bullying on Amazon lately, though for any active internet user who's been around for a while, we know this has been going on since day one and removing anonymity won't make any difference. Amazon sees the hate. Amazon sees the sale number skyrocket. Amazon does not care, never has, and I doubt they ever will. It's making money from hate, and that's what their “no-censorship” policy is really about. It always comes down to money.

Last but not least, there are so many scams online it's hard to keep track. In online publishing, there's vanity presses. Upload your work, kiss your copyright goodbye, you'll never see a cent of royalty. At the same time, despite the fact these vanity presses are scams and blatantly selling copyrighted material without the copyright owner's permission, they're also connected with Amazon. It's called the “out of print” scam. Ebooks or books published with a self-publisher that's a vanity press in disguise, when an author realizes it's a scam and attempts to cancel, the book is then marked as “out of print” and sold on Amazon for however much money they want. Go to Amazon. Dig around. Find books that were published with an internet company. If it's a paperback that has a price of more that 20$ (American), I guarantee that book was stolen and Amazon is selling illegal copyrighted material. I have personally seen books published with American Star Books formerly Publishers America, a well-known vanity press (the name change doesn't matter, everyone still knows it's a scam), with a price on Amazon for up to 999$. In other words, selling illegal copyrighted material for almost a thousand dollars.

This makes Amazon the worse pirating website on the entire internet.

See my article about Internet Piracy for more information.

Therefore, I don't support Amazon. Thanks for reading.

Fanfiction Confusion

I received a message through my Facebook author's page, asking me to participate in a university study with the goal of proving it's okay to make a profit from selling fanfiction. I declined and wished them the best of luck.

I'm disturbed by this message for several reasons. One, it's a highly unscientific study, more of a “popular opinion” poll. Might as well poll a bunch of high school cheerleaders for all the difference it would make. Two, seeking a profit from fanfiction is illegal. It's called plagiarism and copyright infringement for a very good reasons.

There's been a huge growing trend to publish fanction, especially online “self-publishing,” which are nothing more than vanity presses. Mainly because legit publisher won't touch fanfiction with a ten foot pole. So, I'm dedicating this article to clearing up confusion and defining terms, both legally and from the perspective of an author of original fiction.

Fanfiction – Fiction that's based on favorite characters/stories, because the writer is a fan. Hence, Fan Fiction. Once anyone attempts to put a price tag on fanfiction, it becomes plagiarism and copyright infringement. However, sharing is not illegal. If a writer seeks to simply share their fanction and breaks even only, it's not illegal. The second a writer seeks to make a profit from fanfiction, it's illegal.

Original Fiction – Fiction that's inspired by books/movies/music/life itself, or just imagination, in which the writer created their own original fiction based on their own talent and skill. 100% legal, no matter where the writer got their inspiration.

Derivative Fiction – A legal gray area, fiction that's inspired by favorite characters/stories but still has the writer's own original perspective. Borderline legal. The difference is inspiration versus fan.

Now, looking at these common sense definitions, it can be easily seen what legit publishers see. Fanfiction will never make you a published author of original fiction. EVER. And that is why publishers refuse to touch fanfiction. It could be the most brilliant, stellar fanfiction written in all of writing history, but it still isn't original fiction. It's not discrimination. Publishers/agents are not rejecting fanfiction because they're stupid, etc. They're rejecting because it's not original or legal. And that's the bottom line.

Yeah, I'm well aware there are plenty on the internet who get away with it. But so what? It means nothing, and certainly doesn't mean the rest of us who actually know what we're doing have to become criminals in order to get published. Ignore them and be true to your own writing. Those who get away with it, never achieve success.

From strictly an author's perspective, in terms of a writer's development, attempting to use fanfiction as a stepping stone towards publication and profit, is cheating. That's something I personally find rather sad. There are so many talented and skilled authors out there, especially all over the internet, who are directly denying themselves the opportunity to bring out and use their own talent. I can see how writing fanfiction, or even derivative fiction, could be a beneficial exercise for anyone, but that's the most of it – a writing exercise, nothing more. Time and again, I've found the real underlying cause of the whole problem with publishing fanfiction is lack of confidence.

Believe me, it took me years to develop that confidence in my own writing abilities. I still second-guess myself on a regular basis. It's taken a lot of constant practice. You can look through this blog and see a major difference with the early posts. I honestly didn't know what I was doing back then.

The internet is fast and easy. So much can be attained by just a click of a button online. But the internet is only a communication tool, not a substitute for anything. Don't cheat yourself, believe in your talent, and allow it to take as long as it takes. Being an author of original fiction is a lifetime commitment. It will never be fast, easy, or make you millions overnight. I don't know about you, but I'm in this for the long-haul.

"It took me 20 years to achieve this overnight success." - Old saying in business.