Signed,

Jeya Jenson, now writing as Devyn Quinn and being paid a hell of a lot of advance money to do so.

I apologize to anyone who reads that. It was just stupid of me to say that. No excuses.

Even though I saw an apology, I am still stunned by this. Jeya sold to NY and was asked to use a different name because that name was similar to another author signed to the pub already.

I do think any conclusion made without the full story is unfair, especially when it comes off nasty. It was in poor taste those comments were made.

I am so glad you visited Venus Press! Yes, I am one of their authors and very happy with everything. I thought very hard about where to submit my work, visited Piers Anthony’s publisher updates and have never second guessed myself since. I am not someone who falls for a nice facade, it is my understanding that just because someone shouts and draws attention to themselves does not make them anymore right than the next person.

Enough of that…I loved writing a short for the Confessions line, what a challenge and they are such fun to read! As a reader, I enjoy the variety of lines available…I always recommend it in your ebook monthly challenge but I’ll say it here as well, JJ Massa writes beautifully, and her wolves are delicious!

I must be an odd egg, I download my ebooks once, slap my hands together and consider it done.

Oh, and one last niggle for me, and this goes to all publishing houses, the multicultural tag. Personally, I’m not that keen on it. My heroine in Double Punch is half Sweedish and half Butanese, raised by an American – how would you label her? Nope, I’m not in to breaking anyone down by race because many just do not fit in a pretty little box.

Loving these weekly ebook posts ladies, learning loads!

Tilly

I won’t address Karen’s “Jeya Jenson” post excet to say we all know that she’s (Jeya) has complained in the same fashion over and over to the point that she’s had to change her author name so that readers won’t feel cheated because of her continuous re-release of the same books with various publishers.

As for having a customer number, everone who buys from VP has one and that does prevent having to give new info each time. The book link expiration is something I will talk to Admin about. Venus Press is looking into adding a bookshelf similar to what Fictionwise offers. More on that soon. As for the bestseller list, that is featured on the newsletter every Wednesday and is sent to many popular reader yahoogroups each week. The Ebony Side was in response to reader requests that books containing African Americans should have thier own heading. I personally have people of various races in almost every one of my books. Only one of them is listed as Ebony Side again at reader request. We want our readers happy, but we all recognize that people are people no matter their skin tone and cultural bias.

No matter how hard any publisher tries, unfortunately there will be some people who are unhappy. Feel to address complaints to customerservice@venuspress.net –

In the submissions area, it says “We are also open for multicultural stories as well, but they will be placed within the above genres as well as the “Ebony Side" line."

Jay, now I’m going to ask you to clarify, lol. I guess the sun this weekend fried my brain. What do you mean by this: Yet according to Venus Press, you apparently must fantasize about white people or black people. Either, or. Make your choice. I’m not really familiar with VP so I don’t quite get what you’re saying.

2) I, like Jane, have an issue with all the multicultural romances being labeled as “The Ebony Side.” Last I checked filipinos werent considered ‘ebony.’ Nor were a whole host of other peoples of color. Yet according to Venus Press, you apparently must fantasize about white people or black people. Either, or. Make your choice.

Can you clarify what you mean about expiration date of your downloads?

KarenS – I have been under a rock because I had no idea about the scandal to which you refer. I admit that Jayne and I are neophytes in the blogosphere.

However, VP isn’t the only one charging high prices for those “shorts”.

Another complait is the the expiration date of your downloads. If I pay for them, why can ‘t we keep them? And another complaint is the lack of account set up where you don’t have to input your information each and every time? Do you know how daunting this is? It’s annoying. It would be great if we can have a bestseller list, coming soon list with DATES. A download library. I don’t like links sent, I’d like to be directed to the page after puchase.

You guys are providing other ebooks readers great information about these publishers. Keep up the great work, ladies. You’ve become an invaluable resource of information.

http://karenscottworld.blogspot.com/2005/07/tut-tut-venus-press-what-have-you-been.html

It made for interesting reading, plus the comments by some of the authors at the time were illuminating.