May 20 2008
Teresa Jacobs aka Teresa Wayne Jacobs Still Selling Mardi Gras Publishing Books
Teresa Jacobs, aka Teresa Wayne, formerly dba Mardi Gras Publishing, appears to still be selling books under the Mardi Gras Publishing banner at Ebooksabouteverything.com. The rights of all these books have reverted back to the authors yet the books are still for sale and no sales apparently are being reported to authors.
As of September 1, 2007, your title, ___________________ has been officially released from contract with Mardi Gras Publishing.
With this said, I wish you all the best in the epublishing industry and many sales-
Sincerely,
Teresa Jacobs
Publisher / Mardi Gras Publishing, LLC
I can’t help but think that eBooksabouteverything should not be selling these books unless given specific permission by the author. For example, at Fictionwise, there are no books listed under the Mardi Gras Publishing page. The only email I could find for ebooksabouteverything is info at ebooksabouteverything.com.
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May 20, 2008 @ 22:37:14
*whistles*
I wonder what the legal repercussions of that would be.
May 20, 2008 @ 23:31:29
OOh this is new to me. Thankfully none of my books are there, but I’m going to tell everyone on here.
Though I find it really amusing, as all of those books have been placed with other people. Those listings should be down regardless.
Stella
May 20, 2008 @ 23:40:10
As a publisher, I know how hard it is to remove books from places you have listed them. Everyone is happy if you have a huge distribution, but the problem with that is that you may allow other companies to distribute for you. When that happens you have to track down every site, who gave them the book, and cancel with the supplier.
It has taken me weeks to get everything when I have had to take a book down. So this could easily be an oversight. She may not receive money from this site very often and so, either didn’t remember it, or doesn’t even know it has the book.
For example, I had never heard of that website, so I went and checked if our books were up there, they are, I am assuming that Lightning Source supplies them, otherwise mobipocket could also have given them our books.
May 21, 2008 @ 07:04:23
Yeah but Sandy, with the likes of Teresa Jacobs and Noemi AKA Essence at Ocean’s Mist Press, nothing is an oversight.
Those two bitches are criminals, and they only give a shit about making money for themselves.
Yes, I’m a disgruntled author who has been burned by the epublishing companies that have popped out of a thin air, with promises of publication, only to end up being robbed.
Lucky for me, I’ve learned my lesson. And have detached myself from all of them.
May 21, 2008 @ 07:56:45
Sandy what you dont know is that Teresa recently had all out books still up on BN.com under her new company LA media so she could have the prerequisite books in her catalog to get Fictionwise to put her companys work up. For FW you need 10 books, and between her and her two cronies, she didnt she she turned the ISBN’s of the books we all had to LA MEDIA. Which is wrong, since none of us are with her anymore.
With the stuff shes pulled on everyone in the past year since she closed, including sending out 1099′s for money she never paid us, I don’t think this is an oversight… Your right, it could be, but her actions thus far have lead me and other to believe its just another way shes still trying to get over.
May 21, 2008 @ 08:28:44
Let us not forget this is also the same woman who promoted an anthology to raise money for St. Jude’s, a lot of people bought books and St. Jude’s never saw a dime.
Most authors never received statements.
Virtually no authors received any money and she would lie about sales — how do you explain signing over 40 books at a book signing and then hearing “oh you never sold any.” Uh…if you signed them they were paid for, that means you sold books.
As Stella said she sent out 1099s saying she paid money she didn’t.
Mistake? Hardly.
May 21, 2008 @ 09:07:28
She never paid me as an editor, either…and if I’m not mistaken, many of her cover artists were never paid.
Susan
May 21, 2008 @ 10:36:46
Anyone familiar with my history pertaining to MGP will know that I am the last person on earth you’d catch defending Teresa Wayne. However, I’ve just learned the owner of another recently closed e-pub has discovered outdated listings at Ebooksabouteverything. From what I understand, this site is one of Mobipocket’s clearing houses, and so at the time that Mobipocket is informed titles should be removed, it is then (or at least should have been) Mobipocket’s responsibility to remove all listings from any affiliate sites. So I’ll give the Devil her due on this one, though now that this information has come to light, I trust Miss Wayne and any other former owners of closed houses will double-check affiliate clearing house sites powered by Mobipocket or Fictionwise.
Trust me, I feel everyone’s pain, as I myself have had to hold back from showing up on Miss Wayne’s front lawn with torch, pitchfork, and rope in hand. But with all the crap that’s recently gone down here in e-pub land, I think it’s important that we all stay focused on actual wrongdoings versus honest oversights. My concern now is not Miss Wayne but…how many other affiliate sites like Everythingaboutebooks still have outdated listings after the parent company has failed to inform them of deletions? As Sandy pointed out, it can be a pain tracking all this down. It seems so much of the burden accompanying “fallout” is placed on the shoulders of vigilant bloggers and already disgruntled authors, when we should just be able to move on. Do we perhaps need a master checklist for houses after they go out of business?
May 21, 2008 @ 11:26:45
What I want to know is if no one ever got paid and all this BS was going why the hell didn’t anyone say anything? Even an anonymous report to hipiers or Emily Veinglory’s site could have done it.
May 21, 2008 @ 14:48:01
Building onto the comments about Mobipocket, if a title is listed as inactive at Mobipocket, then the affiliate sites should not be able to sell the book even if it is listed on their site. The book will show as unavailable somewhere down the line.
May 22, 2008 @ 19:25:17
If you find something like this, the best thing to do is to email both the company and whoever the main clearinghouse is. For Mobipocket– http://www.mobipocket.com/en/Corporate/Contact.asp?Language=EN As far as I know, they’ve been good about getting things cancelled when shown what’s been happening. The last thing they want to do is have a huge flair up of things.
May 23, 2008 @ 01:54:51
Are you kidding? Reports WERE sent to Piers Anthony. He even discussed everything in one of his monthly newsletters.
Teresa herself has made comments on places like Karen’s blog. When Stella Price asked her when she would be paying out royalties (nearly a year after closing, mind you) Teresa said something along the lines of, “As for the money, I don’t think you’ll be seeing any. Sorry.”
Jun 01, 2008 @ 12:53:41
When I googled my name the other day I found THREE of my former Mardi Gras Books. Two have been contracted with another publisher and one hasn’t. These three books are at Diesel Books. They just popped up, they were not there before. My publisher had two removed from E Books about everything last week.
It’s not a matter of time at getting the books down, it’s Teresa Jacobs breaking the law again.
This whole thing with Mardi Gras just makes me sick. I thought it was over last August when MGP closed the doors. Now months later, our books are popping up on internet retail sites.
If anyone knows how to reach her, I would love to get in contact with her.