Amber Quill’s business model works well for them, but it’s not the same thing distribution-wise at all as what Angela James describes in her post.

Cindy

A publisher calls bookstores months before a book goes out on the trucks. Why? To determine if it will sell and how many to print. I’m sorry, but they all do it.

is an attempt to argue that all publishers demand their writers pre-sell their own books.

But –IMO — the above statement is horsehocky.

I was wondering that myself. The owner of the company was, and is, Kristi Studts. Gail Northman has the new job title “Publisher,” but she’s not the owner, she’s been appointed manager. She doesn’t take control until June 1st, but even then Studts will be the owner.

We can all agree Gail’s email was not professional (both grammatically and with the personal info she shouldn’t have included), but realize she is away from home, taking on a high pressure job on short notice, and trying to set the company back to rights–all before she even officially takes charge. She wasn’t the cause of this problem, just inherited it.

No one has mentioned the fact that she isn’t the one who got Triskelion in the situation it’s in now, so perhaps she should be given a chance to try and fix the problems someone else caused.

Personally, I hope things turn around, not only for the authors who are still there but for the readers who do shop in their bookstore. All this unrest does no one any good: reader, author and publisher alike.

PS — The person I feel sorry for here is her daughter.

To say “I didn’t get my work done because I had personal issues,” is unacceptable in most workplaces. Female executives have often had to combat the stereotype of being overly emotional; it’s disconcerting to see her play the sympathy card. To then detail precisely what those personal issues are — on a closed loop designated for business discussions — is reprehensible. Any executive, male or female, who airs their personal issues to hundreds of people should not expect to maintain their privacy. It was a business loop, not a therapy loop. And anyone who thinks a confidentiality clause will prevent someone from hitting the Forward button is woefully naive and lacks the judgment needed to run a company.

And finally, Gail’s horrendous grammar and spelling are unacceptable for someone who makes her living in publishing. She should show some pride in her profession and carefully review anything that she sends to a business loop or blog, or have someone review it for her. Her command of the English language (or lack thereof) does not inspire confidence in her abilities or her company, and that is the real issue here: can writers trust Triskelion?

To say “I didn’t get my work done because I had personal issues,” is unacceptable in most workplaces. Female executives have often had to combat the stereotype of being overly emotional; it’s disconcerting to see her play the sympathy card. To then detail precisely what those personal issues are — on a closed loop designated for business discussions — is reprehensible. No executive, male or female, who airs their personal issues to hundreds of people should expect to maintain their dignity. It was a business loop, not a therapy loop. And anyone who thinks a confidentiality clause will prevent someone from hitting the Forward button is woefully naive and lacks the judgment needed to run a company.

And finally, her horrendous grammar and spelling are unacceptable for someone who makes her living in publishing. Show some pride in your profession and carefully review anything that you send to a business loop or blog, or have someone review it for you. Her command of the English language (or lack thereof) does not inspire confidence in her abilities or her company, and that is the real issue here: can writers trust Triskelion?

Hmm, just so I’m clear…is it ok to say Heebie-Jeebies or not? I had no idea it started with Jews, but now that I’ve been informed am I SOL? Because, like Jane, I use the expression often.

Actually the origin of the term seems to be from a song and a Billy de Beck cartoon from the 20s and neither is related — as far as I know anyway — to Jewishness or Jews. It’s one of those developmental things, and while many people still use the term with neutrality (I used to use it a lot), it also has come to be used as a slur directed at Jews, I’m assuming because of the similarity of the word to both Hebrew (or the derogatory Hebe) and Jew (the Jeeb part). I personally don’t care if people use it or not, and I don’t interpret most uses of it as anti-Jewish in any way. But *I* don’t use it anymore, because a great deal of my professional life is spent on issues related to Jewish-Muslim strife. So for me it’s not really a great thing. For others — I don’t think it’s *inherently* a slur, so that’s an individual call to make. In fact, Steve Beeber wrote a book, called “The Heebie-Jeebies of CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk Rock” that I really want to read.

Jane, fyi, it is all over the financial sectors. Here’s the report for 2006:
http://www.lexdon.com/article/borders_group_reports_third_quarter/63329.html

Not good. Here’s a report about them selling their UK stores and about bookstore chain Waterstones, which is also in a bad way:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2040923,00.html

Bookstores are suffering. In the US, the collapse of major distributors is an indicator that the market is down, but since the distributors are also responsible for newspapers and and magazines they are also a factor.
Book sales are down, and probably in long-term decline as the market ages.

Borders in particular has been returning far more books than usual to publishers, putting them under pressure to maximise profitability and minimise returns. So that probably means less choice for the consumer (us – this time I’m posting as a concerned reader).

Check the financial pages – it’s all there, if you know where to look and how to analyse the results. Last year was bad for all bookstore groups, the only winners being the bulk outlets like Wal-Mart, and this year looks to be worse. Very soon, we’ll see the “support your local bookstore” bumper stickers coming out.

But if we are talking about full-scale book distribution and production of pre-printed paperbacks, things like warehousing and more have to be considered. Bookstores will carry these books only if the publisher can offer them a discount and these books also have to be returnable. Can the publisher afford to bear the discount and take back unsold books?

It’s a money thing, not just “commitment”.

I was just having the same thought! Punctuation is a GOOD thing. The lack of it, along with the multitude of grammatical errors is embarrassing for a book publisher.

On another topic, Amber Quill Press is able to do nearly simultaneous releases of paperback versions–lagging only a couple of weeks after the ebooks go on sale. They’ll even take an author’s short stories and compile them into anthologies. If a publisher is committed to providing their authors a print opportunity, it can be done.

Well actually, if I felt that the company or the crazy poster had shafted me, not only would I forward it off the loop, I’d effing make sure that the damn thing got into the biggest tabloid paper out there.

Morality and ethics goes outta the window when somebody feels as if they’ve been screwed over. That’s generally how life is, and if you don’t believe that, then prepare to be surprised.

If a crazy post was made on your confidential business loop, a loop which contained a “Don’t Forward” restriction as do the RWA loops, for example, would YOU personally forward it off loop? Would YOU send it to a popular snark blog so it could be the train wreck du jour? Does the fact that it’s discomfiting and unprofessional mean everyone is exempt from being professional — and abiding by list rules — themselves?

Keeping in mind this crazy post adds fuel to a fire that’s already burning quite well and that there’s sufficient information bouncing around about the situation in question to inform “the public”.

Would you be the leak? Would you admit to being the leak? Why or why not?

It’s your assumption that the reasons were rooted in malice. It’s your opinion that forwarded the post was wrong.

It’s mine that there can be no reasonable justification for a publisher to reveal such intimate, personal and damaging details about her child and her family on a professional email loop. Putting the information out there open the door. It can be debated–with valid points on both sides, imo–if anyone should have taken that information out of the door. But Ms. Northman opened it, and confused the matter, again imo, by mixing this in with business, and mixing business with odd and pointed statements. You’re either with us or against us, for instance.

However much any of us may sympathize with Ms. Northman’s personal troubles, the entire post was ill-conceived, and a very poor choice for a woman about to step into the position of publisher to send to a couple hundred authors–some of whom, she stated in her email, she knew had shared loop posts previously.

Generally, there should be a few facts we all can agree on:

1) Gail’s initial letter should never have been posted to the loop to begin with.

2) Regardless of the inadvisability of Gail’s message, the person who then gave that letter to the public was wrong because it was never intended for the consumption of the FULL public.

3) Attacking or defending either the publisher or the author who “shared” is neither here nor there because it’s obvious that Triskellion has some author issues to deal with and we the public do not have full disclosure of all facts to deem anyone completely in the right or completely in the wrong.

The truth is, reporting the problems to RWA is a professional response to a serious problem. But reporting company emails to a blog site helps no one because there is no “greater good” being served. RWA’s judgement to disinvite Trisk from Nationals is a giant red flag that there are issues and any writer who does her research will find it, member or not. Any writer who does not look into their possible publisher is without question, unwise.

The more lasting truth is that we cannot resolve these problems. There’s a lot of mistakes being made over there, on both sides. We, the readers, might quibble about who’s side we’re on, but in the end, it’ll pass and we most likely will not be informed of those resolutions.

BUT there is something wrong with a person who purposely takes an email that can hurt a child and uses it for her own malicious reasons.

What utter effing bollocks.

Who the fuck shares that kind of information about her kids, on an author group, when she knows full well, that there is a small but vocal group operating within Triskelion, who either thinks she’s nuts, or have complained about Trisks interal affairs to the RWA?

It’s easy to blame the people who posted the information on a public forum, but she was the one who put that stuff out there in the first place. I don’t give a flying fuck how stressed out she was, she simply had no business posting shit like that in public, and further more, expecting it to stay private. And yes, my dear, 200 people, counts as public. Two hundred people does not an effing intimate group make.

She was an idiot posting that crap on there, and if I was an author who was working directly with her, I would be very nervous about her ability to make sound judgments, in terms of my work. She’s already proven that she can be flaky as hell.

Cheerleading is all well and good, but sometimes you gotta wake up and smell the coffee.

Now, I agree that in my heartbroken state when SB first posted the email with the TMI, I reacted and threw a wild right hook. That was the personal me…the mom in me. I’m calmer. Saner. And still willing to defend. Like I said before, there is nothing wrong with an author going to RWA with a valid complaint. There is nothing wrong with a publisher struggling to stay afloat by making decisions that will displease those very people they are trying to save from being pitched into the sea and waiting for another boat to pick them up (Kooky, but it works). There is nothing wrong with an editor saying, as Trisk has always said, “IF you want out, you can get out.” Knowing Gail and the way she talks and writes, there was no malice. She has always made it clear that she did not want to keep an author who wanted to leave.

BUT there is something wrong with a person who purposely takes an email that can hurt a child and uses it for her own malicious reasons. And that is what this was, plain and true. This was not, “I must let other authors know and save them.” This was, “I’m going to bring Trisk down and screw whoever gets struck with shrapnel.” I have an idea who did this because I’ve received private business emails from her that were meant for another publisher’s authors…only! I will not say who, because I have no proof. But judging from the emails I did receive, I would say this was done for malicious, spireful reasons. Did Gail err in posting the TMI? Sure. We all err at one time or another, especially when we are distraught over personal issues that are going on halfway across the world because we are trying to help others. When those others, authors who would be crying foul if she’d turned her back and let the company fold, turned around and got nasty, she erred. Sorry. We are human. We all hit send then cringe and wish we could turn back the hands of time. Please, do not slam me. I’m trying to calm everyone down about this, not stir things up.