Not.

http://www.lamediaonline.com/index.html

Seems kinda sucky to open a new buisness when you left others hanging.

My work was never promoted as interracial, they were simply out there as erotica.

There’s something in the contract that said the publisher had to have the work out by a certain amount of months/days. I had to threaten to leave before they even made me a cover….

There are many other issues I had, those are just a few. A part of this was my fault because I never asked questions. That’s something I wont be caught dead doing again. Guys its simple, nothing in this business is a sure thing, and we need to open our mouths and ask questions. If things seem fishie chances are, your instincts are right.

Another thing that is bothering me is all the name calling, and the dirty emails etc…I know we are better than this. Sure we were hurt by what MGP (and all the other e-pubs that went under the way MGP did) but we have to stick the blame and anger where it is due and not at people standing on the sidelines (I wont call anyways but I got one really nasty email from a group I was on because of this MGP thing).

And another thing, before you send your work out, please please please please please, research; Ask someone who’s been around for a while if they know who this new publisher is, email them and ask them questions and if they dont answer your questions to put your heart at ease, dont send your work to them. It may seem harsh but us authors really have to protect herselves after this fiasco.

*shrugs* we’ll do better next time, no?

Anyways guys, have a good one, and remember, its about the writing and the art of it all. Our writings are our babies because they came from us, they are a part of us so we have to see to it that they find secure homes.

Hugz
Tigra-Luna

A root issue is that all you need to start an epublishing house is a website and a self-granted title. There’s no standard to meet or tests to take, and it’s the authors who inevitably pay the price.

Some of us are starting to band together to try and change that, so that we become accountable and this sort of thing can’t go on without it coming to light long before it gets to this point.

Situations like this only bring the whole industry down, and it reflects on all of us.

Yes, authors need to treat writing as a business, not a hobby. Yes, your books are your business, not your babies, and yes, you need to read and understand your contract before you sign it.

Yes, authors are responsible for their own careers… I take mine very seriously, as do many of my fellow former Triskelion authors. Many of the Triskelion authors have picked up and moved on with their writing, landing contracts at other publishers, while still fighting to get rights back to their works at Triskelion. Now is the time to quit blaming the authors, and start looking at the genesis of the real problem, which isn’t even the publisher. It’s the law.

We all sign contracts that entitle us to our rights back, in the event of a bankruptcy. This is bogus. The COURTS take the rights, and then decide if they can sell them off… uh, HELLO? To my way of thinking, when I put my name on a piece of paper, agreeing to do certain things in exchange for certain securities, I expect that, as long as I live up to my end of the deal, everyone else should be required to live up to their end, as well. My issue is with the courts, and I’m working to get them to see that by violating our contracts as stated, they violate our basic right to earn a living, because who wants to sign a contract supposedly protecting them, when that protection is nothing more than lip service? It’s like being handed a gun to protect yourself in a lion’s den, only to discover that the damned thing isn’t even loaded.

So, as authors, we all need to quit deciding whether the problem is the author’s or the publishers, and instead band together and confront the lawmakers. Make THEM responsible for upholding the contracts when we cannot (as in the case of a bankruptcy). Authors, artists, and musicians are all in the same tenuous position, and we need to make a united stand to the courts, and the government, and SHOW them we are professionals, concerned with the securities granted to us in our contracts, and the fact that they are trampled by the very courts who should be protecting them.

That’s my two cents worth, anyway.

Esther Mitchell

I’d like to add a codicil, all of us have personal lives which can at times interfere with our perception. When I got involved with Triskelion, I’d just learned my daughter had stage three cancer. My mother had died, and my daughter came with me to the farm. She was pregnant and sick continually. We thought it was the pregnancy. It wasn’t, it was colon cancer. So there I was, mourning my mother, scared spitless about Tiff and without my husband, who stayed in AZ to sell our home. Plus, I suddenly became the primary caregiver to three little ones under five…in my fifties. This went on a long time, and it’s no wonder I couldn’t concentrate on the business aspect of writing. And I’m not alone. Most everyone has crap to deal with. So while it is a business…sometimes it’s a release. After Tiff’s chemo, I’d make my bed with her sock-monkey sheets, and put her in my bedroom so the kids wouldn’t jump on her tubes. Writing kept me sane when my world spun out of control.

Brit Blaise http://www.butterscotchmartinigirls.com