One thing that hasn’t been really said about either group, EPIC or RWA, is that a person only gets out of that group what they want to put into it. If you really want to know what a group is about, volunteer to do something for that group and you will learn more than you’ll ever need to know.

And I did with both EPIC and RWA. With RWA, I was the Region 6 Director, I think they called us that then, and was the last person to run both the contests as well as the Award Ceremony. Personally, that wasn’t a volunteer position that was a full time job. It had its moments where I just knew I was going crazy but I’m still here to tell the tale.

With EPIC, I am the current EPPIEs Chair and the Secretary of the organization. And while this can be a lot of work, it is in no way a full time job like my RWA tenue was at the time. Still, I love working with EPIC because it is so different from RWA and must be what it was like when the RWA organization was small.

RWA is just as focused on its Golden Hearts and RITAs as EPIC is on its EPPIEs, so the person who was pointing that out clearly didn’t understand either organization when it came to its awards. Both organizations put a lot of effort into the awards portion of membership and why shouldn’t they? It’s a way to give back to the organization where the members do everything. No, you don’t have to be a member to enter in the EPPIEs or the RITAs (unless they’ve changed that) but if you aren’t you pay a higher fee.

However, saying EPIC puts more into the EPPIEs than RWA does Golden Heart or RITAs is absurd. Both organizations put a lot of time, effort and money, and believe me having run both contests I would know, into their awards. Those contests are huge undertakings and both were started to benefit the members and nothing else.

BUT everyone has lost the whole crux of the issue. RWA does inform members when they know something is wrong with a publisher. BUT it must be substatiated by authors and other things before they say a thing. Why? Because if they say anything before it is fact, they can get sued. Think EPIC is any different? NO…it isn’t. They can’t say anything unless it is substantiated either. So what good does it do to say one organization is better at it than another? It doesn’t as both organizations react to what they see as the needs of their members.

RWA and EPIC are for different venues of the publishing business. RWA caters to published and unpublished, putting the emphasis on the unpublished while EPIC is a completely published authors group. At EPIC, we do not have any unpublished authors in our rosters and won’t as that isn’t the focus of our organization. RWA’s focus is totally NYC print publishers while EPIC’s is totally e-publishing, indie and small press with the main focus being e-books.

Still, both organizations believe in the publishing industry be it e-publishing or print publishing. Both organizations try to keep their members informed regarding the publishing venues open to them. Both organizations try to ‘teach’ their authors the good, the bad and the ugly of the business. And both organizations will react defensively if they feel they are being attacked at the heart of their organizations. Try smacking RWA sometime and see if you don’t get much the same defensive reaction you all are saying EPIC people are giving you.

But like a friend said to me once, training or gathering authors is much like herding cats. Each has their own agenda and each wants to go their own way.

Therefore, any group will teach an author what they want to absorb and no more because there comes a point where an author feels they’ve learned what they need to know. From that point on it is up to the author to start doing the research regarding all aspects of their chosen publisher be it e-publisher or traditional publisher. It is up to the author to find out what path is better for them.

I find it a great mystery that authors don’t keep themselves at the top of their game by trying to find out everything they can about something. It totally annoys me to see said author then blaming ANY organization because said organization didn’t tell them what they knew. Well, the fact is that the authors usually know before people at the top of those organizations do. And if the authors who are having problems don’t say anything, how can one know at all. The fact is they can’t.

Every author is responsible for their own career, no matter what path it takes. No one else is, no one else can be. Notice I say the word responsible. We live in a society that wants to place the responsiblity at someone else’s feet. Most of the time it lies with us. You or I, the author writing the book.

Every author should do the research necessary to make their career the best it can be. EPIC and RWA can both make that journey easier because they both have great things to offer IF you want to see it and participate. Every author should have a career plan that they try to follow. And yes, I have one. I’ve had a dream book that I started almost 20 years ago.

Have I deviated from my main path? Of course I have, I have a family and a life outside of writing. It happens. Does it mean that writing isn’t important any more? Hardly, writing is second only to friends and family BUT it is in it’s perspecitve place and I’m responsible for it all.

Saying things about any organization without even being a member, isn’t a good thing to do. I have the rare opportunity of being in both in top positions. And yes, there are good things and yes there are bad things. But isn’t life that way also? You have to take the good with the bad and use what you can to make yourself the best you can be.

I write books because I love to read books. Every author should write books because they love to read books. But every author should be an informed author and one can’t be that way unless they network with other authors. The only way that I know to do so is join organizations like EPIC and RWA as they can make the journey easier and more fulfilling.

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As to the issue of the professionalism of epublishers and authors, I think there’s a perception that folks in ebooks are less professional than those in print. While we’ve seen some stunning examples lately of less than perfectly professional epublisher conduct, I’d merely suggest that lack of professionalism is not limited to any particular publisher type or house. I can think of several examples of stunningly bad print publisher or author behavior, as well, although I think the informal gag orders imposed on print authors (speak badly of anyone and so and so editor won’t work with you) makes it less common for egregious situations to circulate publicly. IMO there are wonderfully professional and painfully unprofessional individuals in every position, house, and type of publishing.

What I wonder about is the extent to which professional behavior does or doesn’t affect book quality. Probably not a question with an easy answer, but one that strikes me — as a reader — as the bottom line.

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I attended the hearing this morning along with Esther Mitchell and Vijaya Schartz. Below is the post Vijaya made on the Triskelion Survivors loop. I thought you would like to know. We’ll all be attending on Sept. 25 also.

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Well, it was brief and didn’t address any of our issues. This was just a meeting where the trustee asked clarification about the workings of the company. One of our questions was answered about the money Kristi and Ron paid themselves.

As it happens, the $48,000 are the total salary Kristi paid herself in small increments over the lifetime of the company and that’s perfectly legal. As for the $5,000 paid to Ron they were the partial reimbursement of a $23,000 loan he made to the company to start it.

I asked a question about knowing how much is actually owed to each author. They said they could determine that figure. But when I asked about being reimbursed in books for the money due to print authors, I was told I could purchase my books, but no books would be given away.
Again, the judge might decide otherwise.

We were warned at the start that no copyright issues would be discussed because that is for the judge to decide, not the trustee.

In brief, the September 25th meeting is with the judge and that’s where we’ll be able to express ourselves. Esther didn’t get to say her piece, nor did Toby. And we didn’t get to deliver those letters.

Sorry guys. It will have to be on September 25. Esther, Toby and Myself are planning to attend. In the meantime, we can send letters to the judge.

Here is the address of the lawyer for the case. He was very friendly, but I think he is on Kriti and Ron’s side:

Adam B. Nach
Attorney at Law
Certified bankruptcy specialist
The Brookstone, Suite 157
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tel: 602 258-6000

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Yes, all the EPIC authors do keep each other informed as new information is learned when it is learned. That’s all part of the benefit of networking in the group. EPIC, as I mentioned before isn’t a company, nor a business. It is a large group of authors who help each other with writing, with support, with advice, with information, with contacts, and that’s only part of what EPIC is. There really isn’t an “EPIC,” there are 686 published authors who form an author group named EPIC. Hope this helps.

This isn’t a sorority people, it’s a business and it shouldn’t be too much to expect people to act accordingly.

A proven history of success (an undefinable quality which will vary by author). This may seem slightly hypocritical as I had one of the launch titles for Samhain, but I submitted based on Crissy Brashear’s reputation and knew the fabulous Ms. Angela James would be my editor before I signed the contract. That was good enough for me. (Along with the acceptable contract terms, of course.) Many things factored into my initial choice of EC—RWA recognition, conversations with friends who published with them, etc.

Packaging. If I go to a website and it appears to have been drafted in Paint and then combined with horrific music before covers so bad even the SBs have no words are slapped up there, then that’s a pass for me. If the publisher thinks that’s an acceptable showcase for an author’s work, they’re not getting mine. If the majority of their covers make me either die laughing or gag, I’m going to pass on that, too.

Standards. Again, highly subjective and hard to quantify. Browse the excerpts on the publisher’s website. If they consistently showcase typos, grammatical errors and bad writing, that tells me they hold their authors to a very low standard. Excuse my melodrama, but over time I think that will destroy a writer. Bizarre blurbs, public communications from the editing/publishing staff that lack even a basic familiarity with the English language, etc. It all matters. I’m sure it won’t surprise many of you to know the fabulous Ms. James sets the bar high, both for her the company and the authors. As a writer, I appreciate that, even when I’m sobbing into my edits.

Reputation with readers. If readers consistently mock a publisher and its books, or are constantly complaining about the publisher’s ability to deliver the product (shopping cart woes, impossible to navigate website, etc), consider whether or not that publisher’s business savy enough to be successful in the long run.

The contract. A lot of resources and advice have been dispensed in the last week, so I’ll just say: I won’t sign an option clause with an epublisher, won’t sign a net contract, and won’t give any publisher the right to edit my work without my approval. Other stuff is negotiable, depending on the circumstances.

Do you spread unsubstantiated rumors? I know I don’t. I’ve seen publishers almost go down because of sudden rumors about problems that aren’t true.

Unfortunately, the “inner circle” that knows the truth are inside the publisher and they aren’t talking.

And it is a very real possiblity that a swirl of rumors CAN take down a formerly, fairly healthy publisher. If I hear a rumor that XXX pub isn’t paying their authors, I’m not going to go buy a book there when I believe the author won’t get paid for that sale. Multiply that by 50 people and suddenly sales drop, cash flow is impacted…

I wish I knew a good answer to the problem…other than a really good crystal ball.

One thing I HAVE noticed, quality of product, i.e. wonderful books by wonderful authors ISN’T a get-out-of-worry-free indicator. Quiet Storm had top notch, award winning authors. So did Triskelion and Mardi Gras.

Because I can, because small press is a long term process, I tend to do minimal promo until the book is actually out. That minimizes my upfront investment.

The other thing I try to do is keep an…independent contracter mindset. I’m my own business, contracting my product to a publisher. We form a limited, a very limited partnership, to sell that product. Because I am my own small business, I try to be aware of what I can control and what I can’t.

Again, hoping not to be too wordy, a lot of author disappointment stems from unrealized expectations, from reading things into contracts that aren’t there, from expecting a large press experience from a small press.

If you know what you can reasonably expect from a small press AND you don’t get it, that’s a warning flag.

And I’m always careful about the contracts I sign and the rights I assign. I don’t give anyone any rights they won’t actually be using. I know an author who saw no reason to withhold her film rights from a small epub. Never occurred to her that those might become valuable. But they did.

I understand why authors don’t look far enough ahead. And I don’t condemn anyone for dreaming so big they get taken. I blame the people who deceived them. Authors NEED to dream big, they need to take risks, they need to hope and try. They need to not give up or let other people stop them from trying. And that means they often get disappointed.

But it also means that sometimes they won’t. :-)