Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

If I was an author, I would probably want to get my hands on this arbitration decision1. Regnery was in litigation with author Richard Miniter. He had a two book contract with Regnery and delivered a book called Disinformation. Regnery believed that the book “did not live up to [Miniter's] two book contract”. Instead, Miniter took a book to Simon & Schuster that Regnery believed should have been its. (This sounded like shades of Dara Joy).

Miniter claims that he wanted to write a book about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for his second book but that Regnery refused to pay an advance. The book fell apart when al-Zarqawi was killed in 2006.

The claims of Minter sound like Dara Joy. She took Ritual of Proof to HarperCollins instead of giving it to Dorchester claiming the Ritual of Proof was a science fiction not a romance. I am pretty sure that Dorchester won that round. Regnery says that they had a two book deal and that he kept the money for the advance and failed to deliver. Regnery sued Miniter, took it to arbitration per the contract, and Regnery won, …

The Federal court dismissed the suit brought by five Regnery authors ruling “Each plaintiff voluntarily entered into a publishing contract with Regnery, and all parties contracted to resolve their disputes in arbitration, not in court”. Judge Huvelle notes that the authors are free to “institute arbitration proceedings against Regnery.” (and they suggest they intend to do so)

Via Publishers Marketplace.

We’ve sometimes given away books here at DearAuthor. Usually they are books that we have purchased but sometimes they are gifts directly from the publisher. In fact, in December, Penguin is giving away five copies of Joanna Bourne’s The Spymaster’s Lady here at DA to help publicize Bourne’s book. I want to do whatever I can to help Bourne be a success because her writing (at least in the book that I have read) is just phenomenal. It never occurred to me that by giving away these books, the authors are deprived of the royalty. I knew that they wouldn’t get a “sale” to count toward their bestseller list numbers but I never made the next logical step in that equation.

Five authors published by Regnery Publishing are suing the publisher’s parent company, Eagle Publishing, charging that the parent company is conspiring with book clubs and other organizations owned by the same entity to deprive the authors of rightful royalties.

Authors royalty rates for book club purchases, remaindered books and other organizations are lower than those for purchases made at a retail stores. Thus, the …