One of the oldest epublishers which bought out Hard Shell and Awe-struck has closed down with barely a whimper. I've heard nothing of this, and I'm an author.
If you are a Mundania author, go to the home page and make a screenshot of their announcement returning all rights, ASAP. The website may disappear any time, and this will be the only way to prove you have your rights back.
Feel free to pass this information along to anyone you think would be interested.
****
On a personal note, I’m shocked but not shocked. My first book, TIME AFTER TIME, was published by Hard Shell just over 20 years ago. Then STAR-CROSSED, my most successful book with piles of awards, followed just over one year later.
Over the years, my sales have gone down to almost nothing because so many books come out every day that earlier books get buried like a pebble in an avalanche. Those of us who aren’t actively publishing several times a year don’t have a frontlist to promote our backlist so that doesn’t help either. Sad but true.
Even then, for the first time in my career, two of my books have disappeared. I’m still pondering whether I want to bring these books back or let them die. If I do republish them, it will be through self-publishing since I’d just be delaying the inevitable at another small publisher.
Small publishing, particularly epublishing, is a hard business to be in, today.
The day that Amazon opened up publishing to individual authors, small publishers like Mundania began to bleed authors and income because the main thing they offered for those who didn't fit the traditional conglomerate publishing mold was access to readers. Everything else like covers, editing, etc., could be bought.
Add to that the ability of self-publishers to change with marketing trends at lightning speed which no publisher can duplicate, and it's amazing that the few good small publishers are still here.
On top of the changes in the business killing publishers, there's sheer attrition. Most small publishers are run by individuals, not corporations, so age, finances, family issues, etc., can kill them, and almost every one of these who didn’t go bankrupt died because of personal reasons. We live in a changing world.
No comments:
Post a Comment