This will be a shorter blog than my last one. I promise.
Sunday usually is a day of rest for me. My daughter, wonderful daughter that she is, usually buys the week’s groceries for us. I get to read and write and maybe do some homework. This morning, “el doggo”, as Morgan calls Beauty, got me up at 5 AM. It was BREAKFAST TIME and then POTTIE time. Well, I dragged myself out of bed and went through the routine that aforementioned, early-rising daughter usually does during the week. Dog fed and pottied, inside cats fed and watered. Outside cat fed and watered. Raccoons seemed to have eaten Morgan’s left-over corn nuggets. It was still dark but all seemed to be good at Chez Reinbold.
With el doggo snoring on the sofa and a nice hot cup of coffee, I sat down at my laptop to look at my Twitter account.
Shut The Front Door!
There were almost 150 messages under the #notchilled hashtag–the hashtag started by Courtney Milan to help Jane Litte in the defamation suit brought against her and her blog Dear Author by publisher Ellora’s Cave. See my post from Friday.
Ooooooo-kay…
I started to read the messages and all were the usual ones, supporting Jane and donating to her defense fund, closing in on 50K as I write this. And then I came to one tweet on the #notchilled hashtag that listed a website noting the names of authors supporting Jane, those of us who’d donated to her defense…okay, that’s not bad. But then this person (anonymous who says they/he/she is a “scout for publishers”) started tweeting @(individual publishing houses) with the list, telling them not to “touch these authors” since they are in a lawsuit against Ellora’s Cave.
There is no suit (as of this writing) against Ellora’s Cave by any author. There are authors who want their rights back because they believe (and it’s becoming more and more apparent) that the publisher is being mismanaged and not solvent. The lawsuit was brought BY Ellora’s Cave AGAINST Dear Author. The tweets had it backwards and inside out.
Of course the “Twittersphere” erupted. And there are suspicions that this newly started Twitter handle is someone directly involved with Ellora’s Cave.
These are my thoughts-FWTW (probably not enough to get you a Pumpkin Latte at B&N but here goes).
I support Jane. She was reporting what EC authors, editors and cover artists had been telling her and re-reporting what was noted in other blogging venues and ezines.
Schizophrenically I also support Ellora’s Cave, the publishing part of this mess, the authors who’ve been with them for years and the authors newly signed.
How can I support both? Because this publishing house (sorry, Supreme Court) is NOT a person. It is a business and I do NOT want it to fail. We writers (and readers) need small presses., just like we need the indie pubbed. We need the variety; we need the selection. I do NOT want EC to fail. Hell, I tried hard (no pun intended) to be one of their authors. I was rejected. Okay. But at least it was a possibility. If EC folds, that possibility will be gone and it could shed a bad light on other small presses.
And I am beginning to feel sorry for Tina Engler/Jaid Black, the person behind Ellora’s Cave. Yes, I do. I don’t think she realized the amount of support Jane would get from the writing/reading community. She appears desperate now. Her blogs and this new Twitter handle show that – I don’t know it’s her but it’s a distinct possibility that’s it’s her or someone close to her. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to see years of your hard work fall apart. Maybe she’s beginning to realize that now.
She probably won’t see this blog—I’m a very small minnow in the ocean of romance writing — but, just in case:
Jaid, please, now be quiet. Let your lawyer do what he/she has to do. Save the company you worked so hard for.
I knew it was going to be a two-pots-of-coffee morning.
(If you need more information on this, read Friday’s blog–there are websites noted. There is also this on Amazon.)
Mitzi Flyte 