A Birthday Surprise, Most Unexpected

As I sat to write this post
I took a breath, wished I had some toast—
no, seriously, I want toast but am out of bread—
then pulled up my draft for Ko-fi and reread.

"Why is this poetry?" I muttered. "I've no—
"Wait." I nudge this post with a toe.
"Poetry again?" I scratch my head.
"I dunno why I'm doing this," I said.

I mean, it's fun. I do enjoy
conveying meaning while molding words like a toy.
But it's not exactly my normal technique.
Doesn't this make me kind of a freak?

It's just coming out, with not that many pauses.
No more than I'd have with conventional clauses.
I've not written poetry in a while.
I don't really think of it as my style.

But yanno? I guess this really shows
that I should pay more heed to how things close.
That something in me likes the flow.
I don't know how you readers will like it, though.

I wonder if my brain is just stuck between
the thoughts I've been having of Shel Silverstein
See, I've been remembering his poems, of late.
Some I can still quote, despite the wait.

It's been years since I read him last,
but I remember having a blast,
and I remember my brother having a book.
I think all I ever got to do was look,

not own—but anyway, enough distraction.
I meant to do this to gain traction
and help myself talk to you.
I've been silent for so long, it's true.

So, what exactly do I have to say
aside from the "Hi, today's my birthday!"?
I have committed to bringing back
First Draft Fridays on Wattpad, and another track.

You can see more about this in my post from last week,
but, though my Patreon is on hiatus, I'm still going to seek
regular production, with subscribers
getting early, annotated releases as insiders.

But, instead of Patreon, I'm using Ko-fi,
and, apparently, writing about it in poetry?
(What the hell, brain?)
(I really sometimes wonder if I'm even sane.)

(I should probably point out, that previous line—
it's an intentional, poetic design.
Serious just in emotion, in sentiment.
I'm not calling myself insane, just different.)

(Some of you readers may remember
a few years ago, someone with a temper
who pounced in the comments here
and showed serious lack of reading comprehension, I fear.)

(Anyway, that person is one reason why
I sometimes over-specify,
because I am still watched, I know.
although I left them years ago.)

Moving on, here start last week's announced plans,
specifically phase one, which lands
us straight on: "regular updates!"
which I intend to keep up with, whatever it takes.

On Wattpad, updates will be free and weekly,
though these won't necessarily be posted neatly.
On Ko-fi, updates will be paid and monthly,
and more polished, to put it bluntly.

So, do whatever suits your taste.
You can watch me here, my announcements base,
or Facebook or Twitter, but in that case,
you'll probably be getting duplicates, since I try
to limit how I diversify.

How I diversify right now, anyway.
And that's all I have to say, today.
So how is this year treating you?
I'd like to hear how you're doing, too.

—Misti

Out with the Old & In with the New

After so long of silence or near silence, I‘ve been quietly prepping to relaunch my self-publishing. I even have a few things even sitting on my hard drive, poised to help me hit the ground running. Start date I’ve had in mind for phase one of my plans is my birthday, a week from today (May 8th).

(Well, technically speaking, my start date‘s actually today, due to today being when I’m announcing it everywhere. But that’s prelaunch stuff.)

I‘ve had two parts in mind for phase one, resurrecting both my Patreon releases and my First Draft Fridays on Wattpad (…and my language study blog, but that’s another thing). That way, my fans, no matter their financial situation, can enjoy. Then phase two is wrapping up the Chronicles of Marsdenfel and the current plot arc on Destiny Walker series, and the phases continue from there. I’ll get more into that in a minute.

As I was putting things together to springboard into phase one, specifically the Patreon part, I received a newsletter from an author I have long admired and respected: Holly Lisle. She and Kristine Kathryn Rush get an insane amount accomplished despite chronic health issues, and they"re excellent teachers. (On the topic of excellent teachers, Janice Hardy and Jami Gold are, too, though they"re more information magpies than coaches.)

Anyway, back to the e-mail I received. It was really two: “Why I closed my Patreon fundraiser today" from April 4th and "So... bye-bye, Patreon. Hello Ko-Fi.” from April 9th. I saw the headlines but didn’t open them.

Then, after I posted a pre-announcement of my plans on Patreon (on the 19th, to give patrons plenty of time to adjust their donations if they needed to), I remembered those headlines. Kicking myself a bit because, over the past umpteen years, I’ve found I usually agree with her assessment of things like that, read what she was saying. She posted the same information on her blog at "Why I shut down my Patreon fundraiser" and "Why I chose Ko-Fi to replace Patreon".

In summary, the Patreon terms of service (TOS) claim some particular irrevocable rights to whatever is published on the platform for “the purpose of" what they need to run the site. That phrasing does not actually limit their rights claim to that purpose, which was recently pointed out by the very experienced IP lawyer commonly known among authors (especially self-publishing authors) as "PG" or "Passive Guy”.

PG reblogs posts potentially of interest to authors, and sometimes he adds comments. In this case, he reblogged a post that demonstrates that Patreon seems to be having cash flow issues, judging from the CEO’s own words in an interview with CNBC.

PG says he went looking at Patreon‘s TOS to see if there was any mention of patent or something like that which would mean they had a corner on the market. Instead, he found that clause that states the rights taken are for “the purpose of" X, Y, and Z. (If you don’t see how that’s not a limitation, check his post.) PG even bothers to provide a clause that would actually limit the TOS in the fashion that Patreon claims to intend, elsewhere on the site.

So I opened a support ticket with Patreon to ask what, if anything, they were planning to do about that clause. I included explicit explanation, links, and request for the issue to be kicked up to whoever could answer my question. I mentioned outright that PG—an much-experienced IP attorney—included both how the current clause is problematic and an example correction in his post.

I was thanked for pointing it out and told that my e-mail had been forwarded to the tech department. Not legal, but tech. Okay.

Then, around a week later (on April 29th), Patreon announced a new resource hub on the site for the terms and such—oh, that explains the forwarding to the tech team—and an update to their terms of service. Oh, cool. They listened! Promptly, even!

…Or, as I discovered when I looked up the current clause, they at least tried.

I won‘t bore you with the specifics of the differences, but in summary, they changed the terms to expressly limit the purpose of the license but not the license itself. It’s a simple, easy-to-make syntax error that nonetheless significantly affects your meaning. A bread knife might have the sole purpose of cutting bread, but that doesn’t prevent you from being able to use it to cut something else.

In itself, it‘s not necessarily a big deal. Trusting that they’re working at it would be a calculated risk, and it’s a reasonable one to either avoid or take.

The real problem comes when you consider that interview I mentioned. Patreon’s CEO says that Patreon needs to “build a sustainable business”.

Patreon turns 6 years old this month. Why are they having to build a sustainable business? And what are they going to have to do or change in order to do that?

Personally, I think the problem comes from choices Patreon made when they first launched, that they started off taking too low a % of creator income in order to support their model. If they had launched at a higher percentage, like Fiverr with its 20% fee, that would‘ve given them room to adjust the fee either in general or with Lite / Pro / Premium versions of the service without triggering all the negative sentiment and publicity that’s resulted when they’ve tried to move in the other direction, increasing their cut after they started too low.

I‘m not sure that they’ll be able to recover from that. They’re obviously trying, and I do hope they can pull it off. Patreon’s financial model, taking a % of supporter donations, that helps people with $0 or minimal disposable income. It also means that Patreon benefits most from drawing in patrons, rather than content creators, so they should prioritize accordingly. With a good search engine and SEO on the content creator’s part, that’s potentially free marketing. This is doubtless why Patreon tells the content creators that the patrons, the supporters, are customers. They actively encourage creators to give patrons early releases, special editions, unique content—actual product that the patron is funding.

Now, contrast this with Ko-fi, which expressly limits the licensure and views supporters as donors. Ko-fi gets is funded from a mix of 1. charging content creators a small fee (monthly or yearly) to be able to receive monthly subscriptions, and 2. running their own donor page. So Ko-fi actually uses its own service. (Maybe doing that would help Patreon? I don’t think they have their own page.)

This ultimately means that Ko-fi benefits most from keeping the content creators happy, rather than the supporters. Keeping supporters happy is a secondary concern—and, because supporters are there to support the person, keeping supporters happy will be a consequence of keeping the content creators happy. It's quite efficient.

Ko-fi further promotes this distinction of supporting a person vs. buying early-bird access to a product by making it possible for content creators to sell commissions. In their tutorial documentation, they outright recommend that content creators release things more like previews, snippets, deleted scenes.

What I was offering on Patreon, things didn't really fit their model very well. Ko-fi’s actually a better fit for what I’m kicking off on the 8th.

(If you‘re a content creator yourself and want to sign up for Ko-fi Gold, you can get a 10% discount by getting it with an affiliate link, and that discount applies even on top of the sale that’s going as of this writing.)

So, with all this talk of phases, what am I talking about? What are these phases that I’m planning?

• phase 0: pre-launch
• We are here!
• This is announcements and prep work. I have the bulk of this done.
• I need to track down both my file and contact the publisher for the Wynne d‘Arzon series, because I’m suspecting my submission of the last story in that series got eaten by e-mail gremlins. This is something I’m hoping to do before phase I launches, and hopefully things will go smoothly enough for be on-time in phase two.
• phase one: update regularly again
• launching May 8, 2019
• The return of First Draft Fridays on Wattpad!
• The start of monthly releases every 8th on Ko-fi! It'll be a complete story, with author's notes regarding headspace, process, inspiration, how and why I came up with a particular kenning, etc.
• I will be looking at growing to include more regular updates to this blog, my Twitter, and my Facebook page.
• I may also include getting back on-track with my language study blog in this (which needs some technical things fixed and where I have a draft of a post pretty much done and just need to post it; scope creep is a jerk).
• phase two: publish installments wrapping up open plot threads
• scheduled to launch November 8, 2019
• I’m looking to start with finishing the Chronicles of Marsdenfel and getting at least one book further in the Destiny Walker series. (I have more Destiny books planned, but I think book #4 will be launching a new arc, kind of Act II.)
• I’m also including my Torn-Up Faery Tales (as Carralee Byrd) and some Cara Lee things.
• phase three: grow into a regular publishing schedule for each penname
• tentatively scheduled to launch May 8, 2020
• Inherent in this would be releasing regularly in various series, ideally on a rotation.
• I‘m currently thinking that this will be when I return to updating Tapas, too.
• phase x: secret until I start phase three
• The reality of how I finish phase two will affect these, as well, so they’re on the shelf for now.

All this is starting in a week. Join me on Ko-fi and-or Wattpad, whatever fits your interest and budget.

How are you doing?

—Misti

And Here Comes 2016…

It’s been a tough but good year for me on many fronts, including writing.

One of the “tough but good” things has been figuring out gaps in certain things I know that were sabotaging me. For example, I’ve long called myself an editor, with my topmost editing service being a “tutoring edit”—despite more than one client telling me they learned more from one of my edits than they had from school. I’ve also long been aware of a core element of writing that many teachers skip, either assuming folks already know it or not realizing that it needs to be taught.

After years of teaching this one-on-one—and having to reassure each one “You are not alone!”—I’ve finally realized that a few things.

1. What I’ve been calling a “tutoring edit” is actually “coaching”.
2. I have more than enough material to create my own e-class.
3. Teaching a group at once would increase the value and encouragement for each student.

I actually like tutoring. I even did it as a kid, for my classmates and others—and not only one-on-one! So creating an e-class (or more, but I’ll be starting with one) is such a natural, obvious consequence of what I know that I can’t help but feel silly for not thinking of it sooner…but considering I had to first realize my “tutoring edit” was in fact “coaching”, I can’t blame myself for taking so long to figure it out.

So, one of the first things I’m doing this year is creating an e-class. Working title: Why Don’t They Get It? the secrets your writing teacher forgot to tell you.

And seriously, the core problem does tend to be that folks who know how to write outright forget to teach this—or don’t think to, because it’s so obvious once you know it that it’s easy to think it’s common sense; or don’t want to, because it’s not as easy to teach as mere grammar and spelling. If writing’s a fence, my class will address the posts.

Hint: Grammar and spelling are essentially whitewash and polish—they’re needed for something to look nice, but they don’t do much good if your fence is missing needed pieces.

This is not a “how to sell!” class.

This is a “What all that ‘How to sell your writing’ advice assumes you already know” class.

You probably need this class if…

• you think “perfect grammar and spelling” are all that’s needed to have “perfect writing”
• your readers often miss your point, and you can’t figure out why
• you think the reason readers miss your point is that you’re being poetic

All those things signal that some posts are missing in the fence of your writing. You can whitewash and polish up what’s there—and, depending on what’s missing, the result might work fine for what you want to do with the fence. If so, that’s great!

But if those parts are missing because you don’t know they’re missing, how can you put them back in when you need them?

Everyone has missing or weak points in their writing.

That’s part of being an imperfect human. Even the best writers and editors in the world are not exceptions to that—myself included.

That “those who can’t do, teach” thing is bullshit, by the way. You have to understand how something is done in order to be able to teach it well—but doing and teaching are two different skills, so not everyone who does something can teach that something. I know a lot about marketing and ways to help a series do well out the gate, but since I don’t actually use what I know, I’m not about to teach it!

And not everyone who can teach something outright wants to. Teaching how to do something gives others an opening to ridicule/dismiss you as having to teach because you can’t actually do that something, which is annoying and draining to deal with.

That said…

I don’t believe my regular commenters need this class.

You might benefit from some specific things, but I suspect you’ll find that the class essentially covers things you already know.

But if you want news about the class and first dibs when the class opens for enrollment, you can sign up for notifications now.

This class is my current “big” project.

To keep from overwhelming myself, I’m limiting myself to one “big” project and one “little” project for my current plans.

My little project? Getting back on the wagon with First Draft Fridays over on Wattpad.

If these two items prove straightforward enough for me to keep up with—and they should, especially since the class should become a “little” thing once it’s all put together—I have a few projects that I’ll be adding onto my plate, one at a time. (One of them will involve regular blog posts that I know my regular commenters would probably enjoy, in the vein of the “Idolization of Free Will” post I promised quite some time ago but have yet to deliver.)

But one thing I’m going to do?

And I may not wait until 2017 to review what’s in it! :-)

What big or little plans do you have for the new year?

—Misti

"Realities of Self-Editing" E-Book Now Available for Preorder!

If you've been a longtime reader of my blog, you may remember the Realities of Self-Editing blog post series, which covered the mindsets and approaches needed to properly edit your own work. I've wanted to compile and revise it into book form since I was writing it, but for reasons I won't go in to, it was wisest to wait before publishing it.

Now the reason I had for waiting no longer exists, so I've set up my e-book for preorder on Amazon. It's scheduled for release on my birthday, May 8th.

You can get Realities of Self-Editing for $2.99 USD now.

—Misti

---

(Sorry for the long silence, everyone. Life, yanno? But things seem to be settling down, and I intend to be back and on a schedule, soon.)

News: A Fistful of Earth + CreateSpace Editions Are Here!

At long last (and as some have already discovered), A Fistful of Earth is here—and so is the print edition for A Fistful of Fire (with the print version of A Fistful of Earth in the final stage before release)! (Er, a print version is also available for "PRIMpriety", if you're interested in that one.)

And as a bonus for my blog readers, use the coupon code G55ELYAK to get a discount on any of the CreateSpace titles. (Note that this code will not last forever, so get the discount while you can!)

The e-book versions of A Fistful of Fire and A Fistful of Earth cost $4.99—a price that won't last forever. In a few weeks, I'll be raising the price to $6.99 per e-book, which is still a deal compared to the costs of what publishers like Ace charge for the genre ($7.99+), and compared to the cost of the print version.

Enough said on that front, methinks. Wouldn't want to start sounding whiny or apologetic. ^_^

So, if you want the books (and remember to use the coupon code G55ELYAK if getting the print version):

Print Versions:

• A Fistful of Fire
• A Fistful of Earth – ETA live link @ 11:06 AM EST.
• PRIMpriety plus bonus stories

A Fistful of Earth E-Versions:

• Amazon US | UK | DE | ES | FR | IT | JP
• Barnes & Noble*
• DriveThru Fiction
• Kobo
• Omnilit | ARE
• Smashwords
• XinXii

*The Barnes & Noble website seems to be having some trouble, due to Hurricane Sandy. So if you want to buy the book from the B&N store, I would recommend waiting at least a few more days, first. The cover's gone AWOL and the EPUB file seems corrupted, and the system won't accept my re-upload.

So. Here we are: All caught up (finally!) from that Kickstarter thing. (Well, except for two donors who won't give me the info I need to give them their particular bonuses, but that's not my fault. You two know whom you are. *poke*)

If I hit my writing goals for NaNoWriMo*, we'll see about either audio versions (or a Kickstart for audio) being next… Assuming anyone's interested in audio? I've already been chatting with some narrators and running the numbers for it, and audio is a whole lot cheaper than translation (which is…expensive).

*For anyone who doesn't know: NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month, wherein a bunch of masochists get together and seek to write 50k words in the month of November and often discover how doable it is.

Not that I always write 50k words per month—yeah, I suck at those goals—but I'm going to try setting it as a time goal, this coming month. I suspect that might work better.

What do you most want to see from me next (on the blog, as a released story, etc.)? Would you be interested in audio versions for my fiction?

What will you be writing or reading, this month?

—Misti

AVOID: Mark Williams International (MWiDP)

The eagle-eyed might've noticed that I've taken down all links to the two Saffina Desforges Presents… anthologies I've been in. After giving the publisher due warning that I would go public about my issues with Mark Williams International (MWiDP), after I've spent more than 4 months trying to get answers to a few simple questions.

Something I should mention: Due to the nature of such anthologies, I never expected to make a lot of money off the anthology. The story was sitting on my hard drive, and I was (and am) busy with my Aleyi and Darkworld series.

I was honestly happy I'd found someone who liked "PRIMpriety" enough to want that story and more. I've gotten so many personalized rejection letters for that one and its related second-person story—which was rejected for the vampire or the framed narrative as often as it was for the POV—that I'd been wondering where to send her next.

But with Ann Crispin's recent issues with Ridan, I was reminded that while this situation is mainly a nuisance to me, MWiDP has a good reputation, like Ridan did. Keeping mum about my issues could end up putting someone else in Ann's shoes of needing money that the publisher doesn't send.

I haven't even been asking to be paid. On that front, I've just been asking for the royalty statements that I haven't been getting, though I told MWiDP at the beginning of this year of a way they could set things up to keep anyone from falling through the cracks.

But have I gotten the royalty statements monthly, as stipulated in my contract? Never.

For the second anthology, I haven't even gotten statements when I've asked for them.

Let's go back to the beginning…

---

October 14, 2011

I signed my first contract with MWiDP, for my novelette "PRIMpriety".

---

November 26, 2011

Anthology came out…Kindle-only. I had no Kindle-capable device at the time, so Amazon wouldn't let me buy a copy to check it out. (And yes, I am tech-savvy enough to know what I'm talking about there.) Stormy (whose stories are for mature audiences only) kindly bought a copy for me to check it out…and there wasn't a table of contents (ToC).

!

Figuring that accidents happen—and I'd helped Mark with some tech details before—I brought the issue to his attention and suggested that I might be able to make the ToC for him, depending on how he'd created the file.

He apologized, stating that it was an oversight, and said "IT is a nightmare for me". He sent me all versions of the file that he had.

Note that this all happened on the selfsame day.

I made the ToC and had it back to him within a few days.

---

December 28, 2011

I signed a contract with MWiDP for the short story "For Want of Cruelty", which I was told would appear in the 3rd anthology. (Which has never been released, so rights have reverted to me. However: I had to ask to get a specific clause that reverted rights if unexploited for X duration, so I doubt it's in their standard contract.)

---

January 21, 2012

Nearly 2 months after the release of the first anthology, and I hadn't gotten any e-mail with sales numbers, which I was contractually supposed to receive "per calendar month".

I wasn't too worried about it. Mark had been sick—snake bite, if I recall correctly—and I knew from the blog that he and Saffina had been busy. Not that busyness was reason to breach a contract, but accidents and oversights happen.

Are you feeling better? I've seen that you and Saffina have been busy. :)

Any idea when we contributors to volume one will be getting the "full sales data per calendar month"? (Wondering when to expect it, so I know when to follow up. If you have no clue when to expect it, look up the "Contract for Primpriety", point 10.)

…And, after including that little side note to remind them about their contract terms, I added another story that I'd written, same world and character.

Confession: I'd written "Hello, Kitty" in the few days before I sent it, so I was also curious about if that speed would affect the quality, to someone who already liked the narrator. From my experience ghostwriting web content, I doubted it would, but I wanted to try.

---

January 23, 2012

(Letters in square brackets are numbers, removed by me.)

Hi Misti,

This email just appeared, though appears it was sent two days ago.

Yes, fully recovered, thanks, and busy indeed, as you noticed! :-)

We're trying to get an automated system up for the sales reports. Doing them manually at the moment, and inevitably missing a few people. Sorry!

Stats for the partial month of November were [X] sales on amazon.com and [Y] on amazon.co.uk, so a respectable start. We were not expecting as much take up in the US as is the brand is not as well known there.

December stats: We put the title into KDP Select to take advantage of the five three days, to maximise exposure.

Before it went free the title had [Z] sales an am.com and [A] on am,co,uk. During the free period it had a respectable (bearing in mind the huge number of free titles suddenly available through Select) [ZZ] free downloads on am.com and [AA] on am.co.uk.

As you saw from our updates we have plans afoot to get our titles and others to a far wider audience (the Select option is only for ninety days to benefit from the free exposure), and the sales continue to build.

Once the new site is fully up and running we;ll be able to push these anthologies more, and of course each new release will add to the overall impact.

Love the Hi Kitty story, We are literally just preparing to launch volume 2 and just had to pull one title after some copyright issues (it had been published in a magazine and the author belatedly decided they had rights, not him). We could well slip Hi Kitty in if you can get the contract back asap. If not, then in Volume 3. Your last story with its mixture of vampires and such had some great private feedback btw.

I've had some e-mail flukes, myself, so I appreciated the prompt response once he'd received my e-mail. And as a self-publisher, myself, I knew how annoying it could be to get those sales numbers figured out, so I figured it would be a lot worse for someone who wasn't very tech-savvy.

I let them know about e-mail groups as a way they could send sales numbers to everyone in a specific anthology and not miss anyone.

Mark's response (still January 23rd):

Great idea. Shall look into that.

Note: When I got the contract for "Hello, Kitty", a certain clause had been removed from the previous one, a clause that had explicitly limited the exclusivity period to a certain time frame. Now, I'm no lawyer, so this isn't legal advice, but I read contracts with an eye towards "worst possible interpretation". In that case, "worst possible interpretation" was giving MWiDP full 2 years' exclusivity—and, from what I was told, other authors had insisted on that clause's removal, so my (non-professional, non–legal advice) understanding is that the contract clause therefore would be read in the publisher's favor, not in the favor of the party that insisted on the clause change.

In any event, I'd rather have an explicit timeline for exclusivity rather than a vague one that could be read in my favor or against it. Mark readily changed my contract back, and he even offered to go back and amend the second one—but that one didn't have the clause removed, so that wasn't necessary.

But I found that difference because I read my contracts—and when I have more than one from the same publisher, I compare them.

Again, I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, and I have the added confusion here of MWiDP technically being a foreign publisher, since I'm USian and they are not. I'm just pointing out that, in my little non-lawyer opinion, contract negotiators need to be careful—and I include myself in that warning.

---

March 31, 2012

My e-mail to Mark:

Hey Mark,

I've not heard any update on sales figures since the January 23rd e-mail from you, so I know nothing since December's numbers. When can I expect updates?

Everything going well? Do you have any themed anthologies coming up where you need a story? I could see if I have or can come up with something, if you like. :-)

For those of you thinking, what was she thinking, offering to write another story?

I had several reasons for saying that, among them giving Mark an opening to say "Thanks, but no thanks; we've shelved that idea for now." (I do know how to use NovelRank.)

When I'm stupid, I try to be intentional about it.

---

April 2, 2012

Mark's response:

SORRY!

Juggling too many balls at once this past month, on top of catching up with everything I'd fallen behind with.

Finally got everything ordered now and should have everything out on time and up to date hereon (for Amazon)..

See attached the latest stats, up to end February.

Vol 1 is now live on B&N and will shortly be appearing on Kobo and other platforms in the UK and internationally, but these only report quarterly figures.

Best wishes,

MW

Aw, I thought. Poor guy. I, myself, had fallen sick for pretty much the latter two full weeks of February, so I could relate.

He planned to be on time henceforth. Sounded good to me—even if he did seem to think that "full sales data per calendar month" on the contract could be read as "full sales per calendar quarter". I could live with that.

I would have accepted that.

Yeah…

---

June 28, 2012

I e-mailed Mark again.

Hi Mark,

Me, again. A few questions:

1. Sales figures update? I've received nada since the below April e-mail. (I'm in Volume 2, as well.)

2. Any ETA for when payments will go out? I've double-checked PayPal, but per my records, I've never received a payment for my contributions.

3. What's the ETA for the release of Volume 3? (Which I'm also in.)

Thanks!

Note again that my contract stipulated that I was to be getting sales figures monthly.

Rights also reverted to me after X days without being used, so technically, they had no right to include my story in volume 3, but I figured I could at least find out if they were even planning to release volume 3 before I pointed that out.

---

July 6, 2012

No response came. So this time, I e-mailed Saffina and CC'd Mark:

Hi, Sorry to trouble you, but I sent this to Mark a week ago and haven't heard back. In case it's gotten eaten by the ether, I'm passing it on to you.

1. Sales figures update? I've received nada since the below April e-mail. (I'm in Volume 2, as well.)

2. Any ETA for when payments will go out? I've double-checked PayPal, but per my records, I've never received a payment for my contributions.

Note that those two items do put MWiDP in breach of contract. Not trying to be difficult—I've been patient—but…months? And then to not get an answer after a week of bringing it up? This is getting annoying.

Also, I was looking at the contract and noticed that my contract has expired for volume 3. (Point 12 on the contract for either "For Want of Cruelty" or "Hello, Kitty"; I was told "Hello, Kitty" would be in volume 2, but I haven't been able to confirm that.)

So, in addition to the two above questions, I also have two questions regarding those stories:

1. Can you confirm which story of mine appeared in volume 2? (I've checked the online pages about the volume—even checked reviews—and can't find anything.)

2. Can you give your intentions for the other story, considering the contract has fallen void?

Thank you.

Same day, I got the below response (in response to my June 28th e-mail, not the most current one—and the time stamp did show June 29th on his version):

HI Misti!

Quick acknowledgement, In transit at moment (rainy season, so very slow). Will follow up over weekend.

MW

…Well, I thought. At least he gave me a heads-up. With the time differential, I should have an e-mail in my inbox on Monday morning.

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July 9, 2012

Monday morning, and nothing's in my inbox. Not promising.

I'd noticed that one lady in the first anthology with me also had another book recently released by MWiDP. If she's having problems, then the company's probably in trouble.

I don't have that author's permission to name her, but her response was essentially that I was a fluke, per her experiences with MWiDP.

Granted, that particular author had several books with MWiDP, not just entries in the anthology, so they had further reason to keep her happy. But maybe all the problems I was having was a fluke. Improbable, but possible.

If things had gotten resolved that week, I would've been willing to believe that. I doubt I would've ever signed with them for a book, but I would've given them the benefit of the doubt.

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July 10, 2012

Tuesday—coming up on Wednesday, for him, if my math was right—and the promised follow-up hadn't arrived.

I sent the following e-mail, forwarding the promise of follow-up below it:

Hi Mark,

I haven't gotten any e-mail from you since this one, which said you were going to follow up over the weekend. If you followed up, the ether ate it.

Also, I sent another e-mail after I noticed that the contract for #3 has fallen out of date. Also, which story of mine appeared in #2, anyway? That was never confirmed.

I was…irritated.

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July 11, 2012

Mark responded:

Just back at my "office". Rainy season barely started here, but inland travel suffering.

Following up as soon as I get settled in.

At this point, I was hoping so, Mark. I was very much hoping so.

Because I prefer not being a grouch, even when I have a right to be.

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July 17, 2012

No response had come, so I forwarded the July 11th e-mail on to Mark, saying:

Hi Mark,

Again, it's been nearly a week, and the below is the last I've received from you. If you sent something else, the ether ate it.

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July 19, 2012

Wouldn't be at all surprised! But equally morel likely fault on my part. Having one of those days when nothing goes right, and that lasts for several weeks.

Attached are the sales reports for the SDP series. Never expected miracles from them, but the results are disappointing, though perhaps not surprising given amount of free books since Select,

We plan to move beyond Amazon and get these on Kobo, B&N, etc, and just maybe tap into an area where the competition is less and have some better traction.

Pretty sure you raised some other points in your "first" email. I'll get to that very shortly and explain things in more detail. We've just had all our power and net upgraded here and in theory working better, but inevitable teething problems.

Will follow up further asap, Misti.

Best wishes,

MW

Attached was a spreadsheet that only went through June, only included the first anthology's numbers (except for an error in one month that evidently has the second anthology's instead of the first), and even had math errors in it that would've been resolved if they'd used the spreadsheet ability to calculate for them.

Despite the promise to "follow up further asap", I have not received another e-mail from MWiDP to date.

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August 13, 2012

Hi Mark,

If you've sent me another e-mail since the one below, I haven't gotten it.

Also, I found errors in that spreadsheet you sent me. It says it's for volume 1, but on one month it mentions volume 2, so I don't know if that's a typo or if volume 2's sale accidentally got in instead. Also, the "running total" amounts are wrong.

I just spent an hour adding another sheet to the spreadsheet that takes the data you handed me, highlights the problems in red (and highlights the data that's missing in yellow). The sheet I made is easier to read and update than that mess you handed me, so you might want to use that layout.

I still haven't gotten any comments on 1. what's going on on the payment end; 2. confirmation that "Hello, Kitty" was, in fact, the story that ended up in volume two; 3. sales numbers for volume two.

At this point, July's sales numbers would also be nice to have, too.

Not trying to be difficult, but please notice that it has been 2 months since I first contacted you, pointing out that I'd fallen through the cracks on getting sales reports and payment. More than once, you said you'd get back with me, and now it's nearing a month since the most recent promise to get in touch with me "ASAP".

What do I have to do for you to keep your attention long enough to have my questions answered, Mark?

I did, in fact, attach that repaired spreadsheet.

I received no response.

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August 17, 2012

Okay, Mark wasn't answering. I tried e-mailing Saffina directly:

Hi Saffi,

As you can see from the e-mails below, my questions I first raised TWO MONTHS AGO have not been answered. I've gotten a few "I'll get back to you ASAP" responses, but the response doesn't happen.

The one answer I did get was incomplete (and actually flawed, but you can see the below e-mail I sent Mark 4 days ago for the details on that).

What do I have to do to get my questions answered, Saffi? I've been polite; I've been patient. But this was ridiculous a month ago—which is when I was last told I'd get answers "ASAP". Nearly a month later, and I've still gotten no update.

I didn't get a response to that e-mail, either, though I waited.

And waited.

And put off starting the next step, because I didn't want to go here.

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October 8, 2012

I finally bit the bullet and gave due warning, sent to Saffina and Mark both, and BCC'd to my friend who's my emergency contact on my contracts for MWiDP.

See the below forwarded e-mail for my questions and issues that have been ignored for 4 months now.

I have been patient. I have been polite. That hasn't worked.

Therefore, if I do not get answers (not another "I'll get back to you" that then doesn't happen) in the next 48 hours, I will go public on Thursday about the breach of contract.

[Question e-mail was forwarded here]

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October 11, 2012

And here we are.

I haven't even been asking for them to abide by their contract terms. I've just been asking for information that I am required to get due to my contract.

And even when I ask for it, I can't get it.

So, to sum up my review of my experiences with Mark Williams International Digital Publishing (MWiDP): Ditch and avoid.

Fortunately, due to my contract, I have non-exclusive rights back to my stories at this point, regardless of which one was actually in the second anthology. I've therefore taken all three contracted stories, had them copyedited, created my own cover, and bundled them for sale*. If you're interested in another urban fantasy world that's a bit salty and gory, closer to "The Corpse Cat" than the other Darkworld stories, feel free to check it out. Be warned, though: These are salty and gory and well-dosed with black humor.

However, if you've bought one or both anthologies, please don't feel as though you need to again. E-mail me, and I'll send you a Smashwords coupon code for the stories.

Will you please help spread the word about MWiDP? Thank you.

*If you want to show solidarity and have money go to the author, please be aware that other authors have far more need of "mercy buys" than I do. For example, I understand that Ann Crispin is battling cancer. (If you like sci-fi, you might check out her Starbridge series: Amazon US | Nook | Kobo).

—Misti

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I am not asking for you to go up in arms and attack MWiDP. That does little good for someone ignoring e-mails, and I don't like the idea of using the public mediums of Twitter and Facebook to debate a private dispute.

I am asking for you to help me spread the word about MWiDP. I'll be alerting who I can about this post, but you surely know folks I don't.

These are my experiences. I make no claims as to how well (or poorly) this publisher is treating other authors. I've heard a third-hand rumor that I'm not the only one, but that was anonymous, so I can't verify it.

But from how MWiDP has responded to me, I can only recommend that they be avoided.

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Update (10/13/12):

The best update I can give is to link to the thread on KindleBoards.

Short version: Saffina Desforges had to change her e-mail address. Evidently posted on her FB about it, which I found out about because Elizabeth Ann West kindly reposted it in the thread. I e-mailed Saffina; she e-mailed me back with some of my questions answered (and I've been paid, now). She also posted in the KB thread, posting the e-mail (which included monies owed) in the thread.

She also included a gem of an insult that I just have to laugh over, because it's that or get ticked to the point of joining her level: "Maybe if the authors *hooks fingers around the words in the air* on here spent more time writing books instead of shite on here, they wouldn't be moaning about £15 quids' worth of royalties! ;-)"

I really have to take my hat off to the folks on KB on this one—they're covering all the reasons why the behavior there's appalling, so I can focus on the ludiocrity here. Because really, things have gotten ridiculous.

Update (10/15/12):

KB thread's been locked, due to some amusing but unnecessary joking that started, but I want to thank everyone who's contacting me in support—publicly and privately.

New E-Zine: Qu33n of Spades' Fiction Magazine

Edited to Add: Due to life events, the two folks who planned to start this e-zine had to table it for the foreseeable future, and all story rights have been returned to the authors.

E-zine startups are a dime a dozen, so why am I announcing one? Because Qu33n of Spades is Kayla Rose Graham, a lady I've known for a while. She was one of the early commenters on A Fistful of Fire, back when it was still 17k words long, called "Evonalé", and posted on FictionPress.com. Kayla gave me some good content feedback, even on that early version, helping me make sure my characters were solid, not Mary Sue-ish.

I think this will be one enjoyable 'zine—and I say that not knowing whether they'll accept my submission or not. As far as I'm aware, they haven't even finished hammering out all the details for how the 'zine will work, but I think Kayla will do a good job with it.

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Qu33n of Spades' Fiction Magazine accepts fiction and poetry. (No reprints.)

Fiction: Genre or literary fiction, up to 8k words long, though not erotica or excessively mature content. (So no gratuitous sex, violence, or objectionable language.)

Poetry: 1 poem of no more than 50 lines or up to 5 poems of no more than 30 lines each. (Same content guidelines as the fiction.)

Rights: specific rights still getting hammered out, but looks like it'll be a form of first rights, archival rights, and 6 months' exclusivity

Payment: income share

Submission Deadline: May 31, 2012

(for June issue)

E-mail qu33nofspades [dot] fiction [at] gmail [dot] com for more details.

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As I mentioned above, I've submitted. It's a story that I think fits Kayla's goals for the 'zine, though she's not yet told me if I'm right.

From a business standpoint, submitting to a startup is always a gamble. There's no track record for how well that specific company will sell, how long they'll be around, or how they treat their authors (or editors). I'm trusting that Kayla get the e-zine off the ground—and in a worst-case scenario, I'm looking at that "6 month exclusivity" and thinking I can live with not releasing that particular short story for another 9 months, if it comes to that. (Assuming 3 months to verify that the 'zine isn't coming out late.)

But startups can't get off the ground if nobody submits, so each writer has to decide if they'll participate for themselves. Personally, I like working with startups.

What do you think of the sound of Qu33n of Spades' Fiction Magazine? Do you think you'll check it out to read or submit to?

—Misti