Kat-Cat has sold more of my books

All my novels are now out-of-print. The now-former head of Double Dragon Publishing, Deron, sent the inevitable email. He had closed the company and sold it off to a "UK publisher." He says that his season is over with the publishing world. He will not return this way. He considers selling the domain name and imprint to be good news. It is good from his perspective, as he received some return on his decades-long investment. It doesn't do much for any of his former authors. I allow a small hope that this new company interested in the business of publishing will solicit me.

When I asked Deron months before if he would ever reopen submissions, he said that he didn't want to release new material. Too much work with too little reward. He blamed an industry-wide decline in sales. This seems less universal. Some companies persist in brisk sales during the pandemic, but it requires an active hustle. The former Double Dragon did not have social media accounts, which seemed to be a critical oversight for a company pushing their ebooks.

All this is to say that I get it. What this company was, what this industry was, when Deron formed it was not what it could be anymore. It required a skillset and motivation that wasn't necessary fifteen years ago. He isn't wrong to sell out and move on. I simply wish that the authors (me in specific) were left in a better position. Had he sold the name to a more successful publisher, an upstart on the Big Five's radar, I would be telling a cheerier story.

Deron says that, unlike him, the man who bought the name actively promotes titles signed to him. It is odd to hear this man with whom I've worked all these years admit that he didn't promote. When I signed with them, they were already beginning their wind down, it feels in retrospect. There was still enough verve to them, enough hope, that it was difficult to see at the time.

When Deron shares the name of the company, Fiction4All, it sounds less like a publisher and more like a website for affiliate links. Whatever the name is, Fiction4All will not be Double Dragon.

The new owner of the imprint, Stuart, refers to this as a "takeover," which is more militant than I think it was. Deron was looking to leave the industry and this man was kind enough to drive the final nail into the coffin.

Stuart says that he is happy to find a good home for our titles if we chose to continue with the new Double Dragon. I want to believe this is sincere.

I search for a way that this could work out. This is not because I am won over by this statement but because that would be easier for me. The Fiction4All website is designed like something from the early 2000s. This design is shared by all their imprints. If I were a reader looking for my next book and happened upon this site, I would keep looking. We do tend to judge by covers. Books, yes, but websites absolutely.

When I check out the new Double Dragon Twitter, I find that I am the only person to follow it. There are two tweets, both explaining that they now own the name. It is far better than no presence at all. The rest of the social media presence is similarly unassuming.

Most of the covers are stock photos with titles impose on top of them. They seem less designed than generated. I do not know if Fiction4All made these covers or if they only acquired the company that did and stuck with the established art.

This seems to be what Fiction4All does: buys the names and domains of small publishers who have gone under. Their stable of authors seems small, but it is hard to judge from what I get from their sites and searching their name on Amazon. The point of these purchases may not be the reputation of the previous owners of those names but the ability to redirect their sites to his.

Also, the number of typos I find on their site (and report to Stuart when I write to him as a gift for tolerating my letter) exceed double digits. This is enough to give any author pause. If I were coming to Fiction4All cold, those would be reason enough to keep moving. This is particularly so given that their site states that they sell editorial packages to anyone whose book is not yet up to snuff. I ask Stuart if he is one of the editors, meaning this as neutrally as I can. He states that he has other people who do this.

From their website--there is a paucity of information about them outside their site--it seems that the company is predominantly erotica. Though I'm sex-positive, I also would not want people to search for my books and see a Chuck Tingle knockoff. What little internet buzz I can find mentions their "dark" smut involving situations that would get the books yanked from Amazon, forced sex and underaged participants. I do not know if this is true or the whispers of people with a chip on their shoulders.

A year ago, Deron wrote a letter assuring us that they were not going out of business despite rumors and behavior. He claimed then that he had received offers to buy Double Dragon, some overgenerous. He stated then that he wasn't giving up because there was a downturn in sales. I took this then as bluster. I cannot imagine that Fiction4All wrote a check that contained more than three digits.

I started my career as a novelist delighted by Double Dragon, largely because they signed me as quickly as they could. Though the cover of We Shadows was not as I imagined, my editor for it assured me that my vocabulary was grand. It would be a while before I realized how inconsistently he had edited the book, how many tense errors and typos still existed. Still, Deron had tried to secure the rights to my books for the Syfy Channel, though nothing ever came from that. It was only a few weeks after I signed that heavily amended contract that I accepted that buying a lottery ticket was a surer jackpot than my first book making it to screen.

Deron blames Amazon for this demise, which he places as starting three years ago. We can't know how accurate the timeframe is, but it is undeniable that Amazon is the most influential force in contemporary publishing. If one isn't willing to play ball with them, one can't play at all. I had thought that Double Dragon was, to the extent possible, playing too well. It irritated me when, instead of publishing Flies to Wanton Boys under their imprint, they did it through Kindle Direct Publishing. I could have done that myself and, now, I will have to.

I have sold hundreds more books face-to-face than Double Dragon ever did online. There was little and brief attention toward publicizing the authors. It was all about new acquisitions. The money came not from making the company marketable, but from a larger pool of talent in need of their own books to sell. In the last few months, one of the authors reached out to Double Dragon. Deron told her that, if only each author bought twenty-five of their book from Deron, the company could stay open. (Not, of course, that it was closing. Perish the very thought). When I responded that I had over a hundred of my books in boxes under my bed, awaiting sale, I am met with silence. No matter how many author copies I ordered, it was not going to be enough to save Double Dragon.

How could it come to this? Double Dragon's wiki page claims that the former Double Dragon sold 45,000 books a year. Given that Deron told me that he was making under $200 a month from it, that information is at best out of date if not entirely fabricated. There is no source. As it also claims that DDP has the largest catalog of science fiction and fantasy in print, equally uncited, it might be best to treat the entry as embellished.

Deron is doing what is best for him and his family, and I cannot fault him for that. His heart wasn't in this. I feel hung out to dry, but it was not as though any of this was a great surprise.

I scrubbed any mention of Double Dragon from my website and social media months ago, knowing that I could no longer hitch my star to them. It was a dying brand, one that won't be improved now, even though it will continue in this cannibalized form.

When I write my letter to Stuart, I have nearly made up my mind, but I want to know that I gave it a chance. I may be both cynical and overcautious. Though I appreciate that Stuart replies with a letter that touches on some--but far from all--of my points, it only makes me more certain.

I needed to be thorough before I decline to join. I make obnoxiously clear to him, to get it out of the way, that I will not pay him for a single service. Publishers make money by selling books to readers, not from trying to nickel-and-dime gullible would-be authors. Better that I am borderline rude now than deal with used car salesman sliminess later. To his credit, Stuart takes this well or at least understands that I am not the right market for publication services. His origin story leading to the creation of Fiction4All involves a vanity publisher burning him to the tune of thousands of dollars. I do think he has the editorial package because he gets some dross sent to him. If a manuscript is particularly egregious, Stuart does reject it. There is only so much he can do, even for a price.

He states that he doesn't know who I am. It would have been easy to click one of the three links I provided to him to show my bona fides or even google my name, but he doesn't. I had done an hour's research into Stuart and his website, but reciprocity was not promised.

It is estimated that there were over eight hundred books signed to Double Dragon before this acquisition. In a few weeks, Stuart claims he has the publishing rights to a hundred. Republishing an eighth of the catalog is no minor boast. Are the authors of the other seven hundred books making the same decision I am?

Those twenty authors and their hundred books are something, but the branding of the new Double Dragon isn't there for me. Fiction4All doesn't look like a publisher because it doesn't have to. His business model does not necessitate the effort that would usually go into publishing. For the authors now under his umbrella, the editing and covers are done. He just needs to put their books on his site and sit back. If they sell, good. If they don't, he didn't have to pay them an advance.

The site says he had eight hundred authors (odd that this number keeps coming up) before acquiring Double Dragon. I couldn't find evidence of this number but ask him who some of his bestsellers are so that I can look them up. Getting in touch with them would clarify what one can expect from signing a three-year contract with Fiction4All.

Stuart does not answer.

His site said that any author not willing to subscribe to his newsletters should not bother signing. I found this bizarre. He says it was because he wants them to keep up with the hot goss in the industry. Unsubscribing to junk mail shouldn't lead to being unpublished.

Stuart does seem otherwise flexible and understanding, asking for author engagement. If he were running a traditional house, even if it were not the size I would hope, I would consider working with him for that. It is easy to feel ignored in the publishing world, even if the Big Five sign one. It almost makes me sorry that I cannot sign with him, but not sorry enough that I would change that.

On Amazon, the available copies of my novels jump in price. I am sure this is indicative only of some algorithm leaping to attention when a book is removed from sale.

Deron offers to sell us the cover art and setup files, neither of which are useful to him now. I don't want his cover art. Aside from the relatively reserved cover of Artificial Gods, I have never felt they grabbed my potential audience. I am going to reedit my books, so his setup files would be out of date. Of course, they are no longer worth anything to him and he will delete them, but he asserts that this is his right as the artist. Better deleted by him than given to the authors to whom they might be useful.

Some resentment on my part is not unwarranted. I had hoped when I first signed with Double Dragon that this would be my stepping stone to bigger and better things. In a small way, it was, but only to the degree that I could say that I was traditionally published. Beyond that, every step forward was entirely on my own. I contacted conventions and events, earning my place at No Such Convention, Otakon, and the Pine Bush UFO Fair. I spoke to libraries about buying my books. I sat behind tables and explained my books to hundreds of people. I sold hundreds of books. I learned how to be a better author. Double Dragon didn't do any of these things for me.

I don't want any of this to seem as though I am disparaging Stuart's business. What he does works for him and he persists where others have given up. He isn't a publisher, but he isn't trying to trick anyone that I can tell. I found his response to my letter sincere and thorough, albeit incomplete.

In several ways--more reasonable pricing on books, clearer ways to see royalties, and more frequent payouts--what Stuart does seems like a leg-up on how Double Dragon was run before. He is transparent and upfront as far as I can tell, a straight shooter.

I consult with a Big-Name Author (whose big name it is unwise to share while complaining of my lot), whose biggest wish is that the former Double Dragon Publishing delivers on the promise to pay out final royalties. As mine conveniently reached the threshold by a matter of pennies, I have every right to hope the same. I would like to cash that check to finally close this chapter of my literary career. I hope I will not be put in the position of pestering Deron for a check.

The Big-Name agrees that Fiction4All is not a publisher, just an aggregator or distributor of books. They will do nothing for me that I could not do better myself. She said that she would hang onto her rights and self-publish rather than tying herself to a company that isn't going to provide support services to justify they cut they take.

For the last decade, I have tentatively relied on Double Dragon. When people asked about my books, I could point them to a company that had published hundreds of books. Even when I saw the company faltering, I could still cling to being traditionally published.

And I was traditionally published. I will be again, though not likely with my Night's Dream series. (I will keep writing it, but I will self-published sequels out of the necessity of the industry; agents and publishers are not interested in series from unsuccessful publishers.)

The Double Dragon name, such as it is, will take on a new patina. One that, to be honest, I would not want to be associated with me. I do not cherish the idea of being self-published now, as moderately successful as I have been at it. Fiction4All is not my solution to this.

I will have new covers. I will re-edit so that my books are the best they can be. Next year, I will republish them all and, gods willing, I will be querying a new book.

This is a bump in my road, but it is not the end of it.

last watched: Dark
reading: Storm Front