Hallelujah?
I had so many thoughts that I felt it might be best to share them on the blog rather than let them spin inside my head. So, here goes.
My qualifiers here are that I have a terrible memory, which means exact detail and sequence may not be exact. I'm also pretty lazy, which means checking up on dates and sequences of events is something I'm not going to do. What I lay out below will not be perfect, but the spirit will be accurate.
As an opening, I was offered the chance of having a couple of my books published with All Due Respect (who, I think at that time were already under the D&O umbrella). Chris Rhatigan was at the ADR helm and he was a real shining star of integrity, talent and enthusiasm. He took on my novella Smoke (which had previously been published by the wonderful Blasted Heath who closed their doors in an exemplary way, looking after authors with respect, kindness and a hint of regret - hats off to Allan Guthrie and Kyle MacRae for that) and my novel In Loco Parentis. The quality of interaction with Chris was high, his editing superb and the covers were top notch (the one for In Loco Parentis by JT Lindroos is still my personal favourite). The books came out and they sold in trickles, as is typical with noir fiction on the whole, and I was very happy.
Some time later, I completed the first book of the Rat Pack series, Let It Snow. It was a deliberate attempt to create something with a wider appeal, being a little more mainstream and rooted in my passion for Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. I sent it to D&O and was thrilled to have the book accepted (I wasn't sure it had been read, given the quick turnaround, but I had a good reputation and I was already on their books, so it was no major surprise). Even better, or so I thought, there was the offer for the first three books in the series (I'd mentioned the plan in my approach) and I grabbed it with both hands.
When I passed on the news to a respected and very experienced writer friend, he was less enthusiastic than I'd expected. He was especially doubtful about the three-book deal and suggested I change that right away. I explained that, because I had signed the contracts, I felt honour-bound to stick to my word. he tried to talk me out of it, explaining that it really was no big deal for me to change my mind, but I felt I couldn't change my decision even if I realised I was most likely wrong.
Let It Snow's beginnings were a bit shaky. The editing process was more complicated than I was used to. The cover was rather generic. Everything took a little more time that I expected and felt a little clunky, but the book eventually came out and there was a reasonable landing. It found a small audience, but not one as wide as I felt it deserved. They did get me an interview, in fairness, which was as far as promotion seemed to go.
Undaunted, I moved on to writing My Funny Valentine. This was stronger than Book 1, was much tighter and delved deeper into the characters and developed their lives really well. This time, I had some issues with the cover. The first suggestions were terrible. So were the next. I was surprised at the difference between the genius of JT and the new ideas. Eventually, I made a few suggestions and when a half-decent cover came out I accepted it. What worried me most was that there was no sense of this being a series. There was no attempt to suggest any continuity in the books and that didn't make sense.
After each release, I heard back from some trusted readers that there were numerous mistakes in the text (partly my fault, I'm sure) that I'd expected to have been ironed out in the editing process. Lists of errors were long, some translations from the UK to the US were baffling. It was disappointing, but I was grateful for the help of my friends and manuscripts were updated.
Along the way, there were several updates (six-monthly?) on sales and payments were made as expected. And sales were improving. That was, in the main, because I was lucky enough to get a non-US Bookbub for Let It Snow. I explained to the publisher that I had this arranged and that I needed the price drop to be on time (which it was). I paid for it myself and tried to rally some energy and support from D&O - perhaps they'd work on interviews and blogposts as well as social media support and maybe even take out a few cheaper ads of their own. They suggested nothing. It became clear to me at that point that promotions and sales weren't their forte; in fact, I'd go further and suggest that they had no interest in promotion or sales as far as I could see, which was weird (I thought that was what publishers were meant to focus upon once books were taken on).
I began watching the sales rankings on other Down & Out releases. They were always woeful. I kept seeing enthusiastic posts about writers who had signed contracts with them and my heart sank every time. Maybe I should have expressed my concerns publicly at that point as a warning to others, but getting a publisher feels like such a big deal that I didn't want to burst bubbles. I also felt some kind of loyalty to the family. Looking back, I wish I'd handled things differently.
By the time Aint That A Kick In The Head came out, I had all but given up on sales and promotion. Rather than feel like a hub of activity and energy, D&O felt more like collectors of crime titles than anything else. I looked upon them as a graveyard for crime writers (and many amazing writers at that).
It was about this time that communication pretty much dried up.
Gone were the regular sales updates and payments, even though I could see that my titles were still occasionally selling. In the end, I became so frustrated that I contacted them and asked for updates. Lance gave me a fairly quick reply (in fairness, he always responded to my questions and was always supportive and polite). I also got some payment at that point, which was about a year ago as far as I can remember, and I was grateful for that.
And then came the sudden news of their demise. An email to all us authors informing us that D&O was shutting its doors.
My first reaction was one of relief, I kid you not. I had often thought about asking to get the rights back anyway. I'd seen others I respect doing so. I didn't feel any books there got the support they deserved. I was resigned to the Rat Pack novels just sinking into the mulch and disappearing forever.
And then I reread the email. There would be no payments offered to authors for any sales already made.
WTF?
They had to be kidding, right? I can't have been understanding them correctly.
And yet, it was exactly what they meant.
I didn't feel bad for myself because if they owed me anything, it was probably in the low tens of dollars and that only because I'd chased it up a year before. But the others out there? Some were royally screwed.
Beau Johnson was the most vocal about the shoddy treatment. He was led to believe that there was a future for more of his books with them and went on heavily promoting his work while the plug was being pulled. In short, it appears that D&O happily allowed Beau to continue making money for them (inlcuding a big order of books made for an event) when they had no intention of honouring payments. Which is appalling.
There will be others left heavily out of pocket, too. The whole thing is a disgrace. It tarnishes Eric Campbell's reputation. Makes you wonder what he was thinking. I know a lot of folk have said he's a terrific guy. I've never met him, but after this, I'd suggest that he really isn't. There may be extenuating circumstances (mental health, financial etc), so I don't want to go in too heavily just in case, but it feels like theft and fraud to me. It's certainly not the way to go about business and is definitely an insult to friends and colleagues alike.
I suspect things just failed so badly that the only thing to do was to shut the doors. It failed so badly because it had no sense of direction or purpose other than as a collector and, possibly, a badge of honour and status that really was worthless.
And then there was the inevitable chaos that followed the demise.
From my point of view, Lance did everything. As he wasn't in control, he was (it seemed to me) stuck in the middle. There were mentions of rights being returned, yet it wasn't automatic (there were many authors, so perhaps the delays were inevitable). Eventually, and upon request, the rights of all five of my books came back. I asked for covers (the Rat Pack ones weren't really of interest, but I felt it would be good to have original copies anyway, preferably without the logo) which never appeared. I asked several times (scratched records) for the return of best-copy manuscripts and eventually got them (I never asked for best-copies upon completion of editing earlier on, so this was really important in terms of saving me huge effort when looking for a new direction). I didn't bother asking for money.
And there was also the period (possibly still ongoing) where books were available for sale even though rights were returned. The distributor may have been slow here, but it's still very unsatisfactory.
On the positive side, JT Lindroos (occasional cover designer for D&O) was steady and professional. He dug out a copy of the ILP cover he designed to send to me and took it further, removing the logo and adjusting the cover to accommodate that change. He also got onto Facebook and offered the covers to any authors if he had them. Just a nice, thoughtful and human thing to do. I also had some kind words of support from some old Facebook friends and all of them were gratefully received.
The whole thing has been a shambles, so when I saw that festive update, I practically choked on my bile.
It turns out that there is to be a resurrection of Down & Out. I'm unclear as to what this means for authors who choose to stick around. I emailed the address offered by the new boss/es and had a very prompt response from Joe, which was reassuring.
I can't know how things have moved from one owner to another. I suspect Joe (and others?) has taken this one without any money changing hands and that it's a genuine attempt to salvage something from the ashes. I really hope this is the case. As far as I can tell, payments due from the previous owners are still not going to be made; in the circumstances, I don't feel Joe should automatically shoulder this and believe this is still on Eric's plate.
I'll be happy to support a future incarnation of D&O, but not with my books. For authors considering sending submissions, I'd urge the utmost caution. Be patient. Watch for a while Wait and see how this pans out.
I hope there will be positive outcomes as things change. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.
