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Sleeping With the Enemy?
Kiana Davenport, the Hawaiian writer whose publisher canceled her forthcoming novel after accusing her of dallying with Amazon, has a new publisher: Amazon.
For those of you who missed this ongoing saga, here's Kiana's summation of what was going on, back in August, 2011 -- "Sleeping With the Enemy: A Cautionary Tale."
I bring this to you, fellow professionals and my readers, because I believe Kiana's tail to her title is a huge, hulking shadow beast looming up in our headlights. What does this portend for our own futures? How do we handle our own possible Rubicons?
The essentials are this -- Kiana was under contract to Penguin Books for a novel that will be released in hardcover in August, 2012 as THE SPY LOVER. This Civil War tale is coming out under the Thomas & Mercer imprint. Mass market paperback, and probably ebook, would follow a year after. Penguin, it should be noted, had turned down Ms. Davenport's new work. Such an action generally leaves an author as a free agent.
Ms. Davenport is a noted short story writer. She needed money, so she created two collections of her work -- mostly reprints, salted with a few new stories -- and released one of them before the contract with Penguin was signed, and the other this past summer (July, 2011.) Some of you may remember reading that she was deeply depressed at that time, over her cash flow situation. The release of that short collection may have literally saved her life.
The reviews I've found of the collection (apparently available only as a Kindle book) have been loud and full of praise. New York publishers, including Penguin, were offered these collections, and all turned them down. Short fiction is often a gamble, and for whatever reason, NYC chose not to publish Kiana's short works.
So Kiana did what most contemporary writers would do -- she released the stories herself, using the simplest manner available. Amazon is the obvious first choice, and I would have done a PubIt! version, too. Apparently Kiana didn't do a PubIt! version, at least not one currently available. She may have her short collections in the Amazon promotion that requires pulling all other formats while in Amazon's special class.
I chose joining a cooperative (Book View Cafe) to release my work, and try to save special promotions for that venue. I receive 95% of the money received there from my books, and BVC is the only place I sell DRM-free books. I prefer DRM-Free, but was advised to lock the books at Amazon & B&N when I posted them there. In hindsight, I would not do that, but that's how it went at the time.
Maybe Kiana did not have friends and acquaintances banding together to help promote their works. Maybe she had no time, energy or money to use toward a package for her ebook. Amazon made it easy, as Amazon often does. At any rate, she made the (I think) sensible choice of putting up Kindle versions of the books for the time being. If a small publisher asked to publish her collections in paper, and wanted her to pull the ebook editions (in favor of a publisher ebook version) I'm sure she would have complied.
Now -- from the released facts, at no time was Kiana Davenport in literal violation of her contract with Penguin. She sold no novels to any other publishers to be released against her new novel, and she did not attempt to write anything between SPY LOVER and her next contracted novel for Penguin. But most contracts have a non-compete clause -- usually an ill-defined one.
Kiana did release her back list short stories.
Penguin went ballistic.
Penguin Books did not simply tell her that they felt this would damage their release of her novel (how does releasing a collection of award-winning short stories hurt a novel release?) and then ask her to pull the books. No, it went nuts, even trying to get her to pull the first collection. Once it was pointed out that the first collection went out before Kiana signed her contract with Penguin, the publisher concentrated on CANNIBAL NIGHTS.
What possible pressure from above would make an editor scream over the phone at one of her writers, accusing her of collusion with the enemy -- Amazon?
Here's Kiana's version of Penguin's demands:
So, here is what the publisher demanded. That I immediately and totally delete CANNIBAL NIGHTS from Amazon, iNook, iPad, and all other e-platforms. Plus, that I delete all Google hits mentioning me and CANNIBAL NIGHTS. Currently, that's about 600,000 hits. (How does one even do that?) Plus that I guarantee in writing I would not self-publish another ebook of any of my backlog of works until my novel with them was published in hardback and paperback. In other words they were demanding that I agree to be muzzled for the next two years, to sit silent and impotent as a writer, in a state of acquiescence and, consequently, utter self-loathing.
Indeed, how does one try to delete what must now be a million hits? How does a publisher casually toss this kind of publicity away? Why did they not immediately negotiate a "collector's edition" in print and ebook, of both short story collections?
Doesn't anyone have vision anymore?
Never have writers been able to sit on their hands, waiting to see what happens with a future book. We must write, and we must attempt to sell -- if not to the current publisher, then to another publisher. The most we can reasonably be asked not to do is write a book with the same characters as the book in question.
Kiana chose not to attempt to delete a million Google hits. She hadn't done anything wrong, in my opinion. That this is a mess that surely could have been handled better seems obvious to me. The end result is, Penguin is keeping the hardback rights and releasing the book this summer -- and Amazon has bought the paper and ebook rights.
Thus Penguin shoots themselves in the foot again? All their promotion for this book, a book by an award-winning author -- and they let the tail go to another publisher, nay, to the "publisher" that has them in hysterics?
Can an editor explain this to me?
At this point, I am now definitely wondering if anything I plan to write after I finish my current book should come out under another name -- even books I could not sell before, good books that did not fit NYC's vision of what kind of writer I should be. Shall I carefully segregate my work, publishing under different names and keeping even my closest friends guessing?
What do you think? What's going on here? How could this have been handled better?
Most importantly for us -- how do we keep from becoming the next Davenport disaster?
If I haven't said it -- if you're a big short story fan, you should definitely look into her collections, CANNIBAL NIGHTS and HOUSE OF SKIN. Kiana will take you places you have never been before. Alice Walker said of her work: "She exhibits the character great writers must have, passionate love of people, dedication to the memory of people who have suffered. You can't read Kiana Davenport without being transformed."
For those of you who missed this ongoing saga, here's Kiana's summation of what was going on, back in August, 2011 -- "Sleeping With the Enemy: A Cautionary Tale."
I bring this to you, fellow professionals and my readers, because I believe Kiana's tail to her title is a huge, hulking shadow beast looming up in our headlights. What does this portend for our own futures? How do we handle our own possible Rubicons?
The essentials are this -- Kiana was under contract to Penguin Books for a novel that will be released in hardcover in August, 2012 as THE SPY LOVER. This Civil War tale is coming out under the Thomas & Mercer imprint. Mass market paperback, and probably ebook, would follow a year after. Penguin, it should be noted, had turned down Ms. Davenport's new work. Such an action generally leaves an author as a free agent.
Ms. Davenport is a noted short story writer. She needed money, so she created two collections of her work -- mostly reprints, salted with a few new stories -- and released one of them before the contract with Penguin was signed, and the other this past summer (July, 2011.) Some of you may remember reading that she was deeply depressed at that time, over her cash flow situation. The release of that short collection may have literally saved her life.
The reviews I've found of the collection (apparently available only as a Kindle book) have been loud and full of praise. New York publishers, including Penguin, were offered these collections, and all turned them down. Short fiction is often a gamble, and for whatever reason, NYC chose not to publish Kiana's short works.
So Kiana did what most contemporary writers would do -- she released the stories herself, using the simplest manner available. Amazon is the obvious first choice, and I would have done a PubIt! version, too. Apparently Kiana didn't do a PubIt! version, at least not one currently available. She may have her short collections in the Amazon promotion that requires pulling all other formats while in Amazon's special class.
I chose joining a cooperative (Book View Cafe) to release my work, and try to save special promotions for that venue. I receive 95% of the money received there from my books, and BVC is the only place I sell DRM-free books. I prefer DRM-Free, but was advised to lock the books at Amazon & B&N when I posted them there. In hindsight, I would not do that, but that's how it went at the time.
Maybe Kiana did not have friends and acquaintances banding together to help promote their works. Maybe she had no time, energy or money to use toward a package for her ebook. Amazon made it easy, as Amazon often does. At any rate, she made the (I think) sensible choice of putting up Kindle versions of the books for the time being. If a small publisher asked to publish her collections in paper, and wanted her to pull the ebook editions (in favor of a publisher ebook version) I'm sure she would have complied.
Now -- from the released facts, at no time was Kiana Davenport in literal violation of her contract with Penguin. She sold no novels to any other publishers to be released against her new novel, and she did not attempt to write anything between SPY LOVER and her next contracted novel for Penguin. But most contracts have a non-compete clause -- usually an ill-defined one.
Kiana did release her back list short stories.
Penguin went ballistic.
Penguin Books did not simply tell her that they felt this would damage their release of her novel (how does releasing a collection of award-winning short stories hurt a novel release?) and then ask her to pull the books. No, it went nuts, even trying to get her to pull the first collection. Once it was pointed out that the first collection went out before Kiana signed her contract with Penguin, the publisher concentrated on CANNIBAL NIGHTS.
What possible pressure from above would make an editor scream over the phone at one of her writers, accusing her of collusion with the enemy -- Amazon?
Here's Kiana's version of Penguin's demands:
So, here is what the publisher demanded. That I immediately and totally delete CANNIBAL NIGHTS from Amazon, iNook, iPad, and all other e-platforms. Plus, that I delete all Google hits mentioning me and CANNIBAL NIGHTS. Currently, that's about 600,000 hits. (How does one even do that?) Plus that I guarantee in writing I would not self-publish another ebook of any of my backlog of works until my novel with them was published in hardback and paperback. In other words they were demanding that I agree to be muzzled for the next two years, to sit silent and impotent as a writer, in a state of acquiescence and, consequently, utter self-loathing.
Indeed, how does one try to delete what must now be a million hits? How does a publisher casually toss this kind of publicity away? Why did they not immediately negotiate a "collector's edition" in print and ebook, of both short story collections?
Doesn't anyone have vision anymore?
Never have writers been able to sit on their hands, waiting to see what happens with a future book. We must write, and we must attempt to sell -- if not to the current publisher, then to another publisher. The most we can reasonably be asked not to do is write a book with the same characters as the book in question.
Kiana chose not to attempt to delete a million Google hits. She hadn't done anything wrong, in my opinion. That this is a mess that surely could have been handled better seems obvious to me. The end result is, Penguin is keeping the hardback rights and releasing the book this summer -- and Amazon has bought the paper and ebook rights.
Thus Penguin shoots themselves in the foot again? All their promotion for this book, a book by an award-winning author -- and they let the tail go to another publisher, nay, to the "publisher" that has them in hysterics?
Can an editor explain this to me?
At this point, I am now definitely wondering if anything I plan to write after I finish my current book should come out under another name -- even books I could not sell before, good books that did not fit NYC's vision of what kind of writer I should be. Shall I carefully segregate my work, publishing under different names and keeping even my closest friends guessing?
What do you think? What's going on here? How could this have been handled better?
Most importantly for us -- how do we keep from becoming the next Davenport disaster?
If I haven't said it -- if you're a big short story fan, you should definitely look into her collections, CANNIBAL NIGHTS and HOUSE OF SKIN. Kiana will take you places you have never been before. Alice Walker said of her work: "She exhibits the character great writers must have, passionate love of people, dedication to the memory of people who have suffered. You can't read Kiana Davenport without being transformed."