Iris Print passing dud cheques

[erastes]

Which is an offence, although a rarely prosecuted one.

R W Day received a royalty cheque which promptly bounced, which she blogged about here.  She requests that no-one buys any new copies of her book-and I don't blame her, it seems any royalties are to be royally trousered by Kellie Lynch. Or as a friend quipped yesterday, deserves to be Lynch-ed.

The royalty theft is bad enough but it must be hugely frustrating not to have any response to any communications, I'm so bloody angry about this I could spit. I hope that I never run into Ms Lynch.

Job hunting sucks.  I had to go for my interview at the Job Centre today and how posh!  Where did the job boards go? It's all digital now, with machines like the sort of thing you get in Argos that prints out the details of jobs you can apply for.  However - it doesn't matter how much they pretty up Job Centres they are still filled with the great unwashed.  I guess that includes me now.

Found a job called "FIELD INTERVIEWER." it's in London though, so it can't be that busy.

"And how long have you been a field?"

"What crops have you had planted in you?"

"Organic or not? What's your position?"

*snarf*

Comments

[muroku.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to find R.W. Day's blog because www.rwday.net is offline.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

oops - forgot the link

http://rwday.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/iris-woes-again/

Yes, she's let her website lapse and is just using her wordpress blog for now.

[aunty_marion]

Yes, could have told you about the JobCentre machines had you asked me! All very snazzy, as are the !!! comfortable chairs/sofas !!! Dear god, look what they spend taxpayers' money on these days... However, the machines still only hold the same crap jobs as the old boards had - that is, scum jobs, menial, catering, part-time and hideously-specialised 'trades' jobs. Once in a while I find something half-way decent, but when you bother looking up the company on the net, you realise you wouldn't work for them if they paid you. Oh, hang on...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

There were some decent jobs, and I've been surprised -thinking (because Steeles had always told me so) - that I was overpaid, that I wasn't, and jobs at my level are generally a good 2k over what I'd been getting!

I'd rather not work at all, but that's not an option in the long run. *sob*

[alankria.livejournal.com]

Kellie's actions are so cowardly. I really really hope rwday gets her rights back, and gets her lawfully owed money too.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Me too, I'm sure she'll get her rights, but I doubt she'll get her money.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

"And how long have you been a field?"

As long as the farmer doesn't know.

"What crops have you had planted in you?"

Crops...how do you spell prOn again? *innocent expression*

"Organic or not? What's your position?"

Horizontal?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*giggling madly*

[enolabloodygay.livejournal.com]

Why can't you sign on at my Jobcentre? I could really enjoy listening to your comments as you trawled through our jobs!

Funnily enough, I struggle to find the 'crap' jobs these days that Aunty Marion refers to, it's all good jobs for all down here in the affluent South and Glod help anyone who doesn't at least have a degree.

Out of boredom, I search regularly for dancing jobs - you'd be amazed at what we are allowed to advertise these days!

Sorry I haven't been around on MSN recently - I have worked 4 nights out of 5 at the Angel recently and am off Oop North tomorrow for a week. When I get back I am having an AWANO (Anti Wedding Anniversary Night Out)followed by more working evenings. Will catch up with you soon, I promise, but I am watching your LJ to keep up with you. Love you. xx

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I did find some decent sounding jobs, so I'll be applying today. But gah! The Unwashed! They were scary! And it didn't help that the Security guy wasn't actually doing his job and was chatting to another guy far away from the door about cars and people kept blundering in and wandering about before the guard found them. Not very secure.

I have missed you, but it sounds like you are having fun, which is important. Catch up soon! I have broadband!!!

Iris

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

I've been loath to say nasty things, because, damn. Shit happens. But this has gone from unprofessional to criminal. Ack.

Re: Iris

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, I couldn't agree more. Interestingly, they aren't even listed on Preditors and Editors but I've emailed them to tell them anyway.

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

Funny, way back in the day, some people on my F-List (http://ctrl-issue.livejournal.com/296275.html) wouldn't allow me to call Iris Press a vanity press, but now that things have finally gone the way I rather expected them to, I can't even call it a press. *frowns* Note my icon. I don't even get to say, "I told you so!" *stamps foot*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No, I wouldn't call it a press, either. I'd rather not use the words I would like to use. I'll repeat what I said on that thread though is that RWD went into it, in good faith, as did all of the authors. I still don't think it was a vanity press (she didn't for example - like many small publishers such as Dreamspinner and others - set it up to publish her own works and those of her friends. Every publisher has to start somewhere, but in this case I it seems that KL just didn't have the capital and the business sense to operate such a venture.

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

I think part of the problem was that she spent more on advertising than she did on product. If she had started off with more of a base business, such as more than two books to advertise, and if she had done the advertising when she had the books, then it mght have gone better for her.

If she had started making books, and letting those sell first, to get a "name" of sorts going, it would have been so much easier. She would have the capital from the book sales already generating (because I know that she was capable of selling on Amazon, and that she was already "linked in" to the yaoi book base), which would have paid for sending out flyers or small postcard sized advertisement to different cons like Yaoi-Con, Yaoi Jamboree, or even other places. In that respect, she wouldn't have spent so much time, effort, or money on touring the country touting a business that didn't have much in the way of product.

Promises aren't product, after all.

But that's just my thoughts, and I'm more of a Comm Arts major than a Business one.

[ggymeta.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Unless the definition of 'vanity press' has changed...I can tell you that Iris Print wasn't a vanity press.

We never paid her to publish our work--we had to submit and be considered, and she paid an advance against royalties, and never published herself.

I'm not happy with Iris either ATM :(

My opinion, not worth the two cents...

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

Actually, other than one or two books, with a few on the way, I hadn't heard of her publishing anything.

More or less, I was going with the concept that she was an ePublisher (because even some of those have "published" books) and that was why I called her a vanity publisher. RWGA (Romance Writer's Guild of Amerca) considered ePublishers to be vanity presses as of last year (I believe).

Now, I have nothing against the vanity publishers, or ePublishers, or whathaveyou. I just call them as I see them unless I get information proving me wrong. In this case, I am wrong because, as far as I'm concerned, she wasn't a vanity press because she wasn't even a press at all.

I know that there are a lot of qualifiers in this post, but like the title says, it's my opinion. Everyone has one, and I prefer to own mine.

Re: My opinion, not worth the two cents...

[ggymeta.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Sorry, I always associate ePublishers with being pubs that actively produce 'online content' and then go to print content. The gist of the term "ePublisher" suggests an exclusive "medium" produced online or on disk, rather then in print format. Unless you're calling Iris out for having it's base of operations on the internet, instead of a brick/mortar office--in that case:

Iris Print was an ero-graphic novel/novels publisher--and about 100% of all ero-manga publishers are actively based ONLINE. [no, they don't all produce online--they run their business, online.] For yaoi, ero-manga, and GloBL - the internet is the core of marketing, sales, and fandom activity and so Iris Print was simply following the flow chart set up by other publishers that do the same.

I think what's confusing in the case of Iris is, they decided to produce ero-fiction as well, and so their business model wasn't similar to publishers producing 'printed prose' [I guess in order for them to be more than an ePublisher to you, this would require hard copy submissions and releases exclusively in paper-form? ^_^ ] Only recently did Iris Print release prose titles to eFormat--and I think this was a last ditch effort to make some extra cash without distribution overhead.

So on that, I still have an issue with Iris being called 'vanity' because of my own awareness of the term--but I definitely never saw Iris as an ePublisher [strict eBook format with no real office or print plans for books]; if I had, I would never have submitted my work to her. :(

^__^ --> I'm ignorant when it comes to the ins/outs of the RWGA...I tend to play in graphic novels; and if I recall wasn't the decision to call ePubs 'vanity publishers' met with some controversy because it seemed to affect one particular genre over others?

Either way-- thanks Erastes for bringing awareness to this.

Re: My opinion, not worth the two cents...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

And there is NO WAY in hell I would have ever (nor would RW Day) have submitted to a Vanity Press, even back then we were more clued up than that, even if we both made silly mistakes here and there.

Re: My opinion, not worth the two cents...

[ggymeta.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I think the terminology has changed because of that Romance Guild thing 0_o
I recall some drama about it at SBTB, some readers and pundits had an issue with calling publishers who based their central business operations online-- 'vanity'.

To me, vanity still brings up thoughts of 'writers fees' or worse...the CEO publishing only her own material, and no one else. ^_^ It's weird, in manga fan culture forming a 'circle' and producing your own original novels and comics, garnishes respect*. EM-Novels is the name I use to release my novels, but I'm not asking for submissions from anyone--nor am I looking for new talent. I can get work, but sometimes I just want to release my own brand of strange. LOL!

With companies like June Manga, Deaux Press, BLU, and Yaoi Press; their operations are for the most part, carried out online. They prefer eSubmissions over hardcopy; pre-press is often freelanced out to those with computers and proofing skills; a bulk of their production and business is done digitally. I'd wager that companies like Alyson have actively used printers who've moved to the digital-plate system just to cut down on print-run costs. ^_^

[*Can't say the same for fan douhinshi--the stuff that's made based on manga/anime/games--I know it's crazy popular and profitable, but I'm not sure why its creators don't seem to get the same amount of 'respect' that original creators who produce their own work, seem to get.

Re: My opinion, not worth the two cents...

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

I believe you're right on the money with that idea. I think that's the reason that the RWGA says that ePublishers are vanity. ~_^ No actual buildings with actual books to store means all the overhead is free and clear. And such. *shrugs*

At any rate, no worries, and no insult meant.

Re: My opinion, not worth the two cents...

[ggymeta.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Oh I wasn't insulted ^_^, but you did bring up a good issue that, at the time, never irked me enough to blog about. I've always felt freelance pre-press was the backbone of erotic publishing [for comics and prose], and calling a pub out for not having 'in-house' staff at a 'street-address' just seemed uncool to me considering the changes in the way many of the traditional houses are now run. ^_^

I wonder though...with so many traditional publishers adopting the digital business model pioneered by those RWGA dubbed 'ePublishers'...where will they make the distinction next?

I enjoy these conversations.