UPDATED: Brian Keene weighs in
#1- A New Age of Fuckery
#2 - Permuted Press Part 2, or, Solidarity Isn’t Just For Unions
Re: #PermutedPress
Well, Roy C. Booth and I had a book releasing on October 28th, now we don't and here's why:
Permuted Press decided they didn't want to honor a contract that was signed over a year ago. We were told repeatedly that our book was on track to be released via multiple emails, with the most recent dated Oct 3rd. Then out of the blue, on Oct 9, Permuted President, Michael L. Wilson sent out a mass email to over 100 authors and informed them that all pending and future releases (except for a select few) would be released in ebook only. Mind you Permuted has our print rights, among others. So naturally, I emailed them back and asked two very distinct questions:
1) What does this mean for MORTUARY OF MADNESS release and now the rights that you have, if you are not going to exercise POD/Paperback rights, do they revert back to us? If not, then we have a major issue.
2) What does this mean about a backlist book, ie, IF GOD DOESN'T SHOW, does the POD/Paperback cease there as well? And if so, do those rights revert back?
the response was direct and to the point: "...All backlist titles, including If God Doesn't Show, will not be affected by the new changes in policy. Mortuary of Madness will be released as an ebook only, and not be in print...Permuted will retain all rights per the contract, whether or not the books are released in ebook or print."
Say what?!? You have no intention of exercising print rights, yet you are keeping them. More importantly, you are telling me this 20 days before release, after you previously sent me an email saying nothing of the sort.
So, I did some digging.
Edited with new info via Jake Bible: At a convention in Nashville (which all authors were invited, but only a handful could afford to attend) back in September, President Michael L. Wilson told that group of Permuted authors the plan to go ebook only and halt the release schedule and told/asked them NOT to discuss this plan in the Permuted Facebook authors group. They were told, according to Jake Bible, they could talk amongst themselves, but not about in the private group. Hence the uproar, with over 100 authors being blindsided with this news days before release.
Read that last sentence again. Go ahead, I'll wait.
So instead of being up front with their entire roster, Permuted Press decided to act as if everything was business as usual and LIE to their authors. Yes, an outright, deliberate decision to LIE to their authors by continued emails assuring me, and others, their books were on schedule, when they had no intention of honoring that schedule.
This is just my personal situation, you can read even more about their deceptive practices and the monetary damage they're causing here on Gabrielle Faust's Blog
I'm sure in the coming days, we'll start to hear even more stories of the damage they've caused.
Updated: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1550478995182689&id=100006618100242
As for those authors that knew this was coming and chose to keep quiet, I hope karma is real nice to you.
You and Permuted Press deserve each other.
