Teddy, you are doing a service, because if I had seen these messages about TP four years ago, I would have submitted somewhere else. My first novel would have done just as well or better if I had self-published it. I learned a lesson and did not submit my second novel there.
I think other writers are sure to benefit from your posts, if they will check out epubs before they submit.
Thank you.

I think it is called re-investing and making your quality a priority. I don’t think they started the business with any type of plan or priorities with the authors or customers in mind. The decisions made by the owners seem to be only of short term benefit and not stable or adaptable to the changing market. I notice any changes seems to be always a “me too” approach and of greater benefit to the owners.

I think as time goes on it is setting a poor example.

NCP are crooks, IMO – they’re stealing people’s copyrighted material and riding roughshod over author rights. TP isn’t that bad, though it’s hardly a model of good practice, and unless it was sold and the owners stopped being the main authors, I can’t see it changing much. Like I said, I can see both sides of this, and personally I think they are responsible for the very low quality bar in m/m writing, which is only slowly being changed by publishers like Samhain.

It’s so frustrating that they have talent on their books, and a decent slice of the market, and yet they just muddle along as they did when it wasn’t much more than an amateur operation. Makes me itch to boot someone’s arse.

Ann,

First thing, I wish I knew all the pen names and could associate them to all the players going on there but I don’t have the time and when I found out authors who have worked there almost exclusively for four years or even more did not know. Well, forget that idea.

You could give this same exact argument for those still plugging away at New Concepts Publishing while being abused by Madris DePasture and her reign of terror. My point is that maybe it is time the reader and the reviewer says enough.

Even if the owners at Torquere changed their tune tomorrow, which we both know is not likely to happen, and opened up and had real transparency they still skimp on the covers and the editing and the proofreading and the website and basically put out an all around inferior eBook that in no way competes with even the current state of affairs at Ellora’s Cave. Which is sad. Especially when there are new m/m presses coming on line I did not mention in this article but they are out there.

I can only hope those honest hard working writers who got involved and in my opinion who are the only real talent at Torquere Press will follow the good sane prudent professional advice of Emily Veinglory who has also written for Torquere Press and try some different ePublishers. This is not a stagnant one size fits all industry and Torquere Press is not going the places I see these other ePublishers going.

The intention is not to “hurt” or “punish” the authors. Maybe it is to suggest they need to value their writing and their time and their effort and find a venue that will return that investment properly.

At no time did I say here that Loose Id or Ellora’s Cave was the only solution. I said they put out better editing, better covers, and from what I see have better sales which should be priorities to any writer after negotiating a clean author friendly contract of course.

A gifted talented fantastic writer can write a great story but if it is then treated callously by the ePublisher and packaged like generic garbage and then sold as an after thought after they get through making sure “your favorite writers” B.A Tortuga and S.A. Clements are placed prominently ahead of you… Well you get the idea, it is still lost in the shuffle.

As Madonna says, Change the channel! and that is what I am doing here by not supporting Torquere in their treatment of their authors and their eBooks. More importantly I am also telling the readers out there about the sad condition of their product.

On one hand, their editing still sucks,their website is a pain in the arse and so is the search engine, their response to criticism (as was expressed recently at DA over one of their books) is still to circle the wagons and bitch about the mean girls, and the lack of transparency and response from the head honchos is embarrassingly conspicuous. I’m totally down with not buying or reviewing any of the principals or their pen names, and some of the crazier authors over there.

But they do have some extremely good authors, like Lee Benoit, Nica Berry, and a new discovery, James Allen, who are just superior writers no matter who publishes them. They are also, I hear, spending more time on editing (though not enough) – James Allen’s ‘Downtime’ was really much better edited than other things I’ve read from there, though it might come down to how careful the author is. And I hear rumblings of discontent at Loose ID which are very similar to some of the complaints I’ve heard about TP in the past – certain authors throwing their weight around, getting preferential treatment and release schedules, and I’ve personally experienced their unwillingness to allow honest reviews on their works.

So I think it might be a bit unfair to punish all TP authors for the fact their press is not professional, and at times downright creepy. I’ll happily review any TP author not on my personal blacklist, but I’ll also happily point out where the product has been let down by the publisher. That puts much more pressure on them than ignoring them. TP are in a crowded market place now, and they’ll have to adapt or die. Much as I loathe some of the individuals involved, I really don’t want to have their authors hurt or lose some excellent writing. Really, I’d just like TP to lift its damn game, stop denying the truth of criticism, and operate like a fair dinkum business instead of a vanity press. If it did that, I’d still never sub to them, but I could stop cringing when friends of mine sign with them.