I already called out a Reader Beware on Noble Romance Publishing back in March 2011 because frankly they came across to me as a reader as amateurish and poorly run at best.
Now word on Twitter has it the official author loops and such be done gone like the ghost. Ah yes, one more backyard bad editing bad cover art clap trap ePub done bit the big one… When are authors going to learn if the eBook looks bad and the publisher acts poorly it probably is a bad idea to continue working with them?
Quelle surprise!
I know my small highly limited personal selection and listing of top ePubs might be a bit biased but it seems to work out fine for me.
Mary Winter wrote,
I have been trying for several months to get my rights back to a non-selling story (It’s been out for several years) there. The last I heard was that Jill had to check with the “chairman of the board” to get the rights back. That was in May. When I followed up last night, I got a quick, and snarky reply that “If I have patience” (as if I haven’t for the several months already), I might get my rights back.
At least when Venus fell, Tracey did her darndest to get us our rights back. I feel like Jill jumped ship and washed her hands of the entire situation.
Very disgusting.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 10:48 am
David Kentner wrote,
As KevaD, I have several books published with Noble. I’ve since moved on to other publishers. The situation with Noble Romance Publishing is that Jill Noble resigned yesterday, leaving no one at the ship’s helm, and a lot of unanswered questions about what will happen and/or Noble’s future.
The actual owner of Noble Romance has informed the authors through a third party that he will make a statement today.
We’re in waiting mode.
The authors’ chat loop was in fact shut down without notice.
We authors formed another loop to keep each informed until the full story unfolds and we can decide what course of action (should a course be required) to follow.
Basically, we’re in the dark at the moment.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 11:05 am
Casey Harris wrote,
I am the Cover Artist for Noble’s Young Adult line. I put a lot of time and hours into my covers. The facebook link to my albums has been placed in the website box of this post. People can judge my work for themselves instead of taking you at your word as being….”bad cover art clap trap”. If that was meant to be funny or cute, I can say that it isn’t. If you are trying to bark up arguments or noise by being purposely cruel or mean…thinking this will bring attention your way….it probably will, but not the kind of attention a blog or website needs.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 11:38 am
J.S. Wayne wrote,
While there is a GRAIN of truth in your statements, I feel the need to reiterate David’s observations. I might also ask what is gained by taking an already stressful situation and adding to it by unilaterally insulting every author, editor, and cover artist at Noble. Sure, there were problems, and yes, we tried to address them in-house using the tools available, with varying degrees of success. However, given that no one knows what’s going on right now, this particular obituary seems a bit premature, to say nothing of mean-spirited.
My own opinion, of course. That and $5 gets you coffee at Starbucks.
Best,
J.S. Wayne
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 11:52 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Because your product sucked.
Your publisher could have cared less about it all and in interviews even admitted she priced books based on favoritism and popularity not on strict word count guidelines like sane normal everyday publishers do.
I swear to god do not start on me with the whole “if you can’t say something nice” bullcrap.
I am not a good girl. I am not your bitch. I could care less if the cool chicks like me because I have an opinion of the ebooks I bought from Noble Romance and it aint very nice.
Fuck your god damned self promoting ass out of here if you don’t like it! I have a right to call something half assed and poorly done if I see it that way since it was my money involved and this is my blog and as such my opinion.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Erastes wrote,
I was invited to publish with them, and they were recommended, but from almost the first, I realised it was a huge mistake. Horrendous cover experience (the cover itself was gorgeous but the typeface was amateurish at best) appalling layout of the print version, huge delays when I was told “your print book will be out in January”, i was told lie after lie after lie and it took nearly a year before the correct issue came out. None of this I was reticent about, you know me.
Then the sales. The book had a $700 advance (ha ha – rather optimistic of them) $500 for me, and $100 each for the other authors, it took about 2 years for the smaller advances to be paid back and mine is nowhere near it. It earns about $5 a month or less. After the first couple of months of dealing with Jill I realised that here was a publisher I would never never never use again, and would never ever recommend to anyone else.
The only bright spot in the entire process is that I got $500 which I would never have got if it had been advance-free. As soon as I can get the rights back, the book is going elsewhere and sharpish.
The sheer unprofessionallism of the leaving of Jill stuns me. She’s posting everywhere as if she was a mere employee of the company and not the name, face and voice of it for years. The fact that all we’ve had is Jill’s farewell letter, and not a holding statement from “Jim Noble” whoever the hell he is. (Her brother, but who the hell has heard of him in a publishing context?)
Now – we’ve just had word that she’s on her way to RWA to make a new contact with a person who is starting up a new publishing company in the Autumn. she’s got some balls, there will be many angry authors at RWA looking out for her.
Her reputation will travel with her, of course. She would do better to change her name. Noble Romance has been “not recommended” on P&E for a good while – well deserved – and I know that any new publishing venture she goes into next garners the same rating because she’s very obviously – from the evidence – incapable of running a publisher. I think out of the 20 or so royalty statements I’ve had for the book, very very few of them have ever been accurate. We have to send them back and insist on a replacement. And that’s for pitiful figures. I hope bigger earners are checking their statements regularly.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
DC Juris wrote,
I’d just like to say the covers weren’t all that bad. Some of them are quiet beautiful, and show a range of talent that is lacking in the cover art at other places. I never had any issue with cover artists at Noble.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
“Her reputation will travel with her, of course.”
Now there is the truth!
Erastes it is people like yourself that I try my best to keep the comments open on this blog.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Karenna Colcroft wrote,
I have one book, a stand-alone short story (which was originally slated to be part of an anthology, but the antho fell through) with Noble. It was published in March 2010. I had a mid-road experience with them and wasn’t impressed enough with them to submit anything else. I left the author’s loop over a year ago so wasn’t aware of what was going on. After reading this, I’m glad that I followed my instincts and only submitted the one story to them. I hope that the other authors will find resolution for their outstanding contracts, etc., and that those of us who have been published by them will be able to get our rights back if desired.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
M wrote,
Teddy,
I wish I had known your opinion of Noble Romance before I gave them the pair of books I published with them. I’ve had nothing but problems with the company to the point I backed off so far I heard nothing other than my pitiful royalty statements which were often riddled with basic math errors. Any communications were ignored or treated as a nuisance. I literally didn’t feel wanted there. And when I did try to get my rights back, I was given a very bullshit story about signing not only my rights to the stories over to Noble but my pen name! At that point, I gave up and wrote the whole mess off as a learning experience that I hope to never repeat.
Not signing my name as I don’t need the stress of retaliation from them.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
W wrote,
Nice way to treat someone who comes to your blog and comments in a reasonable manner. You have no idea what these authors are dealing with. You have no idea how hard they have worked on their books – you might not like them, fine. But to curse someone out and call them a hack? You were clearly raised in a barn and not taught how .to act like a human being. Guess you think you know better than the professionals in this business. Go ahead, flame me – I’ve learned that people like you are not worth the air you breathe.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Reasonable? Like posting your comment? Sure, go ahead don’t forget “mean girl” I always liked “mean girl” and pig remember always start with “you pig”. I can never get enough of people yelling at me and pointing out the obvious.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
W wrote,
That’s it – someone doesn’t agree with you so you start letting the insults fly. What are you, 12? I don’t know why I wasted any time on a child.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
I don’t even have a clue what you are going on about and I am not sure who you are talking to. But it’s your dime.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Merrian wrote,
Wow! Doesn’t saying ‘be nice’ to you in such threatening tones sort of undermine their comments?
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 8:01 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
I don’t know this is sorta why I have always been tempted to close out any commenting.
People confuse me with someone who gives a damn I hurt their fee fees all about some publisher who treated them all like crap. Like it’s my fault the publisher is fucking them over.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Merrian wrote,
I do wish feeling powerless in a situation didn’t give some people the desire to lash out at others. I get that they are in pain but their desire to share it undermines my willingness as a reader to give any benefit of the doubt to them. It leaves me wanting to move straight into (1) tl;dr (2) attack as the best form of defence and I hate feeling non-constructive in my responses.
I do wonder though if the upset isn’t much more at the fact that you called the issues re Noble Pub out over the past years and so warnings were there to be heeded, leading too (1) shooting the messenger cos they don’t like the news (2) trying to defend their involvement with a wonky company cos otherwise they have to acknowledge their own lack of due diligence
I also think this is the fallout from the STGRB. There have been lots of feelings festering underneath the relationship and discourse between reviewers and authors that seemingly have permission now to emerge. I have been as surprised as anyone to find out that there is a power struggle in this for who controls the discourse. this is about power who has it and who feels they don’t. The push to ‘be nice’ is a desire to define limits for the emerging power of reviewers.
Link | July 25th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Erastes wrote,
What I don’t understand is why these people are getting so annoyed with you for simply stating the obvious. You haven’t given an “obituary” and as for “what these authors are dealing with” bwahahahahha! As a “poor suffering author” i’m not exactly walking 50 miles for clean water, or hiding in a basement to avoid gang rape.
People need to get a sense of perspective, grow up, grow a pair and realise that not everyone is nice. Not even publishers. As a Brit, I don’t understand the Cult of Nice and I never want to be a subscriber. I’d rather just tell it how it is.
As to my earlier comment where I said that Jill Noble would be sensible to change her name if she’s going into any new venture, seems she’s now calling herself Jill Shearer, so watch that space!
Link | July 26th, 2012 at 12:46 am
Barbara Sheridan wrote,
@Teddy Your blog, your rules. I fully expect you to say just what’s on your mind. If I don’t agree with X, Y or Z, then that’s my issue. If you want to tell me or anyone to GTFO, that’s your right.
@Erastes Shearer is the surname on my contracts going back a couple years it’s not a new identity, more a legal marriage name vs maiden name as far as I know.
The reason for barging in is to say: No publisher is perfect or nearly so in all respects for every author.
I’m sure if you line up a hundred readers, a hundred reviewers, and a hundred writers some will point to what they see as poor editing, shoddy covers, some will have accounting errors, some won’t. One size just doesn’t fit all.
Each author’s experience, each contract can be different. Hell, I’ve had various issues with a few of Teddy’s listed top 5 that might have been other writers’ deal breakers. Have I felt screwed over to the point of totally walking? Obviously not.
Have I had all sweetness and roses at NRP? No.
For right now, I’m in wait and see mode, pending whatever official info is supposedly coming “early next week”. In the meantime I’m looking over my contracts with Noble and will do what I think is right for me.
.
Link | July 26th, 2012 at 4:34 am
Lex Valentine wrote,
I have a single title there from February 2009. I and several Cobb authors got together to do the Child of the Week series for Noble. The editing was NOT a noble experience in any way, shape or form. Getting edits the night before the book was to release? Oy. And that was only one of the experiences from that multi-author series. I decided one book was all they would get from me. If someone asked me about Noble, I told them in private, off loop what I had experience with. If people then chose to submit there anyway, oh well.
I’ve been looking at my contract and think I may have grounds for the return of my rights. Since Noble appears to be in disarray I’ll be attempting to get those rights back. My only real issue with Jill leaving is that while says in a letter to her authors that her departure is about management issues, she posts on her Facebook basically likening Noble authors to trash. If the problems were with management, why the hell is she making such derogatory remarks about authors? That doesn’t seem consistent in the least with her reasons for leaving and that in a nutshell tells me there is something mighty stenchy about this whole debacle.
Link | July 27th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Aleksandr Voinov wrote,
What surprised me was Jill saying that she didn’t actually like m/m much, “but it sells better than het” – that was on the now-deleted author list, but other m/m authors read it and caught the message. Our books’ sales numbers were welcome, but they were certainly not liked. Personally, I did not feel valued in my niche and decided to take my work to places that were more supportive of GLBTQ rights, which is why, after the first two stories with them in 2009, I never submitted anything to Noble again and recommended other m/m publishers to newbies.
I had no royalty issues – but then, for those combines $5-10/month, it wasn’t worth my time. Sales at NR have been absolutely dismal for me, a small fraction of anything I’ve published anywhere else, so I assumed that my work simply wasn’t a good fit for Noble’s audience, and moved on.
Personally, I’m hoping for my stories back, and I’ve opened negotiations about them.
Link | July 28th, 2012 at 5:35 am
Maria D. wrote,
I personally think your post is great Teddy and I agree with almost everything you’ve said – my experience as a reader and purchaser of books from Noble has been that while the story may be interesting and the author’s “voice” is good – the editing was so piss poor that it actually separated me from what could have been an engrossing story. As far as the art work – it wasn’t horrific but it also was not good – I know a lot of authors and even cover artists may not understand this but ” a cover is worth a thousand words” is very true – the book cover is the very first impression a reader sees – between it and the back cover copy or blurb – it’s what drives the reader to look further into the book- the old saying “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover” is horribly wrong when it comes to actual books – it only works with people – a cover reflects a company’s commitment to their product. I hope the authors who want their rights back get their rights back soon so they can take their product somewhere else. And those that haven’t been paid what they are owed need to be paid sooner rather than later. If “Jim Noble” doesn’t know what’s going on that is his own problem – he’s the CEO of the company and should know what’s going on – I’m sure there are assistant editors who helped Jill and they should know what’s going on too. I’m afraid his reasoning wouldn’t work with the IRS if he was being audited. As for what “Jill Noble” said about the different genre’s that was completely unprofessional of her – she can read or not read what she wants but if the company she works for chooses to sell a product she needs to promote that product regardless of her personal feelings -if her feelings were so strongly against the type of product being sold then she should have quit long ago.
Link | July 28th, 2012 at 9:54 am