RE: CIC 14-07867 STRATEGIC BOOK RIGHTS & PUBLISHING AGNCY
I thought that this would be an interesting point to start off this response letter with.
b. Termination by PUBLISHER
PUBLISHER may terminate this agreement and publication of the book without cause, upon written notice to the Author if, in PUBLISHER’s judgment, the BOOK may subject PUBLISHER to the risk of litigation. In no event will the PUBLISHER be obligated to publish a work, which in its opinion violates the common law or statutory copyright, or the right of privacy of any person, or contains libelous or obscene material. Further if the PUBLISHER reasonably deems the contents of the BOOK to promote hate, violence, illegal activities, PUBLISHER can terminate and Agreement. If termination by the PUBLISHER occurs before publishing the book the Publisher will refund Author’s monies.
I did not receive a letter of Contract Termination by mail; I received a sudden email after requesting to cancel my latest contract with SBPRA.
I am the owner of the copyrights of the books and even submitted for copyrights myself to copyright.gov, not only for Dark Harmonie, but for Toni’s Blues, I believe Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God as well and 30: The Dragonfly Catcher before I sent it to SBPRA for editing.
None of my books promote violence or hate or illegal activities. They can be viewed as inspirational and spiritual, I use Bible passages to cause the readers to think and take a walk of faith.
In regards to Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God which is a (JV) $995.00 Joint Venture in which I paid all the necessary fees for publishing, book trailer etc., but SBPRA is an equal partner in the earnings I did request a quote to have this book converted for access on Kindle. SBPRA is stating that the reason for such a high cost ($550.00) to convert a 43 page book to ebook was due to the increased distribution options. If I am interpreting that statement correctly those distribution options are services offered to the Authors for a fee that is not included in the $550.00 I was quoted to convert the book to ebook format.
I did some research and decided to go with another company which I will not name and they quoted me a fee of $160.00 and they did not request a percentage of any sales, unlike SBPRA which states that they will also receive a percentage of any sales of the ebook on top of the percentage they would be receiving for the print version. Also the very first cover choice that was sent to me for Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God was a stick figure drawing that looked like a child’s drawing in crayon. I assumed that the person working on the cover design had some knowledge of what the book was about. Apparently not because one of the short-stories is about a Christian woman who has been raped and is struggling with what has happened.
As for my second book with SBPRA Toni’s Blues a member of the church I was attending used to work as an Editor and offered to edit the manuscript for me and I was honored. I was sent a quote of what it would cost to fix the errors and was quoted the fee of a full manuscript edit, not for corrections. But my issue was that there were double words and dropped words and missing letters. Some of these things I believe may have happened in the text block layout. Once again this book is also a (JV) Joint Venture where apparently we are partners supposedly sharing in the expenses. These errors were brought to my attention much later and I am so embarrassed because I myself brought more than 100 print copies and gave the majority away not making a dime. These errors were not only in the print version, but also in the Kindle as well which they converted and were signed on to share in the profits of.
I was very proud of this book because of the message it sends to those who have gone through or are suffering in Domestic Violence situations. I was thoroughly embarrassed and asked them to please pull it from sales immediately and they did not. SBPRA made it seem like it was a huge production to log onto the sites that the book was on for sale and click a link that says “delete or remove” from sales. I know this because I have posted my own Kindle versions for two of my books and all that is required is for me to logon with my password and remove the books from sales. This is where the question of what are my royalties came up; because SBPRA stated that Amazon.com would not remove the print version from sales until it no longer had any in stock, but I did not see a line item for sales of Toni’s Blues on my royalty sheet for Amazon.com.
For this to be a Joint Venture project you would think that they would want to make sure that it is of the highest quality and that the readers are going to have an amazing experience and not have to drop words or add letter while they are reading the book. I am only speaking my truth when I say this “It didn’t matter because they received payment not only from me, but also from the few sales that were made, so they lost nothing.” This was no Joint Venture because technically I am an Indie Author because I paid for everything and I sacrificed to do it. By the way I just searched on Amazon.com and found that Toni’s Blues is still being sold in print, but SBPRA quickly pulled from sales Dark Harmonie which was just released in May 2014, so now I will not be recouping even a small portion of what I paid to them to get this book published $1507.00. But they were paid because I paid them.
Amazon Look Inside: This is in reference to when the Kindle version of Toni’s Blues went live and I immediately went to both Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites to view them and discovered that on Amazon.com the entire book was there to read. I am the Author I know my book, I even closed out of Amazon.com and went back to the site because I thought I was seeing things, but no; the whole book was there to be read for free for about three days or so. My contact at SBPRA regarding this issue tried to convince me the Author who wrote the book that it was not so. SBPRA was also signed on to receive a portion of the sales of the Kindle version of Toni’s Blues even though I am the one who paid fully for the conversion.
SBPRA is claiming that they processed the cancelation of Toni’s Blues in a timely manner and removed the book from sales by the end of April, yet the book still remains for sale on Amazon.com, why? Please see the attached print screen and notice the date and time it was taken. I repeat sales of Toni’s Blues to Amazon.com were not on my Author Royalty Sheet, I have print screens of that if needed.
Dark Harmonie is a 137 page book and SBPRA quoted me a fee of $525.00 to convert it to Kindle. This fee is $25.00 less than what they quoted me to convert a 43 page book and they also state the reason for the quote of $525.00 is also due to increased distribution options. Yes I did decline it because the numbers just did not make sense to me. I did have Dark Harmonie converted to Kindle and I utilized the same company that converted Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God and the fee that company quoted was $247.10 plus an additional $10.00 to correct a few errors that SBPRA did not catch.
My forth manuscript 30:The Dragonfly Catcher, was not released through SBPRA by my choice because I just could not risk them dropping the ball anymore and making me look stupid when it came to my own books and what is happening with them. They had me looking really bad on Facebook and on Twitter and even in interviews. The price of the book being changed to something I did not agree to and had no knowledge of and I would be Tweeting and posting on Facebook one thing when they were doing another. I paid for these things, did I not deserve the right to know when something is changed with the books I wrote and paid to have published and marketed?
I paid for my Author Website with them, not just for the site, but also for the hosting and SBPRA’s Web department went onto the website that I paid for and pay the hosting for and made changes without consulting me. This was done supposedly because of my request for them to remove Toni’s Blues from sales. If they had consulted with me I would have instructed the web department to remove the sales links and leave the book cover image and add a notation that says something like “Toni’s Blues is being revised and I will be releasing a “Special Revised Edition” soon. That makes more sense to me being that I had been working on a revised addition and had been in talks with a company to do a Special Edition Cover for the re-release. They went onto the website that I am paying for and removed every trace of Toni’s Blues yet it still remains for sale on Amazon.com.
Was this an executive decision acting as a partner (JV)? If so they should have used the same thinking when it came to our (JV) of Toni’s Blues. This is not the first issue I have had with my Author Website through them, went it was first created I asked them to make some adjustments because it would look more appealing and the web department went onto the site and enlarged the cover image to a size that was larger than the actual book itself; this was my first published book and my introduction to the world as a published Author. When I brought this to their attention once again they tried to convince me that there was nothing wrong with it. What is troubling about this being that I actually took webmaster in college and it is clear that they are using a standard form for all their Author Websites. How hard is it to preview the site to make sure that everything looks ok before you make the site live?
About the Locked Manuscript: What if the editor that I am paying has made some changes or suggestions that I the writer, Author do not agree with? You have sent me the Author a locked manuscript of my own book so that I cannot change anything. I would like to point out that I did not receive a locked manuscript of Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God and I did not receive a locked manuscript of Dark Harmonie. 30:The Dragonfly Catcher was the last project that I allowed them to work on and during that time that is when things became very heated over what was happening with the removal of Toni’s Blues, the changing of prices without consulting with me or letting know. The altering of my Author website and the continued sale of Toni’s Blues to this day. I couldn’t take it anymore so I asked SBPRA to please cancel the contract for 30:The Dragonfly Catcher. I was not up to having to go back and forth by email only to make sure that that book was released perfectly; I just couldn’t take that chance.
Yes I posted on my Facebook Page the message that I received from Lynn Eddy telling me that they had cancelled ALL my contracts and pulled ALL my books from sales and that this would be finalized in about six weeks I believe it was. I believe this was her reaction to my request to cancel my contract with them for 30:The Dragonfly Catcher; and maybe they were a little miffed about my using another company to convert Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God and Dark Harmonie to Kindle format. I had also informed them that I would use another company to work on the “Special Revised Edition” of “Toni’s Blues.” Why would I not work with someone else being that I couldn’t even get them to remove a book that was causing me embarrassment and stress? I worked very hard on the text revision of Toni’s Blues; as matter of fact I worked on it while also looking over the text block layout of Dark Harmonie and working with the other company to pull together the Kindle version of Dark Harmonie. My using another company meant that SBPRA would not be sharing in any royalties of those projects. I also want to add that I received a number of emails advertising that I should consider paying x amount of dollar instead of purchasing the 100 print copies of my book myself. I ignored the emails because I had no intention of having 30: The Dragonfly Catcher become a (JV) Joint Venture with SBPRA. Yet Toni’s Blues still remains for sale on Amazon.com while my new release in May is toast and I paid a lot to have Dark Harmonie published and now no one can even purchase a print copy. But SBPRA were still paid for the services of publishing this book.
When I posted that email on my Facebook Page I was seeking someone from the writer community to console me because I was devastated! I had just paid SBPRA all this money for the publishing of these books and now my newest release the print copy which became available in May only after I contacted someone asking why it was not posted yet for sale on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com; and they hadn’t even sent out the press release, the press release they sent out without consulting me, didn’t I at least have the right to say what my Author Bio should say? I have books with ISBN numbers that I paid for and SBPRA is listed as the publisher inside them, but I can’t sell a printed copy. I can’t purchase any of those books for books on-hand for Author Book signings and Author give aways to help promote me and my books. I was just asked to participate in an Author Give Away, but I cannot. I cannot even host any book signings; give away any books to fans who request signed copies on Facebook or Twitter because I have no printed books.
What person would not be angry in this situation? I just could not deal with it anymore what pushed me to making the decision to cancel the contract for 30: The Dragonfly Catcher was seeing day after day that “Toni’s Blues” was still up for sale and having SBPRA tell me that it was not and having their answer to why it was still there change to “they don’t have any control over when it will be removed from Amazon.com.”
SBPRA moved really fast when they cancelled all my book contracts.
SBPRA moved really fast when they removed all my other books from sales and SBPRA moved really fast when then sent me what they felt was correct for my royalties to the wrong address. I sent them an email stating that sending something so personal to the wrong address is a perfect example of what was happening when I would request a change, correction, etc. I sent an email requesting that my contact information be updated before this issue blow up and go out of hand. Apparently no one paid attention to it because they sent a check for $35.34 to the wrong address. Wouldn’t it have made sense to at least send me an email asking if the address they had on file was correct or just to verify the information? $35.34, this amount is an insult and then to send it to the wrong address and not even show me enough respect to even verify my information.
If I had not posted that email on my Facebook Page from Lynn Eddy of SBPRA regarding cancelling all my contracts and pulling all my books from sales; I would not have found out about the issues they faced with the Attorney General of Florida.
What person in my position would not be upset by the issues I have dealt with and am currently dealing with?
Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency Reviews
RE: CIC 14-07867 STRATEGIC BOOK RIGHTS & PUBLISHING AGNCY
I thought that this would be an interesting point to start off this response letter with.
b. Termination by PUBLISHER
PUBLISHER may terminate this agreement and publication of the book without cause, upon written notice to the Author if, in PUBLISHER’s judgment, the BOOK may subject PUBLISHER to the risk of litigation. In no event will the PUBLISHER be obligated to publish a work, which in its opinion violates the common law or statutory copyright, or the right of privacy of any person, or contains libelous or obscene material. Further if the PUBLISHER reasonably deems the contents of the BOOK to promote hate, violence, illegal activities, PUBLISHER can terminate and Agreement. If termination by the PUBLISHER occurs before publishing the book the Publisher will refund Author’s monies.
I did not receive a letter of Contract Termination by mail; I received a sudden email after requesting to cancel my latest contract with SBPRA.
I am the owner of the copyrights of the books and even submitted for copyrights myself to copyright.gov, not only for Dark Harmonie, but for Toni’s Blues, I believe Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God as well and 30: The Dragonfly Catcher before I sent it to SBPRA for editing.
None of my books promote violence or hate or illegal activities. They can be viewed as inspirational and spiritual, I use Bible passages to cause the readers to think and take a walk of faith.
In regards to Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God which is a (JV) $995.00 Joint Venture in which I paid all the necessary fees for publishing, book trailer etc., but SBPRA is an equal partner in the earnings I did request a quote to have this book converted for access on Kindle. SBPRA is stating that the reason for such a high cost ($550.00) to convert a 43 page book to ebook was due to the increased distribution options. If I am interpreting that statement correctly those distribution options are services offered to the Authors for a fee that is not included in the $550.00 I was quoted to convert the book to ebook format.
I did some research and decided to go with another company which I will not name and they quoted me a fee of $160.00 and they did not request a percentage of any sales, unlike SBPRA which states that they will also receive a percentage of any sales of the ebook on top of the percentage they would be receiving for the print version. Also the very first cover choice that was sent to me for Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God was a stick figure drawing that looked like a child’s drawing in crayon. I assumed that the person working on the cover design had some knowledge of what the book was about. Apparently not because one of the short-stories is about a Christian woman who has been raped and is struggling with what has happened.
As for my second book with SBPRA Toni’s Blues a member of the church I was attending used to work as an Editor and offered to edit the manuscript for me and I was honored. I was sent a quote of what it would cost to fix the errors and was quoted the fee of a full manuscript edit, not for corrections. But my issue was that there were double words and dropped words and missing letters. Some of these things I believe may have happened in the text block layout. Once again this book is also a (JV) Joint Venture where apparently we are partners supposedly sharing in the expenses. These errors were brought to my attention much later and I am so embarrassed because I myself brought more than 100 print copies and gave the majority away not making a dime. These errors were not only in the print version, but also in the Kindle as well which they converted and were signed on to share in the profits of.
I was very proud of this book because of the message it sends to those who have gone through or are suffering in Domestic Violence situations. I was thoroughly embarrassed and asked them to please pull it from sales immediately and they did not. SBPRA made it seem like it was a huge production to log onto the sites that the book was on for sale and click a link that says “delete or remove” from sales. I know this because I have posted my own Kindle versions for two of my books and all that is required is for me to logon with my password and remove the books from sales. This is where the question of what are my royalties came up; because SBPRA stated that Amazon.com would not remove the print version from sales until it no longer had any in stock, but I did not see a line item for sales of Toni’s Blues on my royalty sheet for Amazon.com.
For this to be a Joint Venture project you would think that they would want to make sure that it is of the highest quality and that the readers are going to have an amazing experience and not have to drop words or add letter while they are reading the book. I am only speaking my truth when I say this “It didn’t matter because they received payment not only from me, but also from the few sales that were made, so they lost nothing.” This was no Joint Venture because technically I am an Indie Author because I paid for everything and I sacrificed to do it. By the way I just searched on Amazon.com and found that Toni’s Blues is still being sold in print, but SBPRA quickly pulled from sales Dark Harmonie which was just released in May 2014, so now I will not be recouping even a small portion of what I paid to them to get this book published $1507.00. But they were paid because I paid them.
Amazon Look Inside: This is in reference to when the Kindle version of Toni’s Blues went live and I immediately went to both Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites to view them and discovered that on Amazon.com the entire book was there to read. I am the Author I know my book, I even closed out of Amazon.com and went back to the site because I thought I was seeing things, but no; the whole book was there to be read for free for about three days or so. My contact at SBPRA regarding this issue tried to convince me the Author who wrote the book that it was not so. SBPRA was also signed on to receive a portion of the sales of the Kindle version of Toni’s Blues even though I am the one who paid fully for the conversion.
SBPRA is claiming that they processed the cancelation of Toni’s Blues in a timely manner and removed the book from sales by the end of April, yet the book still remains for sale on Amazon.com, why? Please see the attached print screen and notice the date and time it was taken. I repeat sales of Toni’s Blues to Amazon.com were not on my Author Royalty Sheet, I have print screens of that if needed.
Dark Harmonie is a 137 page book and SBPRA quoted me a fee of $525.00 to convert it to Kindle. This fee is $25.00 less than what they quoted me to convert a 43 page book and they also state the reason for the quote of $525.00 is also due to increased distribution options. Yes I did decline it because the numbers just did not make sense to me. I did have Dark Harmonie converted to Kindle and I utilized the same company that converted Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God and the fee that company quoted was $247.10 plus an additional $10.00 to correct a few errors that SBPRA did not catch.
My forth manuscript 30:The Dragonfly Catcher, was not released through SBPRA by my choice because I just could not risk them dropping the ball anymore and making me look stupid when it came to my own books and what is happening with them. They had me looking really bad on Facebook and on Twitter and even in interviews. The price of the book being changed to something I did not agree to and had no knowledge of and I would be Tweeting and posting on Facebook one thing when they were doing another. I paid for these things, did I not deserve the right to know when something is changed with the books I wrote and paid to have published and marketed?
I paid for my Author Website with them, not just for the site, but also for the hosting and SBPRA’s Web department went onto the website that I paid for and pay the hosting for and made changes without consulting me. This was done supposedly because of my request for them to remove Toni’s Blues from sales. If they had consulted with me I would have instructed the web department to remove the sales links and leave the book cover image and add a notation that says something like “Toni’s Blues is being revised and I will be releasing a “Special Revised Edition” soon. That makes more sense to me being that I had been working on a revised addition and had been in talks with a company to do a Special Edition Cover for the re-release. They went onto the website that I am paying for and removed every trace of Toni’s Blues yet it still remains for sale on Amazon.com.
Was this an executive decision acting as a partner (JV)? If so they should have used the same thinking when it came to our (JV) of Toni’s Blues. This is not the first issue I have had with my Author Website through them, went it was first created I asked them to make some adjustments because it would look more appealing and the web department went onto the site and enlarged the cover image to a size that was larger than the actual book itself; this was my first published book and my introduction to the world as a published Author. When I brought this to their attention once again they tried to convince me that there was nothing wrong with it. What is troubling about this being that I actually took webmaster in college and it is clear that they are using a standard form for all their Author Websites. How hard is it to preview the site to make sure that everything looks ok before you make the site live?
About the Locked Manuscript: What if the editor that I am paying has made some changes or suggestions that I the writer, Author do not agree with? You have sent me the Author a locked manuscript of my own book so that I cannot change anything. I would like to point out that I did not receive a locked manuscript of Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God and I did not receive a locked manuscript of Dark Harmonie. 30:The Dragonfly Catcher was the last project that I allowed them to work on and during that time that is when things became very heated over what was happening with the removal of Toni’s Blues, the changing of prices without consulting with me or letting know. The altering of my Author website and the continued sale of Toni’s Blues to this day. I couldn’t take it anymore so I asked SBPRA to please cancel the contract for 30:The Dragonfly Catcher. I was not up to having to go back and forth by email only to make sure that that book was released perfectly; I just couldn’t take that chance.
Yes I posted on my Facebook Page the message that I received from Lynn Eddy telling me that they had cancelled ALL my contracts and pulled ALL my books from sales and that this would be finalized in about six weeks I believe it was. I believe this was her reaction to my request to cancel my contract with them for 30:The Dragonfly Catcher; and maybe they were a little miffed about my using another company to convert Through Whose Eyes: Rise, Child of God and Dark Harmonie to Kindle format. I had also informed them that I would use another company to work on the “Special Revised Edition” of “Toni’s Blues.” Why would I not work with someone else being that I couldn’t even get them to remove a book that was causing me embarrassment and stress? I worked very hard on the text revision of Toni’s Blues; as matter of fact I worked on it while also looking over the text block layout of Dark Harmonie and working with the other company to pull together the Kindle version of Dark Harmonie. My using another company meant that SBPRA would not be sharing in any royalties of those projects. I also want to add that I received a number of emails advertising that I should consider paying x amount of dollar instead of purchasing the 100 print copies of my book myself. I ignored the emails because I had no intention of having 30: The Dragonfly Catcher become a (JV) Joint Venture with SBPRA. Yet Toni’s Blues still remains for sale on Amazon.com while my new release in May is toast and I paid a lot to have Dark Harmonie published and now no one can even purchase a print copy. But SBPRA were still paid for the services of publishing this book.
When I posted that email on my Facebook Page I was seeking someone from the writer community to console me because I was devastated! I had just paid SBPRA all this money for the publishing of these books and now my newest release the print copy which became available in May only after I contacted someone asking why it was not posted yet for sale on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com; and they hadn’t even sent out the press release, the press release they sent out without consulting me, didn’t I at least have the right to say what my Author Bio should say? I have books with ISBN numbers that I paid for and SBPRA is listed as the publisher inside them, but I can’t sell a printed copy. I can’t purchase any of those books for books on-hand for Author Book signings and Author give aways to help promote me and my books. I was just asked to participate in an Author Give Away, but I cannot. I cannot even host any book signings; give away any books to fans who request signed copies on Facebook or Twitter because I have no printed books.
What person would not be angry in this situation? I just could not deal with it anymore what pushed me to making the decision to cancel the contract for 30: The Dragonfly Catcher was seeing day after day that “Toni’s Blues” was still up for sale and having SBPRA tell me that it was not and having their answer to why it was still there change to “they don’t have any control over when it will be removed from Amazon.com.”
SBPRA moved really fast when they cancelled all my book contracts.
SBPRA moved really fast when they removed all my other books from sales and SBPRA moved really fast when then sent me what they felt was correct for my royalties to the wrong address. I sent them an email stating that sending something so personal to the wrong address is a perfect example of what was happening when I would request a change, correction, etc. I sent an email requesting that my contact information be updated before this issue blow up and go out of hand. Apparently no one paid attention to it because they sent a check for $35.34 to the wrong address. Wouldn’t it have made sense to at least send me an email asking if the address they had on file was correct or just to verify the information? $35.34, this amount is an insult and then to send it to the wrong address and not even show me enough respect to even verify my information.
If I had not posted that email on my Facebook Page from Lynn Eddy of SBPRA regarding cancelling all my contracts and pulling all my books from sales; I would not have found out about the issues they faced with the Attorney General of Florida.
What person in my position would not be upset by the issues I have dealt with and am currently dealing with?