These owls can’t be silenced by a press that doesn’t give a hoot.
My blog series about City Owl Press has thus far focused on my personal experience and events about which I have direct knowledge. The press has hired a New York entertainment lawyer to run interference for them, and based on what has gone down publicly so far, it seems likely that the attorney has threatened civil action against some authors.
Note, despite publicizing details they would likely wish to keep private along with extensive criticism of their business practices, I have not received any cease and desist notice or other legal threat from City Owl Press. Nor do I expect to.
Bullies are cowards. I must assume out of professional courtesy that their attorney knows as well as I do that cease and desist letters are not confidential communications, no matter what dire warnings the issuer includes. As such, anything received from them would immediately go on the record, on social media, and into the inbox of Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware. A publisher trying to silence authors is a Bad Look.
The worst part is the emotional impact. We’ve worked for years, given blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of money for our dreams to be authors. And because of this, I’m literally on the verge of giving up. My dream is dying on the vine. Maybe I’m being dramatic, but it feels like COP killed my books, killed my career, and killed my dream.
– Anonymous City Owl Press Author
Our stories deserve to be told.
My profession and relative privilege have put me in a position to confidently call them out. Truth is an absolute defense to claims of defamation, but most indie authors can’t afford the attorney fees required to fight even a baseless lawsuit.
Even so, some courageous authors have spoken out publicly. Others asked me to share their story anonymously. I’m dedicating this week’s blog post to spotlighting their statements.
Many of these stories are far more shocking than mine. Together, they form a narrative fit to break the heart of anyone who knows how hard it is to take a chance on a creative career.
I wasn’t prepared to feel like a diseased literary appendix for a small press.
Lily Riley, award-winning author of the Les Dames Dangereuses series
These writers trusted that a press “by authors for authors” would know intimately the vulnerability inherent in putting yourself and your work out there. They trusted that City Owl Press would be more likely to value the hard work of writing and give every book its due diligence, respect, and care. They trusted the business to champion their books and support their success.
These authors deserved better. Their books deserved better. We all deserved better.
Megan Van Dyke: “I received ARCs…while I was in active labor.”
In posts on Instagram and Threads, Megan told how she tried her best to anticipate and plan for City Owl’s last-minute production schedules when requesting an accommodation for her high risk pregnancy. In September 2022, Megan asked if she could receive her copy edits and ARCs on an earlier schedule than normal. (Remember, we typically received copy edits between 1 month and two weeks before release.) Since caring for her newborn daughter would reduce her available time for book promotion, she scheduled book tours well in advance and needed timely ARCs.
Unfortunately, though she turned in her manuscript on time and sending multiple reminders, City Owl failed to reasonably accommodate Megan’s needs. The copy edits for The Alice Curse came back late. They were so late, in fact, that Megan was already showing signs of early labor, including dilation.
Despite her high risk of complications, Megan worked hard to turn around the copy edits quickly, but it turned out the book needed a second pass. She got her ARCs back while in active labor with her daughter and proofed her book while still hospitalized.
On February 20, Megan shared another update on Instagram. “In short,” she wrote, “I requested the rights back to my published works but was denied…At this point, I will need to wait until my contracts with them expire over the upcoming years to get my rights back.” She added that her next book in her Reimagined Fairy Tales series, The Musician and the Monster, will be self-published.
Lily Riley: “fallen through the cracks.”
Lily related on Threads and on her blog how she had gone through writing and revising the third book of the award-winning Les Dames Dangereuses series, only to learn at two weeks to her scheduled release date that her book had “fallen through the cracks” and she had no contract. This gave her little time to review, negotiate, and sign, as she needed to rush paperbacks to sell during a planned appearance at AwesomeCon 2023.
City Owl’s partners and staff had often mentioned (as they did to me) that books got more marketing support after publishing three in a series, so Lily hoped to see marketing ramp up after this release. As time went on, though, Lily noticed her trilogy never received additional promotion and wasn’t mentioned on social media. Suspecting “City Owl didn’t really want [my books],” she pulled back from her own efforts to reassess what she calls “death by a thousand disappointments.”
I didn’t sign with City Owl because I saw it as a pipeline to self-publish. I signed because I felt like I’d be getting another champion for my books. I felt I had that in the beginning, but as things wore on, it felt more like death by a thousand disappointments….I think I wasn’t prepared to feel like a diseased literary appendix for a small press.
…So, here I sit. Unformatted, coverless, award-winning manuscripts in hand and the herculean task of self-publishing a previously published series ahead of me. I won’t be able to recapture the excitement of a debut release when I republish Les Dames Dangereuses this coming summer/fall, but I can guarantee this time it won’t fall through the cracks.
“It’s more than ruffled feathers,” Feb. 16, 2024, Lily Riley,
Lily works in PR and marketing. In her blog post, she wondered why City Owl didn’t do more to cultivate long-term relationships with authors, and why any author would want to stay with a company that said it didn’t find it worthwhile to sell their books.
Lisa Edmonds: “I didn’t yet have the confidence to say no.”
Lisa Edmonds‘s testimony is extraordinary because she has been with the press since 2016, before the founders registered their LLC. Her bestselling Alice Worth series has a sizable, devoted fanbase that helped put the press on the map. As I noted in my last post, Lisa was often held up as an example of success for newer authors.
Like me, Lisa isn’t one to stay quiet, even when City Owl would very much prefer her to do so. She started speaking out about her own experience when the press, despite refusing to revert her books as requested, blocked her on social media. She says, “I repeatedly and consistently voiced my concerns on these topics and more since 2018, but never saw change—except, again, for the worse.”
To me, the current situation boils down to one primary cause: numerous serious concerns raised by many authors over years went unheeded, ignored, and dismissed while these problems were framed consistently by COP as the “norm”—how things should be.
Lisa Edmonds, Threads post, February 15, 2024
Her concerns include poor quality and late copy edits, late ARCs, unsatisfactory cover design, insufficient staff to support the number of books acquired, and the owner’s apparent conflicts of interest while exerting “total control” over all aspects of the business.
To that last point, many of us believed a small press would take care of the business side of publishing while allowing authors more agency and control over their work. This didn’t seem to be the case for Lisa in 2018, however, when the press gave away 18,000 of her books in a free box set.
Lisa objected to the promo, but ultimately, Ms. Moss “talked her into it…and ultimately she had the final call on pricing anyway.” Confronted with Ms. Moss’s claim that she knew better, Lisa “didn’t have the confidence to say no.” Privately, she admits, she “sobbed into [her] pillow.”
Also on Threads, Lisa mentioned she had requested an audit of the press’s records. Though City Owl’s boilerplate contract guarantees a right to inspect records related to the author’s work, the publisher has dragged its feet on releasing Lisa’s. Instead, it seems they have sent lawyer-issued “nastygrams.”
AUTHOR may, on reasonable notice, through AUTHOR’s designated representative, examine PUBLISHER’s records that relate to the WORK.
PUBLISHER will keep accounts of all receipts and expenditures regarding the WORK for a period of up to three (3) years, and these accounts will be available for AUTHOR’s review.
– Standard City Owl Press contract, Section IX, Paragraphs 4-5 (emphasis added)
Lisa has re-acquired the rights to her first four books and republished them herself with all new covers.
S. C. Grayson: “My questions were deleted and my books removed.”
As mentioned in my previous posts, S.C. Grayson (Talented Fairytales series) was the first author to have her rights reverted by City Owl Press at the beginning of 2024. She was also one of the first to speak out, both on the Facebook groups provided for City Owl author questions and then publicly.
S.C. hasn’t provided a longer narrative publicly at this time. She has, however, commented on the situation and other authors’ stories multiple times, giving insight into a familiar set of concerns.
She also eloquently described the impact the sudden split from her publisher had on her confidence and mental state as she pursued self publishing out of necessity, without time to consider or prepare. The sense of loss and self-doubt she expresses in the below post resonates with me as well.
It’s hard enough to stand up for oneself against a publisher which purported to offer us a gateway to professional authorship. Experiencing how quickly that gatekeeper could slam the door on us in a seemingly retaliatory fashion left many of us reeling.
At that time, City Owl had released some public statements indicating that they had let authors go because they were poor sellers and/or had requested their rights back. S.C. addresses that misrepresentation here. In many ways, her story is similar to mine: she spoke up and was shown the door. And she wasn’t the only one.
Alexis L. Menard: “It’s incredibly hurtful to see.”
Alexis L. Menard (Order and Chaos series) was another author to leave City Owl in the early days of 2024. She cites “two years of frustration” with the publisher and reasons “both personal and professional.” She spoke up after City Owl released a statement on social media and on its website stating that the publisher “released authors whose books are out of contract, or in contract but have reduced sales and no active rights deals in negotiation.”
City Owl’s messaging was modified after authors objected to their statement that rights were reverted “per author’s request,” as many of the authors were contacted first by City Owl with an offer of rights reversion. The updated statement acknowledges this misstatement.
City Owl Press did initiate email conversation with authors who, either on social media or via email, expressed unhappiness with their current sales and City Owl Press’s level of support regarding their books. City Owl Press did offer rights reversion as an option to some authors before a request was made by the author due to the author’s unhappiness in their current publishing with City Owl Press; other authors initiated the request for rights reversion via email first. Each case is unique to the author and their books, but we want to be clear that the rights reversion option was never meant to take away anything from the authors or their hard work, nor did we want to stop publishing their books with City Owl Press, but rather it was intended to give the author the option to leave their contracts early, if that was what they preferred. We have changed the language from “per author’s request” to “per authors’ wishes after conversation with them.” We hope this clarifies our statement.
City Owl Press Statement (revised version) January 7, 2024.
Alexis’s post and S.C. Grayson’s comments on that post, however, makes it clear that City Owl’s explanation of the reversions was false and damaging to author reputations not just because it misrepresented who initiated those “conversations” but the reasons it gave for reverting rights to some authors but not others.
In fact, as the next story demonstrates, the reasoning given for reverting or not reverting rights seemed inconsistent not just between different authors, but in the explanations provided to individual authors.
Elisse Hay: “I was never told why my rights were reverted.”
In telling her story on Threads, Elisse Hay (Something Wicked series, currently out of print) notes that she is an “outlier,” because when she first requested her rights reversion on January 8, 2024, the publisher told her they would not grant a reversion because she was selling well and her sub-rights were being pitched. On January 26, however, City Owl Press apparently changed their minds.
Elisse identifies many possible reasons why City Owl may have decided she was too much trouble to retain. She initiated an audit request according to her contract terms, asked for dates certain for when her books would see rebranding efforts as previously promised, requested new Amazon categories per her own market research (as required by Ms. Moss’s “reviving a non-selling series” plan). She also spoke out when the City Owl author Facebook groups were closed, then again when the press blocked her.
There may be another reason why Elisse was cut loose, however. As turmoil increased within City Owl, she had sent a private email to Tina Moss requesting clarification about something that happened to another author she knew who had split from the press. That author’s name is Jem Zero.
[A]s a company we do not want to be perceived as punching down.
Tina Moss
Jem Zero: “I need to stand up against all injustice.”
Jem’s story is substantively different from many of the other Owl’s experiences. For one thing, Jem, who uses they/them/he/him pronouns, never actually became a City Owl author. Before Jem’s assigned editor completed work on their book, the editor ghosted them. It appears the editor, Lisa Green, who is Jewish, took issue with Jem’s characterization of Israel’s assault on Gaza as “genocide,” describing it as “propaganda” and “not necessarily realistic.”
I believe strongly that if I’m writing about colonialism and genocide I need to stand up against all injustice, especially with nuance! So I can’t let myself be silent. I live mostly in an Arab community and their pain is also very dear to my heart.
Jem Zero, October 27, 2023, Discord message to editor Lisa Green.
I seriously caution you…Just using the word genocide is tricky and not necessarily realistic in this case.
Lisa Green, October 27, 2023, Discord replies to Jem Zero
A full account of the interactions between Jem Zero, Ms. Green, and Ms. Moss can be viewed here.
Around this time, Ms. Green had publicly announced on social media that she would unfollow and block anyone who expressed support of Palestinians in the Gaza conflict. After Ms. Green ceased responding to Jem’s updates, City Owl Press, through Ms. Moss, offered Jem an opportunity to work with a different editor. Ms. Moss told Jem that Ms. Green had to withdraw from work on Jem’s series, citing discomfort with depictions of “genocide” in Jem’s second book.
Jem ultimately decided not to go forward with the new editor because they no longer felt comfortable working with the press. On December 13, 2023, after informing Ms. Moss of their intent to do so, Jem announced the reason for parting ways with the press on social media (embedded above). They didn’t name Ms. Green and urged their followers not to harass the publisher. For their part, City Owl didn’t publicly acknowledge Jem’s announcement or address it privately to inform other authors still with the press.
As the situation devolved with City Owl, Elisse Hay contacted Jem Zero to ask about their experience with the publisher. A few days later, Elisse emailed Ms. Moss to ask whether the press would address the controversy. Ms. Moss responded with an email stating that she was “personally devastated” about the situation and “navigating the feelings of our Jewish editor with the subject matter of the author’s next book…was the crux of the matter.”
When Elisse asked for clarification, Ms. Moss became defensive.
When Elisse reiterated her concerns, citing the SMP boycott as a reason the publisher should take action, Ms. Moss replied, “We have not seen the impact on City Owl Press…And as a company we do not want to be perceived as punching down.”
In this email and others received by Elisse Hay on or around January 8, 2024, Ms. Moss persistently misgenders Jem Zero. When I spoke with them about this incident, Jem told me that Ms. Moss knew of their preferred pronouns. They also told me that while they use multiple pronouns, she/her pronouns are the only ones they are not comfortable with. In our conversations, Jem also addressed Ms. Moss’s private statements about them and how those statements could affect their professional reputation.
Tina is being dishonest in private about my disengagement from the press and Lisa’s disengagement from our project, suggesting that I’m misunderstanding the situation which affects my credibility as a progressive author.
Ex-City Owl Press author Jem Zero
Given the loss of publishing opportunity and the multiple axes of marginalization involved, Jem’s experience is on a different level than many of the others I’ve highlighted in this post. Some overarching themes emerges here, however, that fit the same recurring patterns. When viewed as a whole, the owner’s private and public communications appear to minimize or dismiss author concerns, revise events to avoid accountability, and prioritize outside perception of the business over substantive actions that would demonstrate integrity.
Charissa Weaks: City Owl loses control of the narrative.
Charissa Weaks may be the single most successful author still with City Owl Press. The Witch Collector has over 7,000 reviews on Amazon, over 28,000 on Goodreads, and a “Best of Booktok” banner, with consistently high Amazon sales rankings. At a guess, she is the lucky author that the press boasted sold 84,000 units in less than two years, simply mind-blowing success in the indie/small press sphere. And even with all that success under her belt, she remains one of the most down-to-earth, kind, and generous authors I know in this business.
City Owl Press acquired the Witch Walker series as a five book deal, and three have been published as of now. Her undeniably high value to the publisher has not apparently protected her from questionable treatment by the company, however.
Charissa has not addressed her situation with the press directly and her public statements about the delayed release have remained circumspect to a degree that suggests the author may fear legal reprisal. On February 14, 2024, at around 4 pm PST (7 PM EST), City Owl Press took it upon themselves to make a statement in her stead, posting the following on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and their website.
The publisher’s announcement that the next books in the Witch Walker series would be put on “indefinite pause,” which originally included a detailed timeline of delays and a less-than-sincere expression of care, set off a small conflagration on social media among Charissa’s readers and fellow authors. The responses condemned the press for implying that Charissa was at fault for failing to meet her obligations, shaming her for taking the time she needed, and sharing potentially private information about her health.
As screenshots of their original post proliferated across various platforms, City Owl appeared to desperately grasp for control over the public narrative. Comments were disabled on Facebook and Instagram, and the press revised its posts multiple times. The Twitter post was eventually deleted.
It wasn’t what they were saying that caused an issue, it was how they said it as they blasted the news on social media to readers.
Eve St. Francis, “This Publisher Completely Disrespected Their Author On Social Media,” February 15, 2024, Short Sweet Valuable (Medium)
The first revision implied that whoever had posted this statement did not fully understand why the community responded as they did. The unnamed poster seemed unwilling to let go of the “timeline” they had originally shared, which tended to support the community’s assumption that the post sought to place blame on Charissa for the “pause.”
When the first attempt at revision didn’t calm the storm of criticism around City Owl, they edited again. In the end, only a very neutral “press release” remained on their website. Unfortunately for the embattled publisher, screenshots are not so easily sanitized.
Some non-City Owl authors also commented on how City Owl contacted them during the downfall of small publisher Violet Gaze Press, describing this as predatory behavior by the publisher toward displaced authors. VGP is no longer active on social media, and it appears that this small press imploded so thoroughly that there isn’t much to find about this incident online, so I don’t have the full context for this incident or incidents.
Jen Karner: “They trotted me out for Pride Month.”
Jen Karner, a freelance journalist and author of the queer urban fantasy Cinders of Yesterday (“Supernatural but make it lesbians”), shared her story on Threads with a more detailed timeline on her blog. She describes feeling marginalized and tokenized by the way City Owl Press only seemed to remember her books during Pride Month. She also noted that City Owl didn’t target her primary audience, LGBTQ+ readers, focusing on marketing to the same readers as they did for every heteronormative paranormal romance.
Jen notes other red flags in her blog like late ARCs, a “marketing plan” which amounted to recommending Jen throw a Facebook launch party, a chief marketing officer without professional marketing experience, and overall lack of traditional publishing experience. She states, however, that she didn’t realize how widespread the publisher’s issues until she started speaking with other authors.
Speaking out, especially as an author, is not easy. It is in fact, terrifying. We are risking out reputations, being blacklisted, and finding closed doors that were once open to us. Not every author is in a position to be vocal about what happened…there are more who cannot speak out right now, and their stories still deserve to be told.
Jen Karner, “New Year No Publisher,” February 18, 2024
Much like Lisa Edmonds and Megan Van Dyke, Jen Karner decided to speak out despite the risks because in hearing the stories of other authors, she recognized a disturbing pattern: unprofessionalism, carelessness, broken promises and misleading or inconsistent statements about their business practices, followed by doubling down on bullying and controlling behavior as authors have begun to break their silence.
What is happening at City Owl is not new, it is a pattern, and judging by their current behavior, it’s likely to continue until they face demonstrable repercussions.
Jen Karner
S.L. Choi: “COP let me down.”
Lack of support was a point I cited when I requested my rights. Unfortunately, I was denied.
Threads post by S.L. Choi, February 20, 2024,
On February 20, author S.L. Choi (Blood Fae Druid) series, shared a glimpse into her experience with City Owl Press, despite expressing reservations about “being too public.” Her series is complete at three books and has seen substantial sales. It boasts glowing blurbs from two huge names in the urban fantasy genre, Kim Harrison and Faith Hunter. S.L. has also invested significant funds of her own into marketing her series.
Despite S.L.’s impressive achievements and hard work to promote her series, City Owl only featured her books on Instagram and Facebook a total of four times over three releases, and on TikTok only twice over three books. As far as I can tell, the publisher never featured her blurbs on any of their social channels, nor did it boost her BookBub deals in any way.
S.L. also reports that City Owl has posted “nothing anywhere [about my books] since I addressed my complaints, requested my rights and was denied.”
Gabrielle Ash: “A series of excuses.”
Author Gabrielle Ash (Circle Seven and The Murder series) has not spoken much publicly on her split from City Owl. She did, however, contact me privately to share a story that has echoes of Jem Zero’s experience, in that City Owl’s staff objected to the content of her work for a reason that seemed personal, not professional. Essentially, they asked her to make substantial changes to her series in progress because her MMC was of Russian origin.
Gabrielle was taken aback. Her series had been written and acquired by City Owl Press before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the books were set in the U.S., and nothing about her character’s backstory related to current political events other than his country of origin. The only indication in her blurbs and marketing material that her character was Russian was his name, Sasha, though the first book specifically identified him as being of Russian origin. (If I recall correctly, the character calls his mother, who lives in Russia, at one point in the first book.)
Gabrielle wrote to her agent to request help resolving the issue, pointing out that no reviewers had taken issue with her character’s background. “If a Dear Reader letter is an option,” she pleaded, “can I write one that condemns the Russian government’s actions and states the books were written before the war…?” If not, she feared she would have to rewrite both books.
If they simply don’t want to be the publisher behind a book with a Russian in it, I understand, but they need to come out and say that. There is no evidence that the war has impacted the sales of book 1, and quite frankly, all of this seems to be a series of excuses to try and make me change it because they have a problem, not readers.
Gabrielle Ash, email to Julie Gwinn of Seymour Agency
In the end, the press did back down and did what they should have done in the first place: hire a different cover artist who was comfortable with the character’s country of origin, rather than ask the author to rewrite an already published book. After talking with Gabrielle about this incident and viewing her email records, I think her words to her agent precisely identify the issue: the press justified their ask with baseless concerns about marketing.
No artist or editor should have to work with content that makes them uncomfortable, but this seems like a bizarre way of addressing sensitivity. Moreover, it implicates another theme that resonates with my own experiences. City Owl’s executive team seems prone to conflating personal and professional interests, leading to decisions that appear motivated by private preference or convenience while citing business reasons to justify their actions.
Gabrielle also mentioned other familiar issues: poor marketing support and limited copy editing. In October of 2022, she expressed concerns about the thoroughness of her copy edits to her dev editor, Danielle DeVor.
Note: for those less familiar with editor roles, Danielle was not the one who did these copy edits. Gabrielle told me that it seemed like Danielle’s hands were tied in this situation, and the issue was further discussed by her agent and Ms. Moss, but nothing ultimately changed.
This matches my experience—the developmental editors had little say over the copy editor assignments. It is, however, another example showing that the publisher knew that many authors had concerns. In fact, almost every author I spoke with in preparing this post did at one point or another express their worries to their editor or Ms. Moss herself, and many of them attempted to do so more than once, to no avail.
Gabrielle is in the process of re-releasing her Circle 7 series beginning with Diamonds and Demons (previously The Family Cross), a slow-burn urban fantasy with a reluctant bodyguard romance.
Anonymous authors speak out: “The worst part is the emotional impact.”
Along with those who have broken their silence publicly, a number of authors have reached out to me privately since I went public with my own City Owl experience. Some of them shared their experiences with me to include in this blog post, under the condition that they remain anonymous.
My debut book was late in every way…I didn’t have ARCs until 1 week before my publish date…paperbacks weren’t ready until a month after release! And [they] contained errors…
Anonymous
The editor…left only 10 comments and zero revisions as a “developmental edit.” I completed my own massive edit and worried endlessly if it would be good enough…
Anonymous
Along with my “developmental edits,” I was given a poorly formatted “Main Editing Sheet.doc” to use in editing my book myself. It contained at least one dead link and “helpful” advice such as “Eliminate passive voice” and this gem: “Rate each chapter weak or strong. Then, cut the weakest. Revise or cut all the rest.”
Anonymous
This Main Editing Sheet was sent to numerous people, apparently in place of a complete developmental edit. I never received this (as I am becoming more and more aware, I was extremely lucky to have the editor I did), but it was shared with me by multiple authors.
I am personally confused by item 9(m) identifying Rack as “overused” (is this in reference to breasts? Torture? Bikes? In what context do writers overuse this?) but I grant that I am no professional editor. Maybe I’m just not up on the latest crutch word trends.
The cover… Well, this is another instance of where I should have trusted the warnings in my gut…She sent me back the absolute worst [cut & paste] job I have ever seen.
Was I entirely happy with the result? No, but my book was publishing soon and it had no cover, and I had no CEs, and I had no ARCs, and I just had to let it go.
Anonymous
The above-quoted author showed me the cover they received and it appears to be a truly horrendous amateur Photoshop job. The author told me that she “100% believes” Tina Moss worked on her cover, “not MiblArt, not someone with experience…. Tina.”
As bizarre as this seems, multiple authors have expressed similar suspicions. I must confess I wondered about this too after my efforts to obtain a better cover for my third book earned me a scolding for “disparaging an artist’s work.”
The ARC file was made available to me to send out the day before release. ARCs for this book from COP didn’t go up until well after the publish date…I got and still have very few reviews.
Anonymous
My book appeared on Amazon, B&N, etc. with the wrong cover. COP used the wrong cover file for NetGalley and all retailers…and in print. [T]he cover they used was 2 revisions behind the final file.
Anonymous
My books going live with the wrong cover file is a fear I’m glad I never grappled with, as I found out about this after I left. The anonymous author told me they pointed the issue out but never received an apology.
Edits were so unbelievably light that I was scared. There was no way I’d gotten that much better…I could tell it was a rushed job, too.
Anonymous
[When ] I requested my rights back…COP had placed zero ads and had mentioned my book on social media zero times.
Anonymous
I was told that they didn’t really do much until 3 books were out. I got 3 newsletter promos. That’s it. I paid more than they did for promos because I wanted to give my series the best chance…
I have 3 books out now. Where are my ads? Oh, that’s right, it’s not in the best interest of books to run any. There should be an emoji for feeling dead inside.
Anonymous
The author quoted above added a zombie emoji to punctuate their statement, which made me chuckle in that “laugh so you don’t cry” kind of way. Gallows humor, as it were.
A need for real, substantive “systematic and operational changes.”
Just this week, on February 22, 2024, City Owl made an attempt at an apology, of sorts, for “public statements that overshared some details of our author-publisher relationships…in the spirit of transparency to our readers.”
Well, at least they “understand that this was a misstep,” but it doesn’t seem clear that they understand why it was a misstep. Nor does it indicate any specific changes it plans on implementing to avoid future such “missteps.”
This “sincere apology” was met with appropriate levels of skepticism from the authors who had spoken up.
City Owl’s “apology” attempted to address their mistakes in regards to sharing Charissa Weaks’ health status. It fails to acknowledge the way its statement appeared to blame Charissa and denigrate her work ethic. It also fails to acknowledge any of the additional concerns raised by multiple authors.
In closing, I’ll just reiterate my own statement from the linked thread above.
When a business acts in ways that erode trust in its services, repeatedly, despite multiple complaints, over a long period of time, it takes more than performative apologies and promises to rebuild that trust.
Erin Fulmer, Threads post, February 23, 2024
Thanks everyone who read all that (and previous posts too!)
And that’s all she wrote…for now. Next time, I’m going to switch gears a bit and talk about takeaways from my experience of running my first KDP promo as a self-published author.
You can catch up on my part in this whole debacle here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3. (Or, as r/fantasyromance puts it, “a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge rabbit hole,” and o hai Redditors! You’re right about this and a few other things too!)
With the release of Book 3, Cambion’s Rise, all my books are now back in the world, and you can support my work on this blog and as a newly indie author by giving them the old one-click (or reading them on Kindle Unlimited of course!)
Erin Fulmer Writes SFF 