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morgandawnEllora’s Cave is an indie publisher that has helped published numerous erotica and M/M authors and played an influential role in the indie erotica publishing industry in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, they seemed to have run into ongoing financial and organizational difficulties
which has led some of the authors to blog about the situation
and Publisher's Weekly, a publishing magazine to report twice on some of the troubles.
In September 2014, Dear Author also reported on their difficulties.
On Sept 26, 2014, Ellora’s Cave filed a defamation lawsuit against Dear Author . In addition, they've demanded in the lawsuit the names of those who have commented anonymously on Dear Author's article.* There are many other paths they could have chosen: publicly addressing the royalty worries of their authors, explaining how they planned to solve their organizational problems and loss of staff or clarifying how they were going to handle their two years of unpaid state tax liens.
The main contributor of Dear Author is hiring an attorney to respond to the lawsuit (anyone in Ohio know a lawyer willing to help?). Ellora's Cave’s lawsuit seems to imply that their owner is ignorant of the Streisand Effect – something I think the Internets will be happy to assist with.
Some Ellora’s Cave authors are now asking their readers to not buy their books through Ellora’s Cave until there is a better accounting. Also, at least one reader has reported that when she logged into her Elllora’s Cave account, the books she purchased had disappeared from her library. In general, it is a good idea to never rely on a publishing house to store your ebooks. You should always download a copy to hard drive, if allowed.
Edited to add: another blogger makes a chilling observation - many erotica authors write under pseudonyms in order to prevent possible complications when linking their real lives to their pen names.
"....by filing [a public lawsuit against one blogger in her personal capacity] they’re also reminding their authors and editors that they have no compunction about publicizing the personal information of anyone they see as an adversary. It’s not necessary to sue an individual person in this case; suing Dear Author LLC would have taken care of their needs.** But it wouldn’t have sent the same “we know who you are” message. EC has already stipulated in internal communications that authors “include both legal name and pen name when communicating with Ellora’s Cave.” This just ups the ante."
Whether the threat of outing may not be real or even likely, Ellora Cave's decision to reach for the litigation hammer against one blogger and to demand the names of those commenting on the article speaks volumes. How we as community want to respond to this "speech" is up to us to decide and implement.
**Attorneys may bring a personal lawsuit against an owner/operator of an LLC in the hopes they can pierce the LLC shield and hold the owner personally liable for a tort like defamation.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-27 10:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-07 03:56 am (UTC)Jane has hired Marc Randazza, whose name I recognize from the Righthaven bullcrap from a few years ago. It involved one of the two local newspapers.
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/the-dear-author-jane-litte-legal-defense-fund
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-07 05:30 pm (UTC)http://morgandawn.dreamwidth.org/1368425.html