As you’ve likely already heard, the fine folks (yeah, there’s still no sarcasm tag in html) at All Romance eBooks have announced that they are closing as of December 31, 2016.
It is with a great sadness that we announce the closing of All Romance eBooks, LLC. For the first year since opening in 2006, we will be posting a loss. Despite efforts to maintain and grow our market share, sales and profits have declined. The financial forecast for 2017 isn’t hopeful. We’ve accepted that there is not a viable path forward.
All Romance has always been a labor of love. Over the years we’ve developed wonderful relationships with the vendors we’ve worked with, the publishers whose content it’s been our pleasure to sell, the authors who supported us, and the customers who it’s been our honor to serve. On midnight, December 31 our sites will go dark. Between now and then, we encourage consumers finalize any transactions, download purchases, and back up libraries.
If you directly publish content for sale through our platform or All Romance has acted as your publisher via our Publishing in Partnership program, you should be in receipt of an email from us with additional information. If not, please contact us at info@allromanceebooks.com.
Which means that, if you have credit/eBucks with them, they’ll expire on that date. If you got a gift certificate for Christmas or Hanukkah, you need to spend it pronto. Of course, that’s assuming you can even access their site (it’s being hammered at present by people trying to deactivate their titles and/or use up store credit/back up libraries.) And the super fun part? Whatever you do end up purchasing will go directly into ARe’s coffers. Authors aren’t getting paid. Oh, they’re offering a whopping 10 cents on the dollar for all Q4 royalties up to Dec. 27. Authors won’t get ANY royalties on sales occurring Dec 28–31. 100% profit for them. So, y’know. That’s awesome.
I might sound glib, but the truth is I feel sick to my stomach. I finally dipped my toes into the self-publishing waters on December 14 with The Power of Peppermint and had been giddy with its reception. I even reached Bestseller status and was quite proud.
But it looks like that little silver star and a screengrab or two is ALL I’m going to see from ARe in the way of compensation for the sales made of that title. Because I’ll be DAMNED if I’ll agree to their offer and absolve them of any of the ramifications that may befall them as a result of their piss-poor business practices. Not only did they continue to offer holiday sales, sell gift cards AND sell advertising for 2017 (which, clearly, they had no intention of honouring) but they’re giving people THREE DAYS NOTICE of their intent to close and inability to pay royalties?
No.
Fuck that.
Thankfully ARe isn’t my only sales avenue. But it was a big one.
And in the meantime I’m removing all links from my website to my titles that are still for sale on their site (I’ve already removed The Power of Peppermint entirely; it’s still available via Amazon, Kobo, Apple iTunes, and Smashwords.)
This is not how you conduct business, All Romance eBooks. You do NOT pay your bills out of authors’ royalties. Business 101. Jesus.
Thankfully, my main publisher, Evernight, plays by different rules. So go buy direct from their website. Seriously. Authors not only get a higher royalty rate, but they GET their royalties.
Dreamspinner Press has also announced that they will be honouring pre-orders of any Dreamspinner title via their website with receipt from ARe.
![Dreamspinner]](https://ldblakeley.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Dreamspinner-250x138.jpg)
Is it 2017, yet?
Do you guys have any legal recourse? This definitely seems shady as all get up.
I hope so. Right now I’m just waiting to see if a class action suit is launched (at the very least) and hoping that it will include authors outside of the United States. It sucks because what they’ve done is clearly illegal. I mean… you’re a virtual business and you sell digital product. WHERE did all that money go? Urgh.
Like it’s not hard enough to make money as an author without that dirty bullshit they’re pulling. Its a simple concept, getting paid for your work but it seems like not everyone gets it. :/
They can eat a bag of dicks.
Seriously. A BIG bag.
Well said!!
Tx! <3
Even at the risk of receiving NO return, authors should force them to file for bankruptcy. The cost of the bankruptcy falls on the person filing (ARe), not on the creditors, and you may be awarded more than 10 cents on the dollar or you may be awarded nothing, but a bankruptcy will protect you from this person doing this again – authors accepting a settlement means she can start another business (under another name) and do it all again. Bankruptcy prevents her from doing that for at least a number of years. Not accepting and taking legal action (think class action) against ARe will also send a clear message to others that this is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Whereas accepting a settlement sends the opposite message to others and authors may find this is not the end of their 10 cents on the dollar settlements. Do not even respond to her without first contacting an attorney and seeking sound legal advice.
Agreed! It didn’t even cross my mind to reply to their so-called offer. She can’t be allowed to start another business. And this can’t keep happening. There are authors still reeling from the same treatment by a few publishing houses. It’s vulgar and unconscionable. There is already one group putting together resources to file a class action suit. Author, Brenda Cothern, has contacted a lawyer and is gathering details here https://www.facebook.com/groups/212976702443743/