Thread by @jclarkthewriter

I know y'all are wondering what's going on with my "un-debut" and what happened. I have a long thread for y'all on #PredatoryPublishing and being careful on who gets to release your stories...

[A LONG THREAD 🧵]

When I signed my with Bound to Brew contract I was ECSTATIC! I felt like I finally "made it". I reached the arbitrary bench mark in publishing. I gained a publicist and an additional editor on my team. B2B was a small publisher but I wanted to give them a chance.

The call went very well. I laid out my goals for starting my career with this novel. I'm breaking into the fantasy genre with this book. The team was cool with my plans and wanted to help in any way they could. When the paperwork came in I had my editor...

(who is also a lawyer) go through it with me. The terms were fair. Nothing screamed "I will take your idea away forever!" This is important for later. I signed on and started my author journey.

Then the waiting, but it was fine. Edits were being made, the cover was being designed, and things were flowing. Having deadlines as a contracted writer made me rise up to the challenges of time management.

Months go by. Communication that was once every other day started to slow down. That was a semi red flag 🚩. COVID had slowed publishing in the past 18+ months so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Things were still on schedule for release day.

As I keep checking in with Bound to Brew I start to get an odd feeling. B2B hasn't promoted my release on social media. My book wasn't listed on the Book section of their site (it had its own preorder link). I haven't got any author copies with less than a month from publication

Things were quiet...too quiet.

They assure me that the release is still a go. My publicist is still emailing me about book promotion. They are asking for more time to print copies out and ship the novel but I'm assured that things are going forward.

During this time I'm getting myself together. Author website. Doing interviews. Contacting book stores. Sending out my press release. Contacting newspapers. Trying to get on podcasts. I. Am. Ready to get my career started.

Release day comes. Everything is still good. Slow, but I've handed in everything. The cover was tight. The story is formatted. Now I just need those copies to ship to my supporters.

Then 2 days after my release I get an email from Bound to Brew. They break the contract, deciding to not publish my novel...after it's official release. Citing miscommunication and not being fit to publish at this time I get my rights back. My debut lasted 48 hours.

Publishing is business, and problems big enough to derail a debut should have been handled before the release. No copies were printed by the publisher or their distributor. There were no Amazon or B&N purchase options. I've heard of pushing back a release but to kill it?

Now that I've had time to step back from the situation it sounds like #PredatoryPublishing. This was a traditional small press publisher that acquired a novel from a Black woman then canceled publication days after the release.

Even stranger is the fact that B2B fired my publicist in mid June and never told me anything about this until last week. She was the person I was in contact the most, sending messages through her official email...and nobody thought to mention to her authors that she was fired?!

"Figuring things out as a company" isn't an excuse for keeping me out the loop on things that affected me! When things happen the fine print of the contract is paramount.

Fortunately I keep all the rights to SHE STEALS JUSTICE, including material such as ISBN #s, press release info, the entirety of the cover, and all of the inside materials. Due to the publisher breaking the contract I also get royalties on preorders sold.

I keep my IP but this has left a sour taste in my mouth. As a newbie my eyes are open a bit more. Do I still want to be traditionally published? Sure. Will I release SHE STEALS JUSTICE? Of course! Would I still query smaller publishers?

I'll be more weary in the future but I won't write off small pubs entirely. I can't recommend Bound to Brew to anyone with what I went through. I'm tired but still hanging on. Our stories are too important to let anyone stop them from being told.