When your publisher closes down...

A few nights ago I got an email from my erotica publisher. After months of uncertainty and rumors, they are closing their doors for good. My first three books were published with them and they are graciously returning all rights to the authors at the end of the year.

With the reversion of rights I'll be able to either self-publish them or (hopefully) find them new homes with different publishers. I'm a little worried about the fact that there are over 400 authors and thousands of titles that will suddenly be available on January 1st 2017 and a very limited number of publishers who will take on hardcore erotica. My books aren't just erotica where the story is moved forward with sex and sexual tension, they are kink stories. The first is a menage love story featuring three best friends who fall in love. The second and third are part 1 and 2 of a blossoming BDSM love story. I'm hopeful and optimistic, but also a realist.

The only part about this that is hard to swallow is the one stipulation I had to agree to in order to get my right back. I had to forfeit all royalties and monies owed to me. Because of the trouble EC has been having they haven't paid royalties out to their authors in quite some time. My 3 books fell into that window and I was never paid for them. Hundred of copies of my books were sold and thousands more were illegally downloaded, and I'll never see a cent.

I'm trying to see it as an opportunity to start fresh and I will be forever grateful that the rights are being reverted at all as my biggest fear in this closure was losing my books. This way I have my books, they've been professionally edited and have been very well received, and I even get to keep the covers as long as I have the EC logo removed. It's a learning experience and a bump in the road.

Publishing is a very fickle business and small houses are closing down every year. I worry that the face of publishing will soon become the NY/top 10 publishers and then Indies. I love being an Indie author and I'm happy it's becoming so mainstream, but the over saturation of books (and sadly about half of them are not ready to be published) is creating a landscape where a lightning strike or nepotism will become the only way to make a career our of writing. Thankfully it's my passion and I'm not going to give up, I'll just adapt as life keeps tossing curveballs at me.