Sunday 13 September 2015

Eldritch Press - Some Words of Warning

You get good experiences and bad experiences in this trade, just as in any other.  Yet still the bad experiences always surprise me a little.  Stupid I know, but there's always a naive part of me that insists that people get into publishing - be they writers, editors or whatever - because it's something they basically love, an even more naive part determined to believe that because of that fact people will be more inclined to behave with a degree of decency and respect.  No matter how often I'm proved wrong on this front - and this year, I've been proved wrong a lot - I still find myself feeling shocked.

The minor bad experiences, the rude e-mails, late payments and such, I invariably let slide.  When people behave in a spectacularly crappy fashion, however, that I try to flag up here.  Because it's safe to assume that a publisher that's acted unprofessionally towards me will do so to other people too, and as writers we have little enough defense against that sort of thing.

Which brings us around to Eldritch Press.

In late June of last year, I submitted a story called Br(other) to an anthology Eldritch had opened for, Our World of Horror, and to my immense surprise it was accepted that same day.  This seemed like hugely good news, since Eldritch were paying good money, and things only looked more positive when the contract came through a prompt four days later.  That was tarnished ever so slightly when the table of contents went up the month after and I noticed they'd managed to misspell the one-word title of my story but, hey, no biggie, and they got it fixed quickly enough.

Four or so months went by.  2014 rolled on into 2015.  With no recent news and half of the twelve month contract period elapsed, it seemed like a good time to check on progress.  I was told that edits were in progress and that they were "waiting on a couple of high profile authors" to send stories.

Five more months passed.  In that time, Eldritch had revamped their website and Our World of Horror had vanished from it.  I wrote again pointing this out and got a form acknowledgement but no reply.  May became June, the last month of the contact exclusivity period, and I had little doubt that something had gone badly wrong.  I wrote once more, highlighting the fact that my story would soon be out of contract and this time got an apology.  I was told I was welcome to withdraw my work but that the book would definitely be out in July.  I suggested a three month contract extension to cover the additional delay and was advised that it would be along shortly.  It never materialized, but about a week later I did get copied in on a mass e-mail announcing the addition of a story by a 'big name' author to the collection.  It was late July by this point, and I was gobsmacked that Eldritch would use the one and only mass e-mail they'd sent out to point out that they were still adding material mere days before their promised release date.  Had they really kept eighteen authors waiting for over a year, just for this?

Apparently not, since things then went quiet once again.  Finally, a few days ago, I got a second mass e-mail, this one announcing that Eldritch were pulling the plug on Our World of Horror.  It didn't come as much of a shock.  Despite the protestations to the contrary, I'd been confident for about six months that the anthology would never see the light of day.  The tone of that e-mail did, however, annoy me to no end.  There was a deal of self-pity in there, yet no apparent awareness that they'd just screwed twenty or so authors around for well over a year and failed to honour payments that surely totaled somewhere in the thousands of dollars.  (I'd illustrate with quotes here, but wouldn't you know, they stuck a confidentiality clause on it.)  I wrote back and pointed out that no part of that e-mail contained an apology of any kind; I further suggested that, having tied up the work of so many writers for well over a year they should probably be thinking about some compensation.  Needless to say, I didn't get a reply.

Now this is hardly an atypical story, and it's not the first sale I've had collapse from under me.  There's no question but that the quality of communication was atrocious, but if it had been that alone then I wouldn't have taken the time to write it up here.  What bothers me particularly is the suspicion that Eldritch tied up stories for this book for a period of months when they had a fairly good idea that it wasn't going to happen.  I mean, why else do you disappear a project from your website?  Why hold off on the edits, except because the contract stipulated payment on their completion?  Why else keep authors so in the dark?  My impression is that they thoughtlessly jerked a bunch of writers around because it suited them and they could get away with it, and - having had my work purchased and sat on for fifteen months and having seen not a dime for the privilege - I consider that reason enough to warn other writers to be careful around these guys.

Though frankly, I doubt that any of this will be an issue.  Reading between the lines of that last e-mail, it seems likely that Eldritch are in the process of folding.  If this is how they do business then, frankly, it's difficult to imagine any other scenario.  Still, I would personally much rather see them get their problems resolved and learn from their mistakes, because the world surely does need more small presses willing to pay decent money.  And if anyone else has had experiences with Eldritch, whether positive or negative, then in the interests of fairness please do take a minute to share them in the comments.

15 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience, David. So sorry to hear this happened to you.

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  2. This gels with my experience/communication with Eldritch. In late 2014/early 2015, I submitted a story for their proposed "Lost Worlds" anthology. Complete radio silence since then, including a refusal to reply to queries, broken only by a few cryptic Facebook posts that have since disappeared along with their entire FB presence and any mention of the book on their website. As far as I could tell, no one who submitted received a yay or nay, let alone word of the project's cancellation, and as a result all that material was kept in limbo for the last ten months. After reading this post, I suppose I should feel fortunate not to have had my hopes raised with a contract or acceptance. Sorry to hear you weren't so lucky.

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  3. Thanks for commenting, Michael. It's becoming increasingly apparent that Eldritch were mistreating most people they had dealings with in one way or another.

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  4. Thank you for sharing this. I recently submitted my poetry manuscript to them for their dark poetry collection contest. They said the winners would be announced on Halloween and to keep checking their Facebook page. However, no winners have been announced yet, and as someone mentioned their FB page has completely disappeared. So my nerves are even worse after reading this. I've been wondering if I should send them an email to ask what's going on, but I haven't summoned up the nerve yet. Sigh.

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  5. Hi Sara, thanks for the comment. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but, based on correspondence with Eldritch that another writer has made public, it looks like they've now closed.

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  6. I have had the same experience as Sara and wonder - this press/person/people who are recipients of quite a number of submissions, I would think - free entry, cash and contract - where does one stand legally? ? surely they wouldn't be so stupid as to try to use someone's work???

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    1. Daisy, I've seen nothing to suggest that Eldritch have used anyone's work illegally or without contracting it first - even if they haven't always been the greatest at honouring those contracts. So far as I know, they're no longer publishing at all. Based on similar past experiences, I would imagine that any unanswered submissions will simply go ignored.

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  7. I submitted in June of 2014 for Our World of Horror as well. It didn't make that cut but they contacted me and said they were considering my story for the print mag. It's now halfway through November and despite several attempts to contact them, I've heard nothing. And now their website is gone. I understand these things happen but to consistently ignore information requests smacks of amateur hour and I'm not surprise that they've folded. It's sad because I agree that more small press is good. But at least now, finally, I can try to submit my story elsewhere! Thanks for posting this!

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    1. Actually this happened to me too; I'd just forgotten about it until after I wrote the piece! Best of luck in getting that story to a more deserving market.

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  8. They've been holding a story of mine for the Lost Worlds anthology for over a year now. Thankfully I came across this post. The whole kit and kaboodle seems dead, so I can't even contact them to say that I'm withdrawing the story! Poor form all round, the sort of behaviour that gives the small press a bad name.

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  9. Just like James and Michael, I've had one of my stories kept waiting for one full year after it was accepted for the Lost Worlds anthology.

    I wasn't too concerned at first because although they took many months to answer each email I sent them, they promised to send me a contract "within a day or two" with every new mail; but no contract ever came my way. I worked with them on other fronts (I translated two poetry collections for them into Italian) and they were punctual and fair with payments on that front, but yeah, they didn't really handle the whole stories-business very fairly.

    I'm glad to know I can deem my story free again - thanks for your post, David!

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  10. I had long talks with Michael, but it's the exact same story - I wish it weren't . He'll tie up your stuff and fold.
    He's a time robber

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    1. Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm sure it was in no way malicious; the impression I got was of someone who'd taken on far too much, far too quickly, without much in the way of adequate planning. Eldritch isn't the first small press to implode for those reasons and it won't be the last, but you do wonder if these people understand the damage they cause. "Time robber" seems an appropriate phrase, though it sounds as though time may have been the least of it for some people.

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  11. The same thing happened to me. I had been trying to get my first book published and every attempt at getting an agent was met with disinterest and most publishing companies either never responded or tried to sign me up for some ridiculous gimmick where I paid them to publish my work. Then came a glimmer of hope when I was finally offered a deal from eldritch press to publish my book. I was given a contract and it seemed generous so I signed up. It has been over a year now and not only has the FB page and the webpage for eldritch press disappeared but the owner of the companies email account has been deleted and both his office and cell phone numbers are now disconnected. At first I got an email about every three months claiming the book was still being edited but then all emails ceased and still I had hoped my suspicions would prove to be merely paranoia....guess not. Funny thing is I know that this sort of thing is the nature of the business but between all the rude agents and scam artist publishers i dont know how anyone can get anything done in this line of work and to be honest i dont have enough confidence in my writing to continue to try so ill be shelving my book and my current writing projects for the time being. however I do wish to thank the one who started this post for bringing me some form of closure on the subject.

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  12. I am grateful for the information. I also sent my poems to the "Dark Poetry" contest and a short-story for "Lost Worlds". So here it ends. It is a pity.

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