As most of you would probably already know, Ellora’s Cave is suing the Dear Author blog and Jane Litte personally over this post: The Curious Case of Ellora’s Cave. Many many people, on various social media, have reported problems with Ellora’s Cave. Authors, editors and artists are reporting they are owed money, there are reports of people leaving the company and other strange goings on. Some authors were afraid to speak out. I guess the latest dick move on Ellora’s Cave’s part shows that to be a reasonable concern.
There’s not much I can do but whatever I can do, I will. And one of the things I can do, is publicise this monstrosity in my little corner of the romancelandia blogosphere. Jaid Black and Ellora’s Cave want to silence their critics. They want to shut down public discourse about their company. They want to scare people into silence. Sometimes, it pays to be careful what you ask for. Because sometimes, what you want is the opposite of what you get. Just ask Barbra Streisand.
I’m one of many bloggers, authors and readers who have come out in support of Jane, Dear Author and the blog post in question.
I won’t be buying, reading or reviewing any Ellora’s Cave books in future. I won’t give them 1 cent of my money. That said, Ellora’s Cave authors deserve our support and I’d urge people to consider buying books published with other publishers or direct from the author where possible.
I also won’t be buying, reading, reviewing or supporting in any way, authors who are taking malicious glee in the situation. Not everybody has to like each other. I don’t expect everyone to like Dear Author or Jane Litte. I don’t expect everyone to like me. But taking joy and crowing about a shitty situation like this speaks of the character of the person doing the gloating. And what it says is nothing good. This is not a pratfall. It’s not a funny video where someone gets a pie in the face and wins $10,000. Litigation is messy, time consuming and costly in all the ways things can be costly. Even though the truth is a complete defence in a defamation action, it will still have a cost. What Ellora’s Cave have done is shitty. I see no righteousness in their actions and being happy that someone did a shitty thing to someone else is not something to be proud of. So, please, if you have the urge to do any gloating, do it quietly. And offline. Or, you know, maybe don’t do it at all.
There are a number of excellent posts about the place which are more articulate and have more detail. Links to some of them are below.
Chilling Effects at Vacuous Minx
Ellora’s Cave Sues Dear Author Book Blog for Defamation at The Digital Reader
Ellora’s Cave, Dear Author, the Streisand Effect and Freedom of Speech at Her Hands, My Hands
Ellora’s Cave Sues Dear Author, Hello Streisand Effect at Smart Bitches Trashy Books
Ellora’s Cave vs. Dear Author. The Beginning of the End? at Cat Grant’s blog
Don’t Do This Ever (An Advice Column for Writers) by Jenny Trout
Author and lawyer Pete Morin also chimes in
as do the magnificent ladies at The Book Pushers
plus Katiebabs in her post The WTFckery Report: Ellora’s Cave Suing Dear Author Blog for Defamation. Why Book Bloggers Should Be Worried
and also at The Bad Menagerie
Kat at Book Thingo posted Why yes, schadenfeude makes your butthurt look big
and check out the #notchilled hashtag on Twitter for more. For an explanation of the hashtag, see Courtney Milan’s post here
There is also an EC authors support thread here at Dierdre Saoirse Moen’s blog where EC authors are promoting their non EC books.
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This whole thing is Wtfuckery of the highest order but what’s worse is, its genuinely scary and malicious. As I said in my comment at DA I’ve no doubt Jane will kick arse but I hope she does the arse kicking without too much emotional and monetary cost to her and her family. And as for those authors that are taking pleasure in this (and yeah, there are a couple of them I have seen who will now never, ever get one cent of my money) they can, to put it bluntly, fuck right off. The only bright light to any of this is the amazing support Jane is receiving, I’m not surprised but it is wonderful to see. Oh and I will no longer buy direct from EC, I will however continue to, if possible support the authors by buying somewhere else
@Jo: Yes, Jane is receiving a lot of support, which is great. Loads of people are lining up to contribute to a defence fund if one is required.
Thank you for the shout out, and for the link to Jenny Trout’s post.
My biggest concern for Jane right now is that EC is very likely to simply not show up–as they’ve done before–but by that time, they will have cost Jane both in stress and money. I know of one case during the Oatmeal/Funnyjunk/Charles Carreon triple down idiocy a few years back, a blogger counter sued as soon as he himself was sued–and won. So I am hoping that whomever Jane got in OH, does tha for her–because if EC is sued, the court may finally get to see those financials necessary for discovery. Otherwise, it’s just a tactic to silence critics, demoralize Jane and waste her time and money.
@azteclady: You’re welcome 🙂 (and likewise)
Yes, I will be surprised if EC does show up. After all, they have form in this area. I have every confidence that Jane will hire a smart Ohio lawyer and take whatever steps necessary to protect herself. It’s a pity they don’t have a SLAPP statute in Ohio.
Think of it this way:
Since there’s no anti-SLAPP in Ohio, Jane is free to counterclaim against EC for malicious prosecution and abuse of process. If they had anti-SLAPP, those counterclaims could not be brought on the basis of EC suing, since suing is protected petitioning activity.
Anyway, most anti-SLAPP statutes do not protect private publication – only statements made in connection with a public proceeding of some kind. (California is a BIG exception to that, but they’re always waaaayyyy out there – heh)
And Ohio also has a statute that provides for the prevailing defendant to seek attorneys fees for the cost of defending a frivolous suit.
@Pete: Oh, so it might turn out to be something of a boon then. Good to know.
It will be important to keep the support for Jane visible over the time it takes for this ugly situation to resolve.
Also I am so disappointed in those mean girl authors who refuse to see that without conversation in the open about the industry they and their ilk will get screwed over in the dark and that the vibrant and interesting online conversation about books will fade to marketing. Their behaviour reeks of a desire to have power over and control all the things. We readers are all minions now.
@Merrian: Indeed.
It will be interesting to see if EC does anything more than file. There is rife speculation that they won’t want their account books exposed in the discovery process.
As to the other, well yes, it turns my stomach. We don’t have to like everybody but when serious shit hits the fan, I think goating about it is very bad form indeed. It’s like being happy someone has been bereaved or has been diagnosed with a disease. Who even does that? Who celebrates that?
@Kaetrin:
The actual mean girls–who lack the vision to realize that a) what’s happening to Jane could happen to them at some point; that b) what’s happening to the unpaid EC authors, editors and cover artists, could also happen to them in the future; and c) that the internet–and many potential minions–do not forget easily.
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@azteclady: I’m very happy not to understand how someone could be just that awful.
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