Peter W. Dawes's Blog: The Man Behind the Curtain, page 6
August 26, 2012
Anthology Submissions Closed
Submissions for our anthology are now CLOSED!
Our acquisitions editor will be responding to submissions / writing samples received prior to 8/26. We do have a back-log of TBR submissions, but everyone will receive a response. Please be patient. Interest in this project has been overwhelming, and extremely encouraging.
The anthology will be released late November / early December. Publication details and cover art coming soon.
Our submissions page has been updated to reflect this change.
August 16, 2012
Yep, Crimson Melodies got hacked
We’re back up and running with a fresh WordPress install, and our mail servers are still working just fine.
The good news is that all the important data (contact info, submissions, etc) was completely unaffected by the downtime and subsequent purge thanks to active backups.
The bad news is that all the site customization was not backed up properly (its now been added as a much higher priority) so a redesign is in progress – something that had been on the docket for the New Year, after the anthology was completed. So we’re skipping ahead a few months, while doing our best not to fall behind on the anthology.
Nocturnal Embers is still slated for a November release. Current contributors can expect a status update soon.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.
-JR
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July 19, 2012
Amazon’s KDP Select – rewards are now minimal
Saturday (July 21) will be the last day our title, Eyes of the Seer, will be part of Amazon’s KDP select program. EotS was first enrolled on January 21, with its first option to be released in the program back on April 21.
In April, the results from being part of KDP select were still encouraging, and Crimson Melodies felt it was worthwhile to renew enrollment for another three month option. However, in these last three months, the payoff for being part of KDP select has withered down to very little – bordering on downright discouraging.
January into February
sales for EotS roughly doubled
two/five free-day promotions were used, yielding nearly 500 free downloads
there were 0 borrows
February into March
sales for EotS roughly doubled, again
two/five free-day promotions were used, yielding 577 free downloads
there were 2 borrows
March into April
sales for EotS increased by another third
one/five free-day promotions were used, yielding 122 free downloads
there were 2 borrows
You can see why we chose to enroll for a second 3-month term. Though there was a drastic difference in the amount of increase in sales in the March-April period compared to the first two months, it was still a significant increase. Also, the amount of borrows had at least remained the same between March and April, which was encouraging.
Here is where it gets disappointing.
April into May
sales for EotS DECREASED by 50% (returning close to February levels)
two/five free-day promotions were used, yielding 218 free downloads
there were 0 borrows (back to February levels)
May into June
sales for EotS DECREASED by 33% (returning to just above pre-KDP select levels)
zero/five free-day promotions were used
there were 0 borrows
June into July (these numbers are not from any KDP official reports, but from monitoring our sales)
sales from EotS are the lowest they have been since any month in 2011
three/five free-day promotions were used, yielding 291 free downloads
there were 0 borrows
The obvious differences in each of the three-month periods of enrollment is clear even without a direct side-by-side comparison. Regardless of the potential seasonal, or economic factors, KDP select has become discouraging at best. It was the 0-borrow factor that has solidified our decision to remove EotS from KDP select, because, clearly, the additional exposure in the Kindle Lending Library is not paying off.
Of anything about KDP select I will miss, it is the free-day promotions that are the most difficult to part with. However, as Amazon’s popularity reduces with other eReaders taking positions of prominence, we’ll be counting on intelligent and tech-aware (if not tech-savvy) readers to take advantage of Smashwords coupons for free promotions.
We will be enrolling RotS in KDP select for its first three months, specifically, to give EotS three months to repopulate other seller’s databases (such as Smashwords, Barnes&Noble, Sony, Apple, and Kobo) without being overlapped by RotS. We’ll be having another release celebration for RotS when it becomes available on those platforms, too, using whatever knowledge we gain from our Amazon sales to best leverage the opportunity.
Here’s to hoping the next three months put Amazon in a better light for independent publishers once again.
July 15, 2012
Eyes of the Seer will no longer be part of KDP select
Absolute last chance to get Eyes of the Seer free for Kindle directly from Amazon. Crimson Melodies has made the decision to remove EotS from the KDP select promotion program after a six-month exclusive agreement, which ends on July 21. The good news is that EotS will be returning to Nook, Smashwords, Kobo, and the iBookstore by the end of the month! The bad news is that means we’ll no longer have the option to list for free on any of the major retailers. (Smashwords coupons will be relied upon for discount/free offers in the future.)
And don’t forget that The Vampire Flynn Book Two, Rebirth of the Seer, comes out 7/25
So go grab your copy of Book One (and tell your friends to grab theirs) TODAY!
June 25, 2012
One Month To Go
We’re one month away from release day! For those of you who’d be interested, we’ve put together a couple badges for your blogs – scroll down to find them. There’s two just in case the green one clashes with your blog theme. The code below them is what you should use to display them. (Don’t forget, you can resize them by customizing the height and width. In full size, they’re 480 width x 320 height.)
In related news, we’ve received dozens of submissions for our ezine and anthology, and it’s been thrilling reading through them all in search of authors that reflect the style Crimson Melodies wants to be known for. We’re in the final stages of narrowing down our anthology authors, and will be conducting feature posts beginning in August to introduce each and every one. The anthology itself is due to be released in late October/early November.
On Publishing: There have been lots of changes, lots of “lines drawn in the sand” recently. Amazon’s KDP select program has shifted to more elusive benefits, and Microsoft botched the early stages of their B&N/nook partnership by not including any mention of what they hope to achieve in their latest big press event. In other words, there’s too many topics at hand to be broken down concisely, and many other blogs have already done so. Crimson Melodies is still keeping its eyes and ears open on all fronts.
Coming Soon: For the next month, we’ll be releasing teasers for RotS as well as opportunities for winning advance/free copies. So stay tuned!
The Badges:
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As always, thanks for reading.
May 18, 2012
Cover Reveal
Painted by the talented Chris Griffin, aka quickreaver. Lettering by yours truly – JR Wesley. This is the official cover reveal for Rebirth of the Seer, The Vampire Flynn Book Two, which will be released on July 25th!
The cover features Flynn (aka Peter Dawes) and Monica. Consider it a teaser for the dynamic duo that will be paired together for the sequel to Eyes of the Seer. (If you haven’t read it yet, we’re celebrating today’s cover reveal with two Kindle freebie days. Click here to go to the EotS Amazon page - Free on May 18th and 19th)
It’s amazing to have the matched set of all three covers sitting on our hard drives. We’ll be showing off Eots and RotS between now and July 25th online, and then all three covers will be shown in person July 27-29th at Otakon in Baltimore.
Follow us on twitter, facebook, or through our webpage RSS feed to be kept up-to-date on release info, freebie days, the excerpt reveal for RotS, and other special offers. Links are all on the top right of every page.
April 21, 2012
Crimson Melodies: Otakon
Dates: July 27-29
Otakon is an annual meetup for all things Anime. If you’re not familiar with the event, check out the official Otakon website for more details.
This is the second year Crimson Melodies will be attending Otakon, and our first year participating in Artist Alley. That’s right folks, Crimson Melodies will have their very own table at the convention that now boasts over 30,000 attendees (last year’s total was just over 31k, a number that has been increasing every year).
Why a convention? Because in this age of digital publishing and online / social-media marketing, it’s hard to grab people’s attention with just pixels on a screen – pixels that are often crowded in between lots of other advertising pixels. We’re fairly personable folks here at Crimson Melodies, and being able to chat with people face to face is invaluable.
How did we hear about Otakon? One of our founders has been an attendee for four of the last seven years of conventions. (For those familiar, the answer is yes, two of those years were in cos-play. We’ll see about this year!)
Why are we genuinely EXCITED to have a table this year? Because Otakon fans and attendees are some of the most enthusiastic, dedicated, and downright over the top type of people when it comes to celebrating the things they enjoy. All fan communities have those qualities in varying degrees, but one of the things that sets apart the Anime community, Otakon’s specifically, is their willingness to check out something new. And we at Crimson Melodies think that what we have to offer will be a hit.
What will we be offering? Eyes of the Seer, in print, with the option for signed copies. Rebirth of the Seer, in print, with the option for signed copies. That’s right folks, our aim is to have the second installment of The Vampire Flynn Trilogy finished by the middle of July, with enough time to order a print run to have at our table at Otakon. We’re also working on trading cards, posters, and other kinds of nick knacks. There will be rewards for Tweeting and Facebooking about finding our table in Artist Alley (*cough* hint, free swag).
If you’re already planning to attend the convention, give us a shout we’ll keep an eye out for you. If you’ve never been to Otakon, I recommend checking out their website and seeing if it’s something you’d be interested in – it’s always fun, high-energy, and great for night-time folks (few conventions have 9 am – 2 am open doors). There’s also a rave, if you’re into that. Plus lots of panels for artists and creative types, usually with Anime themes but hosted by people who have and are will to talk about real-world experience doing whatever it is they do.
As a note to those submitting to our anthology and e-zine: Yes, we’ll be advertising those at the convention as well. We’re working on having cover-art available soon!
Trading Card Samples:
(we’ll be creating cards for Robin and Sabrina as well)
We’ll also have banners featuring the cover art for the entirety of the trilogy. If you need to find us there, keep an eye out for these!
Look for Rebirth of the Seer‘s cover to be officially unveiled in the coming weeks! Fate of the Seer is still unofficial, but copyrighted.
We’re also going to have digital art prints with vampire themes, plus quite a few haiku and poems by Peter Dawes. Will be available as prints and in custom frames (samples to be available soon).
What do we hope to come away with from Otakon? Honestly, we just want to reach out to people in a way that is often overlooked and difficult to pursue. We want them to remember Crimson Melodies – our books, our style, and the things we have planned for the future. One of our goals is to have an official e-newsletter available by June, which we’ll be encouraging people to sign up for at the convention. Sometimes something that simple is the most valuable thing you walk away with at the end of a convention – potential fans.
Here’s to all the fun (and caffeine) of preparing for a convention! Hope to see you there!
March 14, 2012
The Micropayment Business vs Erotica
For me, the PayPal corporate censorship issue began on February 24th of this year. It began more than a week earlier for others, and months ago for even more. With PayPal's latest [3/13/12] clarification of their policy, it almost seems like the issue has been settled. But as many have noted, most noteably those at BannedWriters.com, our work as writers and independent press / small business owners is far from over.
Throughout the course of the last few weeks, there has been a large debate over whether or not this was censorship. It took valuable time and effort away from the fact that, regardless of what it should or shouldn't be labeled, it was just plain wrong. I'd like to add a post here that I'd originally typed out to post on J.A. Konrath's Blog when I discovered it yesterday. (Either he has comments turned off, or that particular post has reached some limit of the website, but it didn't go public.)
PayPal is a monopoly in the business of micropayment processing. This is a well known, accepted, and bitter fact for many of the tech community.
My proof (posted originally on BannedWriters.com):
Irony or coincidence – stumbled across this tidbit re:PayPal on HackerNews. Not in connection with censorship, but another case of them stepping on toes./-
As you can imagine, HackerNews is a site for technophiles who keep up with many, if not all, of the latest trends in tech and tech companies.
The Regretsy Post (yes, another one): http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/12/paypal-does-it-again (I'm a fan of the picture at the head of that article)
The comment thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3695306
The comment in particular of interest: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3695487
"I think you have to be more specific with your question. If you are you dealing with international funds, or you are outside the US, I don't think there is. Maybe Google checkout?
But I know the answer to the question "Is there anyone else who can match PayPal feature for feature?" The answer is a clear and resounding no.
But Sweet Moses, I wish there was!"
We are talking about, for the most part, sale and distribution of digital goods. Micropayments are what keep the small presses and distributors afloat. They need to be able to accept purchases under $10, and to pay royalties beginning at the $10 mark. Ergo, they must use a payment system friendly to micropayments.
Currently, there is no 100% alternative to PayPal. If you live within the US there are only a HANDFUL of micropayment processor start-up companies.
If you look up those few micropayment processors, you will find a large amount of text describing their fees for processing payments. You also find what countries they operate in to receive payments, and what countries they operate in to accept payments. NONE of them are everywhere PayPal is.
So, yes, PayPal has a [near, might as well be] monopoly on micropayment processing.
[... P]resses and distributors could change their business practices to work around the problems presented by not being able to use PayPal. But they can't do it overnight, and most won't survive the interim. That doesn't mean they won't get back up and figure something out, but they would have to vastly change how they approach their business to even TRY to survive without being able to process the micropayments they're used to.
It's like sealing a human in a tank water and saying, "There's oxygen in there. Learn how to use it."
When censorship happens according to your definition *(Konrath says to be censorship, it must be by the government, a media outlet, or a monopoly. He had been denying that PayPal was a monopoly), I have a question: If you can manage to find a copy of the particular work that was censored, perhaps through vastly different channels than those where it is censored, not commonly accessed by the public, does it stop being censorship?
PayPal [I'll say "almost" in light of their latest policy clarification] completely eliminated the micropayment option for small, independent presses and authors effected by this issue. Micropayments that make up the core of their business models.
"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
PayPal is that king. So I'll keep calling it censorship, thank you.
No processing company should have the ability to arbitrarily cripple a business. With PayPal, it has happened time and time again, not just to the erotica community, but to the start-up, break-out, small business community. There will be more incidents until they have some genuine competition with better customer support.
Here's where I'd like to share my thoughts and speculations.
Problem: There is one, and only one, micropayment processing company that is in every country an author could possibly live.
Solution: For now, use their service in as limited a capacity as possible. Use another micropayment processor at every opportunity. Convert authors to using the alternatives where they are available. Explore other options.
Problem: Most micropayment processors have Terms of Service, Terms and Conditions, or other documentation with similarly vague clauses as PayPal that could, or could not, apply to erotica. Those Terms may qualify certain kinds of erotica as high-risk, or worse, illegal.
Solution: Get them to change how they view erotica. I think most of those Terms exist because no one has ever bothered to expressly separate erotica from pornography and other adult content / material. We need to step up and educate everyone we can that FICTION IS LEGAL. PERIOD.
When you walk into a movie theater, there are ratings on the movies. Some of those movies are rated in a manner to prevent inappropriate audiences from viewing movies with certain content. However, those same movies can be viewed in the privacy of their own homes regardless of the regulations. Those ratings exist only to prevent, in most cases, underage viewers from watching movies in a setting where enforcement of ratings is expected because it is outside the bounds of the home. If it is in the comfort of your own home, you are expected to act as the enforcer if you so choose, but it is your choice. The prevention of sale and consumption of those movies only goes so far, and they are readily available to those who meet the criteria determined by the MPAA (or outlets responsible for appropriate ratings and enforcing their enforcement). Even the most risque or questionable or [insert your buzz label here] material can be viewed without interference of the law in the privacy of the home – the notable exception to this is child pornography, but it is the ONLY exception.
Contrast: Fiction is viewed within your own mind. When you enter a Barnes & Noble, or any bookstore, you can walk to any section of the store, choose a book, take it up to the register, and purchase that book. It doesn't matter if it's a Harlequin Blaze romance, or a Stephen King psychological horror, or an erotica anthology. There are no ratings on the covers; no carding at the register. You can be any age, any gender, any orientation, any PERSON and conduct a transaction that allows you to leave with the book - provided you have a method to pay for it, or if not, you can sit and read it in the store where, it should be noted, there is no prevention of consumption. (If I plunk down at a B&N cafe, no one is going to ask to see my ID before I can begin reading whatever I may have chosen from their shelves.)
It is therefore safe to say that fiction does not – should not – fall under the scrutiny of a payment processor. It is not scrutinized elsewhere; not while window shopping, not at the point of sale, and certainly not within your own home. This is something that all payment processors, from micro to major, from credit card to bank, need to be made aware of, and made to understand. If our society wanted to police the content of the books we consume, they would be doing it at the retailers that already exist. But if a 14 year old can buy any book offered for sale in a store with the cash in their pocket, then an 18 year old, purchasing online with a credit card, should be able to buy whatever they wish.
Problem: Payment processors may still attempt to classify erotica, or companies that sell erotica, as "high risk".
Solution: It is my understanding that these "high risk" categories are determined by the anticpation of charge-backs and other fees, including potential fees simply anticipated, accurately or not, by the payment processor.
Ebooks are not a high risk venture.
I would also like to drive home and expand on the previous point from this angle: Fiction, ANY kind of fiction, is in NO WAY equivalent to pornographic or adult oriented high-risk products typically defined by payment processors. If it was, every bookstore would have to police those sitting in the chairs offered in their store – no, they would have to police their customers before they were allowed to pull a single book down from their shelves, or, perhaps, before they could even step into a particular section. It simply does not, and will not ever, happen.
Problem: Distributors will always be a potential blocking point for the sale of even legal fiction. (PAYMENT PROCESSORS should never be.) They can choose to offer, or not offer, whatever they wish to their customers. (Those defending PayPal's "company decision" to not want to be party to the sale of, quote, certain kinds of "erotica", unquote, were forgetting that the institutions who process payments should have NO RIGHT to interfere with LEGAL and otherwise unregulated content. There is no risk to their companies, and it denies choice to both parties where the choice should reside – the distributors/publishers and the customer.)
Solution: Find, or create, a different way to distribute. Keep options open. Continuously remind people that, yes, they should clearly label and define the content of all books offered for sale, but they should in no way restrict purchasing access to that content for those of legal age who wish to do so. Even if no one will ever carry a physical copy of a particular book, or even if certain Ereader stores remove certain titles, there will always be, and should always be, other places to sell transgressive literature.
The hit against Smashwords is particularly notable because it effectively removed many works from other points of distribution. We need to educate ourselves and find our own ways of independently getting into those distribution outlets at every opportunity. If that means learning how to create an epub file, or PDF, or .mobi without the Meatgrinder, so be it. In fact, that option already exists free of cost – and they don't require you to list any notation akin to "Smashwords Edition" at all. (*Note, they are not a distribution solution akin to Smashwords because they only sell on their own site, they simply allow you to use their ebook conversion functions to sell your book in any format and do not mind if you use those files elsewhere. And, unfortunately they utilize PayPal. They do require you to use the Markdown language to format your books prior to conversion, which is somewhat …frustrating… but not a complete road-block.)
From LeanPub's FAQ:
Q. Is it possible and permissible to take the .mobi file and directly upload it to the Kindle Store under our own name?
Yes, you can do that! You don't need our permission, but you have our blessing!
We are planning to offer a service that makes it easier to do this, and we're planning to charge for it on a per-book basis. But even once we offer this service, you can just do it yourself for free since it's your work.
We're authors too, and the last thing an author wants is to feel like someone else owns their work or controls what they can do with it. It's yours. We're more than happy for you to make money in as many revenue streams as possible. As a courtesy to us, we would appreciate it if you left the mention of Leanpub in the second page (to help our marketing) when you sell it elsewhere, but you can remove that too if you want.
To Sum Up
More people, and companies, need to be educated about the way our society treats fiction and how it applies to erotica. It is not regulated any differently than any other book at any point in the current food chain, and this needs to extend to all payment options. Distributors and publishers should still have the choice of what titles they offer for sale, but no distributor or publisher should be forced to remove content in a manner that removes their choice – the exception being at the behest of the government.
Erotica should not be classified as "high-risk". It is not illegal. I doubt, although it would be wonderful if there are any companies out there that could provide supporting documentation, there is an abnormal rate of charge-backs on erotica compared to any typical book publisher or distributor. With both those facts in mind, erotica should be handled separately from image-centric, adult-oriented material. Preferably, it should not fall under any scrutiny at all, just like the books in a bookstore – once it's in the store, anyone can buy it if they choose. (I am not saying we should not label erotica – we very much should, and very clearly – but it is a person's choice to allow those labels to guide their purchasing decision.)
Fiction is not illegal. It is fiction. It is, or should be, readily available to those who choose to sample it, however and wherever they choose to sample it.
End of story.
Final Thought
From svrowle on svrowle.com
I was reading some of the responses [...] and going, "Wait. You [have] criticized the flood of epublishers that emerged in the past five years for being unprofessional — rightly so — but you expect us to invent a payment processor, something that can compete with PayPal, with no startup capital or technical knowledge or business connections… and you want us to do this in addition to setting up a new ebookstore and writing stories? What kind of crack are you smoking, because I need some of that."
As always, thanks for reading.
JR Wesley
March 10, 2012
There Are Alternatives to PayPal
Over the last two weeks, I've seen a large number of authors and publishers talking about banding together to create a PayPal alternative, or looking to find one, but have not seen any concrete mentions of alternatives outside of one blog post (that I honestly wish I could locate, but have misplaced in my bookmarks of all the posts and comments dealing with this issue).
Firstly, there are alternatives, but none that have the full international capabilities of PayPal. (I get into more detail on that at the end of this post.) If any users from across the pond or other countries outside of the US know of any non-US based companies that process payments between two individual parties as well as at a merchant-consumer level, please send me in their direction.
Secondly, I've sent out contact emails to two of the three companies I've narrowed down to my "hopeful" list. This is a copy of the letter (which I've customized to each of them) that initiated talks:
Dear [PayPal alternative],
I represent an emerging micro-press seeking a primary payment processing service both for our direct sales and for issuing royalties. Our customers are primarily US based, but we often contract with authors from outside the US and will, eventually, be selling to individuals in other countries. Most of our wares are digital, which is why international payment options will be crucial to our potential growth.
There are statements on your website and blog that indicate an "in progress" status regarding international use of your service. The countries I am primarily interested in are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. If these are some of the countries you are actively working on achieving a presence in, I would be very interested in utilizing your service.
I also have a secondary concern that, due to recent media attention, I feel the need to ask before committing my business to your service. Your answer would interest not only me, but several other micro, small, and medium publishers facing a similar problem regarding what has, almost overnight, been an outright denial of service from PayPal.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/01/corporate-censorship-reborn-paypal-bans-erotic-fiction/
PayPal's actions regarding this policy enforcement are actively being opposed by several well-known consumer and human rights groups. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/50969-anti-censorship-and-privacy-rights-organizations-sign-letter-for-smashwords.html
The public statement issued by PayPal on March 8 has not offered any significant enlightenment as to why they have begun enforcing arbitrary, subjective, and inconsistent standards on literature.
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2012/03/paypals-acceptable-use-policy-on-sale-of-certain-erotica/
Although they have not included this in their public statements, PayPal is insistent that their sudden enforcement of policy against this sub-genre of literature has been prompted by the credit card companies they work with.
https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/28
https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/30 (Smashwords is one of the ebook publishers/distributors effected by the crackdown, and are currently the only company still in talks with PayPal to attempt to reach a clearer understanding of their policies)
VISA addressed this letter to inquiring parties at bannedwriters.com stating they did NOT have anything to do with PayPal's sudden demand for removal of lawful content, but it is still disconcerting that the layers of authority can be used to hide the reasons behind action being taken.
http://www.bannedwriters.com/2012/03/10/visa-writes-us-back-this-is-not-our-doing-paypal-censorship-erotica/
My actual question relates to corporate censorship and fairly resolving disputes that may arise during the use of your service. The micro-press I represent does not, at this time, sell any titles that would fall beneath the current focus of PayPal's policy enforcement. However, I, and many other authors, are not fond of the idea that any entity, other than our government of elected representatives at a local or federal level, would try and dictate what is acceptable content in the books we sell. What I ask is that, if there were ever a dispute between [PayPal Alternative] and my micro-press over the content of the works we offer for sale, that we could work together to resolve the conflict through an open dialogue that is not as disrespectful, false, inconsistent, or unsubstantiated as PayPal has demonstrated.
I respect the right of a company to decide who it wishes to do business with, but disagree with PayPal's conduct and lack of meaningful communication.
I would also like to ask, so I can pass the information along to several of the publishers who have effectively been cut off from their consumers, if your service could be utilized knowing that these topics and themes are contained in the literature they wish to sell. If you would be at all concerned as to how, precisely, those topics and themes are portrayed, I know the publishers and authors would be more than willing to enter into a dialogue to eloquently and accurately explain the merits of the content of their work, and to listen to any legitimate concerns that may need to be addressed before they could use your service.
Thank you for your time,
JR Wesley
Senior Editor
Crimson Melodies Publishing
crimsonmelodies.com
One of those companies has already responded to my inquiry, but we're waiting on the underwriting/compliance people to determine the official ruling about erotica. Note: I'm not mentioning the company name publicly just in case their underwriting/compliance department has something further to add that is genuinely beyond their control that would complicate the use of their service for selling erotica.
I'm hopeful, though. In their initial response, they pointed me to this particular snippet of their TOS:
Prohibited Businesses
(38) sexually-oriented or pornographic products or services
To which my response was:
"Products" I assume, would be applied to a book. But would it also apply to the contents of the book? This seems to be where the largest portion of the dispute between authors, publishers, and PayPal is originating. Would adult men's magazines fall under this clause, and if so, would it be for images or for the contents of their articles? Is non-fiction also effected, even if presented in a manner intended to educate and not titillate?
JR's second email to [PayPal Alternative]
I'm also encouraged because of this specific note in their email to me:
As for your second concern, I promise we will always be nothing but
extremely communicative. …[] determining whether or
not we can process for you really comes down to the details. It seems
like your bookstore, as it is currently, would definitely be fine.
But in a scenario where your store ends up being entirely driven by
sexually-oriented material, we may have to come back to this decision.
In this case, though, we will definitely first message you and start
a dialogue. We'd love to process for everyone and I completely agree
with you that it's a terrible thing when booksellers get censored like
this without any notice at all.
response from [PayPal Alternative]
The line I highlighted seems to shed light on their TOS statement as what, precisely is not allowed: sexually-oriented BUSINESSES or (as a separate statement) pornographic products or services.
I'm still waiting to hear back on the details of that clarification, which may mean I'm simply the first to contact them about this issue. If they do respond back and need further information, I'll add in the missing links that were not in my initial email to them (the newest Forbes article that picked up VISA's denial was posted after my email was sent).
This is a start-up company, which means they place a lot of weight on sites like Forbes and TechCrunch (which is why I made certain to include those links to the issue at hand). Their company has already been featured in articles on those sites, and no doubt they would not want themselves associated in any way to the harsh criticism PayPal has been enduring.
In other words, I'm expecting good news.
Now, the bad news.
This company, and the other alternatives I've located or asked about, are US based. This means:
Only US authors could be paid via their service because, in order to receive money, you must be based in the US
International consumers would need an international credit card to purchase products sold by a US account holder
I mentioned specific countries in my initial email to them because in our anthology and Ezine author hunt, we've accepted submissions from authors based out of those various countries. It looks like we'll still have to pay them via PayPal, for now, but we'll be able to use this alternative to sell our books internationally.
Look back here for updates, most likely on Monday or Tuesday if they are as on-the-spot in responding to me with further details as they were about my initial email.
As always, thanks for reading,
JR Wesley
The Man Behind the Curtain
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