So, I got cut from the team…

For a few months, you're not going to be able to buy The Life & Death of a Sex Doll, because the publisher is pulling the title. I'm sure the company will issue their own statements on this, but in essence, Belfire sent me an email making it clear that I was a liability and a problem, and I sent back a reply that while wordy, worked out to, "by all means, cut me from the team."

My publisher has sent back an email expressing her frustrations at my message, making it clear that they will be pulling the title and returning my rights to me. They want to negotiate for the cover and the layout. I have no need for either, BUT I do want to pay my editor. I've said so plainly in my reply to the publisher, without loads of cuss words, and I hope that by me avoiding a crazy rant and only going with a crazy ramble, she will concede to my requests and let me pay the editor. Then I would hopefully get the rights back on Tracy's edits, which I feel make both stories better. If I seem to be sour now about this relationship, I want to stress, it is a recent development. Before this, I was VERY happy with the book that Belfire was delivering. I liked the cover, and I enjoyed working with Tracy as an editor. If I somehow lose my mind and submit another title to another publisher, I kind of hope Tracy will be the editor. I know that's unlikely, but so is me submitting another book. So if we're dealing strictly in hypotheticals…and I'm wandering.

This negotiation thing could happen fast or take a while. Depending on how much the publisher asks for in editing fees, it could take me a while to come up with the funds. I cannot put out a copy of the books until Tracy has been paid, though. Obviously, the new ebook will not have the spiffy cover from Belfire. But I don't believe I can afford Tracy's fees and Jodi's for the artwork as well. Someone has to get cut there, and if I have to choose between the editor and the cover artist, I can only hope that Jodi sees that my choice to go with paying the editor is really the best choice here.

I know, you probably expect a lot of "Damn them, it's not fair." I mean, crazy writer gets cut, you expect a bitch fest. But go up to the top paragraph…yep, that was me admitting I'd said "cut me from the team." If I'm as much of a liability as my publisher claims, then I do not wish to burden them any further. If my being with Belfire is really somehow pulling down the success of other authors, then I say let me go. It's not unfair. It's the most fair thing you can do for the good of the team, right? Right. So, off I go.

Like I said, this souring relationship is a very recent development, and I was all the way around a happy Belfire writer. I am NOT going to be that writer who slams my publishers for every little thing after the fact, because I truly, honestly did not care about those things. I WAS a happy cog for just a few months, and that's how I'm going to think of my company, even if my publisher has made it clear that no one else on the team was happy to have me there.

I will continue to RT links to some of the authors from Belfire who I support, and I hope that after all of this mess is sorted out and Tracy is paid that Jodi and I can still manage to talk to each other as friends.

Mostly, I want to apologize to y'all for having to take down the work, and for being unable to present it to you in as nice a way as Belfire had with their cover. There are downsides to being crazy and speaking out without concern for consequences. Well, there are still consequences that arise from said behavior, and yes, peoples, I can own my shit. So, here you go, the reason why Belfire has cut me from the team. I bear them no ill will, and I truly hope that by cutting me, they get more investors and more editors come back.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start drinking early today with a big splash of rum in my tea.

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