Speaking Up: My DarkLit Experience
I’m just seeing that it looks as though DarkLit Press is pulling all the books & closing up shop. It doesn’t surprise me with the number of authors who pulled their books – myself included – and I very well might’ve been the first one whose book had been published (a few pulled them when the new crew took over before publication) and out in the wider world, when the rights were requested to be returned.
But, behind the scenes I’ve already seen screenshots labelling me as the ‘trouble maker,’ and the reason this is happening. Which, if you know me and have even a passing idea of what’s gone on behind the scenes, you’ll know that is furthest from the truth. I try really hard to support everyone, cheer everyone on, and have helped with the Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant (how I miss that!) and trying to get the Canadian Horror Writers Association up and running.
So, for full disclosure (which is something that wasn’t given to us authors when they took over, even though the term was used multiple times in their responses and posts) I wanted to share the reasons why I decided to pull my book, as well as things that are red flags for fellow authors when signing on with a publishing company. If you’re a publisher and I’m being added to a list to not work with because I’m speaking out, by all means, add me. I probably don’t want to be working with you either. I’ve been around long enough (though not as long as many of you!) that I remember the ChiZine fiasco, the Silver Shamrock fallout and a few others as well. I’ve also seen and heard that some fellow former DarkLit authors are scared of speaking out and any repercussions they might face. I’m hoping that if I share my experience that’ll help them see that they can share – if they want to.
Because I’m wanting to make this simple and not long winded – I’ll be bullet pointing things as many people are TLDR these days and I’ve already written three paragraphs!
– I signed on with DarkLit last year, to first publish my novella, When I Look… with a June 24th, 2024, release date. Initially, this was purely for ebook, audiobook & paperback. I had a standard royalty deal, no advance, and at the time no hardcover was in the works. This was brokered by Andrew. I also sent a list of people who would receive physical ARC’s and digital ARC’s. Andrew indicated he also had a list of folks who would receive it and it would go on Netgalley, but no discounted 99c preorder pricing would be done this time.
– DarkLit had an Instagram group chat of its authors, where we would support each other, cheer each other on and Andrew would often post things for our attention and/or our benefit – promo opportunities, free software for images, royalty/license free images etc. We’d also post cover artist’s art, in case authors were looking for covers and/or cover art sales.
– Not long after preorders for When I Look… opened, in December, 2023, Andrew and I agreed to also do a hardcover edition with a bonus novelette. Andrew contacted Kristina at Truborn for a premade she had, and it was acquired in early 2024.
– In January/February, Andrew began to go radio silent – on the chat, for emails and DMs. At the time, I was trying to finish arranging advance copies for a book box and neither me or the organizer were receiving any replies.
– It was during this time that many of the DarkLit authors signed on with Alec Frankel for film/TV representation.
– Not long after, Andrew shared that he’d be stepping aside, and a new group helmed by Caitlin Marceau would be taking over. Authors were informed they could keep their books with DarkLit, as nothing would be changing, or they could pull their books. At the time, my novella was with Locus and Publisher’s Weekly for potential review, and with two different studios for potential development. I reached out to a dozen people whose opinions I trust to ask what they thought and what I should do. Against the advice of all of them (shame on me), I decided to keep the book with DarkLit and forge forward. We’d been told repeatedly that nothing had changed, that the new group had full access to everything and that everything that was planned was going forward.
– In April, while I was in Halifax at a work conference, I approved the hardcover wrap proof and the interior hardcover formatting.
– Around this time, I’d also signed on for my novel, 456 Blatchford Drive, to be published with DarkLit in 2025.
– Linda Jones was brought on board to narrate the audiobook – which she absolutely killed in bringing the book to life, FYI – and the books did appear in the book box.
– Around that time, the IG chat was scuttled, to make for a Discord group. We were told to fill out forms – such as social media post requests, payments and meeting requests. In hindsight this should’ve been a big red flag, especially as they began to tell us that emails wouldn’t be replied to, that Discord was the preferred form of communication. I questioned why they needed any of that, as we’d filled it out when we signed our contracts.
– A number of us authors were given the runaround about receiving our contracted author copies. In the contract, each author would receive 10 copies with the ability to purchase more if needed. (I never did receive any). We were told to fill out a form, which we did, but still there was no follow up or acknowledgement of receiving the request. I know of one author (whose permission I haven’t received to name so I won’t) who was wondering up to the last minute if the book order he’d placed would arrive in time for a book signing.
– My book was put on Netgalley as discussed, but no advance copies were sent out to readers. Instead, it was offered on the Facebook page Books of Horror Freview, which was disappointing as this wasn’t something I was ever made aware of until after the fact. I ended up emailing digital ARC’s to those who I’d already discussed that with.
– I had arranged for a book launch at a local bookstore here, which was unfortunately cancelled as no books were ordered and no reply to the owner’s email happened. A few days before it was supposed to happen, Caitlin messaged me on Discord to suggest something could still be arranged, but at that point there was no way to promote it in time.
– The lead up to my book release was exactly the same as when I self-publish a book through my Black Void Publishing imprint – in that I was really the only one posting about it. DarkLit had five posts about the book, all from accepting my collaboration when I posted on IG or when they retweeted my posts on Twitter/X. They posted a reel they made about the book, once on their own. The promo train I’d expected to see never appeared, even after I filled out the social media post request.
– I will readily admit to being blinded by the brightness. My novella was garnering movie interest (a director and their partner are attached to adapt and are currently pitching it to a specific studio, but that’s all I can publicly say), I had awesome cover art, a Publishers Weekly review, a mention in Publishers Weekly when DarkLit joined forces with Alec, Linda Jones narrating my book etc. etc. etc. I was still wanting to believe all was above board. But the weekend before pub date came, things shifted.
– First, I was informed that no hardcover would be released for pub date. Instead, they’d consider releasing it as a one-year anniversary release edition.
– I had a dozen people message me to ask if DarkLit was still releasing the book, as they weren’t posting about it.
– I then began to have some DM’s asking about reports/royalty payments and if I knew anything about the Kickstarter. Full disclosure again – my only involvement with the Kickstarter was blurbing two of the books and approving a digital copy of When I Look… to be included for backers. But the reports/royalty stuff had me concerned.
– DarkLit had been known to post sales/preorder numbers. So and so has hit 1000 preorders! So and so has sold 2000 copies etc etc. From when my book went up for preorder, I asked monthly either through DM or emails for updates on the preorder numbers. As of writing this – on August 6th, 2024 – I’ve never been shown a single report, nor given any numbers.
– During the weekend before launch, I had a number of DarkLit authors reach out asking how my experience had been, and I was forthcoming. They shared lack of royalty payments, having to chase down being paid for royalties or even receiving a report, and this was both prior to and after the leadership/ownership take over.
– On that weekend as well, Austrian Spencer reached out to me, asking if I was aware that Yolanda Sfetsos had been asked to pay for editing and covers on the books she’d pulled. Yolanda had been very vocal before leaving the Discord about asking for royalty/sales reports and what was happening with her books. I appreciated Yolanda asking those questions, as they were the same questions that I had. Austrian told me about a blog post he was putting together detailing the issues he was having with his contract being honored and being paid what he was owed for editing. (Full disclosure – I have named Yolanda specifically here, because DarkLit then went and posted publicly some of the screenshots of DarkLit and Yolanda’s emails discussing their issues.)
– Which brings me to the lack of disclosure issues that ultimately forced my hand.
– On June 24th, 2024, my novella was released. Everyone celebrated, it made it to number 5 on Amazon’s Hot New Release Occult Horror chart – which is insane considering how extreme it is – but I also didn’t expect to go number 1, as Tremblay had released his novel a few days prior, as had DiLouie, so the big guns were out.
– Unfortunately, there had been a paperback issue, noted by Ingram and KDP back in November, that prevented the preordered paperbacks from being approved and shipped and instead, everyone who had preordered a paperback received an email stating that they’d be given an updated time once it was known for it to ship. This had not been fixed and wasn’t fixed until coming to light on release date.
– It was at this time, that I learned the new group from DarkLit allegedly did not have access to DarkLit’s accounts. They also claimed to have no access to ACX – the audiobook account – and had only gained access to KDP (Amazon’s publishing page) on May 25th. So, they had no way of seeing any numbers prior to May 25th, according to Caitlin. Initially, we were told that they had no numbers prior to March 1st, but this then shifted to May 25th. Why those dates changed, I’m not sure.
– DarkLit authors began to question how royalties would be paid for books sold prior to that date, if they don’t have access to those numbers. No answer came. I questioned how royalties would be paid to myself or Linda for the audiobook if they had no access to the account and couldn’t get reports. No answer came.
– Linda requested the contract be cancelled on her end, and it was Andrew who approved the cancellation. I can’t speak to whether DarkLit has now gotten access to that account currently, but as of six weeks ago, they still claimed to not have access.
– On the Discord page, I posted my frustrations and requested my rights back and the rights to 456 Blatchford. The failure to disclose so much by Caitlin and the new group ultimately forced my hand. We’d been led to believe that they had full access, but in reality, this was later claimed to not be the case. May 25th onward was when they claimed they could access most things and for the most part that was just website/social media accounts, not the bank accounts for payouts etc.
– Austrian Spencer posted his blog post about dealing with DarkLit. It detailed Yolanda’s payment requests, which was never a contractual stipulation. Caitlin and DarkLit had also decided to renege on the editing services provided by Austrian.
– This resulted in Caitlin and DarkLit posting the screenshots of the email conversation with Yolanda, which put a very bad taste in a lot of our mouths (not just DarkLit authors, but the wider horror community).
– I was told on Discord that 76 copies of When I Look… had been mailed to various Influencers, but six weeks later, I’ve yet to see anyone post about them, nor any indication that they were actually sent. I asked on Discord about why I wasn’t told they were going to be sent, or even why I wasn’t told, but never received an answer.
– During this Discord chat, where I was venting my frustrations, Caitlin claimed that they themselves were also missing back royalty reports/payments and information regarding their own book.
– Book publishing is a business. It became apparent to a number of us that the “full disclosure” Caitlin repeatedly claimed to have been providing was never given to us as authors and without further prodding, we never would’ve received it.
– I was given the rights back to 456, When I Look… for the ebook, paperback, hardcover and audiobook, as well as the cover rights usage. I have now managed to get the ebook and paperback republished and have approved the hardcover. I am working on the audiobook. Truborn stepped aside from working directly with DarkLit as an imprint.
– With the rights reverting to me, DarkLit no longer had the rights to publish the book nor sell it. It was confirmed to be deleted from KDP, as was the paperback, but the paperback was still showing on Amazon and Ingram.
– On July 16th, 2024, I had a virtual meeting with Alec Frankel to confirm that we were still onboard to work together, and we agreed to continue on. He updated me on the forward motion of the novella being adapted, which was very exciting and big reason I wanted to get this book back into the world.
– Through my Black Void imprint the paperback now live. I posted, asking people to buy my edition, not the DarkLit edition. Caitlin almost immediately messaged me and requested I change the wording. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have. As within Caitlin’s own reply to me and in previous messages, they claim to have no data prior to May 25th. I can’t see any way that I’ll ever be paid for the royalties owed by them, as they don’t have data for it (or won’t share it).
– Caitlin also informed me that Ingram states the book was never published through them, though I have had two different bookstores now confirm to me that they could order the book directly from Ingram, both of which did. Additionally, it was originally suggested by Caitlin that maybe they ordered the books through Andrew, which was both not the case, nor should be an option, because, as far as we’ve all been told, Andrew stopped being a part of DarkLit back in April.
– This was then changed to another story: that Amazon and Ingram pre-printed a bunch of the books in expectation of people wanting to buy them. While this does happen, and others have confirmed with me that it has happened to them, I was also told it was pulled from KDP and was never released through Ingram, so I’m left shaking my head.
– Caitlin suggested that if I didn’t want DarkLit to be selling the books through Amazon or elsewhere, they could greatly discount the book so people would buy it on the cheap – also reducing my royalty portion (and a book they have no legal right to sell) or I could buy all of the stock that was printed and use them as author copies, which is something I will 100% NOT be doing, nor should I ever be expected to do that.
– As of right now, that is where I’ve left things.
I am beyond frustrated with this situation. It’s a situation I never foresaw nor one I could’ve predicted, even as others did. I never wanted any of this and it saddens me that so many other authors have had their books become homeless as they’ve pulled their rights or as DarkLit has ceased publishing. What’s to happen with Hedone? I for one have no insight into that, but I’d be very, very cautious dealing with them, considering so many authors are still fighting for royalties from DarkLit and the same person/group is heading that.
As I said at the top, I post this for other authors to hopefully become aware of red flags and things that should make them question what’s happening. I wish I would’ve spoken up sooner and taken action sooner.
And some of you will read this and say to yourself, “But this seems all administrative, and not that big of a deal.” You don’t understand publishing. Except for the writing of the book, the rest of the process from thereon out is administrative. It’s product production, marketing, and paperwork. It may seem glamorous when you see the new, exciting book out, but outside of the writing, it’s tedious, monotonous, bone-grinding administration. And in this case, it was administrative failure after failure after failure.
For those who’ve pulled their books or had their books become homeless, I am here to help in whatever way I can, and I know a number of resources are there, as are more coming in the next weeks and months to help get the word out about your books.
And now that I’ve shared this, I can get back to writing, as for the last six weeks, most of my writing time has been consumed with emailing, formatting, cover art approving, proof reviewing and more emailing, to get the new editions up and going!
