July 20th marks the day I should have been paid royalties for my book, Sitting on Top of the World. It should have been a rewarding and exciting day — my first ever royalty check, no matter how small or insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But what actually happened July 20th is this: None of the authors who published with City Limits Publishing received their royalty payment for Quarter 2; some are still waiting for their Quarter 1 earnings; the staff are still waiting to be paid the tens of thousands they are owed in wages; the graphic artists, videographer, and audio book narrators are waiting to be paid for their work; and countless writers who entered City Limits contests and presumably won are waiting for their winnings. And the publisher? To some, he is responding with rude and insulting e-mails, placing blame elsewhere. To others, he is promising to “make things right so we can all move on.” And to most, he is simply not responding at all.

How it started

Family and close friends, and anyone who followed “My Publishing Journey” on this page, know that when I first signed with R___ and City Limits Publishing, I was ecstatic. I had grown weary of the rejections from literary agents and was close to giving up. So when CLP “liked” my pitch during a Twitter #pitmad event and then made an offer, it was a huge confidence boost. Then when I received a second publishing offer from another independent press, I thought I’d finally made it.

I chose CLP even though I knew it was risky to sign with a start-up. I guess you can say I like an underdog. Everyone has to start somewhere, right? And I believed in R___’s mission. He was ambitious, kind, responsive to my questions, helpful when negotiating the contract — which, by the way, was a better deal than the one the other publisher was offering — and I had high hopes for City Limits Publishing.

The journey was long and stressful, but still exciting. Mistakes were made, but R___ always corrected them for me in a timely manner. I felt I was a bit high-maintenance during the editing and formatting phase, but he did everything I asked, and he was enthusiastic about my project. I complained to an author friend of mine about some things along the way, but each time there was a blunder, I chalked it up to this being a very small publisher — I knew I couldn’t expect it to be on par with one of the “big five.” In hindsight, I know that all of those little blunders should have been big red flags.

The things I ignored

I guess it was in March or April when I started to hear complaints that other authors had about R___ and City Limits. He was being rude to them in e-mails, they hadn’t received their author copies, some hadn’t received royalty payments, artists and staff weren’t being paid, customers weren’t receiving their preorders, and some authors were jumping ship (one was even rumored to be suing R___).

These things were alarming to me, but I took them with a grain of salt for a few reasons: I was hearing about them third-hand (and only hearing one side of the story), R___ had never been rude to me in e-mails, some people tend to complain about missteps more than I do, and at this point in time, R___ and his marketing director were overseeing the sale of my book to a school district. I had a fantastic cover design, my book was ready, and I was planning its launch, which was right around the corner. It was an exciting time for me, so I chose to ignore the negativity. I thought there must be some reasonable explanation for all of it and that R___ would surely correct any issues. And I just crossed my fingers that there would be no issues with delivery of my book to customers.

Then my book officially went up for presale, and I had my book launch party, and because I was ignoring the negativity, I had a blast, even as the negativity grew and more red flags appeared. I staunchly defended my publisher, even when Victoria Strauss wrote a scathing tell-all about CLP in her Writer Beware blog. I wasn’t the only one to defend him, either. There were a number of us CLP authors who had not had the pleasure of seeing R___’s dark side, who were more understanding and tolerant of mistakes and problems, who only heard about all these horrible things third-hand and so wrote them off as rumors or misunderstandings.

I did have a few phone conversations with R___, who evidently was really good at explaining things away, and all of his explanations made perfect sense. He sounded to me like an honest man who was a little bit overwhelmed and maybe got in over his head. I knew he wasn’t purposefully trying to cheat people. No way.

Boy, was I wrong

What has come to light in the past few weeks is mind-boggling:

• R___ has gone by several different aliases, using several different e-mail addresses and phone numbers and hopping from residence to residence.

• He has started several different business ventures, from cleaning services to marketing companies to a travel agency.

• He has been sued before and has allegedly swindled thousands of dollars from business partners and customers.

• At CLP, he stopped paying his staff in February.

• His “in-house design team” was based in the Philippines, and he apparently hasn’t paid them all they earned either.

• Now none of us authors expect to see a dime for our hard work.

What’s next for Sitting on Top of the World

On July 6, R___ announced that CLP was closing, and in a long e-mail, he made many promises. He sent the authors their digital files should we need them to self-publish, he finally removed our e-books from retail sites, and he sent “preliminary” Quarter 2 sales statements ten days late. It remains to be seen whether he will fulfill his promise to pay us what we’ve earned.

We are all released from our contracts, and all rights to our books have reverted to us. But what is to become of a book like mine, that has already been published? It is extremely unlikely that another publisher will want to republish it and even more unlikely that a literary agent will want to represent it. Some of the other authors are moving on with self-publishing, something I never wanted to do (mostly because I don’t have the time to devote or the knowledge to do a professional job).

I believe so much in Sitting on Top of the World and its potential, so I’m banking on the long-shot chance and have sent out queries to a few small publishers and a few agents. One agent, someone with whom I would absolutely love to work, actually sent a wonderfully positive reply. She said she doesn’t know any publishers who would buy a book that’s already been published, but she loved my writing sample and thinks I’m a talented writer. She asked if I had any other manuscripts ready for submission. Sadly, I do not, but I plan to work on a middle-grade novel I started many moons ago, and as soon as it’s ready, I’ll query this agent again.

But, back to my current dilemma — I will hold out hope for a new home for Sitting on Top of the World for a little bit longer. Just in case I have to bite the bullet and self-publish, I have been working on cover designs, and I have created a logo for my own publishing imprint. Fingers crossed that I don’t end up needing either.

The emotional toll

While I try to remain positive, this experience has been devastating. I feel like a fool for believing this man and defending him when others were trying to get me to see the light. And a small part of me can’t help but wonder if he offered me a publishing contract because he thought my book was good enough, or if it was just because I was an easy target for his scam. In the end, though, I know I’m a good writer, and I love my story and am proud of what I’ve accomplished, regardless of the crookedness of the publisher. Unfortunately, the road ahead will be stressful, and I don’t know when I’ll be ready to forgive, and I don’t know whether I’ll be able to trust another small publisher.