Even from beyond the grave, iPublish is causing a stir. The site that shook up publishing with its new model—and whose undoing was blared in the same 32-point headlines—remains a cause célèbre for horror novelist J. Knight. The author, whose Risen was released by iPublish as an e-book last summer, said he's neither been paid nor sent a royalty statement by the publisher. As far as he can tell, no one else has either.
"It's been a consistent pattern throughout the different stages. They didn't pay when they were starting up, they didn't pay when they were closing down and they didn't pay when it was over and done with," said Knight, whose real name is Jan Strnad. The author admits the amount is probably no more than a few hundred dollars, but he said that doesn't change what he perceives as unfair treatment.
Kelly Leonard, Warner Books' executive director of online marketing, acknowledged there has been a delay in getting out the statements, but said authors should expect them soon. She added that anyone who didn't get a statement until this point "probably didn't make any money," but she encouraged iPublish authors to get in touch with her nonetheless.
At the time it closed, iPublish talked about rolling over some of its iPublish original e-books to Warner and releasing them as print editions. Now it looks like that's not going to happen. Leonard said the titles were passed along to various Warner editors, but most of them were turned down. (Decisions on one or two science fiction titles are still pending.) Leonard said the company has not deviated from its strategy to release branded authors like Nelson DeMille in electronic format. "Right now, we want to concentrate on what works," she said.
