How Torquere continues to implode, or, "Good Lord and Butter"

So, here's the latest update from Torquere:

"Sales we (sic) lower from distributors end of October than September. We are paying the editors their invoices from the books that have released. We are not ignoring the fact that we are behind on royalties and we are trying our very best to get things above water."*

Now, let's break this down, shall we?

Item the first. What does it matter to the authors who are owed money what kind of sales in there were September and October 2016? There are authors who are owed money from as early as 3rd Qtr 2015. In the thousands. The money all Amazon vendors received on Oct 29 was for August 2016. TQ still hasn't paid any author that I know of for April, May and June of 2016, and now they're using August money to pay editors rather than putting it away to pay authors? 3rd qtr 2016 royalties are due out no later than Nov 30. Do we think anyone will get paid? No, because by Torquere's own admission the money is gone!

Item second. They're not ignoring that they're behind. Except they are. By the accounts of at least 20-25 authors I've seen on social media, they've stopped answering emails. They're not giving rights back, even though they said in a public update they would. At least when they were issuing reversions they were better than other failing pubs, but now they're playing the we keep your books and your money game just like the rest.

Finally and, I think, more importantly, they're paying their editors with the recent payment from Amazon.

Goggles.

Yes, editors need to get paid for work done. However, as an LLC, it is the owner's responsibility to do that with her own money if paying the authors what they have earned ends up leaving her upside down. The onus is not on the authors to pay the businesses' bills. By contracts that the owners of TQ signed, the money earned by authors is to be paid to them no later than 60-65 days (and in some cases 30 days) after the end of the quarter. That 30-40 percent (with many at 35-45) should NEVER HAVE BEEN USED FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

So. Where is the money? Low sales are not to blame, because regardless of how much or little an author made, they should get paid. I know maybe 5 authors who are owed upwards of 50K all told. That doesn't count the other 100 or more authors and what they're owed for 2nd and 3rd qtr 2016. It's time for all TQ authors to stand up and demand to know where all that money went. Speak out. This needs to be stopped.

* I did remove a few more personal remarks from the email to be as fair as I can.

XXOO

Julia