An open letter to Torquere Press LLC

Dear Ms. Boulware-Talbot and Ms. Talbot,

I would like to speak out on behalf of all of the unpaid and unanswered authors of Torquere Press LLC. You may say I am no longer a Torquere author, but as long as you owe me and my wife the nearly 4K combined you owe us, I am an unsatisfied author of your company.

Therefore, I take it on myself to speak for all the authors who have not been paid, some since 3rd qtr 2015, most since June 2016. I speak out for the author you still owe $18600.00 not including the 10K you paid for a bounced check, which also has not been received. I speak out for the author you owe $35.00 for an anthology story. I'm calling you out for all the authors who have requested payment, rights reversions, or just a simple update and have remained unanswered.

I'm also writing on behalf of your staff, some of whom I hired when I was the owner of Torquere Press Inc, and therefore I feel responsible for. Those staff who worked for you for free for too long while you made promises you didn't keep, then threw them under the bus by telling the authors you paid the staff rather than author royalties. Which is not true.

So, here's my challenge to you both.

Own up to your shit. Give the authors a reversion letter. Even if you do it the cowardly way like Ellora's Cave and put it up publicly for all the authors to grab. Then close the business. Stop stealing. Stop sitting on your butts and making income off the authors you refuse to answer. Clean out your emails and give people their books back. The money is gone. We get it. While it would be a decent thing to do to pay us, you're not going to. But this is people's lives. It's their copyright, their property.

Give it back. Answer for yourself, and for once, do the right thing.

Take down the websites and the distributor accounts and stop acting like you can just walk away. You can't, and doing the right thing now might stop some of the legal actions said authors and staff are already in the act of starting.

Sincerely,

Julia Talbot

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

Terrible Trick

Hey y'all

What an awful trick. I had planned a great Halloween blog for yesterday but I got sidetracked, and I feel shady writing it today and posting it backdated...

Also I feel very grumpy today. I keep trying to honor All Saints Day and live today kindly and with a little humbleness. Instead I'm dwelling on stuff that's not worth my time, because I loathe people who make vague threats against people I love. Even when those threats are empty and meaningless, it makes me mad. So have some good thoughts for me, and send your leftover Halloween candy.

Happy Birthday to my great nephew Boo, who is 5 today, and was a Ghostbuster for Halloween. You make my day, baby boy.

Hugs, y'all

XXOO

Julia

Fall Leaves and Adult Hot Chocolate

The leaves are just starting to turn here in Albuquerque because it's been a warm fall. They cottonwoods all along the acequias and the bosque turn a bright yellow, cutting a swath across the whole Rio Grande valley. We live up on the mesa, and we get to look down on the amazing sight every time we drive down into town.

As the nights get cooler, we love to it out on the front porch or out back by the firepit and have a hot chocolate.

The best hot chocolate is an adult hot chocolate. We've had a lot of variations on this theme, with Kahlua or Baileys or something in it. The best one we've found so far is to get a really good dark chocolate mix and add whipped cream vodka. Oh, y'all, it's fall heaven. Who needs pumpkin spice?

We also bought salted caramel Bailey's to try. We'll report on that as we try!

XXOO

Julia

re-release: In the Hearts of Tigers with Sean Michael

At All Romance Ebooks

Or at Amazon

Previously published in the Shifting Anthology

XXOO

Julia

Dusts off blog

Been avoiding blogging again because of the mess with Torquere, still unresolved.

Too damned bad, Julia. Get up and pull up your socks!

Hugs all the good people out there

XXOO

Julia

blaming authors for publisher failure part 2

Two separate publishers in less than a week, y'all. Two. Both owe me money. One in the thousands. One I have no idea because they never sent statements, but even if I go with the lowest amount they paid me monthly, I guess around the 500.00 range or more. And both have blamed authors for their business issues.

Now, think on this. That 2.5K is my 35-40% net. That means they made twice that as a publisher on my sales alone.

Publisher 1:

"We are just as stressed as [sic] when you aren't making money we aren't either. We have none coming in personally either. We haven't had a paycheck either."

Publisher 2:

We're not swindling money from anyone.For God’s sake, we wouldn’t be closing to begin with if their titles were making money!

Both of them seem to forget a major point. Regardless of their personal or professional debt, THEY HAVE TO PAY ME FOR ANY SALES I MADE! This is not a charity. They signed a contract saying they would pay me and then took my money. Period. There is no excuse or plea for patience that makes up for that, and yes, it is a swindle. No doubt about it.

Don't lie. Don't make excuses. Pay us what you owe.

NO xxoo

Julia

How publishing works redux, or pay your damned authors

So many things to talk on today. Let me gather my thoughts.

Ooohhhhhm

Okay, first I want to talk about the EC-like complaining the owners of Torquere are doing. On Twitter, one says: Cont)but I am pretty fed up.I am done playing nice and trying to pacify people.Things are what they are and ARE being resolved.That is all.

The other says: When people are putting all they have in to try & fix things attacking them doesn't inspire a desire to work harder. Just a thought to keep.

Once again, blaming the authors for their failing. You can't misappropriate thousands of dollars of authors' money, not pay the for books you have a contract to pay them on, and then expect them to believe you when you say things are being resolved.

This is not OUR fault as Torquere authors. We wrote books, promoted them, and helped sell them. Kristi and Joanna then took that money, and spent it. There's no, "Oops, I tripped and lost 20K". There's no overhead that should ever spend the money of a press' authors. This was someone taking the money and spending it, and then not being able to figure out what to do when it suddenly caught up with them because authors began to wise up.

In an update to the author list this weekend, the owners said the payment they were about to receive from Amazon was disconcertingly low. Really? That payment is for July 2016, and has been posted in Amazon since the 15th of August in report form. If you're really trying to make things work, make things right, you should be on top of the incoming revenue as soon as you have access to the information. You should also be putting that money aside to pay the quarter it is actually earned in, not to try to pay off debts you owe from third qtr 2015 onward. That's right. At least one author hasn't received a full payment for anything since 2nd qtr 2015. That's April May and June, 2015. On the Torquere site sales. That qtr paid for Jan-March 2015 on distributors.

Asking for payments and demanding rights reversions for breach of contract are not attacks. They are sound business decisions from authors who have been treated at best unfairly, and at worst criminally.

Pay your authors. Then you don't have to deal with all that nasty hand holding and pacifying people who earned money they will never see.

Julia

Update to the TQ debacle

No payment, no emails to tell anyone what's going on, lots of authors saying they're getting no answer while one of the owners bitches on Twitter about having to pacify those pesky damned authors.

Blaming authors for Publishing Failure

Or, how fast can Torquere Press LLC turn into EC?

Pretty fast.

In a statement issued to authors today, owners of Torquere Press LLC Kristi Boulware and Joanna Talbot admit to having financial problems and basically tell the whole of their authors they're not getting paid unless a loan can be procured. Not only that, they blame the authors who pulled their books between January and April 2016 for this failure, saying those authors leaving TQ caused them to not have enough money to pay overhead.

Pardon me? This is not how publishing works.

The simple equation of ebook publishing is this:

An author writes a book. The publisher edits it and puts a cover on it. The publisher lists it on their site and on distributor sites. Sales happen. The publisher promises to pay a % of sales to the author. This is a contractual obligation, not a gift or charitable act. The author has earned this money based on their hard work writing and promoting the book and on their talent. Payment must happen no matter how many or few sales are made. The publisher is supposed to put whatever percentage the author has earned into an escrow account until it's time to pay and only use the publisher's percentage to pay overhead and salaries.

End of story.

Now, unfortunately, due to the delayed nature of distributor payments, many times publishers don't realize they're in trouble until they have a bad quarter and end up not having enough of their money to pay bills or salaries or for that vacation they took, and they "borrow" from next quarter's author money. This is called robbing Peter to pay Paul. If the publisher is lucky, they have a good quarter next time, or their spouse has a day job, or whatever. They can pay the money back and get back on track. That's sadly not the case here.

Here's a timeline for everyone who thinks this is all brand new.

3rd qtr payments for 2015 were due no later than November 30, 2015. At least 3 authors, including TQ's bestselling author of all time, were not paid. Despite repeated email requests for information, two of these authors got no reply until they caught up with the owners on FB. One was paid via Paypal on the last day of December 2015. One finally received a check on Dec 31. 2 weeks later in January 2016, that check bounced for NSF. That was what was marked on the check. Not stop payment. NSF. Despite repeated requests for payment, the author with the bounced check was forced to turn in the owner for check fraud in late February for nearly 10K. Due to this issue, that author pulled her titles. Since mine and my wife's payment was late per the contract, we also pulled our titles because as former publishers and authors who went through the EC collapse, we could see what was happening. That was at the end of January.

The next round of payment owed were for 4th qtr 2015, payable no later than the end of February. I received my payment March 29. 1st qtr 2016 payments were due no later than May 31. I have not received it, despite a statement balance of $1558.41.

Most authors who were paid for that qtr report being paid June 30. 30 days late.

Other authors who were not paid, or who were again paid late, finally pulled their books.

2nd qtr 2016 was due no later than Sept 3rd, even by the newer contract term of 65 days past the end of the quarter. It has not been paid to anyone to my knowledge and now the letter has been issued that overhead takes priority over author payments and that up until "a few months ago" owners were still drawing salaries, which should have been the first thing to go once a check was bounced.

So I ask this. Where is the money? By statements alone, some 30K is owed to a handful of authors who have been repeatedly stiffed. That is 1/3 of what Torquere received in actual sales for THOSE authors alone. So where did all that money go? Why was author money being spent in the first place, no matter how bad the business was being mismanaged?

My advice to all Torquere authors is this: she offered your rights back. Write today and get them. NOW. Run. Write RWA and report non-payment. Write Writer Beware and report non-payment. Go public. This is theft, and it's unacceptable to ever blame authors, distributors, or advertising contracts for author money being spent on anything other than royalties.

XXOO

Julia

Trying to get back in the groove after the Bad Things

I've never been one for writer's block. I can usually plug away, even through life's crises. Some days I might only get 100 words, some days 5K. But usually I get words.

This last month or so, though, every word is a struggle. It's not a lack of ideas or inspiration. I'm just so TIRED.

We've had medical struggles. Both of us. I usually talk more about the wife, but I have a chronic injury condition of the feet where bones break randomly, and have been in a boot for 10 weeks. Again. I hurt all the time.

Then you add in the stress of not being able to pay bills because publishers are not paying. EC has not paid me since December 2015. I only have one book left with them and hope to get it back in November, but come on! The books were still selling well when they stopped paying. They owe me, no doubt, at least a few hundred bucks. Then there's TQ who, at this writing have not paid me for the wife for 1st or 2nd qtr 2016. This is all they would ever have to pay us as we pulled our books. If they would just PAY us. At this point they owe me and BA a combined $3000.00 and the news is not good. Even the authors who defended them when they went 30 days past the payment deadline for 1st quarter are now wondering why 2nd qtr payments are almost week past due. Where's the money? I mean, she had to stop using my money and BA's and Sean Michael's to pay everyone else because we pulled our books... so now who gets the shaft?

Worrying this to death and just trying to muddle through the day has made it tough to write. I think I need cheerleaders. LOL. Anyone who wants to volunteer?

On the good side, Grizzly List 3 will be in at the publisher this week! I hope for a January release.

XXOO. I do love y'all. Thanks for hanging with me.

Julia

All the Books! A Guest Post from BA Tortuga

Hey, y'all!

BA Tortuga here, taking over the wife's blog.

Did y'all know I have all the books out these last few weeks?

I do. I have a lot. So I want to tell you all about them. Come sit close. We'll have coffee and I'll give you the short and dirty list.

I have Mr. Unlucky at Totally Bound.

Addie is a photographer with a past she wants to forget. Bodie is the unluckiest man in love who ever existed. Can they get their shit together?

Buy Link

See what I mean about quick and dirty?

Reclamation 2 is out at Changeling! No Time to Lie

Marshall and Ben believe their mate, Jakob, has been killed. When Jakob escapes from a cult, there is nothing that will stop them from reclaiming him.

Awful blurb. Good book. Werewolves and kidnapping and weird cults! Buy it here.

Real World is out from Dreamspinner. Sequel to Ever the Same

Dan is ex Army and trying to assimilate to the real world. Weldon is bisexual, a widower, and has a ton of kids. Not exactly a match made in heaven, right?

Buy it here!

Then there's the reprint co-write with the wife, who is so kindly hosting me today.

Link to the Crescent. NOLA. Werewolves. Vamps. Sexay!

get it here or at amazon!

Pant pant. I'm exhausted. I hope y'all are reading!

Much love y'all

BA Tortuga

www.batortuga.com

@batortuga on Twitter

facebook!

Firemen! Smokejumpers!

Ex-lovers who meet up again!

Intrigued yet? I am. Oh, wait. I wrote it.

I love firemen. And Colorado. And old lovers with an ax still to grind when circumstances toss them back together.

Get it here!

Smooch

XXOO

Julia

Why it's so hard to move on

So, rather than go to jail, the owner at TQ forfeited her bail and made restitution on the bounced check. At least according to the docket report. Sean Michael hasn't been informed by the court that it's real, but the judge filed the papers.

Yay. Except I heard through the grapevine that she's bounced some paypal payments. I'm still not paid for 1st qtr let alone 2nd. My wife and I have 2 recent hospital stays and a broken foot to pay off and could with the nearly 3k she says she owes us by her own statements.

It's not going to stop even if she pays me. I remember sitting and brainstorming the name Torquere with my wife. We were so proud. I can't be proud of that name anymore.

I am going to try to move away from posting about it here, and go back to being an author on my blog. Y'all are welcome to email/pm me anytime with your own stories or with questions. My comments remain moderated after someone posted an author's real name. Only someone who signed contracts with that person would know their real name, and that makes you pause, too, you know?

XXOO

Thank you so to all for the support.

Julia

Court Date tomorrow for owner of Torquere LLC

Kristi Boulware has her next court date for felony check fraud tomorrow August 4.

A link to the Magnolia Banner News here shows her arrest June 8, 2016.

A temporary link in the Magnolia reporter shows her court date here. This link may disappear as it is only good until the next docket is posted. I'll post a screenshot if that happens.

It makes me sad that something that could so easily have been settled with even an attempt at payment had to come to this.

FYI, despite receiving another statement from Ms. Boulware, I have not been paid for 1st or 2nd qtr 2016. I get no answer when I email. Please don't support this publisher. This is a person who said she told her authors she was having a MRI when she was sitting in jail awaiting bail. Over and over she had proved her intent to defraud, and she had been reported to the RWA.

I'm very sad for all the Authors involved, and for the industry at large when yet another small pub behaves badly.

XXOO

Julia

Historical re-release-- fun, kinky romp

Did y'all see my new cover for Post Obsession?

The amazing Kris Norris did it for me, and let me quibble about historical periods and shit. I love her.

The book is about Markus, a bored Georgian aristocrat who gets involved with the mysterious E via letters hand delivered to him. What they get up to could scandalize the world of polite society.

Find it here on ARE!

XXOO

Julia

Not a family squabble

I'm so tired and worn down by trying to get people to understand that this thing with TQ LLC is not a family squabble. Yes, the current owner is my SIL, which makes this maddening and horrifying. The simple fact that she would screw all these people over when we trusted her is an abomination. But it's not spite that makes me flog it over and over. It's the fact that (with permission from Sean Michael) she owes Sean AT LEAST 25K. Right now she owes me and my wife $3500.00. She hasn't paid anthology authors since January. She hasn't paid at least 3 other authors who consistently made good money at TQ. I'm sure there are dozens more.

And yet she filed for indigent status for her upcoming trial and claimed to be unemployed. http://circuit027.courtconnect.net/docsdms/?A=123/ck_image.present?DMS_ID=35787c6e-6a24-4fa9-9b53-aa4c6200b747

I want to know where the money went. I want to know how this is okay and someone could say this is me being a bitch because I'm spiteful and bored.

What I really want is for her to close the business and stop fucking people I care about and hurting our community. I would do exactly what she wants and leave her alone if she would just do that.

XXOO

The Very Tired Julia

Faster Bobcat re-release-- expanded!

Hey y'all!

A few years back right around this time of the year we released a lovely little anthology called Designated Bottoms. I edited it and was super proud to have Sean, Kiernan, me and BA, as well as Shannon West, Katey Hawthorne and KC Wells do D/s stories for the anth.

When things began to go horribly wrong with TQ (still not paid sigh) I pulled my story out, and Changeling Press has re-released it. It was about 9000 words before. Now it's 12k and a better story, I think! It was Faster Bobcat then but that's the series name now and the story is called Hot Tin Roof.

It's here at Changeling, or you can get it at ARE or Amazon.

Aleks is a dancer at a nightclub. Rafe is the guy who wants Aleks to dance only for him...

XXOO

Julia

Kinky erotica new release

Hey y'all!

Minerva Howe has a new release! It's a m/m space soldier who has an alien probe kink. It also has a romance element, a manmade pleasure planet, and a bit of cock milking and butt probing.

Here is in on All Romance, where it's on sale this week!

And on Amazon.

And here's an excerpt!

“Welcome to Planet Fantasy, sir.” A small, blue-haired alien with the most amazing mottled pink skin smiled at Sgt. John Decker, recently retired from the United Earth Military Forces, and scanned the wristband he’d been given when he'd boarded the transport shuttle. “It’s our pleasure to make your dreams come true.”

“Thanks.” John glanced around the shuttle station, relieved to see it was clean and comfortable and modern. He kinda expected it to be cheesy, maybe rundown. No, this place had it going on.

“The currency for your weekend has already been debited from your account. You’ll be shown to your private room, where you can relax and have a meal, if you like. We also have several restaurants, if you prefer.” Her monitor beeped and booped. “According to your preferences, I have assigned you a steward for the weekend. He should arrive shortly. Would you like to have a seat?”

She indicated a grouping of low-slung seating about ten feet away, so John grabbed his bag and made his way over to sit. His wristband caught his attention because it glowed green now, a little blue light blinking on it, as well. Activated, he reckoned.

Maybe ten minutes later, a young man arrived. Probably Earth issue, a few inches shorter than John, maybe ten years younger than his thirty-eight, this guy was stunningly beautiful. All tanned skin and golden hair. Ridged abs sported a tiny glory trail leading down into an itty bitty loincloth, which was his only covering.

“Sgt. Decker? Good afternoon. I’m Denis, your steward for the weekend. Shall I show you to your room?”

“Please.”

He’d come in early, his long weekend starting on Thursday night so he could have two days of fantasy played out. Sunday he would recover, then leave Monday morning with the other Earth-bound customers. He rose, and Denis grabbed his bag, leading the way. The loincloth barely covered Denis’ tight, hard-muscled ass, and God knew John would follow that anywhere. They really had taken his preferences into account.

“Did you have a pleasant flight?”

“It wasn’t bad at all. Hellacious better than military transport.” John grinned, thinking of his last trip past the moon. They’d hit some bumps when they did a gravity sling around the big rock instead of stopping at the way station there. Planet Fantasy, which was a man-made, terraformed space station more than a planet, was just a short hop from the moon, so they’d done things the easy way on this jaunt.

“I imagine so. How long were you in the military?” Denis had a pleasant, soothing voice, not too deep, and completely unaccented. Vid voice, they called it. Universal and easily understood.

“Twenty years. Just retired. All the guys in my cadre got together and bought me this experience.” He would never have spent the money to do this for himself, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“That was very kind of them. You’re going to love it here.”

XXOO

Julia/Minerva

Out of the Frying Pan is a bestseller!

Check it out here!

I love my firefighters! I do I do.

XXOO

Julia