Ellora's Cave

[LadyVer]

Any thoughts on the current lawsuit by EC against Dear Author? It's been interesting reading lately. Especially with the #NotChilled Twitter hashtag.

I didn't see another thread addressing this. If I missed it, my apologies.

 

[Hypoxia]

? Huh ?

 

[LadyVer]

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/09/2...blog-for-reporting-on-its-financial-troubles/

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I would think the only ones who care would be those authors who weren't paid. Other than that, who cares? I don't.

If someone says something that's true...is that slanderous?

 

[Handley_Page]

You'll appreciate that Western USA documents can take a while to get to the UK, I trust?


Alternative source <HERE>

 

[sr71plt]

As Zeb posted, unless the blog can be shown to be making what it's reporting up, it's not libel and they won't lose the lawsuit.

A comment on an aspect of this--Amazon being stingy in royalties. A. So are mainstream publishers for all but their golden goose authors, and B. It becomes an issue of "is something better than nothing?" Before the Amazon paradigm of e-book publishing (and opening to erotica) came along, erotic authors made close to nothing on their works. Now they do make something. So, when does something become better than nothing?

Beyond that, I think an aspect to this is authors thinking they are the only ones who put any effort and resources into getting a work into the marketplace. There's a glut of works on offer. Editors, designers, printers, and marketers are key to the process and are a lot more scare than authors with works are.

 

[callmeismael]

Reading through the post on Dear Author here (http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/the-curious-case-of-elloras-cave/), it seems pretty well-researched and documented, unlikely to be considered libelous, until I got to this line:

So why is it that tax liens go unpaid as well as the salaries or royalties of creative individuals? It is unknown but it sounds like the money is being mismanaged at best and improperly diverted at worst.

That's the sort of accusation that you can't just throw in casually, and any news-room editor is going to slash that out of their reporter's copy. Yeah, it actually does sound that way from the rest of the report. But leave the speculation out and let the facts do the talking (or better yet, find an expert who's willing to comment on it).

The follow-up is also problematic:

What’s the result? Many people believe that EC will close its doors before the summer is over but at least by the end of the year.

Who are these people? Everything else in the article is attributed, even if to anonymous sources. But this statement needs to be backed up. Are these authors wishing to be anonymous who believe it? Industry insiders? The problem with the article is that the most damaging statements and accusations are the least backed-up, either admitted speculation or an entirely unattributed source.

There's also no reference in the article about whether an attempt was made to get comment on the story from anyone at EC. That's a huge no-no in investigative reporting. Even if it's a no-comment, show that you made the effort to get both sides.

I can't speculate on whether any libel lawsuit would be successful or not, I'm just saying that there are some things that Dear Author could have approached differently that would have made given it an ironclad case against libel. I haven't followed this story before and it certainly sounds like some very shady stuff is going on there, though.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Reading through the post on Dear Author here (http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/the-curious-case-of-elloras-cave/), it seems pretty well-researched and documented, unlikely to be considered libelous, until I got to this line:



That's the sort of accusation that you can't just throw in casually, and any news-room editor is going to slash that out of their reporter's copy. Yeah, it actually does sound that way from the rest of the report. But leave the speculation out and let the facts do the talking (or better yet, find an expert who's willing to comment on it).

The follow-up is also problematic:


Who are these people? Everything else in the article is attributed, even if to anonymous sources. But this statement needs to be backed up. Are these authors wishing to be anonymous who believe it? Industry insiders? The problem with the article is that the most damaging statements and accusations are the least backed-up, either admitted speculation or an entirely unattributed source.

There's also no reference in the article about whether an attempt was made to get comment on the story from anyone at EC. That's a huge no-no in investigative reporting. Even if it's a no-comment, show that you made the effort to get both sides.

I can't speculate on whether any libel lawsuit would be successful or not, I'm just saying that there are some things that Dear Author could have approached differently that would have made given it an ironclad case against libel. I haven't followed this story before and it certainly sounds like some very shady stuff is going on there, though.

Isn't a blog just someone's opinion, not fact?

Just because my opinion is that "someone" is and asshole, doesn't make my statement libelous. It's my opinion, I am allowed to express and have opinions.

As plt said, "Amazon is stingy with royalties."(not an exact quote) in most cases is an opinion. It might also be a fact, but it is mostly likely an opinion.

 

[Hypoxia]

Speculation is protected. Even lies are protected in many circumstances. I think for libel to be established, one must demonstrate malicious intent. I'm no lawyer so I'm free to say that.

 

[callmeismael]

Speculation is protected. Even lies are protected in many circumstances. I think for libel to be established, one must demonstrate malicious intent. I'm no lawyer so I'm free to say that.

I believe in the US it's a condition called 'actual malice', which means knowledge that the information was false, or disregard about whether it was true or not. It doesn't necessarily require ill will. It's still an extremely hard charge to make stick in the US, and I don't think EC could prove that here.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Dear Author makes no factual claims. "It is unknown but it sounds like..." makes the sentence speculation. Likewise "Many people believe..."

Having stated the obvious let me also say, tritely, "Woof!"

Would be a great novel...

 

[49greg]

It's too bad EC isn't doing well. My wife has gotten books there in the past. She'll be bummed.