Writers Beware Alert

[verdalaven]

Hello,

I am about to reveal an embarrassing situation in order to prevent any writers here from going through something similar.

I am a writer published through a small press named Quiet Storm Publishing. I signed on four years ago, and at that time the man in charge, owner/operator Clint Gaige, started strong with presumably the best intentions. I should have seen the handwriting on the wall two years ago when I realized that he'd fully broken every verbal promise he made to me to get me to sign my contract. But I am the faithful sort, until now.

It has come to light, after twenty or so of his authors banded together and started sharing our tales of woe, that Mr Gaige has transformed his operation from a small press into a huge scam.

Writer Beware - Clint Gaige and his partner Darla Shoemaker have not paid their authors due royalties in over a year; They have taken substantial sums of money to order books for events, from bookstores and authors, and no books materialized (and yet the checks were cashed); They are currently running silent, refusing to answer the phone, emails, and now mysteriously unable to answer the door as our registered letters reach their address. Quiet Storm Publishing has been turned into Preditors and Editors, and two grievances have been filed against them on the MWA board. Legal action is in the works.

If you are searching for a publisher, I strongly suggest you steer clear of this operation and the principal characters. We, the writers of QSP, fear they may try to start up a new operation under a different name and use our royalties to publish new authors. At the very least they are deplorable business people, and at the worst, as I know them now, they are despicable cheats and liars.

Thanks for listening and good luck always,

Elizabeth A Merz

[JitterbugPerfume]

1. thanks for posting this

ALWAYS let the buyer beware

[frogmarch]

2. Valuable advice

Thanks for the heads up, verdalaven. What an ugly situation. I'm glad QSP turned Gaige and Shoemaker in to P&E. I hope these two get what's coming to them, and that all those who were scammed by them get their money back.

[lapislzi]

3. Just checked...they're not listed in the '06 Writers Market

That's your best source for checking out creds on publishers. Also the front matter is very, very useful. If you cannot afford a copy (and it is expensive for what it is--essentially dated material), do use your local library. All libraries should have the latest edition, or should be able to obtain it for you.

Thanks for this valuable advice.

[BigMcLargehuge]

4. predators and editors is a better resource for checking editors

My experience with Writer's Market (and their website) is that their listings are often incomplete, inaccurate, and woefully out of date for all except the largest and most monolithing publishers. Look on the web, there are genre specific listings are the very up to date.

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/

[katinmn]

5. So sorry, but thanks for posting. The NWU posts alerts like this

http://nwu.org/nwu/index.php?cmd=showPage&page_id=1.3.12.2

[BikeWriter]

6. Very sorry! There are tons of crooks out there.

[joeybee12]

7. Yes, thanks for posting this...hope this doesn't

keep you from pursuing other options.

[bain_sidhe]

8. SFWA has a good "Writer Beware" site also

That would be "Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America"

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

You might want to send them a note also.

[stevietheman]

9. This sounds like Turner Publishing in Paducah Kentucky as well...

I know that they are currently doing essentially the same thing to their stable of authors right now.