As of yesterday, I have terminated my contract with Ridan publishing. If you have been thinking of buying any of my StarBridge novels, please do not, at this time. In particular, please don’t purchase them from the Ridan website, because I have received complaints that Ridan is not filling orders for my books.
When I signed on with Ridan, it was a thriving company. I checked out their bottom line, and investigated them thoroughly. Their authors spoke enthusiastically about the company and its owner. But in the past six months or so, Ridan has pretty much stopped communicating with me. My last two certified letters, which included the contract termination letter, were never picked up at the post office. Even though StarBridge came out on December 5, 2011, I have never received a royalty payment from Ridan.
I know some of you were waiting for books 6 and 7 in the StarBridge series. Those books were turned in months ago, edited and ready to go, but they have never been released.
It’s my understanding that the CEO of Ridan had some serious personal problems last winter. I am sorry for that. But I have to think of my co-authors, and my series. In my opinion, Ridan has not, so far, acted in good faith. I wrote to them one last time yesterday, advising them of the steps they must take and reminding them that they no longer have the right to sell the five StarBridge they have released or the two they have not.
I hope that my email will be read, and all of this can be resolved in a civil fashion.
If you are interested in the StarBridge books, please know that I am not abandoning them. I plan to re-release them myself as soon as I can commission cover/graphic art, and we re-convert the files. Those who have purchased the Ridan titles should not be affected by this change. I’m very sorry it has come to this.
So sorry to hear of the Ridan crash, Ann! If you’re going forward on your own, you might try a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds for art and formatting, etc, since you have a big fan base already. I’m just a middling indie author and had no trouble succeeding with a campaign to pay for the creation of my audiobooks.
Also, if you’re looking for a designer, Glendon over at http://streetlightgraphics.com does a great job with book covers. I use Ted Risk at http://dellasterdesign.com/ for formatting, and he makes a very professional and clean file that reads well on everything from kindles to blackberries. Since your books are already edited, it won’t cost you much to get them out there independently.
Best wishes!
I’ll be looking for them. I bought the first 2 from Ridan and it was problematic getting them. I had decided not to buy from them again. I’m happy to hear that I’ll be finding them elsewhere sometime. Thanks to Nathan Lowell for mentioning you and posting a link. I’ve got you on RSS now.🙂
I know people post on smashwords.com I don’t know how well that goes but I know Will Shetterly posted his novels there (Elsewhere novel of the borderlands) and it’s where I go when I’m looking for stuff that I can’t find other places. I’ve only read your Pirates of the Carribean book and V (I loved both) and I can’t wait to read more of your work😀