So here’s the news: All Romance eBooks and OmniLit will be closing effective 12/31/2016.
Per the email sent to ARe customers, readers are encouraged to “take this opportunity to finalize any transactions, download your purchases, and back up your library.”
If you’ve purchased ebooks there, you must download them immediately* as the sites will go dark at midnight CST, 12/31/16.
*Of course, all the traffic is making the download and access process very slow. I’m having a plodding time trying to navigate to my library, but it’s nearly 9pm ET. I imagine it may get better the later it gets.
Authors who sell their books through the site as well as publishers received a different message. Per the email statement from Lori James at AllRomance LLC:
Authors whose books were contracted by AllRomance as a publisher are receiving their rights back, and no monetary compensation.
So authors who were published by AllRomance as a publisher will receive no compensation for fourth quarter 2016. Parties who were distributing books through AllRomance can receive 10% of what is owed to them from sales dated October 1 through December 27 — which was yesterday. Any sales made from today until the site goes dark are not included.
RWA posted a response on their site outlining the terms of the closing of All Romance, then adding:
RWA finds it unconscionable for the owner of ARe to withhold information so long and to continue selling books through the end of the month when the company cannot pay commissions. RWA contacted ARe but has not yet received a response.
There are a number of unanswered questions, such as: what happens to pre-ordered books? All Romance hasn’t released any details, but a number of small presses are honoring receipts for pre-orders made at All Romance, including Interlude, Dreamspinner, Nine Star, and Less Then Three Press, via their statements on Twitter:
W/ @allromance closure, if you preordered Dreamspinner title, forward receipt and we’ll honor via our store contactATdreamspinnerpressDOTcom
— Dreamspinner Press (@dreamspinners) December 28, 2016
If you have preordered any IP titles from @allromance, send us confirmation (screenshot or receipt) and we’ll honor at the IP Web Store
— Interlude Press (@InterludePress) December 28, 2016
It seems ARe is not refunding preorders. Send the confirmation email to Raevyn@ninestarpress.com. I will make sure you receive the book(s).
— NineStar Press (@ninestarpress) December 28, 2016
we’re going to make this easy for ppl: if you pre-ordered an LT3 title on ARe, forward the receipt to service@lessthanthreepress.com.
— Samantha M Derr (@rykaine) December 28, 2016
Samantha Derr also mentioned on Twitter that despite All Romance’s offer of 10% of fourth quarter totals owed, “no matter how LT3’s agreement w/ #ARe works out, LT3 authors WILL NOT take the hit. you will get what you are owed.”
I’ve seen conflicting reports regarding eBook Buck balances at ARe. Some folks are reporting they haven’t been able to use them, and others tweeted their transactions went through.
In the meantime, many publishers and self published authors are removing their books from AllRomance as fast as they can, since they won’t be receiving any compensation on sales made today through midnight Saturday. Anyone trying with success to use their AllRomance store credit may not find much by Saturday. Or midnight tonight. I have a small amount of credit, and books I try to purchase yield a notice that “This book is no longer available on our website” despite appearing the catalog.
Many, understandably, are furious about the extremely short notice, and even more infuriated by the 10% offer on fourth quarter monies owed, advising readers to backup their libraries immediately and to stop making purchases there since the authors won’t receive compensation.
Some are not entirely surprised. One individual I contacted said, requesting anonymity, “Anyone who has been distributing via ARe for more than a couple of years will not be surprised – their advertising rates have gone up just as sales have gone down, indicating profitability issues. I just wish they had done the right thing and closed doors before they had to screw authors.”
Speaking for myself, this came as a shock to me, and I’m terribly sad and disappointed, which aren’t big enough words but I’m exhausted so they’ll have to do. I’ve been working with AllRomance since they opened in 2006. They approached me with the idea for the Sizzling Book Club, offering a 50% rebate on the selected titles. They were sponsors of the DABWAHA tournament for multiple years, and have advertised with SBTB as well, though they did not renew for 2017.
To see AllRomance come to an abrupt and contentious end is bitterly sad – for readers, authors, and publishers, and those who are all of the above. I don’t know anything about why this happened or how, but this is not the ending anyone would wish for.
The details are still confusing and uneven, and I am having trouble finding more information for the questions I have. Regardless of the answers, if at all feasible, you should download your purchased books from your AllRomance library as soon as you possibly can.
ETA 12/30/16: Regarding pre-orders, I have received information from multiple individuals that if you pre-ordered a book, you can request a refund but you must do so by 1 January 2017. You can open a support ticket or email service AT allromanceebooks.com and include information about your purchase, such as order number, date, or a screen shot or copy of your receipt.
If I receive any additional information, I’ll post it here.
How infuriating. I’m in the process of re-buying the three pre-orders I bought from ARe on Boxing Day directly from their publisher. I paid for the books with eBucks, and I’d rather the publisher and their authors get the money that’s their due than stick them for ARe’s poor planning and dishonesty.
I hope other readers are able to access their paid-for books and store credit in whatever way they can. I’m happy to be in a position where I’m able to abandon the rest of my eBucks like a bag of poo on ARe’s doorstop, rather than compound ARe’s sins against their authors and publishers. I hope ARe chokes on ’em.
I received the email last night, tucked away in one of Gmail’s filters. Since they’ve sent me so many for their sales, I might have missed this one entirely if I didn’t see the rumblings on social media. After a few hiccups, I was able to download my paltry library. I hadn’t used ARe that much, because most of the authors I follow have the “secure epub” listed and while I knew I could use Calibre, I preferred sending it straight to my Kindle. I hate how they’re treating the authors/small publishers. And I hate even more the position they’ve put readers in — “oh yes you can buy for few more days… but very little will actually go to the authors”. Contemplating abandoning my ebook bucks as well and good riddance.
A question, though, when they say “we’re not paying 4th quarter”, that means the last four months?
@Julia:
Fourth quarter is October 1-December 31.
It makes me sick about the whole thing. To not let everyone effected know and deceive them. I have also decided to let my $50 in ebucks die. How horrible to not pay the authors at this point. Just as Colleen said, they can choke on them.
I’ve only ever gotten free titles from the site, but I feel deeply for the authors who will lose revenues, the readers who may lose titles they figured were ‘safe’ by this midnight hour decision.
I predict a plethora of blog posts explaining how to remove DRM from books. I don’t wait to deDRM my Amazon books, backing up said books, I’m a little more lax. For me, this situation reminded me my Calibre database was due for a back-up.
[…] still, it was a scary, overwhelming time, so I can understand and sympathize with what the authors from AllRomance are going through right now. I wouldn’t wish this kind of stress on my worst […]
This is absolutely shocking and I don’t see how it can be legal to just say, “Hey, we’re not gonna pay you, sorry.”
I still don’t see how this isn’t breach of contract on ARE’s part regarding royalties…The Writers Weekly website has step-by-step advice on dealing with deadbeat publishers, so authors might want to do a search there for advice. In happier news for readers, JMS Books is honoring preorders made at ARE (email admin[at]jms-books.com).
[…] http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2016/12/romance-closing-effective-12312016/ […]
A closed group has formed on Facebook for ARe authors, and they’ve already contacted an attorney.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212976702443743/
I see 2016 is continuing its destructive rampage to destroy everything that we love. Can this year be over yet?!
I remember so many ebooks stores that were around when I first got a reader. Now All Romance goes the same direction as Fictionwise, BooksonBoard and Sony (to name a few). I am grateful that we can buy from smaller publisher but I am bothered that there are fewer eBook store options.
I submitted for a side bar ad, ARE said in an email they will refund the monies in the next few business days.
As a reader, I purchase ebooks from ARE, Smashwords (available in different formats depending on what authors/publishers choose), and Amazon. I have yet to buy from Kobo but have an account there, and unfortunately, because I live in Australia, cannot buy ebooks from B&N.
I never keep my ebooks solely on the sites even though they store automatically. I always download onto my computer and transfer onto my kindle, sometimes using Calibre to covert the formats, and I also keep anther copy on an external hard drive, that way I never have to worry about my ebooks disappearing. NEVER rely on technology!
I was fortunate that I obsessively download to my laptop – i’ve been burnt by the closure of other publishing sites before – but I am sickened that authors are getting cheated on my recent purchases.
I can confirm that I have just received a refund for the ad I had reserved on ARE for 2017.
That’s good news Angela! I also purchased an ad package for 2017 and was told that I’d get a refund. Keeping my fingers crossed!
I always downloaded my books to my computer then transferred to a USB stick so there were no problems for me with my library. But I never got an e-mail from aRE regarding the shut down of the site. This post was my first notification. Fortunately I also only had $0.76 in eBook Bucks so at least that’s not a huge loss.
@Trix if you see this, go to Amazon, manage my device, and check your documents to see if the books are on your kindle. That’s a way to see even if your kindle isn’t working. If you buy a new kindle, the documents should transfer.
I saw it on a tweet from RWA yesterday before I read it on SBTB. I never received an email. I checked all of my folders including trash and spam. The last email I received was 12/27, and it was soliciting book sales to readers.
if anyone used a credit card, try disputing under the “goods and services” clause, it’s an extra protection designed for this type of problem. you purchased in good faith they would honor their end of the transaction.
[…] Smart Bitches on All Romance eBooks (ARe) closing on 2016-12-31. […]
Bitterly disappointed at the closure as I use ARe quite extensively. Have pre-orders on 2 Eve Langlais that I don’t expect to get a refund on. Although I download my eBooks when I purchase them and load them into Calibre, I am in the process of re-downloading my 1,700+ library.
I created a very basic form to try to gather some data. With only 43 responses thus far (out of tens of thousands of ARe publisher accounts), the figures are quite disturbing.
https://goo.gl/forms/4vPPKhNgCDurfbFH2
I was also shocked and saddened by the news that ARe is closing its doors. I have published stories on ARe for several years and I didn’t get an email from them to inform me they were closing. I only found out because I saw the news on a Yahoo group I belong to. I’m dismayed to discover I won’t get the commission I’m owed either. It was hardly a fortune, but it mattered to me as my general income is in the low to begging bowl category, so every little helps. 🙂 What a sad and shabby end for an ebook store that was held in good esteem. They’ve let everyone down.
I was also shocked and saddened by the news that ARe is closing its doors. I have published stories on ARe for several years and I didn’t get an email from them to inform me they were closing. I only found out because I saw the news on a Yahoo group I belong to. I’m dismayed to discover I won’t get the commission I’m owed either. It was hardly a fortune, but it mattered to me as my general income is in the low to begging bowl category, so every little helps. 🙂 What a sad and shabby end for an ebook store that was held in good esteem. They’ve let everyone down.
Regarding pre-orders, I have received information from multiple individuals that if you pre-ordered a book, you can request a refund but you must do so by 1 January 2017. You can open a support ticket or email service AT allromanceebooks.com and include information about your purchase, such as order number, date, and/or a screen shot or copy of your receipt.
If I receive any additional information, I’ll post it here.
[…] All Romance eBooks and OmniLit are shutting down on December 31. […]
[…] saw news breaking this week, first on The Digital Reader, and then by both Smart Bitches Trashy Books and Dear Author. Both of these sites have mentioned how Romance Writers of America is deeply […]
http://blogcritics.org/publisher-all-romance-ebooks-closing-hits-new-low-in-stealing-from-authors/
Just discovered this article. I didn’t know that the owner of ARe is also an author, publishing under 2 pen names (aside from other stuff about her that made me mad). Guess who goes immediately on my no-buy-list…
Gah. I hope that legal action will be successful and authors will get the money they are owed.
Hi. Just to update my previous comment. Thank you so much to SB Sarah for emailing me after Eve Langlais contacted her about my preorder at ARe of Rebel. Eve had offered to send me the book when it is available.
This was extremely generous of her and I am very grateful, and I would point out that this was done anonymously and not for any credit.
I did raise a ticket at ARe for a refund. Miracles might happen (Santa is real, right?)
But, I certainly don’t expect an author to supply a book if someone else has stolen (and it IS stealing) the money. One cannot make a living that way. These are authors who probably will receive a pittance for their sales of the final quarter. At Christmas no less! I feel sick for them. They have lives and bills and children who depend on them. I cannot add further to someone’s burden and sleep at night.
Whether or not I receive the refund, I *will* buy Rebel again, on the *day* it is released (as I understand this is of benefit to the author) for the *full* amount. And I will be *glad* to do so.
Thanking Eve and Sarah again, and would like to wish everyone a happy New Year with a better 2017 ahead. Am so done with 2016.
This news shocked me when I first heard about it. ARe is where I first started buying e-books. I went from “pff, I’m never going to buy or read e-books” to, according to the site, buying 168 from them, in large part because I liked the whole Ebook Bucks system and the “buy 10, get one free” deal. A lot of the books I bought through there I likely would never have bought anywhere else, just because of those deals (example: nearly everything I’ve ever bought that was published by Bold Strokes Books, because dang those prices).
After a few huge buying sprees in my first couple years, I stopped using the site as much, but I still kept lists of publishers I preferred to get through ARe. I own a Nook and have refused to buy from BN since they made it difficult (impossible?) to download books direct to my computer, so I guess it’s Kobo, Smashwords, Humble Bundles, and purchasing direct from publishers (more user names and passwords to keep track of, ugh) for me from here on out.
If anyone has credits they want to use up, I’m leaving the first book of my series active on ARe for readers to grab:
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-treasuredclaim-1813261-143.html
This seems to be happening a lot recently with hybrid and e-book publishers.
I hope they don’t do a samhain, and open up again in the New Year.
Here’s a followup article to the one Brigit linked to above:
http://blogcritics.org/court-documents-regarding-all-romance-e-books-disturbing-business-practices-surface/
The shady behavior is documented back to at least 2014.
In short, the former co-owner of ARe filed suit after Lori James had her wrongly declared incompetent to participate in the business, appointed herself the queen of ARe, and bestowed upon herself a salary the likes of which had never before been seen in the kingdom.
Re refund requests: I had one pre-order (Erica Monroe’s “Stealing the Rogue’s Heart”) regarding which I put in a refund support ticket more than 48 hours ago, and have – unsurprisingly – heard diddly squat back. I’m not sure how they’ll refund or exchange a title after the site goes dark in, what, 15 hours? so at this point, I’m considering it gone. It’s not a huge amount, just $0.99, but I’m still annoyed, and I can imagine it’s worse for customers who had more pre-orders in the pipeline.
I’ve been really impressed with many indie authors’ and small presses’ willingness to make good lost ARe pre-orders, but I decided not to contact the author since a) this is not her mess, and b) she’ll be taking a much harder hit than I am. I plan to re-buy the title on Kobo on release day, since I find it unconscionable what ARe has done, and insofar as my 99 cents helps out this author, that’s what I’ll do. At least I can be assured Kobo will pay her.
I requested ARe refunds on 3 books via trouble ticket yesterday and received all 3 refunds yesterday via confirmation email showing credit card refund transaction (grand total of 8.74). I, too, appreciate the other presses stepping up (Dreamspinner, LT3, in particular), and they have earned considerable loyalty from me. Sorry circumstance all around, otherwise.
@Christine Maria Rose
I’ve tried to contact you via Twitter to no avail. There are several DRM plug ins. Which one do you recommend?
Sarah – downside to the tech article you linked to – it’s from 2014 and some of the options don’t exist anymore, lots of the library options limit the amount of uploads you can add (I know Google Play is limited to 1000 uploaded), even with the Calibre options a lot of the books aren’t opening on some of the libraries (my experience is all with epub and Google) – I’ve found Akido is a decent storage but it’s a battery hog.
Do you have any other (preferably more recent) articles with options for readers with large libraries? (My Sony one was around 1500, my EC was about 300, Samhain was about 500 and aRe is around 230 – or at least it was before books started disappearing from my library). I still have an old laptop that I can’t dump because it’s the only “authorized” access to all my old Sony books. My New Year resolution is to get everything together in no more than 2 places….
Kelly, try these two articles.
https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm-and-you-—-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/drm-removal-tools-for-ebooks/
I’m sorry I can’t offer more IT support, but if you can follow the instructions on these two pages (they do still work–everything is up to date) you should be able to consolidate and strip all you DRM books with Calibre. I fear it’s probably easier with a Mac than a PC.
@KellyNJ:
Ah, bugger. I’m sorry – I missed the date. And of course technology becomes obsolete in hours nowadays!
Where are you looking to store your books? On a handheld device like a reader?