Press Release

iPublish ends as it began, in controversy

March 15, 2002

Los Angeles, California, USA -- AOL Time Warner's short-lived eBook division, iPublish, was born into controversy and seems destined to die the same way.

The idea of iPublish seemed noble: Aspiring writers were invited to submit manuscripts for peer review; the best-reviewed submissions would be evaluated by iPublish editors, and a few would be issued as eBooks and considered for paperback publication.

The iPublish website went online in May 2001 and immediately found itself under fire from the Authors Guild. In a release dated May 17, 2001, the Guild warned its members that "experimenting in digital publishing with Time Warner's new iPublish division presents substantial legal risks and loss of literary rights for little pay."

First-time novelist J. Knight ignored the Guild's warning and submitted his novel, Risen, anyway. "iPublish was my best and only shot at publication," says Knight. "Risen had been rejected by print publishers, my agent had pronounced it 'dead in the water.' I'd self-published it electronically and needed out from under the self-publisher stigma. iPublish offered me an audience and a professional imprimatur. I went for it."

For several months everything went well. Risen sold well for an eBook, inhabiting Palm Digital's Top Ten in Horror list for three weeks, ranking as high as #4 behind two books by Stephen King and one by Anne Rice. Risen rose as high as #3 among all eBooks at Amazon.com and was in the Top 25 in Horror and Suspense at Barnes and Noble.com.

Then, in December 2001, AOL Time Warner pulled the plug on iPublish, citing poor sales of eBooks. Risen moved to AOL Time Warner's trade division where it was being considered for mass market paperback publication. "They strung us along with that promise for about two-and-a-half months," Knight says, "and meanwhile, they'd missed two royalty statements and had never made a royalty payment."

According to Knight, the first payment period comprised the month of June 2001, "when Risen had just been released and wasn't even listed at Amazon or bn.com yet. It didn't bother me that they missed that due date." The second payment was due the first week of December, when iPublish was closed and the staff laid off. "I cut them some slack because everything was in chaos," says Knight. "And they were talking about paperback publication of my book. I didn't want to rock the boat."

As a decision regarding Risen's paperback publication failed to materialize, a third quarterly statement and check fell due. When no statement arrived in the following week, Knight and his agent took action. They charged AOL Time Warner with breach of contract and withdrew Risen.

Says Knight, "As far as I know, no iPublish author has been paid by AOL Time Warner. None has been picked up for paperback publication. It's all horribly depressing. I feel that Risen proved itself in the market. It got great reviews at Amazon.com. It ranked well in the small pond of eBooks. Now it's back to square one."

Despite his experience with Risen, Knight is hard at work on a second novel. "Some people are just too dim to quit, I guess," says Knight.

Contact

J. Knight, 310-398-3494
J@atombrain.com