When I read the news on Publishers Marketplace about Kunati Publishing going out of business, I wasn’t sure whether I felt sorrow, joy, or relief. I’m sorry for all the authors affected by this decision, and luckily the editor is returning their rights. Some simply go belly up and the rights get tied up in bankruptcy court.
After further thought, I settled on relief. Relief because this company can’t harm innocent authors. Now that it’s all out in the open, I felt compelled to bring an old post back to the forefront – to serve as a warning to authors to look for the signs. You’ll note that one of Kunati’s owners felt the need to make a rather rude appearance on the comments section and attack his own authors. A real class act all the way ’round.
If you want the inside scoop on what floats our boats, 
I visited that particular owner’s blog just over a week ago and read some of his advice for writers: to maintain at least twelve blogs and update these daily. Not someone whose suggestions or behavior inspired confidence, I’m afraid.
Yes, I’d heard about the twelve blog thingies (and other horrors) and nearly fell over. I can barely keep up with one blog let alone twelve! What’s this guys smoking, I wonder?
I am not happy that any publisher should go under. The authors’ dreams go down in flames. The publisher gets to deal with all kinds of internal loose strings. The place becomes a money devouring black hole worse than before.
Avoiding bad parts of this business is almost a full time job. My heart goes out to the people who are hurting.
Agreed, Allen. I’m never happy when a publisher bites the dust UNLESS they are a company who took advantage of authors to support ulterior motives. Then my emotions sway toward relief – relief that no more authors will have their dreams ripped out from underneath them.
This business is tough enough without having to put up with someone who won’t pay out royalties due the authors, uses the lion’s share of their advertising dollars to promote their own books rather than those of their authors. In those cases, I say good riddance.
My publisher went out of business while I was still on book tour. I was lucky that they were a wonderful group of people genuinely trying to bring good books to market and help writers. It was a terrific experience. Turns out that 2007-8 were not good years to try to get into publishing hardback fiction. Cheers and farewell, Iota Publishing.