eNovel.com, “closed for maintenance” for more than a week as of this writing, isn’t answering the mail of an author named Michael Fox, who says: “I have a book there.” His plea appears on the eBook Community list.
If nothing else, this is an example of the desirability of a national digital library approach with safe archiving right from the start. If a publisher went AWOL for good, all books would still be preserved for readers, authors and posterity, even if the house involved were just a little vanity publishing effort.
Small publishing houses–and most publishers are barely above the lemonade-stand level–tend not to break corporate longevity records. For what it’s worth, eNovel.com bills itself with a trademarked slogan as “World’s Biggest eBook Site.” Gosh, if that’s the behavor of the “Biggest,” what’ll we do about the “Smallest”?
A whois reveals one Jack Singer in Glen Allen, VA, as the administrative contact for eNovel.com. I’m sending him a copy of this post to see if it’ll encourage the company to come forward with the full facts.
I know nothing, repeat nothing, about the financial situation of eNovel.com. My own hunch about the e-book industry as a whole is that certain players are still in perilous condition. So be careful where you sign up. Have that contract lawyered well to allow for surprises and ideally provide for prompt restoration of your unfettered rights if a company bellies up.
Let’s hope that a happy outcome will result for Michael Fox–presumably not the disease-ridden actor for whom we wish the same.
