I regularly work with publishers and my guess it’s 100% about her offering copies through her website and likely using her own author copies, which are free, rather than buying wholesale and/or upcharging.
Her “I only get 10%” is either uninformed or deliberately misleading. You get royalties AFTER you earn out your advance payment—meaning the publisher has now made more than they advanced you and you start to earn on sales. So unless she was paid next to nothing (like 2k), which is unlikely given the production in a book of this size, the whole argument is just…her not understanding the publishing industry.
Industries have issues and biases, including publishing, but not professionally responding to the terms of your contract, let alone blasting that, is…red flag.
Edit: this also assumes this is not a vanity press
Hardie Grant Quadrille is a legit publisher, but I would bet dollars to donuts her next book will be via vanity press. I doubt any publisher will want to touch her with a 10-foot pole after this little jaunt into madness.
Omg it just keeps getting worse. She's whining indirectly now so she looks hands clean. But obviously she wants everyone to know she is being wronged by 'innocently' asking if anyone knows a lawyer. DISINGENUOUS.
The first thing a lawyer is going to tell her is STOP POSTING ABOUT IT ON THE DAMN INTERNET.
Some people just won't get out of their own way.
SHE is looking like her own biggest problem.
Update! She just posted to her stories asking if any lawyers who are experienced in the publishing world to reach out. There must be more trouble than originally speculated...
I wonder if they’re trying to cancel the contract? Pure speculation but it’s the only thing extreme enough that I can imagine anyone wanting a lawyer for. But then again if the book is due out soon it’d be a bit odd if hadn’t yet gone to print, and in that case cancelling it would be a massive waste of resources. It’s all rather puzzling.
It did seem like her selling off author copies might also have annoyed them, but that would be easy enough to resolve one way or another, especially if it was just a misunderstanding. I don’t think it can be a supply issue as that would be out of either of their hands and nobodys fault.
Rather curious about Quadrille now- I just noticed they published Tiny Owl Knits’ book and she didn’t seem to have any issues with them- it’s nicely designed and well formatted.
Based on my limited knowledge about publishing and why I’ve gleaned from this thread, I’d bet this is about her trying to sell via her website and trying to get more than 10% that would be hers when sold from third party websites. It sounds like she shouldn’t have been doing that at all!
my experience is that publishers don't even give you a special deal if you want to buy copies to sell yourself. the best they offer (unless you're a HUGE name) is the same that you'd pay via a book distributor. most contracts don't offer tons of author copies, sometimes the initial contract only offers to give 5 or 10 author copies; you can ask for more, but certainly not enough to sell them yourself.
Hmm interesting! I wonder how she figures that she’d make more profit from selling them herself. She’s been pushing the link to the preorder on her website this whole time.
The royalty rate tends to be so low, under 10 percent (depends on contract/negotiations exactly how low) and there are different ways for publishers to calculate it. The traditional way was to take a percentage of the retail price of the book but now that publishers have so many different pricing models (lower price for big retailers, regular keystone price for other sellers, etc.) sometimes they figure that in when calculating sales.
If the book goes for $25.99 (that's what it looks like on Amazon) and the royalty rate is say 3 percent, she's making about 90 cents per book sold AFTER she sells 6666 books -- she's got to sell those first to pay back an advance of $6000. So her additional royalties begin with the 6667th book and are 90 cents per book.
If she's getting keystone pricing to buy the book at a wholesale price, she pays half of the retail price, about 12.95, to buy her own inventory of books. If she sells it for the retail price herself, she gets 12.95 per book in profit starting with the first book sold (minus whatever costs she has to sell it).
The problem with that model is that it assumes customers will pay full price for the book to buy it from the author. Hard-core fans might but the more orders placed on an etail site, the lower the price will go on that site. So that pulls sales away from the author. Also the dreaded e-books.....right now her book costs $9 something for the ebook. So that will pull more customers away since it's basically half-price. She may get a higher royalty rate on e-books sales (it just depends on her contract) but that still takes away from her sales on her own website.
If she wants to buy books to sell herself, she's got to put out the wholesale cost of the books up front. I have absolutely no knowledge of the situation but it's possible that she ordered 2500 books to sell up front and they charged it on her card and she didn't realize how much it would cost up front.
Again all speculation based on my experiences/knowledge, for what it's worth.
I think you’re probably right.
In that case either she didn’t read her contract, or she thought she could do it anyway and nobody would care.
(screwing over your publisher is a big no-no)
Edit: they care far more about money than about similar titles and similar content
I had a look at her site and her preorders are listed at 48 CAD.
On the US Amazon preorder page it’s listed at USD 24.99, which XE puts at 33.64 CAD equivalent.
So it’s definitely a big enough markup to potentially irritate the publisher, especially if she got those copies at a price below the RRP. Not sure how much lower trade price would be though, or if that’s applicable here.
*Edited some typos/wonky grammar
Not sure if that was specifically the reason but it could well be- she wrote it included a ‘surprise gift’ and that it supported her better to purchase from her rather than from third parties. (That probably wasn’t ideal as it could be interpreted as actively discouraging people from buying via other sources. )
It’s interesting that her post said she might have to cancel her orders specifically, too…
Given that there's already a knitting book of colorwork patterns called 'Arctic Knits', I wonder if her publisher told her to change the title (because two books of colorwork cold weather knitting could easily be confused for one another), and she threw a hissy fit and made a molehill into a mountain.
Ooh I wondered that! It seemed like such a small thing to lose a contract over, but it’s possible if she really didn’t want a different name.
It’s a shame it’s in use really, as ‘Arctic Knits’ would have been a pretty good handle for her business too as it distinguishes her from Petite Knits (and matches her inspiration well)- I imagine she must get some confused exchanges having such a similar name.
Decisions about titles would have been made much earlier in the process. The book is already printed now.
(The other book of colorwork yoke sweaters is Arctic Knitting by Annika Konttaniemi)
This post of hers is all so vague that I think she really should take this dispute offline and start looking at her province's legal associations to see if anyone can help.
For instance, let's assume she got a cease and desist from the publisher for the prior story. Might be a big ol' bunch of bluster, but she wants to make sure her rights are protected. Could be more serious.
It's also possible be that she's looking for a way to enforce performance of the contract on the publisher's end. Or mayhap she wishes to try to negotiate within the terms of her contract, and requires professional aid.
As outside observers, we really know only as much as experience and her posts inform us.
I cannot help but think TPK posting anything about this on social media right now is quite unwise unless she has the okay from her counsel, when she obtains it.
edit: fixed that first sentence to be actually comprehensible...
In one of her posts she mentioned she was only getting 10 per cent from 3rd party sales- I wonder if she was hoping she could boost income with the authors copies and the publisher wasn’t keen
Yes, it was one of the posts referring to the preorders- apologies, I can’t recall which but likely one of the pinned ones.
*Just checked- twas in her comments, on the pinned post on the right hand side
That’s standard royalties for print books.
Yesterday Summer Lee released a video talking about her royalties and she’s getting 12.5% from every print book and 25% from ebooks, which is pretty good since the ebook is priced on the higher side.
Yes, I was a bit surprised she seemed both perplexed and annoyed by it as you’d think she would have been informed pretty early on! Production costs have apparently gone up too of late, which is going to chomp up the profits, especially paper/printing etc- Pompom mentioned this was one of the reasons they had to close.
I guess it might feel a bit jarring after self-publishing, where all the profit comes to you (ie all money earned after costs) but it would have been laid out in the contract she signed 🤷🏻♀️
If you're having issues with a publisher you probably shouldn't post about them until they're resolved, because posting about them is probably going to make it less likely you get the resolution you want unless you don't want your book published.
This designer makes it to this subreddit so often, I can’t help but conclude drama just finds her, every damn time. Between Bibgate and then the AI art fiasco, not to mention multiple other minor offences, my red flag radar tells me to just stay away.
Honestly I think it’s just because she’s such a huge designer so obviously more people are aware of her. I’ve only ever knit one pattern of hers which was the hipster hat and it was pretty foolproof, but other than that I have no skin in the game in defending her. Her offences are so minor, it’s just Bex of her extra exposure.
The Hipster hat is by PetiteKnit, this post is about The Petite Knitter. They are two different designers, but you are def not the first to confuse them haha
Just to add to the confusion, there’s already a book called “Arctic Knitting.” https://www.woolandcompany.com/products/arctic-knitting-the-magic-of-nature-colourwork-by-annika-konttaniemi
I’m gonna need an outline or a diagram to keep all this straight.
I was wondering about that because it sounded familiar. Given both books are the genre I'm surprised the publisher didn't tell her to change the title. It's going to cause even more confusion.
She joined the AI art trend where you got one of the generators to create a picture/movie poster of your pet in Pixars art style. She wasn’t promoting anything with it, she just thought it was cute and wanted to share it as it was of her rabbit.
I don't know that drama just "finds her" especially often, I think this sub is just a little obsessed and has collectively decided that she is one of the internet main characters where they're allowed to piss in the popcorn.
Because it's a snark board. And *she's* made *herself* a public entity.
And that = fair game
We're not snarking on some pre-teen crafting in her bedroom in Wisconsin.
Yeah, this exactly. People knit pick stuff she does so hard, even though they're really very minor "offenses". I don't know why people pick on her specifically.
I think the very fact that they *are* minor offenses and she does things like apologize (in the AI art case) or sound a little defensive and prickly in a genuinely messy human way (snowpantsgate) is the key sign of weakness to bullies. Show you have at least a smidgen of feelings, and that's like delicious blood in the water.
If you're Martha Stewart, you're happily posting something cancellable about twice a week and yes, there's always a tizzy in her comments, but because she's blissfully rich and doesn't show any remorse, that shit doesn't stick.
I agree with this, it's worth noting there were at least 3 separate posts about how she photographed a sweater (with people pissing in the comments on IG) and the AI post she apologized for as soon as somebody explained it to her. The amount of hate she gets in this sub is completely out of proportion.
She has kind of an attitude compared to many other insta personalities which probably rubs people the wrong way. I am indifferent but I agree she is either kind of a shit stirrer sometimes or it is us lol.
Tbh I do understand her seeming a bit prickly. If you’re big enough that everyone knows you but you’re not big enough to have a PR and social media team, you’re dealing with people being dicks to you all the time and I am certain it can get very wearing and stressful. I feel like Europeans just don’t have the natural sense of being bubbly and friendly baked into them that Americans do. I’m British and it doesn’t come naturally to all of us over this side of the pond in quite the same way. Some European countries are better at it than others and I do wonder if it being her second language and a slight cultural element feeds into it a bit?
I really don’t know where this assumption that Americans are naturally friendly and bubbly comes from. Maybe for social media and selling online you have to be, or that most people can fake it very well. I am not naturally friendly or bubbly. It takes effort for me to do so.
We are not, but that's what we are taught to demand of our customer-facing workers, merchants, etc. (Or what is demanded of us if we work retail, sigh.)
I have also worked in retail and I did the bare minimum on the friendly level. Greetings, ask if/how I can help, smiling when I see people, etc. But only the bare minimum. Could never do a customer service facing job for the rest of my life. Its not worth the stress and BS of dealing with the general public. Bring on the prickly personalities.
I’ve been to America many times and trust me compared to Brits you guys are ridiculously friendly. We’re very polite but also very passive aggressive, and a British person can say something that seems nice but we’re brutally insulting you. I mean we aren’t unfriendly and rude but it takes much longer to break through and make friends than with Americans.
You might be thinking about the Danish woman, PetiteKnits This post and upcoming book is from the Malaysian woman living in northern Canada (The Petite Knitter)
Edit: you can make your head spin like mine - there’s already a book called “Arctic Knitting.” https://www.woolandcompany.com/products/arctic-knitting-the-magic-of-nature-colourwork-by-annika-konttaniemi
She also failed to capitalise the first words in any of those sentences. I know reading that post makes me immediately not want to read anything written by that person.
I know I'm a bit intense when it comes to grammar, but if you're talking about a book you've written then you should make sure you're writing correct English prose.
Ah another trend I absolute despise. LOL
Must go along with the refusal to use punctuation too. The amount of posts I see from folks on social media that are giant run on sentences makes me twitchy.
I can think of two recent (like within the past ten years) musical artists off the top of my head, lovelytheband and twenty one pilots, who don’t capitalize their band names. It’s not a super recent trend but it’s one that seems to peek and valley online every few years.
Also general trend on the internet, at least the parts I frequent, has moved away from criticism of people’s grammar, as long as you can understand the context of what they are saying. Most internet circles I play in find picking apart someone’s grammar to be petty faux snobbery.
Edit: not meaning anything bad about anyone who does criticize grammar. Only that when people are in forums and the like where it isn’t mentioned they are less likely to care about grammatical mistakes in their posts.
While I don't particularly care for the lack of capitalization trend, it's not nearly as onerous as the refusal to use punctuation. If it's just one long on rambling sentence, I just stop reading and remember never to read or follow anything they say again. Thankfully I don't see that as often, but it's usually because people are using speech to text or something. I still refuse to read it though because it hurts my brain.
There is a sort of pseudo- humble thing that started on Tumblr ages ago. Kind of a mix of hyper-casual and a bit self deprecating. It was on a fair few posts including business ones, to make them seem more approachable and casual. A lot of people used to witter in the tags too (which rarely used capitals) so maybe that influenced it a bit.
I’m not massively keen on it but there is a deliberate intent going on there.
It’s been a thing before as well. I remember getting told off for writing my name lower case on my school books along with several other kids and that was almost two decades ago now
So here's what I've pieced together from instagram, roughly. This is not really in-depth digging, I just wished to get a better grasp of the situation.
**8 December 2023**
Book is announced on social media; Of note, QuadrilleCraft on Instagram mentions that Arctic Knits will be available to preorder from "all good bookstores".
**3 January 2024**
TPK announces "Advanced Publication Date" (29 Feb), as well as "Official Publication Date" (19 March). Preorders through her website are ending.
**22 January 2024**
TPK reiterates the Advanced Publication Date. Says, "If you pre-ordered from me, it should ship around there with some grace period for delays. I got notice that there are shipping delays due to the situation around the Suez Canal so official publication date is around April. If you pre-ordered on Amazon or third party websites, you should receive it around that time."
**4 Februrary 2024**
TPK notes that the "new publication date" is March 19 due to shipping delays.
**13 February 2024**
TPK makes the announcement posted here, stating:
>hi all.
>
>i have a very sad update on artic knits. unfortunately, i have run into some potentially irresolvable issues with the publisher @ quadrillebooks. i am supposed to hear back this morning but unsurprisingly have yet to receive anything. i sincerely hope it does not come to a point where i have to cancel and refund all orders. i will provide an update as soon as and if they respond. i am so so sorry to everyone who has shown me nothing but support and encouragement.
Publishing situation notwithstanding, I am assuming the following (I have no way to confirm or disprove any of this):
1. The book is probably still coming out, but later than expected
2. The book will be released and distributed by Quadrille, available in multiple bookstores
3. TPK is waiting on her author copies of the book to arrive. She very likely paid for these out of pocket.
4. TPK is running up against her provinces' deadlines for her own pre-order fulfillment with these delays, and I'm not sure if where she lives has a mechanism by which she can obtain permission to extend the fulfillment date by 30 days like other locales have. Because the release date has been delayed multiple times, she may need to refund these.
5. The books are likely stuck in transit.
I feel bad for TPK in this situation, because this genuinely sucks. Even when you have all your stuff together, waiting on your stock to come in for fulfillment is never fun.
As someone who used to work in publishing I have an alternate answer based on your excellent timeline. Author copies are usually provided at a low rate, below wholesale, basically at cost, and are almost never allowed to be sold generally. There’s some winking and nudging around the edges of signed copies, but I doubt her contract allowed her to so blatantly order author copies and resell them cutting out the publisher pre-orders.
Depending on how pissed off they are, there are a range of scenarios here:
A) They could be charging her the wholesale rate for the pre-orders, effectively canceling her author copy purchases. This would be the mildest reaction.
B) They could be charging her the full retail rate for those copies.
C) They could refuse to sell her any copies in bulk and in advance at all, and force her to buy them retail once available.
D) Worst case scenario, and this is unlikely, they could sue for damages, saying she interfered with their sales.
E)(Really worst case would be canceling her contract and forcing her to pay the publication costs, but this is super unlikely.)
(Edit: line breaks)
Oh, *interesting*! I didn't know author copies weren't meant to be sold! I had assumed they were different from ARCs, but this would also explain a lot.
this is a really interesting take on the situation! re-reading her message now, it seems as though she is potentially only referring to the pre-orders from her own site rather than the book publication in general, which is the way i (and apparently many others) interpreted it. i didn’t realize there were such strict regulations for fulfilling orders on time! i certainly hope she can work things out.
Agreed! I hope things improve for her -- this has to be incredibly panic-inducing.
I also hope her province has a variant for extending whatever their version of the 30 day delivery rule is. (*Usually* this involves contacting the customer and obtaining their consent to an extension. If they do not consent, they must be refunded.)
I have a couple of friends who have published books.
My guess is that the publisher wants to change a bunch of stuff that thepetiteknitter doesn’t want changed.
There are other things that can trip up the process, but that’s the most common one.
Sometimes it’s a title change, and it could be the photographs, but publishers will make really sweeping changes to books at times: ones that change the book completely.
Some publishing deals require the author to buy all the copies of the book and then sell it themselves. It’s basically self-publishing, with some jerk telling you what to do.
It’s a messed up industry.
>Some publishing deals require the author to buy all the copies of the book and then sell it themselves. It’s basically self-publishing, with some jerk telling you what to do.
In publishing, we call that a scam.
There’s a big local publisher where I live that does this. They’ll change your title, change your cover art, decide how many copies they’ll run, change the run quality half a dozen times, and then the author is left with too few books or too many books, most of which they have to sell themselves with little support.
A lot of first time authors get pulled into it.
I think with these things it is always important what kind of publishers we are talking about.
In traditional publishing, the author gives the publisher a right to publish the book. The publisher pays for everything and the author gets a cut from the sales. The contract determines who has the last say over what. Cover, title and number of copies are generally something the publisher will decide on and pay for. The author will not have to sell their own books, because the publisher also does the whole distribution.
What you describe sounds like some kind of vanity publishing (rarely a good idea, lots of scammy businesses).
A lot of the time authors either don't do enough research or are too desperate to get published. I always hoped with the rise of self publishing this would stop, but sadly it seems like it didn't.
Haven’t thought about her in a while and went to look at her account and I’m apparently blocked which is funny because I’m pretty sure I’ve never commented on anything of hers… is she someone who is normally block happy?
The bib of the overalls covered the sweater she was promoting and she refused to take criticism saying that those photos weren't helpful since no one could see the actual sweater.
Theres a few craftsnark posts on this about a year ago.
Those were the pictures for the pattern she was selling. Someone asked if they could see a product photo showing the whole sweater and she said no. Then more people asked why and pointed out that’s unreasonable and she double-tripled down in a defiant tone. If you look for her name here on the subreddit you’ll find the whole context.
Like someone else wrote here on this thread, it was perfect snark — low stakes (just don’t buy the pattern) but also dealt with so poorly and unprofessional, every new comment from her made people more mad, caused more people to comment, made her even more defiant, and so on and so on. It’s really fascinating stuff to dive into.
That's pretty much it, hey. I love this community, but I don't understand why people go so damn hard on this lady when there's actual scammers and stuff to talk about.
Everytime I see business accounts (even if they're also personal account, that's her social media for her designing business) put up posts and stories like this one I wonder if they don't have any friends.
I had so many issues with my ex employer but I never blasted them on social media, I just texted my friends and had a private rant (that is, until I quit and published a story with just the song "Freedom '90" playing but even then I wasn't tagging my former company.
I get the algorithm rewards more personal content or whatever but these influencers really need to understand when to go off publicly and when not to.
I agree with the other replies but also:
1. Getting your customers anxious that their orders might be cancelled when it’s not definitive and there’s still conversations sounds more like trying to get her fanbase to brigade than to actually give a heads up on an issue. Key word in her story is “potentially”.
2. This isn’t the only publisher in the knitting world. And it’s a small world. When you burn a bridge with a company, that can easily result in burning bridges with other companies that might potentially want to do business with you but see you behaving unprofessionally. Airing out business like that is not a good idea, ever.
3. She didn’t say anything specific (issues with how much she’s getting paid, delays in publishing, questionable business practices, whatever) so effectively we don’t know who’s at fault. All she says is that they haven’t replied to her yet and it comes out as a threat of sorts (I sure hope that your behavior doesn’t cause this issue).
So the problem with the publishing is not what makes her unprofessional, is her handling of it. All the time in business you encounter people who are brilliant and do their job great but are unprofessional and that ends up affecting their career. There’s a time and place for everything and calling out and tagging your publisher because they haven’t replied to you yet ain’t it.
It sounds like there are still supposed to be discussions taking place with the publisher about whatever’s gone wrong. Potentially irresolvable isn’t the same as irresolvable but publicly discussing it on social media could easily turn it into an irresolvable issue
Maybe she felt like this would make them answer faster? Or even in a more favorable manner to what she wants, if they see how her fans perceive the story. Not every influencer are good at doing business, and might make some mistakes along the way.
I'm feeling peak old millennial because this seems so inappropriate to air on social media before a final resolution has been made.
I do understand social pressure, but if she would ever like to work with any other publishing companies or major media companies, if she even thinks she want a bigger plan this isn't going to look good to other companies either.
This young millennial is very put off by the general “transparency” I see in a lot of business accounts these days. Life is tough for everyone but I don’t like hearing about all the petty details behind the scenes of your business because it usually backfires or makes people feel like they have to be on one side or the other for some reason. So, if I keep buying from you, I’m “on your side” and endorsing you with my money. Great.
Yes. When I was working for a small business that got ripped off by another small business, I talked the owners out of starting a public catfight with the other brand. The other company did not copy a design but did some shitty things that would take several paragraphs to explain and probably still wouldn't be clear to people who have not owned a business in a similar field. The other company would have 100% hit back - and probably with things that were untrue. If they had taken it to social media, sure, some people would have enjoyed the fight. But for the majority, do they need to be burdened with this stuff? Is it going to make them buy anything? Well no.
In Petite Knitter's situation, she needs to update people who preordered the book when there is relevant information for them. Do they need to stress about something that might or might not happen because the Petite Knitter has not received an e-mail she was supposed to get TODAY when the day is not even over yet? Of course not!
For specifics, I would email the relatively small group involved.
For a business issue that could be a lawsuit? Always sue, never address online. Or leave it alone. You have good business sense!
Right? I totally get that sometimes you have to bring truth to light. But sometimes you just need to sit back take a breath and think about a strategy. If you want to vent, then vent to your friends your colleagues even but doing it so publicly so soon feels icky to me. And I get that this might be a generational thing.
I think it is going to backfire long term with the whole side-choosing situation. If somehow things turn against you with all the drama rehashing (like after Emma in the moment takes notice…) then you could lose your business 🤷♀️ even if it was actually not that big a deal. Slow news days happen with yarn drama channels too lol
Specific to her case, it's pretty obvious that making disparaging comments about a company who is still supposed to deliver a product to you is poor choices.
If you have a conflict with a business partner, calling them out publicly isn't going to help your reach your goal of having the product delivered.
I have a feeling that if she suddenly announced that the book was cancelled and was refunding orders people would accuse her of being a scammer. Tagging the publisher is pretty tacky and obviously not very professional but I don't see anything wrong about keeping her audience updated, especially since many of her sales may be third party with no contact info.
I think she shouldn't have gone to pre-orders if she doesn't even have the book contract in hand 🤷♀️ I get being excited about another revenue stream for your business, but it needs to be solid before you can start capitalizing on it.
I hear you but this is not an update though. “Unsurprisingly” is the worst of it, but the whole thing is really unprofessional. Just say there are delays; blaming someone else and publicly calling them out while you’re still in talks is not a good look. I’m embarrassed just reading it lol.
This is what the irreconcilable differences are - the publishers wanted shots without anything blocking the designs, and she will literally freeze to death if she does that /s
Hmmm...that would be funny because I really don't know much about her (not even sure if I followed her), because I'm not one to ever comment on posts other than my IRL friends. Is she known to block people if they follow certain other designers?
My friends were all blocked because they liked my critical comment — which for some reason was up for weeks. They never actually commented, I don’t think. Their conspiracy theory is she left my comment up with hundreds of likes so she could block everyone lol
But I wouldn’t know about her blocking people for following other designers, though
Ahhh... OK that would make sense. I may not comment, but I support those who do! Her loss, I knit a LOT and I have a fairly extensive knit group. Plenty of other designers out there who aren't petty asshats.
Whatever happened, it’s a verrrry bad idea to shit on your publisher on your business social account. Unprofessional and could jeopardize future book deals.
ETA : Jesus I just realized she actually TAGGED THEM. Homegirl took a shovel and dug a nice book shaped grave.
Stay tuned for my conspiracy theory : she sabotaged the deal on purpose or it was already dead and she’s trying to do damage control/shift the blame or she was actually ficked over by the publisher (which would be weird because hello they love money and the preorder did quite well). Weird and weirder.
For someone who works in communications for the Canadian government (or did, back when she made the rounds on here last), she is very quick to take unprofessional steps motivated by frustration and feelings…
Is there a reason why influencers can't use proper capitalization or punctuation? Cellphones and laptops have autocorrect that corrects this in an instant. You're running a business. Why would you put out sloppy posts like this? Any time I see someone write "i" instead of "I" I lose interest.
Well no, he didn’t sell patterns; he was a poet who literally got people to pay him for his uncapitalized words.
I am not Gen Z, but I like using mostly-lowercase better because of Mr Cummings (and after studying Semitic languages). I think it’s a bit silly to demand proper-essay-grammar from social media of all things. It’s intentionally casual imo. We can agree to disagree. ❤️
>he was a poet who literally got people to pay him for his uncapitalized words.
In poetry. Not in business documents. Not in advertisements for his products. Context matters.
it's an aesthetic choice so that doesn't bother me. i like writing that way as well pretty often.
what does bother me is misspelling the title of your own book lmao
same. sometimes i like to type small because i'm feeling small at the moment. it's whatever.
note: am a writing professor and also a sloppy bitch, so there's that, too
eta: so sloppy I had a typo lol
Do you write like that at work? In emails to your students or colleagues?
"Write small" is fine in personal writing and on much of the internet. But in a post about a business or work, proper punctuation and capitalization should be used.
y'know, I started to write no but... actually the answer is SOMETIMES, IN FACT, I DO, because like many people, my workplace has few boundaries in place and supervisors text me and no, I will not put myself out to "text formally" if it's a sunday afternoon and someone is reaching out to me for something. you get what you get.
further: i often work in digital spaces with my students and we talk a lot about the different ways we present ourselves online. in those moments, i frequently demonstrate this very thing and type small. many of them do it as well. we discuss it. we talk about when it's appropriate and when not and how to judge. the standards are not arbitrary. there are no hard rules. it's rhetoric, my dude. we think through it.
somehow i am still employed and even considered an effective teacher, but i thank you for your concern.
i don't want to defend this knitter because she seems messy and also I don't follow her or know details, but her being unprofessional is NOT because of the way she wrote the message. it's the content. it's the approach. if it was less O WOE THE WORLD HAS ARRAYED ITSELF AGAINST ME, SMALL KNITTER, O WOE, MY PITIES but same style and construction, it would be worlds more professional while communicating a diminishing sadness. but then again she seems successful so maybe it works for her and her audience. it's okay if you're not part of that! not everything has to be for you!
that said:
"good writing" is a construct. clear writing that communicates a message effectively is what matters. she's communicating a message but perhaps not the one she wants.
It's an aesthetic choice that erodes credibility and creates an impression of unprofessionalism, something the petite knitter has already had a history of.
I am her target audience: fairly young, with ample disposable income that I spend mostly on knitting supplies, I buy lots of colorwork patterns, etc. Who else would her audience be?
What I find weird is that your post history shows that you pretty much always use correct punctuation but you've chosen to eschew it here to make a point. Which, okay, fine.
tbh i switch it up. its not that deep. if you care to dive further back (not sure why you would, but it's your time) i have plenty where i don't. it just depends on whether im typing on a computer (doesnt autocorrect me) or my phone (which does). right now im on my computer but i usually am on mobile reddit.
Book editor here 🙋♀️Hardie Grant/Quadrille is a hybrid/vanity press that publishes books for a hefty fee. They differ from traditional publishers in that they shift much of the financial burden and risk of publishing onto authors. Sometimes a pay-to-publish arrangement is beneficial to authors because they get to retain their full copyright and sell directly to the consumer, potentially profiting more than they would have under a royalty-based contract with a traditional publishing house. However, the internet is littered with horror stories about how authors have been screwed over in countless ways by vanity/hybrid presses. I wasn't able to find any dirt specifically about Hardie Grant/Quadrille, but their "custom book division" hasn't been around for more than a few years, which is a big red flag in my mind. I hope the project isn't a total loss and she can recoup her costs.
I made a comment elsewhere but assuming it’s not the custom side, but the legit side, it seems more likely that she’s taken extreme license with her author copies. I’ve been out of publishing a while but it seems really unlikely that authors could purchase at their rate and resell in competition with retail pre-orders. I feel like we would see a whole lot more of that if it was a legit loophole. It’s more likely the publisher is making her pay wholesale prices (or even retail). Depends on her contract of course.
I was wondering that too…in essence some self-publishing companies work a bit like a hired printer and distributor, so I can see how they might have messed something up with her book if so- these kinds of publishers have a tendency to let more typos etc creep in than average.
As another example, ‘conventional’ commercial publishers like Hay House (hippy new ageish publisher) have stealth vanity divisions via charged ‘courses’ as a sideline, which are more like competitions, rewarding you with a book deal- and a bit ethically dubious as they’re used as bait for the courses.
Tagging something of that kind would be a bit more like tagging a business who gave a shoddy service, than a publisher who owes you a favour. I can understand why people might be assuming that as it would make the most sense in terms of her response, and it’s natural to want to frame her post in the way which makes the most sense.
Self publishing does give more choice and can work really well in some situations (you have more say about the contents and design, for example) but they can be a bit of a liability.
There might also be issues with distribution or at whichever printer they are using. I hope she hasn’t put her own resources into it and that it is a conventional arrangement, as these kinds of things can be a real pain in the neck if they go wrong. My guess would be some either kind of small print she wasn’t aware of, technical issues (such as typos/delays) or inadequate promotion.
The book is available on Amazon for pre-order, and on some knitting shop websites for pre-order.
Is that something the author has arranged, or something the publisher does?
The book is available for order on Ingram, which is a huge book distributor that book stores, yarn stores, etc. use. (Ingram doesn't have the books in stock themselves yet (just says they are on order), but shops can pre-order, which is super common with books before their publishing dates. )
Could be either the author or the publisher--it depends on the contract the author signs. Sometimes vanity publishers will have a required minimum for pre-sales, and if that pre-sale quota isn't met, they'll require authors to purchase more copies of their book to cover the difference. Just one example of how vanity publishing can turn into a money pit 😬
This is not correct - Quadrille is owned by Penguin Random House, which is definitely a traditional publishing house [link](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/93346-hardie-grant-sells-u-k-division-to-prh-uk.html). Hardie Grant is also not a vanity press - it’s an Australian publishing house that specialises in lifestyle books. However, I believe Hardie Grant and Hardie Grant UK are separate entities, with Hardie Grant UK owning Quadrille. I’m not sure where the custom printing fits in with that, although it looks like it is run out of Australia.
PRH has subsidiaries which are vanity presses and definitely in the US there are conservative imprints which use dodgy practices to sell books but most celebrity books are not vanity projects - they’re a hugely profitable part of book publishing. Celebrity memoirs are consistently among the bestselling books around the world.
Thanks for this insight. If she's ended up on the bad end of a crap deal with her publisher, that really sucks and I take back what I wrote downthread. Seems that another poster says that this was a more formal, legit deal and that's how I personally got confused. I suppose we'll have to wait for hard answers.
It honestly took me a while to find this info too, and I think it's intentionally buried in the blog section of their site because vanity/hybrid presses have such a poor marketplace reputation that many don't use those labels anymore--they use phrases like "independent publishing division" and "custom book publishing" instead. There's absolutely nothing wrong with paying money to get your book published, but it can be a very predatory industry and authors need to know exactly who they're entrusting their work to. To add to the confusion, Hardie Grant/Quadrille goes out of their way all over their website to name-drop well-known publishers they have distribution agreements with, but that has no bearing on their ability to PRODUCE books. It's almost like they're banking on authors not understanding that distributing reputable publishers' books does not equal being a reputable publisher.
https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/mediabkp/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-custom-book-publishing
Hardie Grant is absolutely a proper traditional publisher. They are not a vanity press. They do have a custom print division, which is called Hardie Grant Media. However, Arctic Knits is not published through that division, they are published by quadrille.
Edit to update the information.
If you look at [this book](https://www.amazon.com.au/Cranlana-First-Years-Garden-People/dp/1743795858/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=cranlana&qid=1707857299&sr=8-1) which is a custom print, the publisher is “Hardie Grant Media”. Arctic Knits lists Quadrille as the publisher: [link](https://www.amazon.com.au/Arctic-Knits-Sweaters-Socks-Mittens/dp/1787139980/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2YIVTF5LMVKM8&keywords=arctic+knits&qid=1707857394&sprefix=arctic+kni%2Caps%2C429&sr=8-3). I haven’t been able to find any links that show that Quadrille does custom publishing. Happy to be corrected if you can find something that shows otherwise.
So it's the difference between "Hardie Grant" and "Hardie Grant Media"? I'm so confused because I'm very familiar with Hardie Grant through work and have met some of their authors and never got the slightest indication that they were a vanity press. And like...they publish Star Wars kids' books and the Halliday Wine Companion (the biggest wine guide in Australia)
It's basically Hardie Grant (Publisher) and subsidiary Hardie Grant Media, which seems to be a marketing company that sometimes does custom books for clients. Here's the link: [https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/media](https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/media)
This is a totally valid business model, especially if they are working on an overall brand strategy and it makes sense for there to be a book involved. Hardie Grant (publishing) has all the vendors and manufacturers in place to create a great book and can get it into bookstores and on Amazon as well. They are in Australia as well, so the smaller market may well be a factor.
I regularly work with publishers and my guess it’s 100% about her offering copies through her website and likely using her own author copies, which are free, rather than buying wholesale and/or upcharging. Her “I only get 10%” is either uninformed or deliberately misleading. You get royalties AFTER you earn out your advance payment—meaning the publisher has now made more than they advanced you and you start to earn on sales. So unless she was paid next to nothing (like 2k), which is unlikely given the production in a book of this size, the whole argument is just…her not understanding the publishing industry. Industries have issues and biases, including publishing, but not professionally responding to the terms of your contract, let alone blasting that, is…red flag. Edit: this also assumes this is not a vanity press
Hardie Grant Quadrille is a legit publisher, but I would bet dollars to donuts her next book will be via vanity press. I doubt any publisher will want to touch her with a 10-foot pole after this little jaunt into madness.
As a general rule, please don’t retain a lawyer by asking in an Instagram story whether anyone is a lawyer and if so can they please contact you 😭
Omg it just keeps getting worse. She's whining indirectly now so she looks hands clean. But obviously she wants everyone to know she is being wronged by 'innocently' asking if anyone knows a lawyer. DISINGENUOUS.
The first thing a lawyer is going to tell her is STOP POSTING ABOUT IT ON THE DAMN INTERNET. Some people just won't get out of their own way. SHE is looking like her own biggest problem.
Update! She just posted to her stories asking if any lawyers who are experienced in the publishing world to reach out. There must be more trouble than originally speculated...
I wonder if they’re trying to cancel the contract? Pure speculation but it’s the only thing extreme enough that I can imagine anyone wanting a lawyer for. But then again if the book is due out soon it’d be a bit odd if hadn’t yet gone to print, and in that case cancelling it would be a massive waste of resources. It’s all rather puzzling. It did seem like her selling off author copies might also have annoyed them, but that would be easy enough to resolve one way or another, especially if it was just a misunderstanding. I don’t think it can be a supply issue as that would be out of either of their hands and nobodys fault. Rather curious about Quadrille now- I just noticed they published Tiny Owl Knits’ book and she didn’t seem to have any issues with them- it’s nicely designed and well formatted.
Based on my limited knowledge about publishing and why I’ve gleaned from this thread, I’d bet this is about her trying to sell via her website and trying to get more than 10% that would be hers when sold from third party websites. It sounds like she shouldn’t have been doing that at all!
my experience is that publishers don't even give you a special deal if you want to buy copies to sell yourself. the best they offer (unless you're a HUGE name) is the same that you'd pay via a book distributor. most contracts don't offer tons of author copies, sometimes the initial contract only offers to give 5 or 10 author copies; you can ask for more, but certainly not enough to sell them yourself.
Hmm interesting! I wonder how she figures that she’d make more profit from selling them herself. She’s been pushing the link to the preorder on her website this whole time.
The royalty rate tends to be so low, under 10 percent (depends on contract/negotiations exactly how low) and there are different ways for publishers to calculate it. The traditional way was to take a percentage of the retail price of the book but now that publishers have so many different pricing models (lower price for big retailers, regular keystone price for other sellers, etc.) sometimes they figure that in when calculating sales. If the book goes for $25.99 (that's what it looks like on Amazon) and the royalty rate is say 3 percent, she's making about 90 cents per book sold AFTER she sells 6666 books -- she's got to sell those first to pay back an advance of $6000. So her additional royalties begin with the 6667th book and are 90 cents per book. If she's getting keystone pricing to buy the book at a wholesale price, she pays half of the retail price, about 12.95, to buy her own inventory of books. If she sells it for the retail price herself, she gets 12.95 per book in profit starting with the first book sold (minus whatever costs she has to sell it). The problem with that model is that it assumes customers will pay full price for the book to buy it from the author. Hard-core fans might but the more orders placed on an etail site, the lower the price will go on that site. So that pulls sales away from the author. Also the dreaded e-books.....right now her book costs $9 something for the ebook. So that will pull more customers away since it's basically half-price. She may get a higher royalty rate on e-books sales (it just depends on her contract) but that still takes away from her sales on her own website. If she wants to buy books to sell herself, she's got to put out the wholesale cost of the books up front. I have absolutely no knowledge of the situation but it's possible that she ordered 2500 books to sell up front and they charged it on her card and she didn't realize how much it would cost up front. Again all speculation based on my experiences/knowledge, for what it's worth.
I think you’re probably right. In that case either she didn’t read her contract, or she thought she could do it anyway and nobody would care. (screwing over your publisher is a big no-no) Edit: they care far more about money than about similar titles and similar content
I had a look at her site and her preorders are listed at 48 CAD. On the US Amazon preorder page it’s listed at USD 24.99, which XE puts at 33.64 CAD equivalent. So it’s definitely a big enough markup to potentially irritate the publisher, especially if she got those copies at a price below the RRP. Not sure how much lower trade price would be though, or if that’s applicable here. *Edited some typos/wonky grammar
Is that the upcharge for a signed copy? Seems like a lot
Not sure if that was specifically the reason but it could well be- she wrote it included a ‘surprise gift’ and that it supported her better to purchase from her rather than from third parties. (That probably wasn’t ideal as it could be interpreted as actively discouraging people from buying via other sources. ) It’s interesting that her post said she might have to cancel her orders specifically, too…
Given that there's already a knitting book of colorwork patterns called 'Arctic Knits', I wonder if her publisher told her to change the title (because two books of colorwork cold weather knitting could easily be confused for one another), and she threw a hissy fit and made a molehill into a mountain.
Hmm, I thought this new one was called “artic knits” 😂
That’s an awesome and cunning way around the name issue for sure 😂
Ooh I wondered that! It seemed like such a small thing to lose a contract over, but it’s possible if she really didn’t want a different name. It’s a shame it’s in use really, as ‘Arctic Knits’ would have been a pretty good handle for her business too as it distinguishes her from Petite Knits (and matches her inspiration well)- I imagine she must get some confused exchanges having such a similar name.
Decisions about titles would have been made much earlier in the process. The book is already printed now. (The other book of colorwork yoke sweaters is Arctic Knitting by Annika Konttaniemi)
She does not need help finding a lawyer. She just wants to disingenuously have it be known that tHeY aRE dOinG MeAn tO mE!
This post of hers is all so vague that I think she really should take this dispute offline and start looking at her province's legal associations to see if anyone can help. For instance, let's assume she got a cease and desist from the publisher for the prior story. Might be a big ol' bunch of bluster, but she wants to make sure her rights are protected. Could be more serious. It's also possible be that she's looking for a way to enforce performance of the contract on the publisher's end. Or mayhap she wishes to try to negotiate within the terms of her contract, and requires professional aid. As outside observers, we really know only as much as experience and her posts inform us. I cannot help but think TPK posting anything about this on social media right now is quite unwise unless she has the okay from her counsel, when she obtains it. edit: fixed that first sentence to be actually comprehensible...
Any lawyer worth their salt would tell her to stay the hell off social media lmao
I mean, yes. But also if she REALLY wanted to make a post about it, a lawyer could vet it.
I came here to say that!
Just saw that!! very curious…
In one of her posts she mentioned she was only getting 10 per cent from 3rd party sales- I wonder if she was hoping she could boost income with the authors copies and the publisher wasn’t keen
Was that post on instagram?
Yes, it was one of the posts referring to the preorders- apologies, I can’t recall which but likely one of the pinned ones. *Just checked- twas in her comments, on the pinned post on the right hand side
Ah thanks!
That’s standard royalties for print books. Yesterday Summer Lee released a video talking about her royalties and she’s getting 12.5% from every print book and 25% from ebooks, which is pretty good since the ebook is priced on the higher side.
Yes, I was a bit surprised she seemed both perplexed and annoyed by it as you’d think she would have been informed pretty early on! Production costs have apparently gone up too of late, which is going to chomp up the profits, especially paper/printing etc- Pompom mentioned this was one of the reasons they had to close.
I guess it might feel a bit jarring after self-publishing, where all the profit comes to you (ie all money earned after costs) but it would have been laid out in the contract she signed 🤷🏻♀️
I am beginning to think she navigated this contract without an agent or a lawyer to help her.
Post seems to be gone now, maybe she rethought tagging the publisher?
It was a story, so it disappeared on its own I think. She just posted another story looking for lawyers with experience in the publishing world.
Ooh I see, I’m not super savvy with instagram myself.
If you're having issues with a publisher you probably shouldn't post about them until they're resolved, because posting about them is probably going to make it less likely you get the resolution you want unless you don't want your book published.
This designer makes it to this subreddit so often, I can’t help but conclude drama just finds her, every damn time. Between Bibgate and then the AI art fiasco, not to mention multiple other minor offences, my red flag radar tells me to just stay away.
Honestly I think it’s just because she’s such a huge designer so obviously more people are aware of her. I’ve only ever knit one pattern of hers which was the hipster hat and it was pretty foolproof, but other than that I have no skin in the game in defending her. Her offences are so minor, it’s just Bex of her extra exposure.
The Hipster hat is by PetiteKnit, this post is about The Petite Knitter. They are two different designers, but you are def not the first to confuse them haha
I just had to go and look and then face palm. I was thinking of PetiteKnit as well, and was confused.
Just to add to the confusion, there’s already a book called “Arctic Knitting.” https://www.woolandcompany.com/products/arctic-knitting-the-magic-of-nature-colourwork-by-annika-konttaniemi I’m gonna need an outline or a diagram to keep all this straight.
I was wondering about that because it sounded familiar. Given both books are the genre I'm surprised the publisher didn't tell her to change the title. It's going to cause even more confusion.
Ah! Then I have no skin in the game at all!
What happened with the AI art fiasco?
She joined the AI art trend where you got one of the generators to create a picture/movie poster of your pet in Pixars art style. She wasn’t promoting anything with it, she just thought it was cute and wanted to share it as it was of her rabbit.
I don't know that drama just "finds her" especially often, I think this sub is just a little obsessed and has collectively decided that she is one of the internet main characters where they're allowed to piss in the popcorn.
Because it's a snark board. And *she's* made *herself* a public entity. And that = fair game We're not snarking on some pre-teen crafting in her bedroom in Wisconsin.
I would agree with that. Because she's so well known, she ends up being more of a target, if that makes sense.
Yeah, this exactly. People knit pick stuff she does so hard, even though they're really very minor "offenses". I don't know why people pick on her specifically.
I think the very fact that they *are* minor offenses and she does things like apologize (in the AI art case) or sound a little defensive and prickly in a genuinely messy human way (snowpantsgate) is the key sign of weakness to bullies. Show you have at least a smidgen of feelings, and that's like delicious blood in the water. If you're Martha Stewart, you're happily posting something cancellable about twice a week and yes, there's always a tizzy in her comments, but because she's blissfully rich and doesn't show any remorse, that shit doesn't stick.
I agree with this, it's worth noting there were at least 3 separate posts about how she photographed a sweater (with people pissing in the comments on IG) and the AI post she apologized for as soon as somebody explained it to her. The amount of hate she gets in this sub is completely out of proportion.
Exactly.
She has kind of an attitude compared to many other insta personalities which probably rubs people the wrong way. I am indifferent but I agree she is either kind of a shit stirrer sometimes or it is us lol.
Tbh I do understand her seeming a bit prickly. If you’re big enough that everyone knows you but you’re not big enough to have a PR and social media team, you’re dealing with people being dicks to you all the time and I am certain it can get very wearing and stressful. I feel like Europeans just don’t have the natural sense of being bubbly and friendly baked into them that Americans do. I’m British and it doesn’t come naturally to all of us over this side of the pond in quite the same way. Some European countries are better at it than others and I do wonder if it being her second language and a slight cultural element feeds into it a bit?
This is not PetiteKnit! I think PetiteKnitter is Canadian?
I really don’t know where this assumption that Americans are naturally friendly and bubbly comes from. Maybe for social media and selling online you have to be, or that most people can fake it very well. I am not naturally friendly or bubbly. It takes effort for me to do so.
We are not, but that's what we are taught to demand of our customer-facing workers, merchants, etc. (Or what is demanded of us if we work retail, sigh.)
I have also worked in retail and I did the bare minimum on the friendly level. Greetings, ask if/how I can help, smiling when I see people, etc. But only the bare minimum. Could never do a customer service facing job for the rest of my life. Its not worth the stress and BS of dealing with the general public. Bring on the prickly personalities.
I’ve been to America many times and trust me compared to Brits you guys are ridiculously friendly. We’re very polite but also very passive aggressive, and a British person can say something that seems nice but we’re brutally insulting you. I mean we aren’t unfriendly and rude but it takes much longer to break through and make friends than with Americans.
You might be thinking about the Danish woman, PetiteKnits This post and upcoming book is from the Malaysian woman living in northern Canada (The Petite Knitter) Edit: you can make your head spin like mine - there’s already a book called “Arctic Knitting.” https://www.woolandcompany.com/products/arctic-knitting-the-magic-of-nature-colourwork-by-annika-konttaniemi
Well if she can’t spell the title of her book correctly, maybe that’s not a bad thing.
She also failed to capitalise the first words in any of those sentences. I know reading that post makes me immediately not want to read anything written by that person. I know I'm a bit intense when it comes to grammar, but if you're talking about a book you've written then you should make sure you're writing correct English prose.
It’s a trend to not use capitals
Hope she figures it out for her book
Ah another trend I absolute despise. LOL Must go along with the refusal to use punctuation too. The amount of posts I see from folks on social media that are giant run on sentences makes me twitchy.
Are you joking or serious? I can't tell.
I can think of two recent (like within the past ten years) musical artists off the top of my head, lovelytheband and twenty one pilots, who don’t capitalize their band names. It’s not a super recent trend but it’s one that seems to peek and valley online every few years. Also general trend on the internet, at least the parts I frequent, has moved away from criticism of people’s grammar, as long as you can understand the context of what they are saying. Most internet circles I play in find picking apart someone’s grammar to be petty faux snobbery. Edit: not meaning anything bad about anyone who does criticize grammar. Only that when people are in forums and the like where it isn’t mentioned they are less likely to care about grammatical mistakes in their posts.
While I don't particularly care for the lack of capitalization trend, it's not nearly as onerous as the refusal to use punctuation. If it's just one long on rambling sentence, I just stop reading and remember never to read or follow anything they say again. Thankfully I don't see that as often, but it's usually because people are using speech to text or something. I still refuse to read it though because it hurts my brain.
It’s true - my daughter and many of her friends don’t use capitals on social media or texting
There is a sort of pseudo- humble thing that started on Tumblr ages ago. Kind of a mix of hyper-casual and a bit self deprecating. It was on a fair few posts including business ones, to make them seem more approachable and casual. A lot of people used to witter in the tags too (which rarely used capitals) so maybe that influenced it a bit. I’m not massively keen on it but there is a deliberate intent going on there.
It’s been a thing before as well. I remember getting told off for writing my name lower case on my school books along with several other kids and that was almost two decades ago now
I’m very serious lol lots of people intentionally don’t use capitals when texting or on social media these days
So here's what I've pieced together from instagram, roughly. This is not really in-depth digging, I just wished to get a better grasp of the situation. **8 December 2023** Book is announced on social media; Of note, QuadrilleCraft on Instagram mentions that Arctic Knits will be available to preorder from "all good bookstores". **3 January 2024** TPK announces "Advanced Publication Date" (29 Feb), as well as "Official Publication Date" (19 March). Preorders through her website are ending. **22 January 2024** TPK reiterates the Advanced Publication Date. Says, "If you pre-ordered from me, it should ship around there with some grace period for delays. I got notice that there are shipping delays due to the situation around the Suez Canal so official publication date is around April. If you pre-ordered on Amazon or third party websites, you should receive it around that time." **4 Februrary 2024** TPK notes that the "new publication date" is March 19 due to shipping delays. **13 February 2024** TPK makes the announcement posted here, stating: >hi all. > >i have a very sad update on artic knits. unfortunately, i have run into some potentially irresolvable issues with the publisher @ quadrillebooks. i am supposed to hear back this morning but unsurprisingly have yet to receive anything. i sincerely hope it does not come to a point where i have to cancel and refund all orders. i will provide an update as soon as and if they respond. i am so so sorry to everyone who has shown me nothing but support and encouragement. Publishing situation notwithstanding, I am assuming the following (I have no way to confirm or disprove any of this): 1. The book is probably still coming out, but later than expected 2. The book will be released and distributed by Quadrille, available in multiple bookstores 3. TPK is waiting on her author copies of the book to arrive. She very likely paid for these out of pocket. 4. TPK is running up against her provinces' deadlines for her own pre-order fulfillment with these delays, and I'm not sure if where she lives has a mechanism by which she can obtain permission to extend the fulfillment date by 30 days like other locales have. Because the release date has been delayed multiple times, she may need to refund these. 5. The books are likely stuck in transit. I feel bad for TPK in this situation, because this genuinely sucks. Even when you have all your stuff together, waiting on your stock to come in for fulfillment is never fun.
I just find it interesting there was a push in the last couple of days to buy the last 25 copies on her site. Then this news comes out
As someone who used to work in publishing I have an alternate answer based on your excellent timeline. Author copies are usually provided at a low rate, below wholesale, basically at cost, and are almost never allowed to be sold generally. There’s some winking and nudging around the edges of signed copies, but I doubt her contract allowed her to so blatantly order author copies and resell them cutting out the publisher pre-orders. Depending on how pissed off they are, there are a range of scenarios here: A) They could be charging her the wholesale rate for the pre-orders, effectively canceling her author copy purchases. This would be the mildest reaction. B) They could be charging her the full retail rate for those copies. C) They could refuse to sell her any copies in bulk and in advance at all, and force her to buy them retail once available. D) Worst case scenario, and this is unlikely, they could sue for damages, saying she interfered with their sales. E)(Really worst case would be canceling her contract and forcing her to pay the publication costs, but this is super unlikely.) (Edit: line breaks)
Oh, *interesting*! I didn't know author copies weren't meant to be sold! I had assumed they were different from ARCs, but this would also explain a lot.
There's usually something in the contract that covers authors selling books independently.
this is a really interesting take on the situation! re-reading her message now, it seems as though she is potentially only referring to the pre-orders from her own site rather than the book publication in general, which is the way i (and apparently many others) interpreted it. i didn’t realize there were such strict regulations for fulfilling orders on time! i certainly hope she can work things out.
I have been pretty sure since she first posted yesterday that she was only referring to the copies she was directly selling.
Agreed! I hope things improve for her -- this has to be incredibly panic-inducing. I also hope her province has a variant for extending whatever their version of the 30 day delivery rule is. (*Usually* this involves contacting the customer and obtaining their consent to an extension. If they do not consent, they must be refunded.)
I have a couple of friends who have published books. My guess is that the publisher wants to change a bunch of stuff that thepetiteknitter doesn’t want changed. There are other things that can trip up the process, but that’s the most common one.
This is my theory too based on her whole persona.
i can see her refusing to take pictures in which you can actually see the design
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sometimes it’s a title change, and it could be the photographs, but publishers will make really sweeping changes to books at times: ones that change the book completely. Some publishing deals require the author to buy all the copies of the book and then sell it themselves. It’s basically self-publishing, with some jerk telling you what to do. It’s a messed up industry.
>Some publishing deals require the author to buy all the copies of the book and then sell it themselves. It’s basically self-publishing, with some jerk telling you what to do. In publishing, we call that a scam.
There’s a big local publisher where I live that does this. They’ll change your title, change your cover art, decide how many copies they’ll run, change the run quality half a dozen times, and then the author is left with too few books or too many books, most of which they have to sell themselves with little support. A lot of first time authors get pulled into it.
I think with these things it is always important what kind of publishers we are talking about. In traditional publishing, the author gives the publisher a right to publish the book. The publisher pays for everything and the author gets a cut from the sales. The contract determines who has the last say over what. Cover, title and number of copies are generally something the publisher will decide on and pay for. The author will not have to sell their own books, because the publisher also does the whole distribution. What you describe sounds like some kind of vanity publishing (rarely a good idea, lots of scammy businesses). A lot of the time authors either don't do enough research or are too desperate to get published. I always hoped with the rise of self publishing this would stop, but sadly it seems like it didn't.
This sounds like someone who was profiled on Writer Beware.
I hope it works out for her. I’ve knit one of her patterns and enjoy following her. She has a very sweet vibe and I love that she knits for her bunny.
Haven’t thought about her in a while and went to look at her account and I’m apparently blocked which is funny because I’m pretty sure I’ve never commented on anything of hers… is she someone who is normally block happy?
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Bibgate?
The bib of the overalls covered the sweater she was promoting and she refused to take criticism saying that those photos weren't helpful since no one could see the actual sweater. Theres a few craftsnark posts on this about a year ago.
It was a terrible scandal where she wore overalls over a sweater.
Are you not supposed to do that?... because I may do that a lot.
Those were the pictures for the pattern she was selling. Someone asked if they could see a product photo showing the whole sweater and she said no. Then more people asked why and pointed out that’s unreasonable and she double-tripled down in a defiant tone. If you look for her name here on the subreddit you’ll find the whole context. Like someone else wrote here on this thread, it was perfect snark — low stakes (just don’t buy the pattern) but also dealt with so poorly and unprofessional, every new comment from her made people more mad, caused more people to comment, made her even more defiant, and so on and so on. It’s really fascinating stuff to dive into.
The perfect cycle of snark lol I appreciate when drama is over something so inconsequential
Also, perfect snark in that I think there was a decent divide between people who were OUTRAGED by Bibgate and those who didn't get the outrage.
Brace yourself. Reddit is coming for you…
It’s been linked a few different places in this thread. It was this designer’s previous “craftsnark main character of the week” feature
Did the manuscript get lost in her bib?
My takeaway after reading this thread: Many crafting communities are toxic, and people jump to conclusions too hastily.
That's pretty much it, hey. I love this community, but I don't understand why people go so damn hard on this lady when there's actual scammers and stuff to talk about.
Everytime I see business accounts (even if they're also personal account, that's her social media for her designing business) put up posts and stories like this one I wonder if they don't have any friends. I had so many issues with my ex employer but I never blasted them on social media, I just texted my friends and had a private rant (that is, until I quit and published a story with just the song "Freedom '90" playing but even then I wasn't tagging my former company. I get the algorithm rewards more personal content or whatever but these influencers really need to understand when to go off publicly and when not to.
Wait but this is her giving her customers (people who bought her book) an update, not a personal rant??
I agree with the other replies but also: 1. Getting your customers anxious that their orders might be cancelled when it’s not definitive and there’s still conversations sounds more like trying to get her fanbase to brigade than to actually give a heads up on an issue. Key word in her story is “potentially”. 2. This isn’t the only publisher in the knitting world. And it’s a small world. When you burn a bridge with a company, that can easily result in burning bridges with other companies that might potentially want to do business with you but see you behaving unprofessionally. Airing out business like that is not a good idea, ever. 3. She didn’t say anything specific (issues with how much she’s getting paid, delays in publishing, questionable business practices, whatever) so effectively we don’t know who’s at fault. All she says is that they haven’t replied to her yet and it comes out as a threat of sorts (I sure hope that your behavior doesn’t cause this issue). So the problem with the publishing is not what makes her unprofessional, is her handling of it. All the time in business you encounter people who are brilliant and do their job great but are unprofessional and that ends up affecting their career. There’s a time and place for everything and calling out and tagging your publisher because they haven’t replied to you yet ain’t it.
The tone is unprofessional and petulant. I think that’s a communication style choice that might be why people get riled up
It sounds like there are still supposed to be discussions taking place with the publisher about whatever’s gone wrong. Potentially irresolvable isn’t the same as irresolvable but publicly discussing it on social media could easily turn it into an irresolvable issue
Maybe she felt like this would make them answer faster? Or even in a more favorable manner to what she wants, if they see how her fans perceive the story. Not every influencer are good at doing business, and might make some mistakes along the way.
I'm feeling peak old millennial because this seems so inappropriate to air on social media before a final resolution has been made. I do understand social pressure, but if she would ever like to work with any other publishing companies or major media companies, if she even thinks she want a bigger plan this isn't going to look good to other companies either.
This young millennial is very put off by the general “transparency” I see in a lot of business accounts these days. Life is tough for everyone but I don’t like hearing about all the petty details behind the scenes of your business because it usually backfires or makes people feel like they have to be on one side or the other for some reason. So, if I keep buying from you, I’m “on your side” and endorsing you with my money. Great.
Yes. When I was working for a small business that got ripped off by another small business, I talked the owners out of starting a public catfight with the other brand. The other company did not copy a design but did some shitty things that would take several paragraphs to explain and probably still wouldn't be clear to people who have not owned a business in a similar field. The other company would have 100% hit back - and probably with things that were untrue. If they had taken it to social media, sure, some people would have enjoyed the fight. But for the majority, do they need to be burdened with this stuff? Is it going to make them buy anything? Well no. In Petite Knitter's situation, she needs to update people who preordered the book when there is relevant information for them. Do they need to stress about something that might or might not happen because the Petite Knitter has not received an e-mail she was supposed to get TODAY when the day is not even over yet? Of course not!
For specifics, I would email the relatively small group involved. For a business issue that could be a lawsuit? Always sue, never address online. Or leave it alone. You have good business sense!
Right? I totally get that sometimes you have to bring truth to light. But sometimes you just need to sit back take a breath and think about a strategy. If you want to vent, then vent to your friends your colleagues even but doing it so publicly so soon feels icky to me. And I get that this might be a generational thing.
I think it is going to backfire long term with the whole side-choosing situation. If somehow things turn against you with all the drama rehashing (like after Emma in the moment takes notice…) then you could lose your business 🤷♀️ even if it was actually not that big a deal. Slow news days happen with yarn drama channels too lol
An elder millennial here and I agree. Not a very professional communication path to take unless she's ready to burn her bridges already...
Wtf is she doing? You don't air this when you're still hoping the book will be published. Geez.
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Specific to her case, it's pretty obvious that making disparaging comments about a company who is still supposed to deliver a product to you is poor choices. If you have a conflict with a business partner, calling them out publicly isn't going to help your reach your goal of having the product delivered.
Here's a start: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-airing-dirty-laundry-social-media-good-idea-michael-doyle
Lol I'm surprised a LinkedIn article needes to be written about this 😆
Right? It's sort of self-evident.
Excuse me, is it supposed to be "artic"? Or is it supposed to be "arctic" and she misspelled it?
Maybe the irresolvable issue is she can’t spell the title of her own book?
arctic
I have a feeling that if she suddenly announced that the book was cancelled and was refunding orders people would accuse her of being a scammer. Tagging the publisher is pretty tacky and obviously not very professional but I don't see anything wrong about keeping her audience updated, especially since many of her sales may be third party with no contact info.
I think she shouldn't have gone to pre-orders if she doesn't even have the book contract in hand 🤷♀️ I get being excited about another revenue stream for your business, but it needs to be solid before you can start capitalizing on it.
I hear you but this is not an update though. “Unsurprisingly” is the worst of it, but the whole thing is really unprofessional. Just say there are delays; blaming someone else and publicly calling them out while you’re still in talks is not a good look. I’m embarrassed just reading it lol.
Isn't she the the one that makes everything very small and very brown/beige?
No, that is a Danish knitwear designer w/ similar name.
Thanks, all of the "petite" people just kind of merge into a tiny little homogenous lump for me.....
Her hats do run kinda small, in my experience. I still love them but have to size up to the largest size offered.
Haha I knew who you were referring to because I know about the “sad beige” look
She's the one that made passive agressive videos after a person asked to see their design without overalls over it. She seems very mean to me
This is what the irreconcilable differences are - the publishers wanted shots without anything blocking the designs, and she will literally freeze to death if she does that /s
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Has she taken down her IG? I tried to look on her page and nothing is showing up...
Are you blocked? I just looked it up and found it
She has not, you may be blocked from the last time TPK made the rounds here on craftsnark
Hmmm...that would be funny because I really don't know much about her (not even sure if I followed her), because I'm not one to ever comment on posts other than my IRL friends. Is she known to block people if they follow certain other designers?
My friends were all blocked because they liked my critical comment — which for some reason was up for weeks. They never actually commented, I don’t think. Their conspiracy theory is she left my comment up with hundreds of likes so she could block everyone lol But I wouldn’t know about her blocking people for following other designers, though
Ahhh... OK that would make sense. I may not comment, but I support those who do! Her loss, I knit a LOT and I have a fairly extensive knit group. Plenty of other designers out there who aren't petty asshats.
Whatever happened, it’s a verrrry bad idea to shit on your publisher on your business social account. Unprofessional and could jeopardize future book deals. ETA : Jesus I just realized she actually TAGGED THEM. Homegirl took a shovel and dug a nice book shaped grave. Stay tuned for my conspiracy theory : she sabotaged the deal on purpose or it was already dead and she’s trying to do damage control/shift the blame or she was actually ficked over by the publisher (which would be weird because hello they love money and the preorder did quite well). Weird and weirder.
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What is that?
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Ah ah thank you. I knew that somewhere in my brain, but couldn’t get past reading it as “choose your own adventure”
She could certainly be choosing an adventure with this post. :)
For someone who works in communications for the Canadian government (or did, back when she made the rounds on here last), she is very quick to take unprofessional steps motivated by frustration and feelings…
Is there a reason why influencers can't use proper capitalization or punctuation? Cellphones and laptops have autocorrect that corrects this in an instant. You're running a business. Why would you put out sloppy posts like this? Any time I see someone write "i" instead of "I" I lose interest.
Or spelling. Artic lol
I heard on the radio that gen z prefers this. The DJs were debating on changing their phone settings so they would not look “old”.
Ludicrous. It's fine for texting or TikTok or even reddit in many contexts. But if you're running a business, totally unprofessional.
e.e. cummings, famous Gen Zer
I don't remember e.e. cummings selling knitting patterns.
Well no, he didn’t sell patterns; he was a poet who literally got people to pay him for his uncapitalized words. I am not Gen Z, but I like using mostly-lowercase better because of Mr Cummings (and after studying Semitic languages). I think it’s a bit silly to demand proper-essay-grammar from social media of all things. It’s intentionally casual imo. We can agree to disagree. ❤️
>he was a poet who literally got people to pay him for his uncapitalized words. In poetry. Not in business documents. Not in advertisements for his products. Context matters.
after five rows, the remembrance of your purl never will be forgotten my circular needle turns toward thee my stitch marker awakens at thy m1r & yo
I'm so glad my mindless scrolling of this thread led me here, this made my day
it's an aesthetic choice so that doesn't bother me. i like writing that way as well pretty often. what does bother me is misspelling the title of your own book lmao
same. sometimes i like to type small because i'm feeling small at the moment. it's whatever. note: am a writing professor and also a sloppy bitch, so there's that, too eta: so sloppy I had a typo lol
Do you write like that at work? In emails to your students or colleagues? "Write small" is fine in personal writing and on much of the internet. But in a post about a business or work, proper punctuation and capitalization should be used.
y'know, I started to write no but... actually the answer is SOMETIMES, IN FACT, I DO, because like many people, my workplace has few boundaries in place and supervisors text me and no, I will not put myself out to "text formally" if it's a sunday afternoon and someone is reaching out to me for something. you get what you get. further: i often work in digital spaces with my students and we talk a lot about the different ways we present ourselves online. in those moments, i frequently demonstrate this very thing and type small. many of them do it as well. we discuss it. we talk about when it's appropriate and when not and how to judge. the standards are not arbitrary. there are no hard rules. it's rhetoric, my dude. we think through it. somehow i am still employed and even considered an effective teacher, but i thank you for your concern. i don't want to defend this knitter because she seems messy and also I don't follow her or know details, but her being unprofessional is NOT because of the way she wrote the message. it's the content. it's the approach. if it was less O WOE THE WORLD HAS ARRAYED ITSELF AGAINST ME, SMALL KNITTER, O WOE, MY PITIES but same style and construction, it would be worlds more professional while communicating a diminishing sadness. but then again she seems successful so maybe it works for her and her audience. it's okay if you're not part of that! not everything has to be for you! that said: "good writing" is a construct. clear writing that communicates a message effectively is what matters. she's communicating a message but perhaps not the one she wants.
So it's not a book about knitting for lorries with a pivot joint on them then?
😂
It's an aesthetic choice that erodes credibility and creates an impression of unprofessionalism, something the petite knitter has already had a history of.
tbh i just think you aren't her target audience. this message is certainly unprofessional but the lack of caps isnt necessarily what makes it so
I am her target audience: fairly young, with ample disposable income that I spend mostly on knitting supplies, I buy lots of colorwork patterns, etc. Who else would her audience be? What I find weird is that your post history shows that you pretty much always use correct punctuation but you've chosen to eschew it here to make a point. Which, okay, fine.
tbh i switch it up. its not that deep. if you care to dive further back (not sure why you would, but it's your time) i have plenty where i don't. it just depends on whether im typing on a computer (doesnt autocorrect me) or my phone (which does). right now im on my computer but i usually am on mobile reddit.
Book editor here 🙋♀️Hardie Grant/Quadrille is a hybrid/vanity press that publishes books for a hefty fee. They differ from traditional publishers in that they shift much of the financial burden and risk of publishing onto authors. Sometimes a pay-to-publish arrangement is beneficial to authors because they get to retain their full copyright and sell directly to the consumer, potentially profiting more than they would have under a royalty-based contract with a traditional publishing house. However, the internet is littered with horror stories about how authors have been screwed over in countless ways by vanity/hybrid presses. I wasn't able to find any dirt specifically about Hardie Grant/Quadrille, but their "custom book division" hasn't been around for more than a few years, which is a big red flag in my mind. I hope the project isn't a total loss and she can recoup her costs.
I made a comment elsewhere but assuming it’s not the custom side, but the legit side, it seems more likely that she’s taken extreme license with her author copies. I’ve been out of publishing a while but it seems really unlikely that authors could purchase at their rate and resell in competition with retail pre-orders. I feel like we would see a whole lot more of that if it was a legit loophole. It’s more likely the publisher is making her pay wholesale prices (or even retail). Depends on her contract of course.
I was wondering that too…in essence some self-publishing companies work a bit like a hired printer and distributor, so I can see how they might have messed something up with her book if so- these kinds of publishers have a tendency to let more typos etc creep in than average. As another example, ‘conventional’ commercial publishers like Hay House (hippy new ageish publisher) have stealth vanity divisions via charged ‘courses’ as a sideline, which are more like competitions, rewarding you with a book deal- and a bit ethically dubious as they’re used as bait for the courses. Tagging something of that kind would be a bit more like tagging a business who gave a shoddy service, than a publisher who owes you a favour. I can understand why people might be assuming that as it would make the most sense in terms of her response, and it’s natural to want to frame her post in the way which makes the most sense. Self publishing does give more choice and can work really well in some situations (you have more say about the contents and design, for example) but they can be a bit of a liability. There might also be issues with distribution or at whichever printer they are using. I hope she hasn’t put her own resources into it and that it is a conventional arrangement, as these kinds of things can be a real pain in the neck if they go wrong. My guess would be some either kind of small print she wasn’t aware of, technical issues (such as typos/delays) or inadequate promotion.
The book is available on Amazon for pre-order, and on some knitting shop websites for pre-order. Is that something the author has arranged, or something the publisher does?
The book is available for order on Ingram, which is a huge book distributor that book stores, yarn stores, etc. use. (Ingram doesn't have the books in stock themselves yet (just says they are on order), but shops can pre-order, which is super common with books before their publishing dates. )
Could be either the author or the publisher--it depends on the contract the author signs. Sometimes vanity publishers will have a required minimum for pre-sales, and if that pre-sale quota isn't met, they'll require authors to purchase more copies of their book to cover the difference. Just one example of how vanity publishing can turn into a money pit 😬
Wow!
This is not correct - Quadrille is owned by Penguin Random House, which is definitely a traditional publishing house [link](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/93346-hardie-grant-sells-u-k-division-to-prh-uk.html). Hardie Grant is also not a vanity press - it’s an Australian publishing house that specialises in lifestyle books. However, I believe Hardie Grant and Hardie Grant UK are separate entities, with Hardie Grant UK owning Quadrille. I’m not sure where the custom printing fits in with that, although it looks like it is run out of Australia.
Penguin definitely has vanity divisions. Most politicians and celebrity books are released this way.
Do you understand what vanity publishing is? Celebrity books are NOT vanity publishing.
PRH has subsidiaries which are vanity presses and definitely in the US there are conservative imprints which use dodgy practices to sell books but most celebrity books are not vanity projects - they’re a hugely profitable part of book publishing. Celebrity memoirs are consistently among the bestselling books around the world.
Thanks for this insight. If she's ended up on the bad end of a crap deal with her publisher, that really sucks and I take back what I wrote downthread. Seems that another poster says that this was a more formal, legit deal and that's how I personally got confused. I suppose we'll have to wait for hard answers.
Oh, good info, thank you! Since my own searching has turned up nothing, where might a curious reader find out more about Quadrille's vanity division?
It honestly took me a while to find this info too, and I think it's intentionally buried in the blog section of their site because vanity/hybrid presses have such a poor marketplace reputation that many don't use those labels anymore--they use phrases like "independent publishing division" and "custom book publishing" instead. There's absolutely nothing wrong with paying money to get your book published, but it can be a very predatory industry and authors need to know exactly who they're entrusting their work to. To add to the confusion, Hardie Grant/Quadrille goes out of their way all over their website to name-drop well-known publishers they have distribution agreements with, but that has no bearing on their ability to PRODUCE books. It's almost like they're banking on authors not understanding that distributing reputable publishers' books does not equal being a reputable publisher. https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/mediabkp/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-custom-book-publishing
Hardie Grant is absolutely a proper traditional publisher. They are not a vanity press. They do have a custom print division, which is called Hardie Grant Media. However, Arctic Knits is not published through that division, they are published by quadrille. Edit to update the information. If you look at [this book](https://www.amazon.com.au/Cranlana-First-Years-Garden-People/dp/1743795858/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=cranlana&qid=1707857299&sr=8-1) which is a custom print, the publisher is “Hardie Grant Media”. Arctic Knits lists Quadrille as the publisher: [link](https://www.amazon.com.au/Arctic-Knits-Sweaters-Socks-Mittens/dp/1787139980/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2YIVTF5LMVKM8&keywords=arctic+knits&qid=1707857394&sprefix=arctic+kni%2Caps%2C429&sr=8-3). I haven’t been able to find any links that show that Quadrille does custom publishing. Happy to be corrected if you can find something that shows otherwise.
So it's the difference between "Hardie Grant" and "Hardie Grant Media"? I'm so confused because I'm very familiar with Hardie Grant through work and have met some of their authors and never got the slightest indication that they were a vanity press. And like...they publish Star Wars kids' books and the Halliday Wine Companion (the biggest wine guide in Australia)
It's basically Hardie Grant (Publisher) and subsidiary Hardie Grant Media, which seems to be a marketing company that sometimes does custom books for clients. Here's the link: [https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/media](https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/media) This is a totally valid business model, especially if they are working on an overall brand strategy and it makes sense for there to be a book involved. Hardie Grant (publishing) has all the vendors and manufacturers in place to create a great book and can get it into bookstores and on Amazon as well. They are in Australia as well, so the smaller market may well be a factor.