Ya gotta say one thing for DJ Coffman…he’s persistent. The former Platinum Studios cheerleader has turned into an implacable foe, reporting on every up and down of the company. Now, it seems, the recently acquireed Wowio is still late on payments to creators:

The money troubles and bad PR continued as their recently “acquired” Wowio.com are way late on paying the creators and authors from there. (56 days as of this post I guess) There are many authors talking to one another and I’m kept in the loop. I see some have contacted lawyers now, which Wowio is aware of because it was reported that the legal eagles who represent Wowio were contacted. So yeah, that’s turning into a major headache for people… it’s a shame. It’s not really effecting me, but I do know some creators who had their earnings in upcoming budgets for things and they’re left hanging with no communication or clarification.

MEANWHILE, Todd Allen has a much longer look at Wowio’s original business plan:

The first objection from the publishers is to the non-guaranteed availability of these free/sponsored ebook downloads. Chris Crosby is widely quoted as calling the availability of those downloads “a crapshoot.” Yes, telling people to go to Wowio and get a free download, but not knowing if it will be really be free is a questionable business practice. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard any comments on what percentage of the time sponsored downloads are available. I did go to the Wowio site and downloaded the first issue of The Trouble with Girls, which was kindly sponsored by EA Sports and Madden NFL ‘09. This is where that trust issue comes into play. There are a lot of vocal publishers that don’t trust Platinum to maintain sponsorships 24/7. Alas, until you’ve watched it for a few months and tracked availability, making a judgment on sponsorships is problematic. If they have sponsorships up 95%, this might not be such a big deal. If 50% is closer to reality, you might have second thoughts about promoting your work there.

1 COMMENT

  1. Yeah, I’ve had to eat a lot of crow in public and I probably deserve it. I’m embarrassed about the whole deal. But this is what happens when a company puts on a song and dance (one that I believed and trusted) and then they cut off a lot of communication with creators and people who are owed, go back on contractual and verbal agreements, etc… with Platinum dodging their emails and stringing people along, they’re left with emailing me their troubles. It’s a sad situation, and one that I’m not proud of.