Wowio Still Not Paying Publishers
- Posted by Johanna on September 10, 2008 at 7:59 pm
- Category: Digital and Webcomics
Wowio, the troubled online publisher, is over three weeks late paying publishers their earnings for second quarter 2008 (which ended in June, assuming they use a standard calendar). Their Editorial Director told a publisher that she didn’t know when fees would be going out, but to apologize for the delay, they’d pay an extra 2.5 – 5% late fee when the money did arrive.
5% of nothing is still nothing. “We’ll make up for our delay by giving you more when we finally do pay you,” sounds like a con man’s trick to keep the fish on the hook.
September 10, 2008 at 8:10 PM
If they can’t afford to pay what they owe, how can they afford to pay extra?
Besides the late payments, Wowio has very few recent additions compared to the pre-Platinum days.
The writing is on the wall.
September 10, 2008 at 8:21 PM
I think the writing was on the wall when they were acquired by Platinum. This is just confirmation that it all went bad faster than expected.
September 10, 2008 at 8:25 PM
I agree.
The fact that Wowio needed to sell in the first place did not bode well at all.
September 10, 2008 at 11:18 PM
On Friday, WOWIO will be 4 weeks late with the payment. In our attempts to get our cash, WOWIO publishers have talked to the media here and there. But as I suspected, our attempt to shame the shameless has not worked so far.
Bill
September 11, 2008 at 7:48 AM
Probably should have included in that post what DETERMINES the percentage… if anyone pulled their books, they only get 2.5%. You know, those of us who wanted to see if we were going to get paid int he first place.
September 11, 2008 at 7:57 AM
Given Platinum’s history of trying to punish people, I’m surprised they didn’t announce that publishers that trust them get 105%, those that left get 95%. Eventually. When they find their checkbook. And the postage stamps.
September 11, 2008 at 10:16 AM
ladies and gentlemen, start your court proceedings…
Class action, anyone?
September 12, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Did Platinum get bought out by Rick Olney or something? The similarities are terrifying.
February 1, 2009 at 6:53 PM
[...] To recap: A year ago, Wowio was something of an online success story, making thousands of dollars for participating publishers. Six months ago, Wowio was acquired by Platinum, a dodgy company with a shady track record. The changes they implemented, including eliminating most of the free PDFs, were unpopular. Then the payments stopped. [...]
August 22, 2009 at 5:00 PM
[...] of Platinum, and he was the one defending the company when people pointed out that they still owed creators money from June 2008. That debt has still not, to my knowledge, been paid. The interview didn’t ask [...]