So, back when this all happened in December 2016, I was an author that had a minimal amount owed to me by All Romance Ebooks, like around $10. I didn’t want to take a settlement that was emailed to me that would give me 10 cents on the dollar. I have since chosen not to file to get money from her since it was a small amount for me and the whole principal of accepting this ridiculous settlement just made me feel taken advantage of. But some authors did, and have been filing to get some of their money back. It looks like some authors are receiving paperwork to get settlements and funds returned this year. But keep in mind, it has been almost two years since this happened. That is a long time to wait for money owed.
Authors and small publishers that were taken by the owner, Lori James, are still trying to fight in the courts. Plus, Lori James continues on as Samantha Sommersby, her pen name, in the literary world.
Yes, after defrauding and not paying out thousands of dollars of royalties by bankrupting her company, she is currently on the romance/ fantasy talk circuit. She is right now scheduled as a guest speaker at Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA. The con will run August 30- Sept. 3, 2018. Authors that have been defrauded by her have been mailing and emailing the con since April to let them know her background, and what was done to them by All Romance Ebooks. So far, no response, and she continues to be listed as a guest.
There’s still more. Other things have come to light. Morpho Press, LLC is currently her new publishing company. Here is the filing of the company in Sheridan, Wyoming by Cloud Peak Law Group. The books by Samantha Sommersby are being published under this press. So far, it doesn’t seem that any other books except her own are being published. But…
In France, on the FNAC website, 161 books published by OmniLit/All Romance are still available. So, I do not know if this is a mistake, or if royalties are still being received and paid to Lori James in France with books previously published by her now bankrupt publisher. Of course, this is not in the US, so that might be the bottom line.
So, it’s important to keep getting out information and updating about this scandal. Many authors and publishers were deprived of their royalties, and were unfairly scammed by Lori James. But after just two years, she is back out there, selling her romance books and even still has some ARe books available in France. I feel it is my duty to keep the literary and romance community informed so that no one else is duped into losing money or their books by Lori James.
Here are also the addresses and information of the lawyers in charge of the assets of All Romance Ebooks now. I’m sure you can write them if you need to get your book rights back or have to look into a settlement. Questions, most likely, can be directed to them too.
The Interim Trustee is Leonard J. Ackerman,
6977 Navajo Road, Suite 124
San Diego, CA
619-463-0555
Debtor’s attorney is Christopher R. Bush, Doan Law LLP
1930 S. Coast Highway #206
Oceanside, CA 92054
760-450-3333
If you have any information or were affected by the closing of ARe, there is a Facebook group that is keeping tabs and supporting the authors that lost out to this corrupt company. P*ssed Off Former ARe Authors.
I’ll continue to keep tracking and getting information out there as more develops on this story. Thank you for your continued support.
-Marilyn Vix
Marilyn Vix 
I paid for books in good faith , they took my money, now I have no access to the books I bought and will have to be buy if I want to keep up with my series. So can someone tell me who to contact so they can send me my books ?????
ARe sent out letters on Dec. 26, 2016, one week before it closed down. I heard from readers at the time that many were caught off guard and only had very little time to download their books. Others were on vacation and missed the announcement email, and lost their books. So, the one to solely blame in all of this is Lori James. She is the one that didn’t pay back many authors and publishers, shutting down the site and stranding everyone that worked with her, including the valued fans/customers/readers.
Now, I did hear of some of the publishers and authors picking up the slack and actually offering to readers copies of the books they had purchased if they could show proof of purchase. Some publishers and authors were nice and took people’s word for it all. But that happened a lot around the time of the shut down, beginning of 2017. If you knew the author or publisher of your books, even some of them, and let them know you were one of the readers that didn’t get your copy from ARe, they might be able to help you out, but it would be up to them. Maybe if you remembered some of your favorite authors/publishers, you could send them off an email and ask.
It was a complete disaster and worst business practice with a lot of people losing money and faith in online 3rd party book retailers. I am sorry for the loss of your books, but maybe you can help spread the word about Lori James and her new pen name, Samantha Sommersby, so she doesn’t do it to a whole new group of readers, authors and publishers.
My brother has books on that site he went by many different pen names and he passed away last year and he say anything about getting a email about all romance shutdown or anything else
Is their anyway to get the. Books you paid and the one you didn’t get download
Not that I know of. The whole site has been taken down. A lot of people have been upset about that, and they missed the initial email to warn them. It went down in the new year and a lot of people couldn’t recover their book files they’d paid for. That is why a lot of people were upset back in 2017 when this all went down.