Skip to main content

DragonCon Invites the Infamous Lori James of All Romance eBooks as Author Guest

All Romance eBooks was at one time a leading romance ebook retailer, but by the time it shut down in late 2016 it was clouded in scandal. Not only had authors gone unpaid for months (some for over a year), ARe had also presold a number of marketing services right before it closed – and then kept the money.

ARe owner Lori James is being sued by a class of authors, so one would think she would maintain a low profile.

Apparently one would be mistaken.

According to the DragonCon website, Lori James has been invited to attend the con as an author guest. She will be coming under her pen name, Samantha Sommersby, but no matter what you call her this is still the same person who owes authors hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.

DragonCon was first made aware of this situation 3 weeks ago by authors who belong to the (closed) FB group Pissed Off former ARe Authors, and when I contacted DragonCon two weeks ago they told me:

We’re looking into the situation. That’s all we can say right now. We were just recently made aware of it, and our programming team is looking at it.

I checked last night and DragonCon has not decided whether to uninvite James. If you would like to help them make up their minds, you can contact DragonCon through its site.

Similar Articles


Comments


Gordon Horne May 2, 2018 um 4:28 pm

How is it not standard procedure to Google potential guests? I just Googled "Samantha Sommersby" myself to see what comes up. On the first two pages of results I saw three different first published dates, got two dead links to career summaries, and halfway down the second page a link to a Bustle article "Why This Super-Popular Romance Novel Site Shut Down" which in the first two paragraphs summarizes the events, the accusations of deliberate fraud, and identifies Samantha Sommersby as a pen name of the alleged culprit.

All this is assuming Dragon Con was making the check out to Samantha Sommersby and didn’t have Lori James' real name to Google.

Nate Hoffelder May 2, 2018 um 5:58 pm

weird thing is, i have heard of people accepting job offers before anyone bothered to google the applicant.


Pixel Scroll 5/3/18 In Space, No One Can Hear Your Shirt | File 770 May 4, 2018 um 12:36 am

[…] (4) THE ROMANCE IS OVER. Digital Reader reports the pushback being given to Dragon Con about a guest: “DragonCon Invites the Infamous Lori James of All Romance eBooks as Author Guest”. […]


Allen F May 5, 2018 um 11:12 am

Hmm, so one could make a mint there selling rotten eggs and fruit to sell for the unhappy ones that will be attending her speech? 😉

Nate Hoffelder May 5, 2018 um 1:56 pm

indeed


Orli Majes September 20, 2018 um 11:04 pm

What a shame they they didn’t end up disinviting the thieving thief Lori James, who thieves thievefully.

Nate Hoffelder September 20, 2018 um 11:28 pm

what !?!


Write a Comment