My Experience with Phantom House Press, Wicked Whimsy Boutique, and JL Vampa

 My Experience with Phantom House Press, Wicked Whimsy Boutique, and JL Vampa

Editorial by Author, Whitney Dean

Fact-checked by Katelyn

Coming forward about this situation is always with a heavy dose of hesitation, especially when the other party involved is so quick to throw words like ‘slander’, ‘defamatory’, and ‘bullying’ around, but I feel it’s important as an author in the Bookstagram and BookTok community to bring awareness. The mental and financial toll that has resulted from fighting with this person is not something any author should ever experience, and while remaining neutral in a legal battle you have no skin in is fine, complicity isn’t, because this battle has not been strictly legal—it’s personal.

Disclaimer: Everything in this post can be backed with substantial proof and evidence—such as screenshots, emails, texts, background checks, attorney correspondences, social media posts and stories, author newsletters, and more. The best defense against libel & defamation is truth, and I do not speak anything other than truth. My personal experience is just that—my personal experience.

Second Disclaimer: At no point was Katelyn-KC Smith, author of A Lust for Blood, ever an owner of Phantom House Press. She always remained self-published and only used the name. And at no point was Fable Grounds Coffee, Katelyn’s business, ever involved with Wicked Whimsy Boutique outside of shop collaborations.

The Backstory

In late 2022, I was an author with one published book and another on the way. As a full-time mom and author, it was becoming difficult to juggle both on my own. Being an indie author has its own set of unique challenges, especially when you write a marketable genre, such as Fantasy Romance. Even though my first book had a mixed reception, I had built a strong base of readers that I interacted with daily. Because of the personal relationships I built within the book community, my series performed well financially and my social media accounts had high engagement.

But that brought more dilemmas, such as licensing the series for merchandising. Since that wasn’t something I had ever dealt with, I didn’t have the slightest clue how to move forward with brand deals. And it seemed like the perfect time to invite another party into my chaos in hopes of alleviating some of the pressure so I could focus on writing. When I noticed Phantom House Press, a small press that marketed themselves as a traditional publisher, had opened submissions, I applied.

It was the worst mistake I have ever made in my life.

At first, I was told through direct message that they didn’t acquire already-published series, but that I could submit the second book that would be releasing in December, so I did. My second book was published while I waited to hear back from them, and since I already published the book I submitted, I assumed I wouldn’t receive any communication from them. Imagine my shock when I received an email the first week of January from the owner, JL Vampa, asking what I would needed from them. I went into great detail about what I was looking for in a partner, including getting my book into physical stores like Barnes & Noble, since doing so as an indie author doesn’t always guarantee success.

Everything sounded great, until the first red flag waved.

My Dark Fantasy Romance series contains spice, and a lot of it. I haven’t ever made it a secret, and I use it as a promotional tool often. Because of the spice, Vampa offered to acquire the series, but said that the books would need to be under my own imprint, specifically ‘Whitney Dean Books’. Since I had just detailed how difficult it is to get my books in stores under my own name, it didn’t make sense to sign with them and continue using my own name. At that point, I reached out to a traditionally published author and asked for her opinion, emailing her the offer. She advised me against signing with them and held all the same opinions I did of the red flags, but I was so desperate to have help that I didn’t listen.

And honestly, I wanted validation. As a fresh author, bad reviews weren’t great for my mental health, and I was constantly refreshing my KDP dashboard to see how my books were performing. Having what I thought was a full-fledged, traditional publisher that wanted my work was the validation I craved, but in the end, it added more mental and monetary stress. That is why we are trying so desperately to warn other authors against signing away their rights without heavily researching the publisher. 

After expressing to Vampa that I didn’t want to use my own name if I’m with a publisher, she came back and said that they have another imprint they use for books that don’t fit into their Phantom House Press catalog—Gorgon. The way it was phrased made it sound like Gorgon was an established imprint, but I later learned that this imprint was made specifically for my books, and that Katelyn was told it was because my books were “saucier” than the others and Vampa “didn’t want our average readers not knowing that going in.” 

Important to Note: My book had multiple warnings with what lay inside.

If I had known that I was being singled out just because of spice alone, I never would’ve signed. If I had seen the texts of her degrading my books after signing me, I would’ve tried to leave long ago.

But I didn’t follow my gut and since Vampa was also an author and was friends with Katelyn, author of A Lust for Blood, an established bookstagrammer, I trusted that I would be in capable hands, and I signed my series over to Phantom House Press. I was not aware that Katelyn had already tried leaving Phantom House Press before.

The first two months were fine. I was writing my third book and JL was reformatting my first two installments to put under the PHP account for distribution. She seemed to be making an effort in getting my books out into the world, and even though I wasn’t seeing them in a lot of stores yet, she was doing an excellent job of making it seem like the partnership would reap multiple benefits. One of my biggest goals was to get into a book box, and she promised she’d make it happen.

She didn’t.

I informed her that I had applied to Unplugged Book Box not long after signing with Phantom House Press, but hadn’t heard back yet. In that time, I also took her advice and paid over $1k for advertising with Once Upon a Book Club, which had no success, and she later informed me in-person at Imaginarium that she had contemplated advertising with them but didn’t believe it would do anything, seemingly having forgotten that I paid a lot of money to do exactly that—from advice she gave me. And on September 20th, 2023, I read texts exchanged between Katelyn and Vampa in which Katelyn expressed how she didn’t believe it would be beneficial for Vampa to advertise with Once Upon a Book Club, citing her experience with a similar advertising deal, and Vampa said she felt better not doing it.

I was not informed of this before dropping over $1,000 on advertising.

In July, Vampa informed me that Unplugged chose her books to put in an upcoming box. I was excited for her as her friend, but also confused since she knew I had applied to that box, and as my publisher, I would’ve hoped she would recommend my upcoming release, Rise of the Cinder Fae, to also be considered for a box. Instead, I learned not long after, after expressing my disappointment to Katelyn, that she was a contact for Unplugged and she was the reason Vampa’s books were considered at all—something that had not once been shared with me. In the span of a few messages with the Unplugged owner, Katelyn secured a box for me. It was that easy because Katelyn was a trustworthy and reliable source. And after learning that Vampa had known for months that Katelyn was close with the Unplugged owner (through texts, which I have in my possession), more and more information was revealed to both of us as we opened up to each other.

Over the course of four days, July 20th-July 24th, Katelyn and I revealed all sorts of things to one another, providing emails and texts as proof of all of it. We were sick to learn of all the lies we’d been told—lies we are still unraveling to this day.

Such as: Earlier this year, I received a book box offer from The Bookish Boutique, who wanted my series. Since PHP was the one to handle licensing, I forwarded the email to Vampa and told her that I wanted to do it. A book box! Finally! I was so excited. And then, she informed me that she would be asking them to make book boxes for every author under the Phantom House Press imprint. That seemed strange to me—taking my opportunity to turn it into one for herself. I found out later that the deal she had made with the boutique wasn’t shared with all of the other authors, including Cass. It was talked about with me and Katelyn in a group text message, and the only books she alluded to having boxes soon were mine, hers, and Katelyn’s. She also mentioned that she might start with hers, but should probably start with mine since I’m the one they reached out to first.

She used the excuse, “they thought your series was complete”, whenever I brought up how it made me upset that she did that, but neither was hers, yet she wanted the box company to sign a contract with Phantom House Press as a whole. If you promise an author a box as the publisher, the author gets a box offer herself, why not close the deal with the author who received the offer instead of using that opportunity to get your own books in a box?

I brushed it off. By this point, we had become friends and I was still under the assumption that she wanted nothing but the best for me and my career. And that’s why, in March, I asked if they’ve ever done an exclusivity contract with authors. I must reiterate that Vampa had become my friend—a very good friend—and I trusted her. In our opinion, she is also very convincing and adaptive to the personalities she interacts with. I thought having her as my publisher for the length of my career would be beneficial. But I was completely incorrect, and after I signed an exclusivity contract, more started falling apart.

My husband warned me not to do it—he continued asking why I wasn’t being paid, and I kept reiterating that I would be, that Vampa kept telling me that payments haven’t caught up yet. I trust her, I kept saying, She's my friend.

After learning about my exclusivity contract in July, Katelyn expressed that she wished she had known ahead of time that I planned to sign it, because she would have warned me against it. Despite everything I have endured personally with Vampa, Katelyn has experienced it longer.

In my original email communications with Phantom House Press, I was told that they’d pay for some advertising, and I asked specifically if they would advertise the series after acquiring it, and was told yes. Specifically, “For an author of your caliber, we will set up media blasts, a few ads, 2-3 tours.” To my knowledge, there were no ads, no media blasts—unless we count the reel posted on the Phantom House Press Instagram account—and no tours. “I think we should do a few promo boxes. I don’t think we need many of those, maybe four and we have a special one planned for you!!! On top of that, maybe we could set up a tour for Feb or March and also some promo blasts with a couple of our contacts.” Again, none of this happened.

Instead, I paid for advertising—hundreds of dollars to continue advertising my series through Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram—on credit cards with interest, because I wasn’t making anything yet since signing with them. And instead of advertising my series as the publisher, I was constantly asked for advertising advice by Vampa for her own series. And when my third book was released, there were no tours because she didn’t see the point in them anymore since I was an “established author”, though her books continued touring through companies. I took her word for it because she was the publisher, and agreed.

Royalties and Wicked Whimsy Boutique

Before I signed with Phantom House Press, I was averaging $3-4k monthly on only my e-books, and bounced between $400-$1000 on physical copies. I thought that since PHP was supposed to take over advertising, covers, editing, and everything else associated with indie publishing, that losing half of that income would be well worth-it, but again, that’s not what happened. I ended up spending more on myself than Phantom House Press ever spent on my books. I was constantly told that royalties were 3-4 months behind, that they still hadn’t caught up from my books being listed under the PHP account, and more excuses than I can remember. By July, it had become annoying.

On July 21st, I sent Katelyn, a legitimate accountant, (in my welcome packet from PHP, it said that Katelyn worked in finance “in her spare time.”), my Paypal statements from the little I had been paid so far and my contracts for her to look at. She confirmed that I was not receiving royalties like I was supposed to. I had only been paid for January, February, and March, and had no documentation of what I was being paid for. No proof had ever been provided to me of my page reads, book sales, etc. I wasn’t making anywhere near what I was making before I signed with Phantom House Press.

Important to Note: Communications between Katelyn (again, she is an accountant)  and Vampa included asking if Katelyn could put together royalty reports for each author when they’re paid every quarter to show specifics like page reads, but after Katelyn asked for specific documentation needed for accounting, she received no response. Katelyn reached a point where she didn’t have time to do it,  but on the weekend of July 20th, Katelyn texted Vampa about the accounting again to see what her answer would be, offering her services for free. She was denied, with Vampa stating she only needed reports made for royalties, not full accounting, and wouldn’t need Katelyn until October for the next pay quarter. By this point, we had already collectively decided to leave Phantom House Press.

Vampa owns another business—Wicked Whimsy Boutique. She wanted to make products for my book series, so I agreed and signed a merchandising contract with her for ‘Shirts, Mugs’ for a 10% cut. Katelyn also owns a business, Fable Grounds Coffee, and since I was under the assumption that Katelyn was a part-owner of Phantom House Press (again, she never was), I spoke with her directly about making coffee for the series and told her I wanted no royalties. After Vampa learned about this, she told Katelyn that all licensing had to come through her for royalty cuts, and then scolded me for not sending Katelyn directly to Vampa. I informed Vampa that I didn’t want royalties and knew she and Katelyn were close, so I didn’t believe it to be a big deal.

Not long after, I was told that I didn’t have to take royalties from book shops, that I could choose to not take any at all. Since I had agreed to not take any royalties from Fable Grounds Coffee, I felt guilty for taking royalties from Wicked Whimsy Boutique, and told Vampa that she didn’t have to pay me royalties for the clothing and mugs, either. I had become aware of their financial situation by that point and thought I would be doing her a favor by not taking royalties from her for the mugs and clothing, because again, we were friends.

At that point, Phantom House Press/Wicked Whimsy Boutique had started offering special editions of my books. The dust jackets and artwork used for those special editions were paid for and provided by me, totaling $4k in artwork. Katelyn and I were frequently told that special editions are her best-sellers and royalties for the special editions were still something I was supposed to receive—again, only 10%.

The special editions had constant issues. I was told that the first batch was awful and had foil peeling off, scuffed, etc. The books had been sent to someone who paints edges—I was told they were sprayed—and I learned later that the painter had sent Vampa videos of just how horrible these books looked (I have these videos), but Vampa insisted that they get painted anyway, and told me that she would try to salvage what she could. After Vampa received the books from the painter, she told me that the painter had overreacted and that the books were fine, and she sent them out as-is. It wouldn’t be until August that I learned that customers had indeed received badly damaged books, that the painter’s reaction wasn’t dramatic, and that Vampa had lied to me about their condition.

A batch that was supposed to arrive in July to readers is still missing—due to Vampa ordering the wrong size book and blaming it on the manufacturer in customer emails. To my knowledge, as of 09/22/23, customers have not been updated on where those books are or when they’ll arrive. And though I requested customers be refunded on July 27th for the Rise of the Cinder Fae special edition and signed edition, it would be over a month before refunds started going out.

After I asked to be released from my contract with Phantom House Press and peacefully part ways, I was denied. It wasn’t long after that Wicked Whimsy Boutique sent emails to customers, informing them that she was canceling and refunding orders for the A Kingdom of Death and Despair special editions, A Kingdom of Flame and Fury limited edition,  and Rise of the Cinder Fae special edition—to my knowledge, no email was ever sent out about the Rise of the Cinder Fae signed edition from Phantom House Press. I was never told that these orders would be canceled and only found out after customers forwarded me the emails.

The Break-Up

On July 24th, I texted Vampa and told her my concerns—mainly what I had learned about her connection with Unplugged Book Box and the royalties I hadn’t received—and asked to peacefully part ways. She immediately went on the defense and demanded a Zoom meeting with me, my husband, and Katelyn. We all denied. She then passive-aggressively attacked Katelyn through texts, blaming her for my opinions, which Katelyn had nothing to do with. All Katelyn had done was point out the obvious about my lack of royalties and share her own experiences with Vampa, none of which were brought up in my conversation with Vampa.

I went back and forth with Vampa about the royalty discrepancy, sending her screenshots of the royalty clause in my contracts, at which point I was informed that the first contract was stated incorrectly—a fact that was never shared with me prior to me complaining. I told her that I needed time to think and wouldn’t discuss this any further with her until the next day. After sharing my contracts with a licensed professional, it was confirmed that the royalty clause did indeed state that I wasn’t being paid correctly. After sharing this with Vampa, she asked me to confirm that I was referencing the most current contract, and after I confirmed it, I received no further communication from her that day.

The next day, July 26th, I received communications from Vampa both in text and email. The text stated that all future communications would be through email and that she was heartbroken since she considered me and Katelyn to be her best friends. I didn’t respond to her text.

Along with an email, I received a payment through Paypal for the royalties I was missing for the first two books in my series with Paypal fees—fees that were never stated in my contract that I would have to pay, and fees I was never refunded for. In the email, they took no accountability for any of the broken terms. Instead, they tried to add an additional sheet to our already-signed contract with what the royalty clause should’ve said. In the contract, it blatantly states that any modification to the contract needed to be in writing and signed by both parties. The attempt at trying to add an additional sheet to the contract with a pay schedule directly contradicted that term. Also in that email, I was blamed for involving a third-party (aka Katelyn) who had “no involvement with the decisions” of Phantom House Press. Again, Katelyn had nothing to do with my broken contract or lack of payment, and their use of her as a scapegoat was becoming redundant.

In that email, they said they’d be willing to let me buy my rights back only if I signed an NDA. At no point, and nowhere in my contract, was any kind of NDA ever mentioned or required. I was highly uncomfortable signing anything having to do with them ever again, so I definitely wasn’t about to sign away my voice, especially when we learned how much Vampa loves using the word ‘slander’ and ‘defamatory’ when her business practices are questioned.

I didn’t respond quickly enough to their email, because the next morning, I received another email stating that they needed my response by the end of the day since the Rise of the Cinder Fae manuscript was due soon—even though I had asked to be released from the contract. I don’t know why she assumed I would be providing any manuscript to her whatsoever after expressing my trust had been broken. But they received their response on July 27th—an extremely detailed one.

I went into great detail about every broken term, how they were broken, how they were read, and how each book release needed a separate addendum with a due date to be eligible for that clause to be used. In the contract, the royalty clause included my right to audit Phantom House Press if I felt that I wasn’t receiving accurate royalties. I informed them that if I wasn’t released with rights from the contract by July 31st, I would be exercising my right to audit them.

I received no response from them all weekend, however, in that time frame, every webpage on Wicked Whimsy Boutique and Phantom House Press containing my special editions, signed editions, and merchandise were removed. We were also blocked on all social media accounts. We took screenshots of every page as it was removed, every social media account as they blocked us, and I was sent multiple order confirmations from people who had ordered any of the products with my name attached to them.

That weekend, another author, Cassandra Celia also emailed her resignation to Phantom House Press. The next morning, Monday, July 31st, I collaborated on a post with Katelyn and Cass on Instagram, announcing our departure from Phantom House Press. Not long after, I received an email from Vampa that she paid me my Despair royalties (through Venmo) even though “they were not due”, attached royalty spreadsheets she made, and informed me that I would be hearing from their lawyer that day.

Boy, did I.

Important to note: In the Wicked Whimsy Boutique royalties spreadsheet, she claimed I made $10 total on the special editions. I was told I would make $3-$4 per copy sold, and multiple had been, but she provided no receipts or proof of any third-party distributor or sales record. I was expected to just take her word for everything. I also never received payment for the Phantom House Press editions that were sold, nor have I ever received an answer on if Vampa paid the printer back for the refund she had received for the editions of A Kingdom of Frost and Fear.

Her former attorney sent me a letter from Phantom House Press, where they asked me to pay $6,180 to have my rights back. This included: A cover for Rise of the Cinder Fae—made by Vampa and did not look like a $600 cover—, pre-order money for the Rise of the Cinder Fae special editions and signed editions, and $4500 for unspecified “inventory.”

My request to audit Phantom House Press was ignored.

The $4500 she requested was nearly what she had just paid me in missing royalties.

Odd coincidence.

Rise of the Cinder Fae was incomplete. Preorder money for the special edition and signed edition of that book should not have been spent on anything because a complete manuscript was never provided to Vampa. She wanted me to pay her to refund customers who ordered those—money that should’ve never been spent on anything. No production costs had gone into the Rise of the Cinder Fae editions yet, aside from the cover.

We assumed the unspecified “inventory” was the wrongly-sized and prematurely canceled special editions for Wicked Whimsy Boutique’s  A Kingdom of Death and Despair. This is important to point out: I never had an updated contract with Wicked Whimsy Boutique to reflect special editions, nor was it spelled out anywhere that I would be responsible for any costs associated with anything sold by Wicked Whimsy Boutique. She later informed someone through Instagram DM that we were correct—the $6,180 she wanted was for Wicked Whimsy Boutique merchandise and pre-order money for Rise of the Cinder Fae, which again, shouldn’t have been spent.

People were shocked at the demands. It made no sense when the terms of the contract were broken by them. And again, I was asked to make no disparaging remarks.

It was then that we (the authors that left Phantom House Press) decided to take this to social media, three weeks after this all started. It was an overwhelming response of readers and authors who agreed with us. I made multiple informational posts with screenshots from my contract to detail what had gone wrong between me and Phantom House Press.

Through my former attorney, we offered $500, they could keep the special editions and sell them how they see fit, and they could keep unpaid royalties, which we estimated to be in the thousands. It was a fair offer, and we again requested to audit them, which was my right. 

They responded the next day with the exact same offer—$6,180 that could be split into payments over six months but that they’d use my royalties to “offset” the amount until it was completely paid. Only then could I be released from the contract with my rights—despite the multiple broken terms we pointed out. None of those were addressed in their response. Instead, they highlighted their “small margins”, which had absolutely nothing to do with me, and again asked me for no disparaging remarks.

My request to audit them was again ignored.

Since they weren’t backing down on their unfair requests, I released my former attorney and used a contact another author had given me for a literary lawyer. She immediately wanted my case and went straight to work on drafting a plan to get me out of this contract once and for all. We had been correct about all the broken terms of the contract and I was promised I had a legitimate case against Phantom House Press—not only by my attorney, but by multiple attorneys, paralegals, law students, readers, and authors. No one we spoke to agreed with her side of the story, no one understood why she was fighting me so hard when I had proof of everything, screenshots, Katelyn—who had been friends with her for years and, honestly, has been my best and most reliable source through this—, and solid evidence of her wrongdoings.

It took two weeks to draft a response and line our ducks in a row.

In that time, I continued posting about the situation. It wasn’t until I posted about the damaged Wicked Whimsy special editions that JL finally posted on her stories that if people wanted the real story, they could DM her. People did—just to send me her responses—none of which gave any kind of story at all, only that I was throwing a fit because I didn’t want to pay for special editions and pre-orders that weren’t my responsibility. My “fit” included proof of why I wasn’t responsible for those costs.

Important to Note: Prior to her story claiming we were witch-hunting her, Phantom House Press had posted a statement on their account, claiming that they would remain silent because “behind closed doors, in the world that is real, this has been handled professionally, reasonably, and legally.” She made multiple other claims, such as harassment and slander, and said that other Phantom House Press authors were being attacked. The only author we knew of that was receiving comments on her TikTok videos and Instagram posts was the author & owner herself—Vampa. Supporters of ours did leave comments on some of Phantom House Press posts, asking that I be released with my rights back, but another Phantom House Press author DM’d commenters herself. As the owner of Phantom House Press, Vampa posting stories on her author account nicknaming our supportive readers “the mob” and comparing us to “dogs” in French didn’t seem very professional. 

And then….

Copyright

In the contract, it stated the copyright of the books would be filed under my name, I would be provided a certificate, and that Phantom House Press would alert the Copyright office of documentation showing they had Rights & Permissions to publish my books. Copyright and Rights & Permissions are not the same.

Copyright always remains with the author.

Rights & Permissions go to the publisher once you sign a contract, showing that they have the legal right to publish your books.

None of this ever happened—a fact I pointed out to her in my July 27th correspondence.

In late August, I searched my titles through the Copyright website. Up until that evening, the titles had remained under my Copyright filing, but I was shocked to find that Copyright for A Kingdom of Flame and Fury had been filed under Vampa Productions as the Copyright claimant and Phantom House Press as the Rights & Permissions. Not only did this directly break our contract, it was against the law. And it wasn’t filed until July 27th—the day I emailed her and informed her of the multiple broken terms, including Copyright.

I posted a tearful plea on social media, going into great detail of what had happened in this long legal battle thus far, highlighting the fact that Vampa Productions had stolen my work.

I immediately forwarded it to my attorney. This was now much bigger than her demand of $6,180. She was now illegally benefitting from my copyrighted work and refusing to remove my books.

After my TikTok and Reel were posted to my Instagram and TikTok accounts, she posted stories to a list of close friends only, claiming she was being “bullied” and that the Cease & Desist letter we had delivered to her in July was fake because it wasn’t signed by a lawyer. As the Copyright holder, the Cease & Desist letter was not fake. It was delivered by a licensed server, not “some random person” who delivered it to “where her children lived” — the address she also uses as her business address.

She also informed this close friends list that she would’ve given my rights back already had it not been for the constant bullying on social media, proving that she was now holding my books out of spite. Again, I forwarded these videos to my attorney.

We responded to her most recent demand letter, again reiterating that my multiple requests to audit Phantom House Press were denied, that she had erroneously filed Copyright for my book, and that the damaged special editions that were mailed had damaged my reputation.

We offered what we had before—minus the $500. She could keep the special editions, she could keep unpaid royalties, and I would stop talking about her and the situation. By that point, I had grown tired of giving her so much attention and just wanted to be done with her. I also requested to never be contacted by them again. And we revoked all licenses to my series. This time, it was signed by a lawyer.

We gave her until September 14th to respond—two full weeks.

She didn’t.

On September 15th, we learned that they were no longer being represented by their attorney, but that he had indeed forwarded the letter to them upon receiving it. The entire weekend passed with no response. It wasn’t until Monday, September 18th, after I made another social media post about this most recent update, that she finally responded to my attorney that she had mailed her response on September 12th.

Mailed.

After strictly emailing since July 24th. No tracking number was provided for any kind of package or certified mail, and she continues to refuse my attorney’s request of being forwarded a digital copy of whatever it is that she mailed, claiming she can’t control the USPS delivery time. Instead of emailing my attorney by the deadline—her email address was provided on the letter Vampa received and a contact e-mail is on my attorney’s website—she said nothing. At this point, my books were still available for sale under the Phantom House Press account through retailers, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Without a response from her, we had no idea if she planned on removing those at any point. As of 12:29am CST, paperback editions of my 2/3 books of my series are still available on Barnes & Noble under the Phantom House Press account. I will update if this changes.

ETC.

• I was told she’d work on getting my books translated when I signed. In the time I was there, her books were chosen to be translated into French and Spanish first, despite me telling her before I even signed a contract that I had received multiple requests for my books to be translated.

• After Katelyn, Cass, and I announced we had parted ways with Phantom House Press on July 31st, Vampa scheduled a Zoom meeting with the remaining Phantom House Press authors. To this day, we don’t know what was said, but almost every author unfollowed us, and I haven’t spoken to any of them since, while Katelyn has only spoken to one.

• Another Phantom House Press author emailed a newsletter to her readers just last week, claiming my reaction to Phantom House Press not letting me out of my contract was “outsized” and because I “felt ways” I had taken down all the other remaining Phantom House Press authors, which was a lie. At no point did any of us ever negatively speak about the other authors. In fact, we all had high hopes that they would read our posts and listen to our lives and wonder if, maybe, we were right. I was also accused of a “smear campaign” against Phantom House Press and because of it, this author’s career had suffered. This author was self-published before signing with Phantom House Press this year, but used this opportunity to tell readers of a Kickstarter she would start to fund a project since she lost so much momentum. I am not responsible for any author’s career aside from my own, nor am I the bank account of Phantom House Press. Blaming me for their inability to financially support authors is unfair and unreasonable. The author who sent the newsletter was sent a Cease & Desist letter from my attorney, asking that she stop spreading untrue statements. She complied.

• Katelyn was told Phantom House Press was an LLC months ago. We learned the weekend of July 27th that Phantom House Press wasn’t even registered in the state of Texas. It wasn’t until I pointed this out to Vampa in an email on July 31st that an LLC was filed in Texas for Vampa Productions and a DBA was filed for Phantom House Press nearly two weeks later.

• I was given text proof that Vampa didn’t understand why my books were popular, suddenly liked me after I submitted to them because of my follow count, and thought my books were “cheesy” and “too smutty”, yet signed me anyway.

• When my ARCs were sent out for A Kingdom of Death and Despair, the link was shared with other readers aside from the ones who were supposed to receive them and were not watermarked by Vampa, so I was advised to only give ARCs to people who pay for them through Patreon going forward. This made me uncomfortable, so I told Vampa that I would send her the money instead because I didn’t like taking money for ARCs. I told her that it was because she was the one who formatted them because I didn’t want her to be upset with me--money had been a sensitive topic in the past.

• Phantom House Press offered signed copies of A Kingdom of Death and Despair through the website and started collecting money for those in early 2023. Payments for those were instant, but I didn’t see any money come from orders until I brought up the royalty discrepancies in July. The shipments for those books were also late because she kept ordering an inaccurate amount for me to sign and ship.

• Since coming forward on social media, the three of us have received multiple messages from other people who have had similar experiences with Vampa. I am not the only one missing money from her. Katelyn loaned her $600—$300 for part of a plane ticket for Vampa to attend Imaginarium and $300 to “invest” in Phantom House Press, which ended up being for Vampa to publish her own book—and Katelyn was never paid back for any of it. There are others who have not been paid for work they did for Vampa. I am not going to discuss those details—those are not our stories, but so many of them are heartbreaking and shocking.

• I helped Vampa succeed multiple times over the last few months, such as asking every giveaway host that invited me to join a giveaway that they also invite Vampa because she desperately wanted to reach 10k followers. I provided all the artwork for my special editions sold through Wicked Whimsy Boutique so she wouldn’t be out any money. I sold her books at Imaginarium all day because she left the day prior and I didn’t want her to lose out on earning money. I alpha read Spring of Ruin, I agreed to slush read manuscripts for Phantom House Press and summarize them for the editor, I said I would read another PHP author’s new release and review it because it was receiving such bad reviews, and I agreed to help read through new submissions. I tried to be as helpful as I could because I considered her my friend and she was overwhelmed.

• Up until the weekend I left, I was told I was her favorite and that’s why I was the only one being promoted, or why I was receiving “special treatment.” I was also told I didn’t need an editor for my upcoming release, Rise of the Cinder Fae, because my manuscripts were more “polished” than the other authors under the Phantom House Press imprint. After I asked to leave, I was informed that they hadn't yet finished paying the editor for my most recent release. Again, as they wanted to be considered a traditional publisher, my books shouldn't suffer because of funding.

• In my opinion, part of the reason why sales plummeted after I signed with Phantom House Press was because my e-book prices were raised from $4.99 each to $7.99, $8.99, and $9.99. They were only lowered in price when I had Bargain Booksy deals scheduled—deals I paid for. 

• Our entire families met after we drove to see them in a neighboring state for lunch one day this past summer. A few days prior to me leaving Phantom House Press and after we'd met them, Vampa texted me that if they had another child and it was a girl, she was going to use my daughter’s nickname as the child’s name, but claimed she had chosen that name before we ever met, yet this was the first I was hearing of it, and we had talked about children, and the show the nickname came from, often. I played it off like it was funny, but both me and my husband were extremely uncomfortable, being that they had just met our daughter not long before that and heard me call her that name, and that she informed me so out of the blue that they’d be using her name if they ever had another girl.

Where does this leave us?

To be honest, I don’t know. The deadline for her response came and went, and despite her telling us that a letter was mailed September 12th, it has now been over a week and no letter has been received by my attorneys. I have spent thousands of dollars on legal fees and continue to do so, fought with Amazon to get my books taken down, and pleaded with IngramSpark and Amazon Publishing on social media to remove my ISBNs from distribution. I’ve had to pay to put new covers on my books to differentiate between my editions and the editions Phantom House Press distributed, I’ve had to change my entire publishing schedule because I was delayed two months before I was mentally able to write again, and I’ve had to be placed on short-term and long-term anxiety medications because this situation has given me panic attacks. I’ve had to restore friendships I had previously and apologize for becoming reclusive and gullible. I can’t sleep at night, I wait for emails all day long from my attorney, and I try to educate other authors as often as possible. And now, I’m having to pay additional fees to fix my Copyrights.

Why did we come forward?

Because we want to be the example for others not to make the same mistakes. Katelyn and I trusted someone we shouldn’t have, and now we suffer from extreme trust issues with others. We want to implore other authors to be very cautious about who they work with, what they sign their name to, and who they hand their books over to. With everything we post and every detail we share, we ensure that it is done with 100% accuracy and that, if needed, we have proof to back up our claims and statements.

We have been honest and transparent.

We’ve stood to gain nothing from this and we knew the risks associated with coming forward, but the book community has been extremely gracious and understanding of this situation. And we can only hope that this reaches other authors and prevents them from making the same mistakes.

I am in the negative for my time spent under that imprint.

Update as of December 16th, 2023.

JL Vampa and her husband tried suing me for defamation and breach-of-contract. Defamation was dismissed. We were ordered to mediation, as was expected since it’s what the contract called for. We will go to mediation in January to work out every monetary dispute. She withheld my third quarter royalties in October, totaling over $1700.

I have my rights and am able to publish my books under my name ❤️

Update as of March 2024

Defamation was dismissed and the case went to mediation. JL Vampa asked for $25k from me and requested that I not put my books in certain titles on Amazon to prevent any competition with her. Her requests were denied. Mediation was in my favor and I was released from my contract with nothing being owed to them.