AllRomance
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
All Romance eBooks (allromanceebooks.com) was a romance ebook retailer founded in 2006 and based in Florida, run by owner Lori James. It specialized in selling romance ebooks to readers, and also operated OmniLit (omnilit.com) for general fiction and non-fiction ebooks and AReCafe (arecafe.com), an online community for romance readers and authors, serving some 5,000 ebook creators.
02 / AllRomance FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
The company’s own closing notice, quoted by Publishers Weekly, said All Romance eBooks would post a loss for the first time since opening in 2006; despite efforts to hold and grow market share, sales and profits had declined, the 2017 forecast was not hopeful, and management accepted there was no viable path forward.
The company said sales and profits declined despite efforts to maintain and grow market share.
It said 2016 would be its first loss year since 2006 and that the 2017 financial forecast was not hopeful, with no viable path forward.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
Owner Lori James announced on 28 December 2016 that All Romance eBooks, LLC was closing; the company notice said sites would go dark at midnight on 31 December 2016. Publishers Weekly independently reported the retailer shut operations on that date.
- Bankruptcy
Writer Beware later recorded that the related author lawsuit was paused in 2018 when All Romance eBooks filed for liquidation bankruptcy bankruptcy; U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California docket 18-00529-CL7 shows a voluntary liquidation bankruptcy petition filed 31 January 2018.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On December 28, 2016, owner Lori James announced the closure of All Romance eBooks and its sister sites, giving customers and authors just four days' notice; the sites went dark at midnight on December 31, 2016.
- 02
The company said 2016 was its first loss-making year since opening in 2006, with sales and profits in decline and no viable path forward. Authors were told Q4 2016 royalties would be paid at just 10 cents on the dollar, and were offered their rights back on condition they take no legal action — with the company warning it would otherwise face bankruptcy.