Posted in Uncategorized on January 9, 2008|
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Don’t you just hate it when your worst fears come to pass? Well, thankfully I listened to the little voice in my head (the only one that isn’t character driven) when the publisher that contracted my book Another Time, Another Place tried to keep me as an author even though they had threatened to close down. I contacted a lawyer who is friends of my hubby and he got my rights reverted to me early this fall. Well, the email that I just knew was going to come, finally showed up in my inbox today. One of her ‘best selling authors’ sent out this email to all Port Town Publishing’s authors (the names have been ***’d to protect everyone involved):
You may remember me as the fellow from New York who encouraged all of us to help *(PTP Owner)* during one of her periods of financial crises as well as health issues by buying PTP books from each another. Too, as things were going well in the beginning, I had sent *(PTP Owner)* Omaha Steaks, Zing a Ling dinners, flowers for Thanksgiving, et cetera. After receiving the first royalty check (pushed out three months), our relationship began to deteriorate considerably. Many overtures and promises by *(PTP Owner)* were made but never kept. Eventually, I became aware of her debacle with law enforcement but still stood by her, sending a glowing e-mail out to the detective handling *(PTP Owner)*’s case as she asked me to do.
In addition to the correspondences re the monetary issues listed below, we are all aware that Port Town Publishing’s books fall apart because of a serious binding problem. This has hurt PTP’s reputation as well as its sales tremendously. I tried to nip this in the bud with *(PTP Owner)* many, many times, but to no avail. Personally, I feel that PTP has tremendous potential. Although this is not my bailiwick, I believe that our collective knowledge could result in a positive turnaround. ********* talks about PTP authors taking over the company. This is another reason for my contacting all of you. Perhaps someone out there has ideas as well as the wherewithal to move in this direction . . . perhaps not. In any event, let’s keep in contact with one another as PTP moves through this bankruptcy phase.
Dated: Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Dear *(Owner of PTP)*,Needless to say, both **** and I are extremely upset over the news of Port Town Publishing’s impending bankruptcy and that royalty checks and reports are not forthcoming.
As you stated in your e-mail of December 20th, 2007, we should expect to receive a royalty check “right after Christmas covering *(One book title)* and *(Anther book title)* for this year [2007].” In actuality, we were only paid royalties for *(One book title)* through November 4, 2006 as indicated in your report, which we received in November 2006 along with a check for $***.**.
Now, after many promises, we are again hit with this news that our royalty checks are not coming. (PTP Owner), according to our contract for *
(their book title)*, we were supposed to receive royalty payments quarterly along with “reports indicating the number of units sold, discounts applied, and payments to the Author.” For *
(One book title)*, that was supposed to be in September 2006, December 2006, March 2007, June 2007, September 2007 and December 2007. However, we did informally agree that royalties for *
(same book title)* would come every six months since Port Town Publishing was financially strapped. Our agreed upon timetable never happened. It was procrastination after procrastination, excuse after excuse. The first and only report and royalty check we received from you was in November 2006–a check in the amount of $***.**–which covered only *
(One book title)* from February 24, 2006 through November 4, 2006. We have not received any royalty check or report for *
(One book title)* (release date June 2007) in November 2007, as our contract stipulated (biannually May 2007 and November 2007).We called our attorney regarding this matter and will have to follow his advice. We expect full royalty payments and reports from you, to date,
IMMEDIATELY for
****** and
******* for all outstanding ascribed periods as indicated above. Should full royalty payments and reports not be forthcoming by overnight express mail, this communication, along with a file, will be forwarded to the courts as well as appropriate law enforcement agencies. “You can fool some of the people some of the time; you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Sincerely,
****** & *****
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