Okay – I promised myself I wouldn’t rant about my publisher until Wednesday – not until I saw for sure if he’d mailed out my royalty check (“Priority,” he said. “In the mail,” he said). But this just was the final straw.
This is a man, who by all accounts, is “too busy” and can’t keep up with projects and can’t keep up with demands on him from booksellers, authors, the printing house, Ingram’s, etc.
As per my question to him re: royalties:
Actually, I just took a quick glance and you’re absolutely right(it didn’t take much research to see I made a boneheaded mistake). I looked at all the wrong numbers (wrong months). I do this all manually, so human error does exist, one of the reasons I always tell folks to let me know if their numbers don’t add up with mine.
Uh, dude – I’m thinking that’s YOUR job to make sure the numbers work – b/c me, all *I* know is how many books there were at events, not what sold via online sales and such. I mean, really, am I totally off base here?
Today, I check his blog, because this is the *only* way I know that I made top 5 sales since debut. He never shares this in our author discussion group. (Not that he has to, but supposedly, he’s “in touch” with all of us; you know, more personal attention, yadda yadda – things I fell for when I signed the bloody contract – which btw, he’s never counter-signed.)
The part of his blog entry that totally made me run out of my office ranting:
So, this blog was supposed to be more than just our sales numbers but boy have I been busy lately. Just a lot of things all going on at the same time.
I’m an idiot. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. Trying to stay on deadline while running a publishing company is a bit daunting, but I’m enjoying the book I’m trying to write. I’m a little over 19,000 words right now. So, I’m ahead of the curve, but god forbid a few busy days pop up over the next few weeks.
I also just received my next manuscript back from my editor. So, I’m torn. I want to get this new manuscript written during this month, but my editor offered some very exciting ideas for the already finished manuscript…leaving me in a quandry…what child do you take care of?
Uh – Dude – how about paying attention to your primary business – your PUBLISHING house? You have dozens of authors that have been neglected and aren’t getting their royalty checks because you (admittedly) are a bonehead. Last time I checked, *we* are the ones making *your* money – because you’re certainly not making it at NaNoWriMo or in your writing.
I’m furious. I’m frustrated and just tired of beating a horse that’s long since crossed over the Styx. My agent hunt is on full time again and once I land an agent, I’m getting out of the remainder of the contract and moving on. I’d rather not have any more books with him, because I can’t trust him to pay me what’s due, nor to concentrate on making a success of the publishing house.
I never planned to make a fortune at this, nor even a living wage, but I expect to be treated like a professional.
Oh well, next time.
