In a completely unrelated and yet similar tale complete with royalty statements in evidence:
Witness here in 2008. Click on the image for a larger view.
The story itself is true. It happened in 1946/47 during the Austral summer. The Navy was there during Operation Highjump: the largest expeditionary force to Antarctica in its day. The single largest flotilla to explore the continent during one year....ever.
The author's father was at the controls of the plane when it BLEW UP, in MID-AIR. To this day an amazing feat, to survive a mid-air explosion and a fall of more than one hundred feet to the snow.
Temperatures during the the two week fight for survival, ranged from freezing to 20 below. Three men died. Six survived dragging a critically injured man to safety, ten miles over ice crevices, cliffs, and hauling themselves out onto sea ice to be recovered by another flight crew at the end of a 17 hour slog for survival.
The man searched high and low for an agency in LA to take on the movie rights. But, since the publishing house allowed the work to simply languish, never checking on proper pricing, no publicity, not even deigning to check their own math on sales, royalties and so on, the sales remained stagnant despite excellent reviews. Thus, agencies in LA were skittish to pursue movie rights or heaven forbid, even read the book.
Then came the letter asking for the electronic rights of the work. Curious the publisher should express interest in the electronic rights to something they have no interest in pursuing as a book. That they would ever correctly, or promptly pay the author for the work, even more laughable.
And it really was a wonderful book, filled withharrowing adventure, unfolding with "page-turning immediacy," said the reviewers. But alas, the author went without an agent. Pants-down as it were. He thought at the very least the
publisher would value the spirit and intent of the contract.
However, the people who edited the book, the nice ones who care about voice and so on, aren't the ones who cut the check. And those fuddly-wuddlies, are in fact, meaney weenies.
They care not one bug-tit about the spirit and intent and so on.
Well, long about a few months in, our man began to take note of some irregularities, as it were. They -oops- attempted to charge hi
m twice for the advance "so sorry" and so on.
Also, he began to notice of a curious little monster living in the bottom of his royalty fund, called, the reserve adjustment. This little animal was never satisfied.
Most curious, was, that the demon seemed to eat precisely enough, to skin the author of any royalty money whatsoever, after the irregularities on the advance were straightened out.
Witness here in 2008. Click on the image for a larger view.
First off, can you make sense of it? Hmmn. Neither can I. Yes, the thing leaves him skinned of just over $35 to be subtracted from his next pay period.
Two years later, (click on image below) he's in precisely the same boat; owing just a little more $37.15 to be subtracted from the next pay period.
Just as he has been for the majority of his book's tenure with the publisher, Always just a skint owed back to the process.
One marvels at the fact (and verify again by clicking on both images) that the numbers for net units sales and returns and net earnings are PRECISELY THE SAME, save something called OVER DISCOUNT, in which case NET UNITS ARE IN 2010: 2,348 yielding $1771.82. Whereas in 2008, these figures were 2350, yielding $1775.56 . The resulting difference between 2008 and 2010 in subtotal of sales earnings then between the same periods, two years apart is $1.49.
Once again you can verify this going all the way over to the two columns on both statements, these numbers are PRECISELY the same: 32, followed supiciously by the reverse 23, the number 56. The number of units exported to Canada are off by two, 152 in 2008 and 154 in 2010.
Obviously the odds against this many numbers appearing in identical fashion or nearly identical fashion two years and some odd later are staggering.
"AMAZING!!! HOW DO HE DO IT, MA!?"
Obviously there is every reason to suspect this statement; like the contracts in publishing, like the statement; "you simply don't understand this business" is pure, recycled boilerplate. Gobblety gook, gibberish of a mathematical nature, meaningless figures in no way representative of ACTUAL sales, ACTUAL, ACCURATE FIGURES. Thus, there is every reason for our man to suspect, having received numerous such statements that the transactions are FRAUD, BUNK, NONSENSE AND TOTAL BAD FAITH.
Now, compound this for possibly as many books, perhaps as McMillan produces!!!
The situation was frustrating and he attempted to ignore it as it caused him considerable grief.
The story itself is true. It happened in 1946/47 during the Austral summer. The Navy was there during Operation Highjump: the largest expeditionary force to Antarctica in its day. The single largest flotilla to explore the continent during one year....ever.
The author's father was at the controls of the plane when it BLEW UP, in MID-AIR. To this day an amazing feat, to survive a mid-air explosion and a fall of more than one hundred feet to the snow.
Temperatures during the the two week fight for survival, ranged from freezing to 20 below. Three men died. Six survived dragging a critically injured man to safety, ten miles over ice crevices, cliffs, and hauling themselves out onto sea ice to be recovered by another flight crew at the end of a 17 hour slog for survival.
The man searched high and low for an agency in LA to take on the movie rights. But, since the publishing house allowed the work to simply languish, never checking on proper pricing, no publicity, not even deigning to check their own math on sales, royalties and so on, the sales remained stagnant despite excellent reviews. Thus, agencies in LA were skittish to pursue movie rights or heaven forbid, even read the book.
Then came the letter asking for the electronic rights of the work. Curious the publisher should express interest in the electronic rights to something they have no interest in pursuing as a book. That they would ever correctly, or promptly pay the author for the work, even more laughable.
Now they ask to be released from the contract. Perhaps to pursue a strangely similar take on the story?
Funny old world, isn't it children. So let this be a lesson to you. What that lesson is precisely?
Perhaps it is this: one may do everything expected of him to see a book through to publication. One may be exceedingly polite, courteous, and open to suggestions. One may even change the name of the book at the request of the publisher.
However, those one deals with in the editorial department are far removed from the demons who actually pay you. And may well be precisely opposite in character. Also, corporate mergers tend to make an already impersonal relationship between author and publisher even more so.
