Pimple on the ass
Philip Beebe wrote: "I, not only as part of the management team am an author that has been with Cd since the day it was born. At no time have I been cheated out of any monies that were owed me for book sales or for the part that I'm paid for doing the job that I was hired for."
This in and of its self is a pretty interesting statement, to echo what others have said so eloquently, why would you stiff yourself? Equally, that Crystal Dreams (I refuse to use the CD epitaph as CD in my mind represents the very honourable Cemetery Dance run by Richard Chizmar) publishes so many of its management team smacks of one big slice of vanity - and having read some of the questionable work of the management team I am not inclined to change that opinion but it is only my opinion, and not gospel. I am however glad that you recieve money for your efforts even if TW Miller reportssomething like 10 sales for a six month period across ALL of the Crystal Dreams writers in his Hard Decision mailing and claims in the same mail that the bookstores lie when reporting sales. Yet contradicts himself when quoting the sales of an individual Crystal Dreams author in what is a grossly unprofessional massmailing, claiming zero sales for a period when in a previous mailing on the 28th of May he'd reported sales of that very book :eek Seems to me that if it isn't a case of misrepresentation then it is a no more forgivable example of gross incompetence.
Philip Beebe went on to say: "If the royalties are late this month, so what. If it was your father or mother that passed away, I'm sure you would be the first to cry. Instead of expressing you sorrow for TW's loss, all you have done is show just how much a coward that you really are."
You are a business, you have a management team. That Mr Miller's father died so close to the birth of his son and other events is indeed sad, and for that I do feel an element of sympathy. When he posts to his authors sorry things are late, my father died I'll make sure it doesn't happen again, I stop feeling sympathy with the glibness of his tone and wonder at the fact that such a huge management team who can ably leap in here to put two feet in their mouths are unable to help calculate the monies owed to authors on what Miller himself reports as around 10 books, total. This is not an excuse. If TW Miller was alone then indeed, time to recuperate and consolidate is expected, indeed needed. But then Mark H. should be carrying the ball - after all you said yourself you get PAID for what you do in a timely fashion. Shouldn't the people who facilitate this be treated likewise.
Philip started getting rather funny when he got to: "TW may state the sad state of affairs with the company, but if you understood anything about negative marking, you would realize that it a way to spark people that take pride and are professionals into trying harder, but it is apparent that you simply don't understand marketing."
Ah yes, the power of negative publicity which is going to draw young innocent hopefuls to Crystal Dreams door in droves now. You know, all the people who are so desperate to be published they are happy that the publishing team blame everyone else but themselves for failures - including that one authors books weren't removed from the web because of a database glitch, yet the Crystal Dreams website is a static one. The task hadn't been done and Crystal Dreams were selling books that they did not possess a legal contract for. I also like that Miller claims to give the author a way out of the contract if he or she is unhappy with Crystal Dreams - you can buy all of your own books off them, I believe at cover price, though I cannot remember 100%, perhaps you do get a slight discount. Instead of saying ahhh, perhaps our contracts need improving but it was my first go, considering he already had a contract to use as a boilerplate, he should have looked at any of the many available on the web, including the SFWA ones or even those put up by John Betancourt at Wildside. Ignorance is a poor excuse when it so obviously punnishes the writer in favour of the publisher.
Philip Beebe made me smile with this one: "You said that you are not published by CD, which is a good thing, as your book isn't anything that we would publish."
Oh that is priceless - read it have you? Know anything about me? For instance that for my last two projects I was represented by Richard Curtis Associates? The books? The Black Gondolier and Other Stories and Smoke Ghost and Other Stories, definitive collections of Fritz Leiber's horror stories edited on behalf of the Grand Master's esate. Both books have sold out in hardcover. That the latest massmarkert project I was part of just went through a 50,000 print run and on its official release this month goes straight into the Supermarket Bestsellers list at #2, that's across all of the US, at every check out... That my first massmarket foreign language edition comes out in 2 months in Sweden? Hmmm, maybe it is because I am a professional writer and editor and in turn expect to be paid in a timely and professional manner with an honest representation of my sales.
And Philip Beebe ended up looking like a complete arse when he closed with this devastating riposte: "Why am I responding to your unfounded claims? Simple---you're not worthy enough to be a pimple on my ass let along claim to be a man."
You waste your time on things not worthy to be a pimple on your backside? Highly professional attitude. Speaks volumes about the incompetence of Crystal Dreams - by the way, Crystal Dreams *sounds* very fragile to me - I am not sure I would want to be the pimple on the backside of a man who makes sure he is paid on time and yet doesn't make the effort to respect the people who make that possible. An old addage that people should remember: MONEY FLOWS TOWARD THE WRITER - not toward the management team. Without the creators of the art the bankers and marketers are, well, talentless. Even those who self publish.
David I think hit it right on the head, it may not be a grand conspiracy, you may all just be inept bumbling fools, in which case that new category sounds like a winner to me.