I have read and re-read my contract with PA (x 2 for two books) and they undertook to market the books and make them saleable. I am not using legal jargon here because I use it all day long at work and work for lawyers but I am not a lawyer.
PA state that they will make the book(s) available throughout the World and that is why I signed with them, but with a $1.00 royalty cheque which is so pitiful that I wonder why they sent it to me, because it is not worth the paper it is printed on, but it looked nice inside the unopened envelope for its colour and enticement to open, I pledge that it should become the first dollar of a future abitration fund for all PA authors who want to take up their cases with the AAA and with enough royalty cheques (which in my case will go uncashed otherwise, we might raise enough money to put one or two of us through; the winner might in turn pledge a donation to the fund and thus we start the ball rollling), providing the most deserving test case wins.
Who wants to be Treasurer of the AAA Fund; or would we all be called potential money launderers? I have a Chinese vase in my hallway and I plunge all royalty cheques past and present into it in disgust for my two Publish America Books. We sign away our rights for 7 years for each book but our books take years of research (in my case 8 years to write for my first book and only 4 months for my second book), so that if we could all accumulate our efforts and become worthy of Publish America's distain of our writing, we might win through, one or two at a time in the form of otherwise uncashed royalty cheques!
My recent royalty statements for August are x 2 for one book which they cannot decide if I should be paid zero or $2.00 and so they say I have the benefit of both in the form of 1 blank statement and one cheque, and my second book has a royalty value of zero even though it sold; but on the internet who knows who sells what, which is why my first book appears on Ebay and sells 10 overnight and then disappears from the sale value but who knows where the dollars go really?
So alas, no cheque for the second book, but $2.00 for the first book. Who wants it? The cheque I mean. A cheque for two dollars for a book which took 8 years to research and 7 years to write. A book which has been labelled as literature in some markets and research history book in others. Shall the two dollars go to an Arbitration Fund or not?
I feel like crying, but perhaps in the face of adversity I should laugh. He who laughs loudest laughs longest but he who cries, cries alone.
Any comments?
Duped
PA state that they will make the book(s) available throughout the World and that is why I signed with them, but with a $1.00 royalty cheque which is so pitiful that I wonder why they sent it to me, because it is not worth the paper it is printed on, but it looked nice inside the unopened envelope for its colour and enticement to open, I pledge that it should become the first dollar of a future abitration fund for all PA authors who want to take up their cases with the AAA and with enough royalty cheques (which in my case will go uncashed otherwise, we might raise enough money to put one or two of us through; the winner might in turn pledge a donation to the fund and thus we start the ball rollling), providing the most deserving test case wins.
Who wants to be Treasurer of the AAA Fund; or would we all be called potential money launderers? I have a Chinese vase in my hallway and I plunge all royalty cheques past and present into it in disgust for my two Publish America Books. We sign away our rights for 7 years for each book but our books take years of research (in my case 8 years to write for my first book and only 4 months for my second book), so that if we could all accumulate our efforts and become worthy of Publish America's distain of our writing, we might win through, one or two at a time in the form of otherwise uncashed royalty cheques!
My recent royalty statements for August are x 2 for one book which they cannot decide if I should be paid zero or $2.00 and so they say I have the benefit of both in the form of 1 blank statement and one cheque, and my second book has a royalty value of zero even though it sold; but on the internet who knows who sells what, which is why my first book appears on Ebay and sells 10 overnight and then disappears from the sale value but who knows where the dollars go really?
So alas, no cheque for the second book, but $2.00 for the first book. Who wants it? The cheque I mean. A cheque for two dollars for a book which took 8 years to research and 7 years to write. A book which has been labelled as literature in some markets and research history book in others. Shall the two dollars go to an Arbitration Fund or not?
I feel like crying, but perhaps in the face of adversity I should laugh. He who laughs loudest laughs longest but he who cries, cries alone.
Any comments?
Duped
