bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Thursday, January 16, 2003 ::

Advice for aspiring writers: If, dear aspiring writer, Huntington House/aka Vital Issues Press/aka Alpha Publishing ever offers to publish your manuscript, I suggest you run, not walk, in the opposite direction as fast as you can. Run like hell, I say.

I speak from bitter experience. Huntington House published my first book, E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace, way back in 1999. And now here we are in 2003, and Huntington House -- whose publisher, Mark Anthony, seems to take great pride in claiming that his company is "serv[ing] as a positive force in our culture" and is "publish[ing] books that promote the ideas that most Americans cherish; strong families, freedom of religion, and community standards that foster personel integrity and moral excellence" -- is more than two years in arrears on paying me royalties. I've tried calling them, e-mailing them, time and again, without success. (I'll spare you the details.) I've tried being a nice guy, and a decent Christian, about it all. But finally, on December 27, 2002, I resorted to writing Huntingon House a nasty but controlled letter. And now I've stooped even lower. I've posted that letter on my blog. Read on.

*****

December 27, 2002

Mr. Mark Anthony, Publisher
Huntington House/Vital Issues Press
PO Box 53788
Lafayette LA 70505

Dear Mr. Anthony:

I am writing to you as a last resort in my effort to obtain payment of royalties and an up-to-date statement of sales from your company as per our contract for my book E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace, which your company published in 1999.

Huntington House/Vital Issues Press has not paid royalties to me for the above-named book since the first six months of 2000. I am owed royalties for the following periods:

* July 1, 2000-December 1, 2000. (Our contract states that these royalties were to be paid within three months after the end of the royalty period.) In the early months of 2001, I did receive a statement from Huntington House asking for patience, as your company was undergoing financial difficulties. For that reason, I did not contact Huntington House about this issue for several months. To date, I have not received payment of royalties from this time period.

* January 1, 2001-June 30, 2001. This payment was due to me by September 30, 2001. To date, I have not received payment of royalties from this time period, either.

* July 1, 2001-December 31, 2001. This payment was due to me by March 31, 2002. Guess what? I have not received payment of royalties from this time period, either.

* January 1, 2002-June 30, 2002. This payment was due to me by September 31, 2002. As of today -- December 27, 2002 -- I have not received payment of royalties
from this time period, either.

In addition to this non-payment of royalties, I have not received a statement of earnings from your company in quite some time. The most recent correspondence
regarding earnings was from a Ms. Norma Watkins in an electronic mail message dated March 21, 2002, in which she stated that $202 was owed me as of December 31,
2001. (A copy of the e-mail and my electronic response is attached, both in this electronic version and in the paper version I am mailing to you.) [That correspondence is not included in this blog.-AC] Since that time, I have been in conversation with Ms. Joyse Dwyer of your company and have been told that Ms. Watkins is no longer employed by Huntington House.

In the fall of 2002, I began to call Ms. Dwyer of your company to inquire about the status of payments owed me. She expressed surprise that I had not received
payments since 2000, yet I was continuously put off by Ms. Dwyer. She told that an outside company was now handling all bookkeeping and that she would have to
check with the outside company on the status of my account. She told me that she would then get back to me. She has never gotten back to me. Every time I have
called her, she told me she would call me back.

This treatment from your company is not only unacceptable, but totally unprofessional and a breach of contract. I think I have been more than patient in awaiting your response. But now my patience is gone. If, within 15 days of today’s date (December 27, 2002), I do not receive a current statement of all earnings for the past two years’ worth of royalty periods -- that is from July 1, 2000, through July 1, 2002 -- along with full payment of royalties for that period, then I will contact my attorney and seek legal
remedies for your nonperformance.

Cordially,

Andrew P. Careaga

P.S. Do you treat all of your authors in this manner?

*****

Well, the 15 days have come and gone, and I've not yet contacted my attorney. I thought I would see what the blogosphere might offer up in the way of public support for my plight first.

If you would like to weigh in on this issue, feel free to comment here. Or feel free to send your comments to Mr. Anthony, although I doubt he checks his e-mail. Or if he does, he doesn't respond to it.

:: Andrew 17:44 + ::
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