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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Karen Ward rants -- beautifully, I might add -- about po-mo commercialism. Seems the Postmodern Super Friends meme is building up steam.
:: Andrew 13:39 + ::
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:: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 ::
Babble on, the great. Holy Weblog! now has a comments form. Yay!
Madelyn Murray O'Hair in Hell
On the morning of her first day in Hell, Madelyn Murray O’Hair eased herself wearily onto the curb in front of her new home at the end of Limbo Lane, set her elbows on her knees, her head in her hands, and sighed. "Oh. Well. Shit," she said. Bizarre stuff from The Morning News, via Metafilter
:: Andrew 07:59 + ::
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This blog according to my referrals. It's bloggedy blog! Your one-stop resource for:
inverted pyramid style of journalism "Benny Hinn" NBC video ex-stripper christian +"gold club" +centerfolds +"the dave" benny hinn dateline Hispanic reading habits andrew jackson's obituary SUPERFRIENDS 2003 Christina Silvas Christina Silvas again (from the UK this time)
Ah, search engine hits. I'll take 'em any way I can get 'em.
:: Andrew 13:31 + ::
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This blog banned in China?
China has blocked blogspot blogs like this one, according to a Reuters Asia report (via Google News). The ban comes as a Chinese court and a U.S.-based rights group said an Internet activist in the western region of Xinjiang had been tried for subversion, a crime that carries the death penalty. Tao Haidong, 45, was arrested last July for posting articles judged objectionable on Web sites. He was tried on January 8 and was awaiting sentencing in the provincial capital of Urumqi, the court and New York-based Human Rights in China said Wednesday.
News of the ban brought this response from a 20-year-old college student in the southern city of Hangzhou who calls herself "Leylop" on the Internet: "I was pissed off. Blockage only causes more dissent. The bloggers who have something to say won't be deterred by the blockage at all. We'll find other ways."
Information still wants to be free.
And in other news and views from the blogosphere...
Just in from The Onion (via Holy Weblog!):
Supernatural Powers Vested In Local Pastor
BILOXI, MS—Michael Cotto, 27, and Laura Winningham, 26, were pronounced husband and wife Monday, thanks to the supernatural powers vested in local Presbyterian minister Gerald Dreisbach by the Lord Himself. "We are so lucky to live near a man who is an actual conduit of God's will," Cotto told reporters after the ceremony. "We wouldn't have been able to get married otherwise." Dreisbach has also used his otherworldly authority to call for good fortune in the lives of parishioners, as well as swift passage to heaven for the deceased.
Why do you get up in the morning?
The question of telos is a question about one's "end." The Westminster Catechism asks, "What is the chief end of man?" In our time, it might sound more like this: What is the purpose of life? What is human existence all about, anyway? Thought-provoking stuff from Worldview Foundations, via Gideon Strauss. (P.S. Gideon, I can actually understand this one. Sort of. Thanks for dumbing down your blog for me.)
From the "it had to happen eventually" department: "Survivor," Genesis-style
The geniuses at Ship of Fools are at it again, creating a game from the Genesis tale of Noah and the Ark. Link via Richard Hall.
A pretty cool photo of a big red cross
Censoring Christian films
For the first time in its 25-year history, Regent University is developing "artistic guidelines'' for film students to follow when making movies at the evangelical Christian school. "It talks about the attitude of the Christian towards the arts,'' said Robert J. Schihl, who became dean of Regent's communications school last July. "We're not here to censor.'' More at ChristianityToday's Weblog. (Disclosure: Schihl endorsed my book eMinistry, so I think he's an all-right guy.)
:: Andrew 08:19 + ::
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Simon Dawes, 
