Update

First, I feel awful for not replying to all the comments on my last post, but time online has been somewhat limited of late. The kids leave on Thursday morning, and things should get back to normal by then.

I’m taking the time to come online now, though to let you all know that Kellie has paid me my first quarter royalty via PayPal. I’m happy about that. However, as of this point, she hasn’t even been in contact with Tina Anderson, and as far as I know, that’s also true of the other Iris authors. Until that’s resolved, I can’t in conscience support the purchase of Iris books, including mine.

ETA:  Kellie has updated on the Iris blog.  I’m glad she’s finally come out with it, but I really think the snarky tone she’s taken about Tina is uncalled for.  Personal dislike does not excuse a person from the standards of good business behavior, and that includes communicating regularly with one’s business associates, whether you owe them money or not.

Also, working at a public law library, I know more than one attorney in sole practice who uses Hotmail, Yahoo, and yes, Gmail as email providers.  I have no idea whether Tina’s rep is a lawyer or not, but you can’t judge someone’s professional status by their email.

Iris Woes, Again

I’ve been really circumspect in what I’ve said regarding the whole Iris Print situation – I’ve expressed frustration, yes, but have held back from really getting into this subject because I felt that Kellie was doing the best she could and I didn’t want to add to her problems by blackening her name or that of the press on the Internet. Unfortunately, that has to change now.

The royalty check I received last week was returned by my bank for insufficient funds. I wrote Kellie yesterday, asking her to make good via Paypal, and have heard nothing. Honestly, I’d rather she not have paid me at all rather than sending me a bad check. I get ‘I can’t afford to pay you right now.’ I’ve been there – living from hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. What I don’t get and can’t accept is no apology, no attempt thus far to make restitution, no word at all. Even if she hasn’t got my email, I’m pretty sure her bank will have informed her of that her check was dishonored, if, of course, she didn’t know it from the start.

I’ve bounced checks before, back in the day. As soon as I knew the check wasn’t good, usually because I can’t add or subtract worth crap, I’d contact the merchant and do whatever I needed to do to make it right. That’s what I expect.

So here’s what it comes down to – I wrote Kellie probably 4 times in April and May and finally, on May 22, got an answer that said that she was shutting Iris down and would be announcing that officially ‘next week.’ It’s now mid-June and there’s been nothing official. My rights, such as they are, are in limbo until she does something, and now I’m not even being paid royalties on the books that are selling through Iris’s site (or wherever – not Amazon or B&N as they’re not being restocked).

At this point, I feel that I have no choice but to officially ask people not to buy new copies of Thaw. I hate to do that, as I want my book read, but a writer is entitled to a reasonable royalty on the sale of her work, and until this situation is resolved, I can’t support Iris’s efforts in any way.

My contract has provision for the return of my rights if Iris goes out of business, and the minute she officially announces, I will be seeking a new publisher. Preferably one with a proven track record.

Sale!

“Urn of Ravalos” to Intergalactic Medicine Show for the winter 2009 issue.
This was another situation where they asked me to do a rewrite – fix the ending, and I did, and it worked. I’ve had 4 stories where I’ve had rewrite requests and in 3 of them, sales followed. Which tells me that I probably ought to do more editing and revision before I send the things out in the first place, but sometimes I can’t see what’s wrong with it, and an editor can.