These are the texts
of several letters sent to a European publisher
who'd commissioned an introduction to a
monograph by a photographer, on which there
was a deadline. The piece was commissioned
in early summer; contracts arrived, and
were returned with invoices, in mid-July.
Due date for the essay was mid-August. When
no advance was received, I sent a query,
which was answered on September 4 with the
usual excuse: blame it on the accounting
department. In such situations, I now hold
my text back, and let editors and publishers
know how their behavior has affected (and
will affect) our working relationship. The
subsequent letters detail later incidents
in this story.
September 5, 2001
Ms. X
Editor-in-Chief
Publisher Y
Dear Ms. X:
It's my experience that, like yourself,
most editors and publishers have no system
in place to make sure that writers get paid
for assignments and commissions -- that
is, they do no checking whatever to ensure
that payments due for services rendered
go out on time. Instead, they throw writers
to the mercies of their accounting departments
-- whose primary job, as everyone in every
business knows very well, is to keep the
money in the bank as long as possible.
Every editor likes
to claim that this is purely accidental.
But the fact that no author ever "accidentally"
gets paid months ahead of time under this
system, and that follow-up on payment is
never undertaken by the editors, makes it
clear that this is purposeful policy, not
chance oversight. Authors, throughout the
industry, are the system's only fail-safe
mechanism. This constitutes rude, abusive,
and unprofessional treatment. The fact that
it's a widespread practice doesn't make
it any less offensive. Because this has
happened to me regularly -- indeed, scores
of times -- throughout my thirty-three-years
of professional life as a working writer,
I can speak to this with some authority;
and I can tell you that European editors
behave no differently from their U.S. counterparts
in this regard. So you can perhaps understand
my irritation with this way of doing business,
and the attitude toward me and my colleagues
in my profession that's implicit in it.
While this incident
probably won't change your behavior, it
will certainly affect my decision about
doing business with you in the future, and
my recommendation of you to other authors.
So, to create a business that's truly friendly
to and respectful of the authors with whom
you deal, you might consider instituting
policies and practices that require you
yourself to actually take responsibility
for ensuring that payments are made promptly
-- by calling your accounting department
after submitting all invoices and bills
and establishing some reporting system on
such invoices and bills, to guarantee that
payments are handled expeditiously. (A radical
concept, I know.) Failure to do so would
of course now constitute prima facie evidence
that this system was a deliberate way of
stalling payments.
We can resume our
discussion of editorial matters on the Z
project when I've received payment of the
advance.
Yours,
/s/ Allan Coleman
c: Author of monograph
September 17, 2001
Ms. X
Editor-in-Chief
Publisher Y
Dear Ms. X:
The check for my advance has arrived, finally.
And, as I'm sure you know, since you're
now certainly paying close attention to
my payments, it's drawn in USD on a Swiss
bank.
On July 13, I emailed
you as follows: "I assume you can pay
me in $USD, with a check drawn on a U.S.
bank, yes?" And you called me back
with assurances that this would be the case.
Those assurances were false, it seems.
Now I must mail this
check to my European bank account, deposit
it there, wait for it to arrive and clear,
and then retrieve the money from them. If
I wanted to do that, I would simply have
given you the deposit information for that
account months ago, with my original invoice.
Another delay that, "accidentally,"
benefits Publisher Y. What a coincidence
-- two of those in a row!
I'm sure that, once
again, you cannot possibly be held responsible
for this by any reasonable person, as it
is exclusively the fault of your accounting
department, which is an empire unto itself
over which you have absolutely no control.
However, as an unreasonable person, I once
again lay the blame for this squarely at
your door.
This assignment has
turned nightmarish -- not the experience
of working with Ms. Author of monograph,
by any means, but the experience of working
with Publisher Y. Because I do not wish
this to affect the publication of her work,
I will accept this as payment of the advance
and proceed to complete and send on to you
and to her the working draft of the essay,
so that we can wrap this up and I can put
some distance between myself and Publisher
Y.
Please do not bother
to apologize for this additional inconvenience,
unless and until you can also show me the
internal memoranda setting in place policies
and procedures that will prevent this from
happening to me and other authors in the
future.
Yours,
/s/ Allan Coleman
c: Author of monograph
