Ann Crispin and Ridan Publishing

[lagilman]

UPDATE: GOOD NEWS
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I have a horse in this race, distantly. I was the editorial assistant at Ace when the Starbridge books were first published. I did some of the production work on them. There is an alien species inspired by my nickname (meerkat). And I know that Ann deserves better than to be treated like this.

Sadly, this is not an unusual case. Writers are too often victimized, because hey, just one person, right? But if enough of a roar is raised...
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Originally posted by jimhines at Ann Crispin and Ridan Publishing

I’m pissed.

I’ve had an exhausting week, between taking care of my injured wife at home, trying to figure out my new job at work, conferences for the kids, and more. I was planning to come home tonight and crash.

And then I came across a post by Ann Crispin. You might recall me blogging about Ann’s situation earlier this year. She’s fighting cancer, and her only source of income this year would be through her Starbridge novels, which had been republished by Ridan Publishing.

Or at least that was the plan. Only Ridan Publishing apparently hasn’t bothered to pay her, or do to much of anything publishers are supposed to do. From her Facebook update:

Ridan has pretty much stopped communicating with me. My last two certified letters, which included the contract termination letter, were never picked up at the post office. Even though StarBridge came out on December 5, 2011, I have never received a royalty payment from Ridan.

I know some of you were waiting for books 6 and 7 in the StarBridge series. Those books were turned in months ago, edited and ready to go, but they have never been released.

Ridan Publishing is owned and run by Robin Sullivan. There have apparently been other questions and concerns about this publisher lately over on Absolute Write.

I don’t know if Sullivan is deliberately trying to scam authors, or if (more likely, in my opinion) she’s simply gotten in over her head.

But I do know that Ann Crispin is an author whose work I’ve enjoyed for more than half of my life, an author who has done tireless and invaluable work for other writers. To Crispin’s great credit, she wrote a very reasonable, level-headed post, hoping for a civil resolution to this mess.

I, on the other hand, am feeling rather less than civil. I tend to feel very protective of those I consider friends, even those I’ve only met and talked to online.

So instead of coming home to crash on the couch, and maybe — if I felt ambitious — getting up to put in an episode of Avatar, I sat down to write this.

#

Dear Robin Sullivan,

I don’t know what led up to the problems outlined by Ann Crispin in her latest Facebook post and on Absolute Write. At this point, however, I don’t particularly care.

Based on what Crispin describes, you have deprived her — an excellent author and an invaluable resource to the SF/F community, who is currently battling cancer — from her sole source of income this year. You have ignored her attempts to communicate with you.

Fix this.

Or I swear to God, I will do everything in my power to drop the entire fucking internet on your head.

Yours,
Jim C. Hines

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

This is dire. Having had issues of my own, though in a far less awful situation than Ann, I can sympathise and I think dropping the internet on them is by no means a bad idea. Writers need to know about abuse in the industry.

[jemck.livejournal.com]

Agreed. And also, is more of this crap happening to women writers than men?

That may be an entirely inaccurate impression on my part - possibly stemming from this article in The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/oct/05/women-work-life-balance-twitter

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Given the number of female SF writers for adults (as opposed to fantasy and YA) in the UK with a contract, i.e. 1, I'm beginning to wonder.

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

As a guy I have to say it's my impression, too. I have the sickening sinking wonder whether or not people think they can pull this crap with women but wouldn't try it with men. Are we still there? Really?

Gah. This is horrible.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I heard about this at Milford from another source. Not good.

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

And this has to be one of the most... wow... sexist comments I've ever made. I apologize for the "well, it's only real because a guy just agreed with you" tone of this comment.

Not what I meant to say, but it is what I said. Again, my apologies.