My Publisher Owes Me Thousands in Royalties! What Can I Do???
Remember me? I miss you. You are by far the best publisher I've met so far. You answer e-mails, you keep promises, and you pay royalties on time to your writers. My current publisher doesn't do any of that, and that's why I'm contacting you. I plan to enter a complaint into your Whispers and Warnings section, but I want to touch base with you before I do it, and explain. (My other publisher) started off as a dynamic, responsive and very active publisher when she initially persuaded me to sign on. In September 2011 she did the royalty accounting and paid me a big check for the months up to and including May 2011, which covered the first month of my sales surge. I sold over 17,000 e-books on Kindle that May. In June, I sold over 19,500, over 10,000 in July and over 6,000 in August. I don't have exact figures because she never sent me exact figures after May. The problem is that she has not paid me royalties covering the period June 2011 to the present. And, she stopped sending me monthly sales figures around the same time. Also, she stopped answering my e-mails, except for very occasional one- or two-sentence responses that never mentioned royalties. It has now been 14 months without a royalty payment to me. Her other writers I am in touch with have similar problems with her, all centering around a lack of communication, missed deadlines and royalty problems. What else can I do? …
