Just been reading this. Far too long (understandable, of course) but quite worrying. Publishing *is* a trust business and the always impossible aspect of accounting for royalties should be made completely transparent danrhodes.co.uk/books/the-curi…
Different publisher, different kinds of book, but any royalty statement I've ever had contained nothing but zeros. I'm not equipped with a forensic mind, couldn't attempt to work things out, but - after reading that - am disturbed at what seems like...
.. a systematic kind of paper-shuffling, one hand covering the other approach to remuneration. WHY is it so complicated, why should it be adversarial? Is it the perceived vulnerability on the side of any author versus the business world? Is it smoke/mirrors?
It bothers me. It bothers me, just reading about the stress it caused someone I don't even know. It bothers me because one hopes some publishing enterprises are secure enough to be very open and unblustery about such things..without challenge.
It bothers me also because anyone saying 'oh don't make a fuss' sets off my alarm bells. 'Big people' often think 'little people' are 'making a fuss' about silly things like payment.
