Calling all Sports Publishing LLC authors

They get you coming and going. Helluva an endgame for these earnest but unlucky publishers. Somehow, after all that has been written here, there seems to be an absence of good-faith bargaining--claiming to be doing you the author a favor, they make their own despicable enterprise more attractive for someone ready to buy them out.

I wonder if there's any negotiating a different outcome. Say, instead of relinquishing rights/claims, you just ask for a couple of skids of books and their releasing any claim on further royalties. Find a publisher with a distribution wing and make a deal to ship and track your books. I'm sure DS could do better than a buyout with something like that just with a distribution in Toronto and area. Fact is, even without that deal, DS could do better outside the ACC alongside the guy selling Last Row Grays. And maybe if you can find a few of those other stiffed hockey writers you could take out a classified or small display add in The Hockey News.

YD&OHS, etc

 

I have a hard time imagining they have that much inventory on hand; these are typically very short print runs, and the returns are usually liquidated pretty quickly as remainders (translation: fast cash for publisher). But of course, if you CAN get your books, get every single one in existence and sell 'em all. Buy them at your discount if necessary.

If you can negotiate for anything, beg and whine and pray for your rights to revert to you, maybe you can resell the book to another publisher. You might have a chance if they are technically in default of your contract (ie, they didn't pay your advance after you delivered an acceptable manuscript). Get a lawyer to write a demand letter on your behalf. And put everything--EVERYTHING--in writing from this point forward.

 

Always ask for the rights to your book as part of the settlement. And do the same to the bankruptcy court if SP goes completely belly up.

 

Lots of speculation from people in this thread about SP and its motives, which is natural. Unfortunately, I can not shed any more light on why they are making the offer they are, and what it means for the author's future rights as it may pertain to a purchasing company.

I can say that the chances of an author getting another publisher to roll the dice on a 1- or 2- or 3-year-old book that has sold 3,000 copies (or fewer) through retail and is a specific, series-based, regional book are probably not too great.

I think negotiating lots of books into your settlement makes a lot of sense.

Take care authors. Best of luck. And please don't let this experience convince you to stay out of book publishing in the future. Just learn from it.

 

Ms Swenk,

The over-under on what would make it worthwhile (for a very regional book) is probably 300+ to make it worthwhile. Who knows what returns are. Just guessing. Like I say, with DS's book, to find someone to flog/ship ten copies of the tome to the Toronto-area big boxes, probably not the toughest deal. Factor in some library sales (not like this other operation would be on top of that) and it starts to get to critical mass.

YD&OHS, etc

 

At what point do workers at SPllc, like Editor0101, become complicit in the overall operation of the company? It seems to me that you would have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to realize the ship was sinking--and has been for the past few years. To come back and say that the editorial staff was great and did a knockup job with the authors seems a bit disingenuous. At the very least I would think you would hear back from the authors that you worked with saying that they weren't getting paid. That would raise a red flag about my employer. At some point you are guilty by association.
There will hopefully be new opportunities for the authors who got burned by SPllc as there is a definite niche for the reg'l sports books. I would invite you to take a look at a group out of WI (KCI Sports Publishing) who have done a number of reg'l sports titles including Univ of WI football coach Barry Alvarez autobiography which was a suprisingly good read, as well as Bill Snyder at K-State, Bob Harlan of the Packers and a series of 25 Greatest Moments coffee-table type books (Lambeau Field, Camp Randall,ect). Their authors have included Mike Lucas of the Madison Cap Times, Dale Hofmann of the Milw J-S, Cliff Christl of the Milw J-S, Mark Tupper of Decatur Herald too name a few. They may be able to shed more light on contracts, advances, ect.

 

Mr Pistol,

Exactly. And you're under-stating it when you say "a bit." Which is why the suggestions to lighten up on a company's ex-staffer here are hard to take.

YD&OHS, etc

 

Mr. F,

If DS could get some of his books as part of as settlement, I'd suggest he run them over to North 49 Books here in Toronto. Now, admittedly they only distribute in Canada but since that's where he'll sell 99.9% of the copies, why bother with the US?

North 49 is also the official distributor of Dan Diamond's "Official NHL Guide & Record Book"
so DS's tome on the Leafs wouldnt exactly look out of place.

 

Since I was last here, Sports Publishing has made some interesting moves. First, I warned a friend of mine who was about to send them the last pages of his manuscript despite not being paid that he should tell them no money, no manuscript. Unfortunately, he did not and then was told by the company that it was being taken over and only a few employees would survive. Since then, no one has replied to his e-mails but they have his book. What a fine group of people.
In my case, further to some of the discussion here, I told SP publisher Peter Bannon I would accept his offer of 10 cents on the dollar plus waive any future claims if he also sent me 400 copies of my book. He accepted immediately and said in his e-mail that as "a show of good faith" he would send me the books as soon as I signed off.
A few hours later, once I was able to stop laughing, I informed Bannon he would get my signature as soon as the books and the cheque were in my hands. I never heard another word from him.
As for editor0101, Mr. Friendless seems to have the right take on him. I would not advise anyone to take editor's advice.
Me, I'm still considering my options, as they say, including a small-claims action against the new owners. Now if only anyone could tell me who they are...

 

Can anyone confirm that SPllc has officially filed for bankruptcy or if they are under new ownership?