from Amazon
Monday, May 09, 2011
Breach of Contract Letter To Potomac Books
According to our contract, delivery of royalty payments, and associated statements, of sales for each calendar year through December 31 are to be provided in full by March 31 of the following year. Paragraph 6 reads in part:
“6. After publication of the Work, Publisher shall render annual statements of the Author’s earnings under this agreement as of each December 31 and shall mail the statements and applicable payments during the following March, but not later than March 31.”
In four consecutive years you have breached the covenant to provide statements of royalties by March 31. You sent our 2007 royalty statements in July of 2008. You sent our 2008 royalty statements in August of 2009. You sent our 2009 royalty statements with respect to electronic sales in November 2010. The 2010 royalty statements have not yet been received. In each case you have failed to comply with the reporting provisions of paragraph 6.
Moreover, in four consecutive years you have breached the covenant to make royalty payments by March 31. You sent our 2007 royalty payments in July of 2008. You sent our 2008 royalty payments in August of 2009. You sent our 2009 royalty payments with respect to electronic sales in November 2010. The 2010 royalty payments have not yet been received. Again, in each case you have failed to comply with the payment provisions of paragraph 6.
We insist on timely performance of your obligations under the contract. We consider each failure to provide timely statements and payments under the contract a material breach of the provisions of the contract. The timely payment of royalties is the most significant ongoing benefit of the contract on our side of the transaction, and was a principal basis on which we entered into the contract with you. Yet in four consecutive years the payments and statements have not been timely, and in each consecutive year the payments and statements have arrived even later in the year.
We are unable to continue to accept late statements and payments, and expect you to provide our 2010, and future, royalty payments and statements in compliance with the terms of the contract. Our acceptance of late payments and statements in the past should not be interpreted by you as implicit authority for you to make payments and send statements at your own convenience, or as a waiver of any of our rights to insist on full and timely performance under the contract.
In all other respects we have enjoyed our working relationship with you, and hope it can continue as contemplated by the terms of the contract.