THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Monday, May 09, 2011

Breach of Contract Letter To Potomac Books

By Tangotiger, 08:55 AM

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.

• Sabermetrics • Books

#1 Fargo (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 11:41

Don’t you retain rights in case of such a breech? Terminate the contract. Find another publisher/distributor.

#2 Hizouse (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 12:11

I imagine it would be pretty difficult to find another publisher at this point (4 years old, with a niche target audience), and I bet Potomac knows this. Still, I wonder what terms they could get from ACTA.

#3 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 12:34

Actually, our sales are pretty robust. We’ve sold around the same number of units in each of the 4 years. We’ve been on this publisher’s top 10 best seller list in each of the last 4 years.

The Book was meant to be timeless, and that’s how the readers are taking to it. Other books are more topical, and so, will lose an audience after a certain amount of time.

The Book is like Jamie Moyer!

#4 Marvin Miller (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 12:44

"The Book is like Jamie Moyer!” So are your hassles with Potomac.

#5 grady (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 15:18

I’ve always been enjoying The Book, but some minor changes around the baseball have happened since then, as seen the improved defense and the consequent drop in RPG, so I wonder you (and MGL, Andy, or other great saberists) would publish the next Book, though I am sure you are too busy to write another.

#6 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 15:26

The drop from 5.0 to 4.5 runs per game between the time The Book was published and now is a legitimate question. This will have some effect on the breakeven points.

As an example, the “average” SB breakeven point will drop from say 69% to 67%.

In large part though, The Book will hold up. The batter-pitcher matchups, streaks, splits, batting order, etc. All that stuff remains (and with access to more data, we’d simply be able to come up with stronger confidence levels).

I don’t think updating The Book would be an efficient use of time though.

#7 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 15:28

However, expanding The Book, to include more chapters, or to handle the specific question of run environment would be much more possible.

#8 jake the snake (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 18:03

What is the purpose of having these occasional threads about the problems with the publisher? Why make this public, and sticky it to the top of the site? Is it to publicly embarrass them into making the payments, and/or to discourage others from hiring them?

#9 (see all posts) 2011/05/09 (Mon) @ 20:53

I second the sentiment that it is a shame you guys have to go through all this hassle.

A second edition (new chapters - run environment would be cool) with a new publisher seems in order.

I’d buy it and give my 1st ed copy to a friend. Everybody wins there.

#10 Luke G (see all posts) 2011/05/10 (Tue) @ 10:52

“Why make this public, and sticky it to the top of the site? Is it to publicly embarrass them into making the payments, and/or to discourage others from hiring them?”

Of course these are both legitimate—and wholly justified—purposes.

#11 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/10 (Tue) @ 11:02

We are reporting on factual information about an on-going relationship. Expressing the truth is justification enough.

#12 David MIck (see all posts) 2011/05/10 (Tue) @ 22:13

Tango, has this helped get payment to you more quickly in the past? I like that you post this. I hope some writers looking for a publisher have found these posts and considered this. I’m just curious if it’s helped in getting them to pay you what they owe you guys.

#13 (see all posts) 2011/05/10 (Tue) @ 22:28

David/12, here’s last year’s thread. It should answer some of your questions.

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/the_publisher_of_the_book_potomac_books_is_delinquent_on_a_portion_of_our_r/#comments

#14 jake the snake (see all posts) 2011/05/11 (Wed) @ 06:30

"We are reporting on factual information about an on-going relationship. Expressing the truth is justification enough.
********

No offense, but I never thought I’d see such a non-answer from Tango.

#15 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/11 (Wed) @ 08:12

Jake: don’t be so persistent on this issue, thanks.

#16 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/11 (Wed) @ 09:59

For those interested in the past years, here are the relevant links:

2009:
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/the_publisher_of_the_book_potomac_books_has_not_paid_us_our_royalties/

2010:
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/the_publisher_of_the_book_potomac_books_is_delinquent_on_a_portion_of_our_r/

#17 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/11 (Wed) @ 13:31

Mike/13 was marked for moderation and is now open. (And it makes my later post a bit superfluous.)

***

Sorry about the delay in unmod-ing. I’m in the control panel all the time, and just somehow forget to look for flagged comments.

#18 David (see all posts) 2011/05/16 (Mon) @ 03:29

Here’s one potential solution:

If your contract with them only says that you can’t sell the book to another publisher....would that leave the door open for SELF-publishing?

If so, then you can just post it through a print-on-demand company like Lulu.com - just upload the file as a .PDF or whatever, and then take two minutes to set up a little page - and then people can buy it from there.

I’ve done this with a few books at Lulu.com - nobody buys them, mind you, but the service and the site’s infrastructure is awesome. The pricing system is, in essence:

1) You set in the technical specs you want for the book - how tall, how wide, paperback, hardcover, etc., etc. - and upload the .PDF

2) Lulu.com tells you how much each book will cost to print plus their across-the-board markup. (For something like ‘The Book’, I’d guess it’d be, like, $12 or something.)

3) You then add on however much you want in profit. So if you wanted to make $10 per sale, then you just price it at $22 (in that example).

Most Americans are very servile and deferential to the mainstream media (even when they claim to not trust it) and so books sold like this have a lot of people - older white dudes, basically - who think it’s lacking in some sort of gravitas or something. But, hey, if ‘Scorekeeping’ has got the Mainstream Media Seal of Approval....then who gives a shit what those people think, anyway?

Here’s a book that I posted through Lulu. (It’s important to note that Lulu is a TOTALLY automated system, so I had to do everything myself - draw the cover, editing, etc.)

lulu.com/product/paperback/the-works-life-of-james-cameron-volume-1-the-coming-storm/15239870

#19 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/16 (Mon) @ 07:45

Thanks for the thought.

The Book used to be self-published, and after one year of that, we seeked out a publisher. Publishing rights were then transferred to Potomac.

#20 studes (see all posts) 2011/05/18 (Wed) @ 11:16

...so books sold like this have a lot of people - older white dudes, basically - who think it’s lacking in some sort of gravitas or something.

Speaking as an older white dude who has self-published on Lulu and on the Kindle, I have no idea what you’re talking about!

#21 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/05/23 (Mon) @ 16:04

We received the 2010 royalty statement today. Still no check though.

#22 Kyle Boddy (see all posts) 2011/06/02 (Thu) @ 14:01

I don’t see #11/Tango as a non-answer at all. It’s pretty clear.

#23 (see all posts) 2011/06/04 (Sat) @ 13:39

I know a small publisher of primarily academic books that would likely be interested if you want to claim breach of contract and get out of the Potomac contract. My royalty payments were always on time and they paid twice per year.

#24 Geri Monsen (see all posts) 2011/07/21 (Thu) @ 01:10

Sheesh. Still no answer?

#25 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/07/21 (Thu) @ 16:50

We have not heard back from them.

#26 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/08/01 (Mon) @ 09:57

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/the_book_authors_seeking_outside_counsel_licensed_in_nj_or_va/

#27 (see all posts) 2011/08/11 (Thu) @ 11:02

Apparently you are not alone in your dispute with Potomac.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/48310-potomac-books-struggling-to-pay-its-authors.html

#28 Tangotiger (see all posts) 2011/08/11 (Thu) @ 11:16

I just started a new thread on it, thanks:

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/potomac_books_struggles_to_pay_writers/