THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Wow, that really sucks, MGL/Tom. Hopefully things get straightened out sooner rather than later, for you guys.

I’m very sad to hear that, looks like Potomac has problems. 

I hope it works out ok for you guys!

Wow what a nightmare. Good luck on getting your $$ in a timely fashion guys (in the future, that is).

Thanks. It is not so much that we want to “cry” on our site.  We don’t actually.  It is that we told them (Potomac) that if we didn’t receive payment we would let everyone know the situation on our blog and we want to be true to our word....

I didn’t realize that Potomac was a movie studio.  These things are commonplace Out Here.

Good luck, guys.  You will eventually prevail.

I really hope you guys get your money for this, it’s ridiculous that a legitimate company would do such a thing. But I’m sure you’ll make it all back and then some once they come out with “The Book: The Movie” starring Tom Hanks.

I wouldn’t count on a movie working out any better.  After billions in sales, last I heard JRR Tolkein’s kids had yet to receive any royalties and were involved in legal action.

Good luck guys, but it looks like the man is trying to stick it to you.

Some companies operate on a simple concept: Accounts Payable is really Payments Delayable

The Book: The Movie.  That’s hilarious!  Then again, if they can make a movie out of Moneyball, anything is possible.

Thanks again, guys.

Wow, sucks. My copy of The Book just showed up at my doorstep, and to learn you aren’t getting anything from it is just stupid.

Good luck, and stick it to ‘em.

Regarding “The Book: The Movie”; I could see Al Pachino as MGL, and John Cusack as the young aspiring Sabermetrician, Tom Tango.  Then Joe Morgan, played by Morgan Freeman, kills MGL and Tango is left to defend the world against “consistency” and “Davey Conception”.

Well, this sucks.  Good luck and happy hunting!

Note to self: Self-publish.

Ridiculous!  It really is stunning to me how some businesses can act this way.  It sounds like theft to me.

Never thought about that, but I suppose it is stealing.  How would the publisher be any different than someone who downloads songs without paying for it?

We need an Aaron Gleeman movement like he had with Johan Santana.

Maybe they have a very large sample of people they’ve screwed out of money and have had great success doing it, and so even though you guys have been very adamant about payment over the very short time they’ve interacted with you, they still project your true desire to get money relatively low.

(Best of luck with this: had a friend in a similar situation and has seen just a fraction of the money owed to him...)

Gents—I had the same experience with these clowns. Sorry to hear about it. I eventually got paid but it took way longer than stated in the contract. Best of luck with it.

Lucky for us MGL has a law degree, so we have virtually no legal costs.

Former/17: I’d love to hear more, if you are so inclined.  Do they still own the publishing rights, or did they revert back to you, etc.

Feel free to email me at:
tom~tangotiger~net
replacing the ~ as appropriate, if you want more discretion.

Self-publish:

Yes, we should have continued that route.  Our first edition was self-published, and we did great.  Sales slowed down near the end, so we figured that was the end, so we may as well just sell the rights.  The next baseball season, there was a new wave of buyers, almost as if we tapped into a new market.  I’m guessing word-of-mouth and maybe this blog started a new wave.  The Book is always in the top 10 best-seller list for its category, even though we are a very tiny blog.

Anyway, after we sold the rights, Amazon came out with its Amazon Fulfillment program. Had this been in effect, we would have simply gone that way, maintained full rights, while we pay a very fair price to Amazon for fulfillment (and qualify for free supersaver shipping too).  It would have been fantastic.

As it stands, well, we get the publisher’s equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”.  They must have a list of ready-made excuses that they go through.

I’d love to get my day in court, so that all the facts can be presented and preserved, and judgement cast. 

The amount is not even excessive.  It’s 4-digits.  And we’re one of their bestsellers in the whole company:
http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/Bestsellers.aspx

You should have told us before the SABR convention ... we could have picketed their table, or posted warnings to potential authors, or even just brought it up at the committee meetings.  I’d imagine SABR members are very important to them, both as customers and authors.

I have yet to read The Book, but love the site and The Book is on my “to purchase” list. Do you guys have any sort of Amazon referral or the like set up, so you can at least get a cut that way?

Right, if you click on the Amazon link at the top of any page of this site, we get the Amazon cut.  That’s funny, that we get more money from Amazon than the publisher.

Phil: I found out that someone at Potomac was there on Saturday.  I did not know that they had a table and stuff.  SABR was (unknowingly) sanctioning their practices.

I don’t know how the people who work at Potomac can show their faces in public as if nothing is wrong.  I’d like them to say: “We withhold payment to our authors.  Buy their book!”

Not to take anything away from The Book, which is awesome, but another one of Potomac’s best-sellers is “The Rocket: Baseball Legend Roger Clemens,” which includes the following bit in its description:

“Baseball’s image when Clemens first started in the halcyon days of the mid-1980s quickly dissolved into that of a sport saddled with crises and scandals, such as gambling, steroids, strikes, and fan distrust. But Clemens rose above it all and has set an example for the fans, who he says are the reason for his hard work on the mound each game.”

And later: “Written for baseball fans of all ages and all levels of knowledge of the game, The Rocket shows why baseball is America’s pastime and why some stars still deserve to be idolized.”

Good times…

If I were you, here’s what I’d do: Sue to have the publication rights returned to you. Hire an agent to get you a new publisher. Given the track record of success of The Book, I’m sure that you would have no trouble finding a new publisher. A good agent would know which publishers actually pay their writers and probably be able to negotiate a more lucrative deal than you presently enjoy (well, surely it would be more lucrative that you presently actually enjoy, but I’m thinking more lucrative than you presently in principle enjoy). Not that you’re ever going to make a lot of money on it. To go back to the start of this comment about if I were you, the thing that would be most important to me is making sure that Potomac is not longer in control of the fruits of my labor.

Right we are going to initiate legal action.

If you google:
potomac books payment

Our thread is the #3 website in the world.

Heck, go back to the self-publish route with Amazon fulfillment. You made, what, a buck off each book Potomac sold? How many would you make self-publishing? Eight, nine, ten?

It sounds like Potomac at least increased your market—you said the book had tapped out, so chances are it’d just tapped out on the smaller market of “folks who read this blog.” I wonder if you’d be able to use the Amazon program and then maybe find a freelance distributor who would add it to their current catalog or something like that?

I had the same problem, fellas. Good luck. I’m suing to get my publishing rights back. Do it now before they’re sold, at which your book will go into the ether and never come back.

From the Potomac Books Twitter feed:

would like to see more of our authors tweeting...come on, get to it!
12:46 PM Jun 23rd from web

Tango, FPA, or AFPA care to take them up on this offer?

Another/29: please contact me:
tom~tangotiger~net
replace ~ as appropriate.

We might be able to leverage each other.

Potomac Twitter feed: wow, ballsy of them.

Glad to hear you at least got something when I got it from your amazon link.

I’m tempted to give them a bad twitter shout-out. We’ll see.

I see that we’ve got a few referrals from Facebook.  Gives me an idea to start a Facebook group: Potomac Books Authors.

Potomac aren’t a particularly big publisher, and there’s a cash-flow chain here where big publishers are in a better position to demand what they are owed than smaller outfits, and find it easier to resist demands from printers and other providers of services for payment. It could be the fault lies not with Potomac but with a book distributor not being willing/able to pay what they owe Potomac.

Also, there’s a good chance that the royalty statements, which should be reviewed by the relevant division’s head, are stacked up on a desk somewhere. It’s not always a high-priority job, and most publishers are understaffed.

I don’t want to defend such practices, and I have been a victim of slow payment myself for books I’ve written, but to some extent it goes with the territory. The recession has intensified a problem that I am familiar with from my last full-time job in publishing, which ended in 03.

I’m currently talking to someone (not Potomac) about revising a book. I happen to know that this outfit was in trouble earlier this year, but seems to have solved it by scoring a best-seller. I’d be surprised if I saw a penny before next spring.

I’m tempted to give them a bad twitter shout-out. We’ll see.

I am too, but wouldn’t do so without consent.

Actually, I won’t give my consent for anyone to do anything.

What we’re doing is laying out the facts and our experiences, and letting people respond with their own free will to those facts and experiences.

I didn’t mean it like that, Tango.  I just mean that while I am tempted to reply to their twitter with a link to this post, I wouldn’t do so if you all didn’t approve.  Anyway, I will leave it alone.  Good luck. 

Side question:  As a Canadian buyer, am I still able to buy books through your link and get you your cut?  Or is it nixed since I’ll be sent to amazon.ca?

"Actually, I won’t give my consent for anyone to do anything.

What we’re doing is laying out the facts and our experiences, and letting people respond with their own free will to those facts and experiences.”

Right, we want to remain professional and dispassionate.  We just want to lay out the facts with no editorializing, so speculation (for example, as to why we have not been paid yet and why payment was delayed in the past), and no asking or suggesting that anyone do anything in particular.

I think we also wanted to let them know that we wield a little power in the same market that tends to buy their books, at least their sports books.  We did give them ample warning that we were going to post “the facts” on our blog unless the situation was resolved right away.  I think we are handling everything more than appropriately and a lot of thought and discussion has gone on among us to make sure we are doing the right thing (of course, we’ve done nothing wrong - it is not like there are two sides to the dispute).

If someone wants to do something on their own, that is their prerogative.

BTW, our contact at Potomac, sent us this email today:

Dear Mitchell,

We are not disputing the facts, and believe me, I am trying to move heaven and hell to get you paid. I’ll know for certain tomorrow from Accounting as to status of payment.

I want to get this fixed; if I could write the check myself I would.

Best,

Sam

Again, thanks for all the support and suggestions!

Maybe the CEO is a former insurance company CEO.

To me,it sounds like a weakness in one area of their
business;perhaps the accounting department lacks
the recquired people,and is over-run with a backlog
of work?

I wrote three books for those folks and had a similar experience… always late with royalty statements and payments.  Unfortunately, this is not uncommon for midlist publishers, who often face cash flow issues. 

However, Potomac (formerly Brassey’s) has operated this way for so long it seems to be their policy to screw authors just because they can.

My best advice to you guys… get an agent.  The success of the book and your blog should open doors at much better publishing houses, either for your next project or for a reprint of this one.

.

My guess is that they “don’t have” the money.  Good luck getting your money, especially since you donate a chunk of it to charity.
vr, Xei

A google of just:
potomac books
Puts this very thread at #2.

Tango/44: Sign out of your google account before you search to get a more accurate sense of your google ranking.

Anon: thanks.  I really thought that we were making a dent here.

If I go in “blind”, we are at the bottom of page 2.  Not bad, but not as good as I thought.

"Yet another former Potomac author” gives me an interesting thought. Since you said your contract with Potomac was for a “reprint,” is there anything in there about new editions? If not, tack on an extra chapter or two at the end, call it a new edition, and start shopping it around to other houses! If it’s simply a reprint, then Potomac shouldn’t hold any copyright on the information, correct? They’re just able to sell THAT EDITION. Or is there something I’m missing?

If it helps, I clicked the amazon link and ordered the book that way (I’d been meaning to anyway).  I have Amazon Prime so the shipping is ‘free’, but I do have to pay Washington State sales tax. 

Potomac presumably has lost more potential from this thread than they conceivably got in goodwill at the SABR convention, since word of mouth from here to SABR members is going to move quickly.

Good luck with your suit.  I would not let the fact that they paid you, if they do pony up the cash, get in the way of getting your rights back.

I ain’t no lawyer—and MGL is—but isn’t it the law that once one party has breached a contract in a significant way, the other party can cancel it? 

Just wondering.

Phil, #49, it depends on whether the breach is a material breach.  Certainly non-payment of royalties on a publishing contract is a material breach.  If payment is eventually made, it is unclear to me, without some legal research, whether the contract can be voided or not.  It probably can if the delay is significant and if there is a pattern of delay throughout the period of the contact.  We’ll see.

I received an email from our contact at Potomac. He said that payment will be sent out on Thursday and that the company has had cash flow problems due to the economy in general and returns of unsold copies from retailers.  I’m not sure I get that excuse, but I don’t know anything about the publishing business. To me, you print a book (pretty cheaply I assume), you sell it for $15, you give a dollar or two to the authors and you split the rest with the retailer or with Amazon.  It’s not rocket science and there isn’t much overhead.  But, as I said, I don’t know anything about that business.

He also said that he had some personal issues to contend with and that he was unable to respond to all his emails and take care of some of his business.  I am paraphrasing.

Finally, he said that the negative publicity from this blog posting has done some damage to the company and that they are getting a lot of negative emails.  I told him that was not our intention.  Our intention was to light a fire under them. We gave them an opportunity to send us our payment before the blog entry was made.  He was not angry about the blog post, at least he did not express any anger in the email. 

Honestly, I don’t know if the email where we told them that if we did not receive payment we would make this blog post was not read by him in time or if it was ignored.  He implied the former.  Not our fault of course.

Ah, the joys of business!

MGL, I used to work for a small NY publisher, so perhaps I can shed some light for you. As you state, the publisher has to split things with Amazon or the retailer. Most places now get 55% off any book—WITH the right to return it if it doesn’t sell. That’s highway robbery. Over the years the retailers have bit by bit taken more and more discounts. Why? Because we HAVE to sell through them.

So now that $15 book is down to $6.75 for the publisher. Depending on what kind of royalty you get—10%? 15%—that’s between $0.67 and $1.00 per book that eventually gets to the author. But there’s the print cost to consider, which for a PB is probably between $1-2, marketing costs, any copyediting/proofreading done (likely none for a reprint, though) and the overhead of salaries, buildings, etc. So it’s not as easy to make money off a book as some might think.

That said, the way Potomac does business is not the way reputable companies do so. Cash flow problems is one thing, but for four months? And each year? That sounds more like poor budgeting and planning than a cash flow problem. Given that I’ve read similar comments from multiple authors with multiple books over multiple years, and I tend to think that they’re one of those companies that won’t pay you until they have to. The fact that they rolled over when you introduced a lawyer into things shows that they have the money, in my eyes. They can’t just “find” money to send you—it had to be there and they just didn’t want to send it yet; it wasn’t on their list of priorities.

I wish you luck in getting your rights back if that’s what you desires. I know my company had some pretty solid contracts, so it can be hard for authors to get out of it. We were never this bad, though, so if anyone has a claim to get rights back, I’d say it’s you.

We get about $1.50 a book (we get 15%, so that means our 21.95 list price book is being sold at around 10$ to the merchants).

Since our contact said payment is going out today, I will “unsticky” this thread for a few days.  I’ll be looking at the postmark too.

He said that payment will be sent out on Thursday and that the company has had cash flow problems due to the economy in general and returns of unsold copies from retailers.

That sounds legitimate. Most publishers are effectively shoe-string operations, living month-to-month on cash flow. Paying taxes, suppliers and meeting payroll are higher up the budget pecking order than royalty payments to authors. You end up paying last season’s royalties out of this season’s sales, because the money isn’t ring-fenced as it comes in. Instead it goes into one big pot to meet all the company’s needs.

All my experience is with English book publishers, though. I’m not sure how things are different in North America.

I do remember a conversation I once had with an ‘old hand’ about the business. Everybody knows too many books are being published. Nobody wants to cut back on the number of books in their programme because it would make it harder to meet prior commitments. So more titles sell the same number of copies overall. To reduce overhead they cut back on staff, who set up their own little packaging or publishing companies, who offer more titles and the cycle continues.

It worked better before chain stores and Amazon achieved the clout to demand big discounts, as well as, in Britain, the reduction in local library budgets. Those budgets now have to cover DVDs and music CDs, thus curtailing a source of regular income that previously made publishing a good profession. It’s a mug’s game. I always tell younger folk I meet who want to get into publishing, ‘don’t do it’.

#51, thanks for the insight.  They do no proofreading, editing, etc.  No marketing or publicity that I am aware of either, other than their web site.

I guess what I am thinking is that they pretty much know all of those costs in advance. Either they know they are going to make money if a book sells at least X copies or they don’t.  In our case, according to Tango (I don’t really follow these things), we are one of their best sellers, so they can’t say that our book doesn’t sell enough for them to make any money.

The other thing that annoys me a little is this: 

If you are a business having money or cash flow problems or whatever, I can see delaying payment to various creditors and vendors (although even then, that is not the way I operate - I owned a laundromat and we were doing horribly and I kept making payments on time to everyone out of my own pocket).  But if you are selling something for someone, and giving them a piece of the selling price (a small one at that) which is essentially what they are doing, you are under an obligation to pay them their piece regardless of how your business is doing.  You are essentially holding on to their money and you don’t have a right to spend it to cover your expenses in other areas of your company or in any areas for that matter.  At least that is the way I look at it.  They are essentially “manufacturing” our book for us and then selling it for us on consignment.  They don’t have any right whatsoever, I don’t think, to keep any monies (royalties) when someone buys a book.  When someone buys a book, $1.50 or whatever it is, should go into an escrow account for us - period.  That they don’t have to release that escrow account other than once per year is a courtesy and a benefit to them.  To abuse that benefit and courtesy, well…

Anyway, I said that I was not going to editorialize about the situation, and I am getting close to that line, so I will wrap this post up…

If delaying payment to your partners (the authors) and continually breaching contracts is “standard procedure” for small publishing companies, perhaps that is one of the CAUSES of their financial problems rather than one of the consequences.  What I mean, of course, is that that is a bad way to do business, and if you operate a business in a bad way, eventually that will hurt your business.  Breaching contracts and pissing off your partners can NOT be the proper way to do business, can it?  That can’t be GOOD for your bottom line in the long run can it?

Perhaps rather than telling people not to go into the publishing business, you should tell people that if you go into the publishing business and honor your contracts and treat everyone with integrity, honest, and respect, and keep your word, you will get ALL the business and money will be dripping our of your pockets!

In fact, that is exactly what I tell people about business in general.  Obviously you have to know how to operate a business, nuts and bolts-wise.  But in order to have a successful business (and be able to sleep at night), you have to do 3 things:  One, charge a fair price.  Two, be honest.  Three, keep your word about everything, including showing up on time, honoring all deadlines, and doing what you say your are going to do, no matter what.

I like the idea of escrow.

Two years ago I did a couple of subcontracts for a company in business about five years. They were very nice to work for, except when waiting for the check.

The $5k for the first job took about 6 months, they apologized, and then gave me another job. They promised prompt payment. That job was also $5k, but that one took 9 months. I called or emailed about every two weeks. The client hadn’t paid them, so they didn’t have money to pay me. My work was done on time with no complaints about quality. All they could say is they didn’t have the money. Not like I didn’t have bills to pay.

What would have been the downside of a company in this situation going to the bank to get a loan? Pay me, then pay off the bank when the client pays them.

If nothing else, when a company slow pays you, they should pay you interest.  That should go without saying.  When I’m late on my credit card, they charge me interest.  Imagine that.

#55 & 58 MGL

You are absolutely right in what you say in 58. In fact, in Britain one is entitled to add interest to an unpaid invoice after a time limit I’ve forgotten. You can ask, threaten, charge, and when you get paid, they don’t include the interest. It’s not often all that much, and not worth the hassle to claim.

But, existing on cash flow appears to be standard practice in ALL but one of the publishing firms I’ve worked with or for in recent years. It’s an awful business for many of the reasons you describe. The big companies can cope because someone somewhere has deep pockets; the small ones survive on the goodwill of their bankers.

The situation arises because there’s always someone in the chain who tries to rip off companies at either end. Sooner or later, like Gresham’s Law, bad behaviour drives out good.

The reason publishers have cash flow issues is returns. It’s universal, and all of the small and mid-sized publishers are very vulnerable.  Stores can return books for full refund at any time. So imagine that B&N orders 1000 copies, spreads them out to their stores, and then sends 800 unsold copies back a year later.  The publisher has to cough up that money to buy back books, a book which it probably will never be able to sell.  B&N over-estimated how many they could sell, and why not… there’s no risk to them.

Having said that, a good publisher understands these issues and builds their business model accordingly.  A reputable publisher will at least communicate with the author, and not come up with sad stories about personal problems.  I got the same song and dance from my Potomac editor back in 2004.  The fact is they simply can’t pay you what they owe you, and they don’t want to tell you that because when word spreads, their other creditors will get antsy. The big box stores will cancel orders and start returning everything, for fear that they will get stuck with books.

These are the risks of mid-list publishing, and while I’m happy to point out Potomac’s shortcomings, this sort of thing is going on other places, too.

Good luck, and don’t be afraid to be aggressive in pursuit of what’s owed you for fear of damaging the relationship.  I think that ship has sailed.

"Having said that, a good publisher understands these issues and builds their business model accordingly.”

That is the key of course.  Either a certain kind of business makes money or it doesn’t. You don’t start a company in order to lose money. You can never blame losing money or having cash flow problems on something that was FORESEEN.  That makes no sense.

And returns should NOT be a problem unless something happened that was not foreseen. If I know that 15% of all sales will end up as returns, then so what? Now if for 30 years 15% was the norm and then something unforeseen happens and I get 25% returns then that’s another story.

Saying that the “problem with publishers is returns” is like saying, “The problem with ANY manufacturing is that when the product breaks during the warranty period, they have to fix them for free,” or, “The problem with grocery stores is that some of the food has to be thrown out before it is sold.”

Those aren’t “problems.” They are part of the business.

If you say you are going to sell my books and give me my share of the profit (which is pretty meager) and you don’t plan on doing that (on time), then DON’T sell my books!  Period, end of story…

MGL, you wrote..."Saying that the “problem with publishers is returns” is like saying...”

That wasn’t what I said, actually.  I don’t think returns have anything to do with Potomac’s problems in general or in your case in particular.  If it were just mis-management, Potomac would have gone belly up years ago.

Just to let you guys know that they sent us a check yesterday, and we received it today (regular mail, if you can believe it… mighty quick).

We’ll keep you guys posted… thanks for your continued interest in our saga.

#62, you wrote “If it were just mis-management, Potomac would have gone belly up years ago.”

From what I was told by my editor at the time (who’s been long gone), they _would_ have done so if their one bestseller didn’t come along. They were ready to set me loose instead of paying my advance because they didn’t have the money. Then Imperial Hubris came along and they were able to keep me on board. Of course, by the very next year they were late on payments again.

I’ll be blunt: there’s horrible mismanagement at Potomac. It’s great that the guys here got their royalties, but what about the rest of the authors who don’t have a lawyer as a co-author who can threaten a lawsuit? How many of those folks still haven’t been paid this year? And when will they? I never received anything from Potomac on time. Never.

Potomac has had the same excuses (noted in previous posts) with me since ‘05--"economy" and “returns of unsold copies.” Potomac is well over two years past due on a submission advance for a book of mine in print for almost two years, and owes me 2007 and 2008 royalties. I’m withholding a third manuscript on the advice of an attorney until they pay me, although I’d prefer to have the contract voided and sell the book elsewhere. Never had a payment on time--several months late was the closest. Will never publish with them again.

We are in negotiations with them on how to proceed, even though we did, in fact, get paid for 2008 royalties, albeit several months after the contractual deadline.

I was told by someone at Potomac that they would prefer if this thread was “taken down” as it is bad publicity for them.  I explained to that person that we don’t “take down” threads, although obviously they eventually die and are buried.  I also explained to that person that we cordially gave them ample “warning” that we were going to start a thread fairly and dispassionately explaining the circumstances of the situation.  IOW, if they didn’t want a thread like this, all they had to do was pay us what they owed us and what was already late. I think we followed up on that in an honest and honorable fashion and we kept our word, which was that we were going to start the thread if we didn’t get paid.

He also mentioned that he hadn’t read the emails I sent him about the “warning” in time because he was away from the office (and didn’t access his emails) on important personal business.  I told him, “Well, that isn’t my responsibility to make sure that you read your emails in a timely fashion.”

That is about where we stand.

In the meantime, Potomac continues to sell our books for the time being and we encourage anyone who hasn’t read The Book and wants to, to purchase it from whatever venue is convenient for them.  I don’t know which one is best for us - Tango does - but it all emanates from Potomac anyway - they are the printers and the wholesalers.

And to continue our trend of being dispassionate and objective about our situation, I have no thoughts or opinions about Potomac in general. Other than the facts reported, they have not treated us in any particular way one way or another.  I’ll qualify that last sentence to add that that is my (MGL’s) personal opinion only.

There’s an ad for Tate Publishing on the bottom of this page.... coincidence?

Tate: Interesting, I see it too!

***

As for where to buy The Book, Amazon.com clearly gives the consumer the best deal, not to mention that we make nearly as much with Amazon, if the consumer buys more than just The Book in his order. 

As long as you click the link at the top left of any page, Amazon gives us a referral bonus, whether you buy The Book or not as part of your Amazon order.