Breaking My Silence on Aspen Mountain Press--Part 3: Epilogue

I had to take a few days off and NOT think about Aspen Mountain Press. After all, I have my own business to think about and my own writing career.  But now, at the conclusion of a hellish week, I've decided to follow the links to my blog all over the internet and see what people were saying and thinking about what's happened at AMP.  As a result of that trek, there are a few things I want to discuss.

There seems to be a common thread among the comments that the AMP authors and staff are sitting back doing nothing.  That's about as far away from the truth as you can get.  

Stop and think for a minute. Would it be prudent or wise to discuss LEGAL actions on the internet?  Of course not. Why would anyone exploring legal avenues discuss their plans online, where not only people who are not involved can see them but the party against whom such actions would be taken?  Several of the AMP authors are attorneys, and an attorney had seen my documentation before I ever said a word.

On top of that, the AMP authors have been anything but passive.  Unlike previous small press implosions, this group of authors banded together and worked out a concrete strategy for dealing with AMP.  (And no, I wasn't the one who did that. I and the other staffers who'd walked were keeping our noses out of it as much as possible, in the hopes that our departure would galvanize the owner into rectifying some of the more serious breaches of contract.)  They managed to get AMP books taken down from third party sites pretty much across the board.  A few sites still carry AMP products, and they are now the focus of that group of authors.  

Anyone who's not involved can proffer advice to contact the FBI, the DA, the IRS, etc etc.  That's not a problem. What IS a problem is the assumption that these authors were too stupid or too scared to do that.  Whatever is posted on these blogs by AMP authors and staff is just the merest surface of what's going on.  

In the end, though, there are lessons to be learned here--lessons for every writer out there.  First off, there is NO SUCH THING as a contract that can't be negotiated.  In our eagerness to sign on the dotted line and get our works published, there are sections of the contract we rarely pay attention to.  The first publishing contract I signed, I never even THOUGHT about taking a look at the breach of contract section.  I just never considered it likely that the company would fall apart. I never thought to make sure there was an out clause for me if the company disintegrated.  I was naive. Many new writers are. 

Second, as soon as communication starts to become a problem--and particularly with a sole proprietorship--you need to address that issue IMMEDIATELY.  That seems to be the number one symptom of imminent implosion.

Third, I believe all writers at small presses need to have the mysteries of royalties eradicated.  When we started Musa, one of the key points for us was developing a database for our authors to be able to track their sales in real time.  We want our authors to know exactly what they're getting paid and when.  As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason to keep writers ignorant of how they're going to be paid.  Not one. 

Fourth and finally, if the unthinkable happens follow the example of the AMP authors.  Band together with other authors in the company.  Determine a set strategy. Follow through on that strategy absolutely.  When a retail giant like Amazon pulls a company's books due to complaints from that company's authors, you know the strategy will work.

This blog is the absolute last word I have regarding Aspen Mountain Press, its owner Sandra Hicks, and the resultant actions. Ever. And while I am still really pissed off that matters have come to this, I am also grieved as well.  Sandra Hicks was my friend and mentor. The health problems she is experiencing are very real.  Does that excuse her actions in my eyes? No, it doesn't.  She's not been ignorant of my opinions regarding sending checks out without royalty statements or her lack of communication. There's a year's worth of correspondence to support this contention. 

There are still questions that I and the rest of AMP need answers for.  Are our royalties/salaries going to be paid?  When?  Is AMP reverting all rights to the authors and closing down?  If so, when?  Are we going to be provided an accounting for the royalties we received--or didn't receive--over the past 15-18 months?  If so, when?

My opinion is that only a certified CPA can untangle the AMP accounts enough to make that accounting to the authors.That's not what bothers me.  What bothers me the most is that while AMP authors weren't getting paid their royalties, that money was being used by the owner for things that it shouldn't have been.  

That, my friends, is the cold, hard, unpleasant truth.

This week, I was asked by a journalist in AMP's home town for an interview.  After much thought, I decided that these blog posts were going to be my final statement about Aspen Mountain Press. I discussed this with the remainder of the senior staff that walked with me from AMP, and as one of them put it: "I think that is hitting below the belt.  You were trying to protect authors and help them.  Writing about her in her home town is a witch hunt."

That's a sentiment I agree with entirely. 

Let's be frank here--we're not talking about a multi-million dollar company here.  We're talking about a small publisher who, quite frankly, got overwhelmed at a time when her inexperience cost her dearly.  Once in the trap, she kept digging herself deeper until she couldn't find her way out.  To be honest, her biggest mistake was getting into the publishing business at all.  She understood the publishing--not the business. What needs to happen now between AMP and its authors/staff can be boiled down to the following:

1) The immediate and unequivocal release of all books and contracts still held by the company.

2) The immediate audit of the AMP books by an accountant who is not involved with the situation.

3) The immediate accounting of all royalties due to each author.

4) The remuneration of any and all unpaid royalties and salary to each unpaid author and staffer.

That's it. Period.  Once that happens, everyone--including the owner--can move on to a new chapter in their lives.  And then, AMP can be held up as another cautionary tale on the gate of the bone yard where small presses go to die. 

And THAT, my friends, is all she wrote.

No more Aspen Mountain Press.  Godspeed.

ETA--Or maybe not.  Today, my attention was brought to the owner's Facebook page--a page that's nothing but Bible quotes and updates about things like going to a concert.  So the owner is too ill to right the ship and two hours of work saps her energy, but she is still well enough to post on Facebook and attend concerts?

On top of that, an AMP author (book lost in limbo) contacted me today claiming AMP had written to HIM. asking him if he wanted his rights back OR if he wanted to publish with AMP.  Due to this new turn of events, I have to reluctantly conclude that AMP's owner has no intention of closing and will reopen the AMP website for business before the sixty day window stipulated in the contract has passed.  

Interesting Developments

This morning, I woke up to a threatening message left as a comment on my blog.

Now granted, there are several people I can think of right off the top of my head who might feel compelled to leave such a comment on my  blog. Obviously, considering the nature of my past few posts I would have been an idiot not to change my comments over to moderation. I tend to NOT be an idiot--at least, not all the time--so I was fortunate enough to weed that comment out in the skimmer.

*shrug*  I'm really only an idiot about silly things, like forgetting to turn the heat on last night when I knew the temperature was going to get down to the low forties. (in other words, it's damn cold in here this morning). But one thing I'm most definitely NOT an idiot about is how people behave.  Years of bartending kind of wean you off the surprise thing.  But even then, strange reactions are kind of acceptable in a way.  Someone can have a few too many and shoot off at the mouth without really meaning to and BAM!  Bar brawl.

This is different.

I have to ask myself--who wants me to keep silent? Who thinks they can scare me into shutting up?  The list of suspects is fairly small; pretty much limited to the posts on my front page.  I figure it's someone who either wants me to keep quiet about Aspen Mountain Press, someone who didn't appreciate me outing self-plagiarism, or someone who has a strong reason to want to scare me from a personal situation. And since I'm reasonably certain that the only person who is involved in the latter can neither read nor spell, I have to look at the other two.

Let me make myself perfectly clear: I don't respond to threats. I don't really give a crap about anything a coward hiding behind an Anonymous handle might think about me, about my decisions, or about my right to speak out. I really, really don't.

That being said--

There's been some movement on the Aspen Mountain Press debacle.  Authors are starting to get rights reversion letters, which is great.  The website is down, with the following message:

The Aspen Mountain Press web site is temporarily suspending operations.
Over the past five years we've demanded high standards in all areas of the company from authors to editors to administrators.  Due to the current health of the owner these standards have not been met. 

We'd like to thank you for your support and patronage over this past half decade and apologize for any inconveniences this decision causes.

Also, checks of third party sites reveal that there are very few AMP books to be found for sale.  Even Amazon, apparently, has taken many AMP books down.  


All of this is good news.  When the AMP website was pulled, a new countdown clock started up.  Contractually, (Section XIX) if AMP suspends operations for sixty days, all rights revert to the authors immediately.  So this is great news, particularly when paired with the authors who had their own countdowns started over thirty days ago with notification of breach of contract.  Those countdown clocks are 90 day clocks. So right now, the authors who have not received rights reversion letters are keeping a weather eye on the AMP site.


However, I've not heard of any authors or staff getting paid.  Indications are that AMP is getting rights reversion letters out first and then turning to the salaries and royalties still owed. For the time being, therefore, while there is progress many AMP authors are not satisfied.  Latest word from Ms. Hicks, the owner, has reverted once more on the subject of having enough money to pay AMP authors and staff and now says she has the money for back wages and royalty payments.  


So hopefully, the small signs of progress are indicative of real progress and not just good intentions.


I have hopes that AMP and Ms. Hicks are going to do the right thing.  As I've said before, I've known Sandra for years, and she has been a friend and mentor to me. I don't believe she ever set out to deliberately harm her authors, staff or company; I think she was just overwhelmed But in the eyes of the law, and the people who are suffering as the result of this debacle, intent counts for little when set against the reality of the AMP staff and authors' very real and legitimate complaints. 

So despite the fact that the countdown clock has now begun for over 400 books and contracts and over a hundred authors.  Unless an author receives a reversion of rights letter, none of those books are freed from AMP.  On top of that, if the owner decides to reopen fifty-nine days after the notice, the authors are still entangled with AMP: Charles Wells, Esther Mitchell, Andy Dunn, Kimberly Nee, Grace Wen, Samantha Combs, and Barbara Custer are just some of the authors currently trapped in AMP contracts or contesting their royalties.  No authors and staff have received royalties since July—the month the senior staff did the royalties—and those funds remain unpaid.

Ignoring problems doesn't make them go away. As long as the books are ensnared by Aspen Mountain Press and the authors and staff are denied their royalty payments, Aspen Mountain Press has become the latest cautionary tale and warning to writers.

Even self-plagiarists.

So much for threats. I am not intimidated that easily.  

Breaking The Silence on Aspen Mountain Press Part Two

Today's post will be much shorter.  The past couple of days have been very wearing on me. And I do have a business to run instead of forever worrying about what's going on with Aspen Mountain Press.

Here are Aspen Mountain Press's and owner Sandra Hicks's responses today.

1) Today the Aspen Mountain Press website went back online.  None of the out of contract books were taken down.  The site has not been updated.  AMP authors believe that after being served with a DMCA notice and having the site taken down, AMP has just moved to a new host.  

2) After her post of yesterday morning (that you can see here on my blog) where she assured the authors that she had the money to pay the authors, today she told an author that she actually has NO money to pay the authors and that she isn't worried about criminal charges because she hasn't done anything wrong.

3) One author received a rights reversion in the mail today, but when the site went back up all of her books were still on it and still offered for sale.

Okay, let's just be blunt here.  I'm not sure what happened to Ms. Hicks to such a degree that yesterday, she claimed there was money for all the authors but today, she claims there is none.  Unless I get a sizable check in the mail in the next couple of days for the salary and royalties I'm owed, I'm going to assume the funds that AMP should be holding for its authors in a standard royalties arrangement, money that does NOT belong to AMP but belongs to its writers and editors who are owed money, has been used for purposes other than what they are intended to be used for. 

This is October.  Third party sites usually pay 45-60 days after the end of the quarter for those quarterly sales.  So AMP was paid in May for the first quarter; August for the second quarter; and should be paid in November for the third quarter.   AMP authors and staff should receive royalties 45 days after the end of the month that is the pay period.  So July should have been paid in September, August in October and so forth. So at this moment, in addition to all the AMP website payments--also paid 45 days after the end of the pay period--AMP authors are unpaid for one quarter and soon to be TWO quarters of third party sites, THREE months of AMP web sales and Amazon sales, PLUS any unpaid royalties from previous pay periods.

Where exactly DID those thousands of dollars of sales go?  The last quarter I did editor royalties for before we took over, a royalties quarter missing over a hundred already-released titles on third party sites, the sum of AMP royalties for the quarter were substantial. The months of June and July, the senior staff put all those books up for sale on the third party sites (hours they never got paid for) and AMP posted an average sales increase for that month in the double digits. Significant double digits.  I can put together a fairly accurate estimate of royalties for both those quarters and probably low ball it in the process.  If I were really ambitious, and I may be, I could just go through the AMP sales records in my possession from my tenure as managing editor this summer and figure out EXACTLY how much AMP got paid. 

I think there needs to be an accounting for those funds IMMEDIATELY.  We are NOT talking about small change here. We are talking about six months of sales on third party sites, three months of sales on Amazon and the AMP website and for the first of those two quarters I have the figures sitting right in front of me. So, let me reiterate: I KNOW HOW MUCH ASPEN MOUNTAIN PRESS WAS PAID FOR THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2011.  I can hazard a VERY good educated guess about what AMP was/will be paid for the THIRD quarter of 2011. Actually, I know how much Aspen Mountain Press was paid for all of 2010 and half of 2009 too. 

And if the owner of AMP does NOT have the money--then where is it?

We may never know. 

Regardless of what happened with the money issues, these facts are patently clear:

1) AMP authors have still NOT been paid the royalties due them.

2) AMP staff members have NOT been paid the royalties due them.

3) The AMP website miraculously returned to the Internet today, which couldn't have happened if the owner  was incapacitated.

4) When the site went back up, AMP still had the out of contract books still offered for sale.

5) Even authors who received letters of rights reversion in the mail today are STILL seeing their books offered for sale on the AMP website.

AMP authors need to know and follow through on this one major, unavoidable fact: Aspen Mountain Press is CONTRACTUALLY REQUIRED to present each author a royalty statement for each month's check with the reasonable measures of available technology.  Even if you did not make any sales, Aspen Mountain Press is CONTRACTUALLY REQUIRED to send you a royalty statement for that month. The contract clause regarding this reads as follows: 

XIII. Payments and Statements
Publisher shall pay Author royalties in accordance with a schedule to be determined at Publisher’s discretion but in no event shall payment be made later than forty-five (45) days from the end of the month royalties are collected.  Royalties will be calculated from the first of the month through the last day of the same month.  Payment shall be made by Paypal, or corporate check, to Author or Author’s authorized agent.

Author understands that royalties will be paid in the following month copies of the Work are paid for by consumers, distributors or vendors, not to exceed forty-five (45) days after the end of the payment period.  If distributors or vendors delay payment to Publisher, Publisher is not obligated to pay the royalty until it has been paid by the distributor or vendor.

Publisher agrees to take such reasonable measures as Publisher’s sales technology permits to obtain and include, in royalty statements, information about the number of copies created, shipped, sold, and if appropriate, returned for each Digital / Print Format edition of the Work whether sold from Publisher’s website or through other channels of distribution.

Let me tell you what reasonable measures you have to take to show the sales for a specific work in a given month.  I'll work with one of my books. You go to the spreadsheet, you select the row of the book, you copy and then you--:

   Metamorphosis *editor name* 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0.00 0.00

--paste the numbers into another document.

I timed myself; that took two seconds,

The 'reasonable measure' you need to take, the 'reasonable measure' of technology you need is the following: a spreadsheet, provided by the vendors; a new document or email to paste into; and a computer.

If you want to get REALLY fancy, you paste a line up top that has the column names in it.  Here, let me show you:

Title Editor Amazon-May Sales FW-1stqtr Sales Bookstrand 1 qtr Sales ARE 1st qtr Sales 1PR 1st qtr Sales AMP-May Sales New Release Other CK AMT      

Metamorphosis *editor name* 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0 $0.00 0.00 0.00       

(On a wider screen it lines up better. But this is still not incomprehensible.)

For editor royalties, all you have to do is copy and paste ALL the books/lines under that editor's name--a task I made much simpler and easier by putting BIG RED LINES in between each editor on the spreadsheet.  You don't even have to use a calculator, because I set up the spreadsheet with the formulas needed so the program did the math for you.

 But even without the royalty statements, AMP is in breach of contract for NON PAYMENT OF ROYALTIES for over TWO months at midnight.  Three months is...ninety days, give or take.  AMP will hit that ninety day mark with almost every author and staff member on November 15.

AMP  has resurrected its website and kept for one purpose and one purpose only: to continue to sell books as long as possible. The owner believes that the 90 day clause to address breaches of contract is protecting her--that NONE of these complaints are really problems because she has that ninety day clause.  That is NOT how it works.  The 90 days clause is there to protect the owner against ACCIDENTAL breaches of contract, not flagrant violations of every contract in the company.  And, it seems like she will go on intentionally refusing to release authors who have not been paid in well over 90 days. Here, too, is where the certified and registered letters piling up in her mailbox comes into play.  She seems to think that if she personally does not sign for a certified or registered letter, then the 90 period outlined in the contract for breaches has not been triggered.

She appears to be unaware that the countdown on the 90-day clock started the moment an employee of Mailboxes, who is an agent for her, signed for those pieces of mail.

AMP has used up what good faith it once had.  There is no reason for anyone to believe that AMP intends to pay its authors or staff.  Whether these concerns are intentional on the owner's part or the result of some external factors that prevent her from understanding the potentially devastating consequences to her if she continues to play ducks and drakes with money that is not rightfully hers I cannot and do not know.  

But I do know this: today, AMP took a major step backwards. AMP is  now no longer a publisher. Now Aspen Mountain Press is nothing more than an electronic pirate, capitalizing off the stranded and breached contracts of authors the company is refusing to let go.

For me, in the end, this isn't about the money. I honestly believe that many AMP authors would be willing to forgive their back royalties in exchange for the rights to their books. For me, this is about the books and the authors who are trapped by this publisher.  Whether the owner's intentions are good and she just can't face up to the amount of work that's needed to rectify the problems at AMP or whether she is intentionally withholding funds and causing hardship for her authors and staff is no longer the question.

The question is: how can  these authors and their intellectual property be freed from a non-functional publisher?