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You two could be sisters ... and, after a fashion, so you are.

I thought you knew each other from living in CA as you are so close. Looks like a fun time was had by all. Thanks for sharing the visit. Sure went fast. Great photos. I am back to not being able to comment on some blogs again. This time it gives me no options. Big sigh.

absolutely fabulous photo of Robin. The first one, close up. Looks like you had much good weather and times. My friend who used to live in Bristol wandered the rocks like that and came home through the years with huge VATS of gorgeous sea glass.

Got an email and the application from Betsy Green but need to phone her and explain my finances (no income for example) and see if it is worth applying. Sight unseen. thanks for the tip and viewing.

Oh how wonderful these pictures are!!!!
Fabulous one of Robin! I saved that one .
Lovely animal Wednesday post. Bet you miss her. I know the feeling of saying goodbye to friends.......:(
But she will be back, I know!
And so will I one day

HAW!
♥M

Great photos, how awesome that y'all got to visit and explore together!

lovely lovely pics!

heey wonderwoman :):):) how it was with our amezing frends in rode island like emma brain and lolo and bliss i loveee the pictures xoxo felix

Lucky you having her for an entire week.

It sounds like such a wondeful time. Great photos. And I know how quiet your house is now without her. Thanks for letting us know what you all did.

a beautiful wonderful first photo of wrobin!

what a great tribute to a great visit. isn't it something else to forge and solidify relationships that begin with words and colors and computer keys and become deep and abiding frienships?

there are more photos, yes? i even have a few myself. :^)

good friends deserve good friends. this post affirms that. yay for you, yay for wrobin!

♥
kj

what lovely photos... and the butterfly fly too, one of my favorite subjects to capture.

thanks for sharing. :)

Oh you....my *sneaky* BS!!!! I had no idea you took most of those photos!!!!! Now everyone can see me trying to photograph - well - EVERYTHING!

All that you said, I feel DOUBLE!
The most WONDERFUL week I have had in years....it's the truth!

I miss you so much..... the week flew by..... will be sharing my photos soon.

MUWAH!

Love to you, Bri, Princess (I can still hear her *motor* going...) SH (I can still hear her *purring-growl* as she sees squirrels) and...Short-y!

♥ LS ♥

what a fantastic adventure you both had. lovely photos of robin, its easy to see how happy she was.
i hope your not missing her too too much dear lo. there are so many lovely memories to now enjoy.
xxx

Such a lovely day you had! It's nice to share with friends.

How wonderful to read you've met in real life!

I love this post!!!
It is so much fun to see fellow bloggers meet up, post about each other and see the delight of meeting.
IT--LOOKS--WONDERFUL!!!!

XXOO~~
Anne

I like the updated blog look! I totally agree with the adventure stories. I can't wait to read yours!

Thanks Michael! I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I read more and more adventure stuff.

Definitely dramatic - and really great too. And I completely love the seagulls!

But yanno. Professionalism and talking rationally to the people who can help solve the problem make more sense to me then running off at the mouth or blogging about your dissatisfaction.
"Please" , "thank you" and "Can we figure this out together?" go farther (I think).
I've heard the squeaky wheel gets grease but yanno sometimes they just replace the wheel...

Miss S, you are the rockinest. Thanks.

Trust me, Orion. I've tried. When a company responds to your requests for clarifcation by telling you "everybody knows" what it means, and refusing to actually answer you, there is no "talking rationally".

I wouldn't have asked the question if I thought there was a way to fix things without going public. (Not to mention I feel a responsibility to let other new authors know to be careful with this particular publisher.)

Never.
It'll come back and bite you in the ass.

Rather, assume the role as the diplomat, try to work things out or express your displeasure in a calm, professional way. You might even want a calm, articulate friend to accompany you to state your thoughts if you don't think you can hold it together.

If an agreement has not been reached and there is a contractual obligation that has not been met, you can decide whether or not you want to pursue legal action.

However, usually multiple letters written on your letterhead sent to all the players is usually enough to get things rolling. Letter are easy to send. Printing 20 is as easy as printing 1. Just make sure the tone of the letter is calm, points out the issues and your displeasure. But do not make threats of legal action unless you have the means to follow through. Lawsuits are no fun. They cost lots of money, and in the end, you might lose.

Real trash talk is only allowed when you are discussing publishers and/or agents who are actually scams. Publish America, vanity operations, fee-charging agents who never sell books, and so forth. Make totally sure that these operations are scams before complaining, though.

Not only do such entities deserve every bit of trash talking they receive, but the real publishing industry doesn't consider scam operations as part of itself, so that no legitimate publisher would get put off by you complaining loudly about a scam. They might think you were stupid for getting involved in a scam, but they won't think that you're a vindictive complainer. They'll know that your complaints were fully justified.

In fact, you are doing a service to the real publishing industry by distributing warnings about a scam.

If you're complaining about a legitimate publisher or agent, it is best to bring up your concerns directly with them and see if they can get solved at that level. If not, then some complaining is allowed, as long as it is polite and names specific, provable acts that happened to you. General sweeping statements are hard tp prove and are quite likely to make you look bad instead.

Be especially careful about complaining about slowness. The entire industry moves at a glacial speed, and it is thought that smart authors understand that.

The bigger question to me is what good you intend to do by airing your grievances. How will it change things for the better if more people know about your problems with them?

It's hard to remember one specific example about the time someone praised a publisher for something, but whenever someone trashes one you never forget it. It just doesn't look good.

I entered a business deal that collapsed and cost me lots of money - $$,$$$.$$ - that range of money.

When I speak of the man (who is dead) I merely say he committed fraud and the deal went bad. That is all I say. He signed my name to contracts, represented the company as solvent when it wasn't, then left me with the bankruptcy.

That's as emotional as I, you, me or anyone should get. State the facts and nothing else. You shouldn't say anything but the truth and leave it at that.

Most times I merely say "I had a bad business deal AND nothing else. It might be emotnionally satisfying to say more, but why? Would that change anything, I think not.

I'd rather behave like an adult than a child.

Andrew, there are times when an aspiring writer has asked me about my publishers (I'm not the original Anon. by the way), and I've desperately wanted to warn them that they're getting in with a nest of nasty wasps if they submit to a couple of small presses I've dealt with. More than one author has had the same problem I have--missing royalties, claims of massive returns that somehow outnumber the books printed, refusal to honor contracts...but audits cost a lot of money and are beyond most of our means.

So when you see a bright-eyed new writer saying, "Oh, they must be wonderful," you want to say "submit at your own peril"...because a lot of heartache has happened with at least two of these small presses (legit, but not very ethical apparently).

helLO. This is what your AGENT is for... sorting out disputes and grievances. If you don't have an agent you shouldn't have made a publishing deal. V dangerous. If you had a good publishing deal, you would have got an agent on the back of that.

use good judgement. make sure you go through at least three rounds of query/discussion of the problem (or allow at least three reasonable intervals for response time, if the publisher in question isn't answering your communications) before you take the matter outside. think like yourself, think like a publisher, and think like a lawyer before you climb out on a limb with word one.

you folks who advocate unconditional silence--consider this. the last time i aired laundry of this sort, the publisher in question turned out to owe literal millions of dollars to various parties ranging from dozens of freelancers to printers to corporate licensors, service providers, and other entities. they'd been robbing peter to pay paul (and spinning yarns to peter) as necessary--and deliberately--for some time.

shortly after their, umm...business model saw scrutiny, they filed for bankruptcy. they retained their BMWs. but months later, their freelancers wound up footing multi-hundred-dollar fedex bills...for the account the company had never paid.

being a freelancer is kind of like being a human being. someone who's policy includes abusing you is likely to extend the privilege to others.

don't leap to conclusions or actions. but don't be afraid to speak out on behalf of yourself and others, when that's appropriate.

good networking runs a lot of ways.

on an even more practical level--biting your tongue and biding your time may reduce your odds of actually getting paid, as per agreement. if you are going to have to wind up taking legal action, figure that out as soon as you can. sometimes assets run out before the lines do, if you know what i mean.

Anonymous -- please know I was referring to legitimate enterprises. When all else fails and you have no agent representing you or are dealing with a scam as others have said...well I agree -- all bets are off.

helLO (this form of greeting is one of my biggest pet peeves, as it is both rude and obnoxious, but anyway...) Writers with small presses and epublishers rarely have agents, which means that they have to fend for themselves (with the help of the wonderful Snark, of course).

helLO. This is what your AGENT is for... sorting out disputes and grievances. If you don't have an agent you shouldn't have made a publishing deal. V dangerous. If you had a good publishing deal, you would have got an agent on the back of that.

What you wrote is incorrect.

I know many authors who have contracts with publishers such as Midnight Ink, Poisoned Pen Press and Harlequin--but they don't have agents.

In many cases, agents aren't interested in dealing with these reputable publishers because the advance is small. It's not an issue of a "good deal" or "bad deal."

Anon (helLO. This is what your AGENT is for):

(I'm Anon #3) My first contracts, I had no agent--small press doesn't attract agents. And my agent I have now can't really go in and muck with things since she wasn't an agent on record when the contracts were signed. The contracts weren't bad. The publisher is the one who refused to abide by them, and agent or not, an author has to be able to afford an audit in order to check out a company's books. That runs in the thousands.