The copyright stickstrictly editorial
March 14, 2007
In November I edited a political thriller. The plot was reasonable, the characters well rounded, the hyperbole excessive, and the writing ... um ... awful. I finished, however. The matter did not.
My first testy note was dated March 1. Hope sprang eternal as I composed it, but got me nowhere. If he weren't an earnest gay lawyer, this wouldn't be as amusing. There is that.
Dear Nit,
You had said in your email of January 18 that you would send the final check in the amount of $1,000 at the end of January. It has not arrived. You have not responded to my query dated February 15. It is now March 1.
Our contract, which I just reviewed, specified that the final 50 percent of the contracted $4,000 total was due within 30 days of my submitting the fully edited manuscript to you. I did so on December 15. The contract stipulated that it would be submitted on or before December 29. The difference was a matter of 14 days.
It has now been 75 days since I turned the completed manuscript over to you.
The contract also stipulates a finance charge of 1.5% per month on the unpaid amount of the invoice when the account is past due. It is past due, so that the remaining $1,000 is now in fact $1,047.50.
I look forward to receiving the final check so that I can lay this invoice and contract to rest.
Sincerely and so forth
Now, on March 14, armed with one known collection agency recommended by an editor or two, I resort to threats.
Dear Nit,
It has now been 90 days since I turned over the fully edited manuscript to you. I can only assume, in not hearing from you and in not receiving a final payment, that you are reneging on our contract. I will therefore now turn the matter over to a collection agency.
In addition, because you have not paid me for my work on your manuscript, I retain copyright on that work and am free to use it as I see fit. That is, the manuscript as edited cannot legally be offered to an agent or publisher or published until I have been paid. Were the payment as agreed to in the contract to be made in full, of course, I would surrender such copyright.
Sincerely and so forth