I don’t think I called you dishonest. I said you had bad accounting practices. The only way to guarantee that you will always pay writers is to escrow royalties immediately once received. - ThreadSky

courtneymilan.com • 10 days ago

I don’t think I called you dishonest. I said you had bad accounting practices.

The only way to guarantee that you will always pay writers is to escrow royalties immediately once received.

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courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

What I did say was that publishing calling people “conservative” and “FOX media” for insisting that authors deserve good accounting practices—is using marginalized authors as a shield.

Which is gross.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

And I am not “going after your small press.” I haven’t mentioned your name on my timeline. I haven’t told people not to publish with you.

I have responded to your posts with answers to questions that you asked.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

I am an author who cares about the things you also care about, and I was explaining to you how what you were saying appeared to me.

If I were going after you, it would have looked very different.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

You can either listen to criticism and think about how you can get to the point where you escrow royalties, or in a year or so, I will say “oh, them?” when you fold and leave author’s rights in an uncertain state.

edebell.com•10 days ago

But no one is telling us anything we don't know. We do want stability. I've been begging for visibility to the books.

Now that you've called my actions gross without knowing anything about me other than we've financially struggled, I'm disengaging on this.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

Here is the post where I called your actions gross. You will note that I did not base it on your financial struggles. I based it on the words you used to cast aspersions on authors standing up for other authors.

edebell.com•10 days ago

Thank you. We're *trying* to do that, but we've chosen to address immediate needs and not bend to the sad puppies going after us, under ten+ years of believing these books would catch eyes.

As for guarantees, I'd sell my personal possessions if I had to. Would never not pay writers.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

In the first paragraph, you say that “immediate needs” of the business take priority over author royalties.

What will happen when you have no personal possessions to sell, but the business still has immediate needs?

edebell.com•10 days ago

Ok, last note - not "immediate needs" of the *business*, immediate needs of artists and writers in crisis, like picking up the Embroidered Worlds book.

That book was important.

I stand by our work and hope people will support it.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

Publishing a book benefits the business.

Meeting the immediate needs of artists and writers means building a fence around the means to pay them for their labor.

chrisbell.atthisarts.com•10 days ago

I think we're conflating a couple of issues here. Our payments due to authors are put into a liability account. But we are also talking about advances and other rights purchases that are considered royalties paid to a title's asset account to be depreciated over time.

I maintain our accounting.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

It is great if that is what you are doing, but it’s weird that E is insisting that you don’t do that and no small publisher could do that and only Fox News and conservatives want that to happen.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

If “we” are conflating this issue, it’s because of what E has said directly, and repeatedly doubled down on.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

Because it is pretty weird to me that you say “we do maintain a liability account” but when I told E that was good business practice, she did not say “we do that,” but instead said “we are trying, but…”

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

One way to reconcile these two statements is that there is a difference between escrowing royalties on receipt and putting payments into a liability account once they are due, and that difference is precisely what we are talking about.

chrisbell.atthisarts.com•10 days ago

Agree. The liability account is credited when the sales are recorded, not when royalties are due.

chrisbell.atthisarts.com•10 days ago

Sorry, by "we" I mean Emily and I.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

Then this sounds like an issue to take up with Emily, who is jeopardizing the business by spreading false information, not me.

oliviawaite.com•10 days ago

Seconding Courtney on this — we have not ‘misunderstood’ what Emily has repeatedly insisted on as true. If she’s misspeaking, the error is hers, not ours.

rmoonhill.bsky.social•10 days ago

Might I respectfully suggest that if you guys are sticking true to ethical accounting procedures, then someone else take over the messaging about this crisis?

Because "we were talking about advances, not royalties" is a simple answer that would settle many concerns and has NOT what's been said.

courtneymilan.com•10 days ago

Attacking people as “conservative” and “Fox News” because they raise a genuine, important objection makes me suspicious.

Saying, “oh, that was a miscommunication, we were talking about future advances, which are also a form of royalties” would have smoothed EVERYTHING over.

edebell.com•10 days ago

I have miscommunicated a lot, though done so honestly. I do not know the details of the accounting; I just know we've borrowed and accepted a lot of money and worked together as a community and I am very tired and stressed about the financial state of the press and a lot of complicating issues.

edebell.com•10 days ago

We aren't thieves. We're taking risks and doing our best telling stories that mostly wouldn't have been published without those risks and I admit I'm oversensitive on the meritocracy because it keeps getting thrown (not by you) at us.

edebell.com•10 days ago

If you have any private questions for me or Chris, I'm happy to answer them. I'm awkward, annoying, and emotional, but also honest as fuck.

The books are good books and I want nothing more than to level out and be able to pay creators more.

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