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I've remained publicly silent about this because quite frankly, I’ve had some tremendous personal & professional events simultaneously happening in my life that required my focus.
Honestly, trying to think about or handle one more thing would've toppled the already teetering stack of craziness I was dealing with.
But this morning as I opened my inbox to find the latest Dreamspinner missive in my email, the proverbial camel’s back was broken. I realized I couldn't remain silent any longer.
Sending an email to the people u owe money to, citing ur office is shutting down for the holidays b/c ur staff deserves to spend time celebrating w/their families, makes it painfully apparent you're entitled & callous, & care nothing for the people you're financially impacting.
DSP owes me money. To date, I haven't been paid for Under His Protection which is why I requested & received my rights back for both UHP & my proposed Harlem Renaissance series. I left DSP not b/c of the social media draggings, but due to the weekly messages sent by the company.
Each of these messages was a carefully crafted, vague statement that talked a great deal about how DSP planned to fix the situation, but never clearly explained where the money went in the first place.
I became increasingly uncomfortable with the lack of transparency and decided the best business decision I could make was to have my rights reverted to me and move on with my career and my life.
To the authors that have decided to stay, I respect your decision to make that choice for your career. For those of us who’ve decided to leave, please do the same for us. We are all victims trying to make the best of a really bad situation we didn't create.
I am fortunate. Although I want to be paid for my work, deserve to be paid for my work, the amount isn't a hardship for me and my family has not been impacted by the lack of pay. Although I can afford to write that amount off with little consequence, others are not as fortunate.
Let's be clear, whether an author can afford to cut their losses where DSP is concerned is not the point, nor is the amount they're owed.
Whether an author is financially flush or owed one cent or millions, they should be paid for their work and are entitled to question those who have misappropriated those funds without being maligned.
Therefore, when I read that line about staffers deserving to celebrate the holidays, I instantly thought...
”What about the people you owe money to? Don't they deserve to spend a happy holiday with their families? Don't they deserve to be able to put food on the table for the holiday and every day before and after this entire debacle began?”
As I stand in my kitchen about to prepare more food than I’ll ever be able to eat in one sitting, my heart hurts for those who are struggling through no fault of their own.
If I, who had nothing to do with causing this problem, can take a moment to consider the plight of my fellow authors, why then shouldn't DSP show a modicum of the same compassion?
It takes a hell of a lot of audacity to send an email with such an obvious lack of consideration for the people you've wronged.
It also denotes a delusional thought process if you think you and your staffers are the victims here. The only victims are the authors who have not been paid for their work.
