August 14th, 2005
Update: Sylvia Day posts Debra Dixon’s response.
In full at Kate Rothwell’s blog, a letter from Helen A. Rosburg – President/CEO & Editor-in-Chief and Leslie Burbank – Vice President Medallion Press, Inc. includes the following:
Several months prior to Book Expo America 2005, we received a call from your office alerting us to the fact that you would be sending out a letter asking us to re-qualify for RWA approval. We were also told at that time that we had done nothing to warrant the re-qualification, but that your organization was having trouble with a particular publisher and chose not to single them out.
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Excellent letter from Medallion, Alison. They raise a lot of valid points. Thanks for letting us know about it!
Heather
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This just gets curiouser and curiouser!
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Well, Debbie Dixon certainly knows her business. I wouldn’t doubt her response.
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I have to disagree w/ Medallion here. They dropped the ball by forgetting to (or refusing to) send the requested materials and documentations to RWA. It’s not that hard to prove the sales records. I mean you have to do it anyways to create royalty statements, right?
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If Medallion dropped the ball, they dropped the ball. My real interest is in whether or not the office (I’m assuming) actually told them they were having trouble with another publisher – and if so, how unprofessional was that!
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I have issues with the way this was handled all around, because I can find nothing in RWA policy that said, “Write all the publishers and require them to recertify.” Sure, it’s easy for me to be ticked because I’m directly affected, as a Medallion author, but if policy says, “Contact a publisher if you receive a complaint against them” then that’s what should have been done instead of requesting the figures from all recognized publishers.
For the record, Medallion meets all the requirements for publisher recognition. I know this from the distribution and sales of my own book. If they are taking a stand on principle, then I support them, regardless of the outcome for me.
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If anyone scrolls back to this entry, I thought you might all like to know that RWA informed Medallion Press that their status was revoked in error. My publisher has been reinstated.