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REPORTING ON A WIN-WIN -- Pg 2/2 - Standard text
Date posted: Mar 13/2103
© 2013 Fred Brown
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❱❱❱❱ NOTA BENE: This copy is in a clearer, better-readable font, and can only be read
on DARK screens. The Standard text copy that's readable on cyan screens is here:
REPORTING ON A WIN-WIN RE. RECENT EVENTS (Enhanced text)
............................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................
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| Page Links: ·1· ·2·
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==========================================================================
Is this for real? I mean Genuinely Real? I write almost a million words of
furry fiction, and now there's a stick of bloody *dynamite* jammed into Monitor
Studios balance sheet?
Assets that aren't assets. Assets that have to be adjusted and revalued. Six
years worth of transactions that have to be rolled back and sorted out. Then
reentered properly. Oh jeeze...
I'm not an accountant and I don't play one on TV. But as I said, I saw
instantly that yes, this is unequivocally real. It's also arcane as utter bat-shit, and
I'm not willing to bet that everyone's onside here. It's a tough sell.
Looked at from a cold business point of view, however, this has to get
cleared out by any tigers, I mean, means necessary. No choice.
At the least, if this situation had not been discovered I might have just kept
writing for Monitor Studios. And the problem would have piled up higher and
higher, likely to the point where Monitor Studios might take real damage.
The numbers involved now are good for digging a moderate-sized crater.
Another few years, and the risk would be all the bigger.
Arguably, this whole situation is not so much win-win as it is
horseshoe-up-the-rump lucky [that we now know about it]. In the future, what if
Monitor Studios had decided to *do* something with these digital-rights-that-
ain't-really? To make some money, that is.
That's when all this could have come unglued. There likely would be third
parties involved, who would be putting their money down thinking that these
digital rights are legit. When they're not.
The fur would fly. As would the tigers. Guaranteed. And from everything I
know about law, I'd almost certainly get sucked in too.
You knew, Mr. Brown, that these digital rights were not as they appeared?
Since you state that that's not what you sold? And you didn't do anything about
this?
Hmmm. We should sue you too.
Not only am I potentially out $25,000, this situation could expose me to
liability. I'm not making this up, folks.
I'm not *that* good.
(You know what I'm going say: But now it's not going to happen.)
PART #3:
All the legal and the accounting bushwa isn't really that intimidating. I'm
well up to speed on both, and was set to do the bulk of the legal work myself.
Cheap in $$$, expensive in time. So what?
What did spook me was looking at all this from the angle of marketing. This
is another skill-set, and a strong one. It may show. A lot of that's been poured
into my FA main page and into the FA Writers Directory.
But this situation? Um.
Ummm...
Tricky.
Marketing is a True Black Art, with enough magic and wizardry involved to
make Macbeth's three witches whistle, aye caramba. The task is generally to
understand, predict, and influence the behaviour and emotions and thinking of
very large numbers of people. There's a whiff of Machiavelli in the mix too (no
shit).
Then maybe those people buy stuff. Or some of them do. Or not at all. Or
maybe everybody does something completely different (in the Python sense of
the term, as in, completely weird). Dammit, we sacrificed the goat on the
boardroom table properly, I tell you.
How I picked up a taste for marketing, and some ability, is another story.
But there was no doubt in my mind that this situation would generate impacts on
a potentially very large number of people, furry and not.
More to the point, what will be the response to these impacts? What will
people, furry and not, *do* when the fecal matter intersects the rotating
multi-speed ventilation device? Note that marketing is ultimately concerned with
what actions people take, and not so much with what they think or feel.
Dear holy Jesus perched on the can. Could this even attract the attention of
<slither-hiss!> the media? :- )
I recall sitting down to try and map some of this out, using what I know, and
speculating in a somewhat informed way. Only to be reduced to helpless giggles
within the hour.
Ridiculous! Silly! You Fool You! A Merlin of marketing couldn't come up with
anything coherent here. Or at least nothing any better than some rough ballpark
guesses, with zero predictive power. Field too large takes on new meaning.
Informed speculation is not a substitute for data or robust models. There's
some data available regarding Monitor Studios. Study of FA, and other places,
can cast a clouded lens on matters furry. Knowledge of the dynamics of the
Internet is also helpful, albeit even cloudier. And ya gotta read the Furry Survey,
ya just gotta; brilliant.
(Aside: Furry is significantly an Internet thing. One guessestimate suggested
there are around 9-13 million furs in the world. As in, people who will self-identify
as furs in either a mild or a passionate way. Folks who just like anthro stuff, even
more of them out there. And I wish I could remember where I read that 'cause I
can't. Any help?)
Bottom line: I've got other things I can waste my time on. I'll give up if you
will. To try and figure out how people will react can't be done with any useful
certainty, given the tools and information available.
Monitor Studios is better at marketing than me, it's likely they've studied
this too, and are giggling as hard as me. Comedy is where you find it, y'know?
All that is certain is this: There will be a number of phases of impacts, and
the spread will follow certain roughly known patterns. They will hit both Monitor
Studios and me. They will probably take about two to three years for the ripples
to die down. And there are no upsides or positive benefits, for anybody involved,
regardless of what falls out of the fersherlugginer lawsuit.
Oh, and the ears and tails on a helluva lot of furs, all around the world, will
just <Poing!> *straight* through the ceiling at all this. Of the apartment above
them. No question.
Or, to deploy a metaphor, it is one thing to call down the lightning. Shamans
and mages have been doing it for donkey's years.
It is another thing entirely to be there when the lightning *hits.*
This may explain the present dire shortage of shamans and mages in the
world today. Not a theory that's easy to test, I'll grant, but feel free to try.
Not only is life too short, I feel no pressing need to be shortened. The hard
way.
(All together now, and with some harmony: But now it's not going to
happen.)
In Conclusion:
I keep saying, 'But now it's not going to happen.' This may be taken as a
clue regarding the question that was asked waaaay back at the start.
Which was, in what way do the words win-win apply to any of this?
Very accurately, IMHO.
Since at the end of the day, none of us are staring down the gun barrel of a
*loss-loss*.
Beyond doubt, there could've been any number of outcomes to this
situation. Go ahead and speculate if you want to scare your fur white. What Ifs
are always so much fun. They make such a pleasing <Splat!> sound when you
throw them at the wall.
But before you hurl, ask yourself: Were there any possible outcomes to this
that would *not* generate a loss? Any at all?
Nope. Think it through.
There's no way to make a profit here, no way that one or all parties involved
can come out ahead. That too I had figured out in a picosecond. I'd be willing to
bet Monitor Studios came to the same conclusion.
Military folks run across this kind of problem a lot. All of your possible
options are bad ones. They stink to high heaven. They will all result in damage or
even disaster. But the option of doing nothing is just as bad.
The only way out? Choose the action that has the best chance of success,
but does the least damage. The fact that this philosophy applies to business
almost as well as it does to war could be considered a tell.
That's precisely what happened: Simplest action, least damage, best
solution. With a click of the mouse, Monitor Studios has relinquished rights to my
work. They now need to vacuum their balance sheet a little, but not as much as
could have been needed. My work is off of SexyFur, and no more will be going on
it, so poof goes that income stream. We've both taken a loss here.
But look at what's been resolved. I'm now the sole rightsholder to my work.
Ergo those six novels can now be printed without giving a publisher cardiac
arrythmia. That's a win.
Monitor Studios now has a correct set of books, or will after it makes
adjustments. But that can be done a lot easier now, and at their leisure. As
opposed to having a judgement burning a hole in their desktop that would force
it. That's a win.
Monitor Studios has also cleared the possible chaos that could/would
inevitably bring the roof down if those erroneous rights were ever used. Does
making your business a little less risky qualify as a win? Big-time ayuh.
Notice also that we no longer need to go through an expensive, tangled,
multi-year lawsuit, with all the huge risks involved in that. Even worse, I'm in
Canada. Monitor Studios is in North Carolina. Oh joy, legal action that crosses
international boundaries. And more joy, the look on the judge's face. This is all
about... 'furries,' did I hear you correctly? :- )
The whole point of any lawsuit is to settle something that absolutely,
positively, *must* get settled, and hang the risks. Which are substantial even if
you're suing your neighbour for their dog piddling in the roses. There are no
'sure-thing' lawsuits; this one would've been a bitch. Any lawyer who says you
have a sure-thing of a suit, permish granted to hit him or her on the bonce until
they smarten up. Or stop moving. At your pleasure.
Huuuge win on this count. Anybody who thinks otherwise, please, consult
your doctor. Somebody going after your kidneys may have missed and gotten
your brain.
Most crucially (to me, anyway), both Monitor Studios and I avoid the
potentially catastrophic impacts that would come as the entire world of furry
turns our way to watch the fight.
I mean, c'mon. Law is a bloodsport. The Coliseum can't hold a dinky candle
to even the smallest courtroom. All bailiffs know how to get the stains out of the
carpet, the walls, ceiling, light fixtures, etc.
The losses that could have occurred, if things had gone ahead, cannot be
known. But they'd be high, for everybody. And let's keep in mind that there are a
lot of other people involved here. It's not just my income stream at stake.
Now, instead of a mushroom cloud's worth of bad PR, we only have to deal
with a small firecracker's worth. Mega-win.
And if anybody hasn't noticed, this whole essay is specifically designed and
written to snuff that firecracker out. The potential negative fallout [from this
situation not-happening] is much easier to map. I see no reason to just let it sit
around and irradiate people.
That's part of why this essay tops out over 6K words. It has to go into depth
(and it had better be readable and entertaining too). Without this, all a large
number of people know is there's been a split between me and Monitor Studios.
The circumstances are unclear. No further data is available. Nicht so gut, as the
drama mill gnaws this over.
Merlin can take a coffee break. I know how to figure how this will run; easy
money. And I know what to say about it all to initiate the right kind of spin. That
is, to leave people looking at all this in terms of the positives, not the negatives.
So smooooth, the persuasion. Marketing, ta da. No goats were harmed in the
construction of this spell. :- )
Of course, not everybody's buying it, and why should you? There's no reason
why my attitude towards all this should be yours. Those who want to see this
situation in a negative light will not be persuaded by any amount of
small-kitten-doing-backflips. Careful with the <Slash-Aieegh!!>... knife.
Except it's critically important that my attitude be made plain. And public. Or
at least as public as posting a story on FA can be (which isn't much). Ideally a
proper response of this type should be multi-dimensional and multi-channel, and
operating over an extended timeframe. Skywriting and billboards optional. But
shouldn't be ruled out.
Nope: One post to FA is all I get. It'll have to do. And mostly, it will.
A damned serious [business] situation blew up more or less out of nowhere
(as they tend to do). It can't be pinned down to anybody's fault, or to anybody's
decisions, right or wrong or otherwise. It's not a terribly unique situation as these
things go. It still would've taken conniptions of legal trouble to sort out.
Then it did get sorted out, at a stroke, and with a remarkable lack of
conniptions of any kind. Or any serious losses.
How much of a win-win is *'dat?*
But wait, there's more. Back at the start, I made it sound like a mundane
thing. Got asked, did I wanna write for SexyFur? Hokay, sure. Then started
scribbling.
Sonofabitch, is that ever a bogus way to put it. Way past time to correct
that.
If I live to be a thousand, I sincerely doubt that a greater opportunity will
ever fall into my lap. The gods are only so generous.
Out of the blue, a *totally* unknown writer drops a msg into the inbox. And
asks if he can write about Champagne, SexyFur's flagship character. And asks for
info about her.
The fellow freely admits it, he's not furry in any way. Hasn't written even a
single fur story. Not even published. But is highly up to speed on science fiction.
Would *you* offer this dude a shot at writing for SexyFur?
Knowing full well that crappy stories drive away subscribers? Knowing also
that really good fur stories are not that easy to find (or are cheap)? And knowing
most important that the stories on SF must be as excellent as the art?
Well, good thing you're not running SexyFur, is all I'll say. But then I
wouldn't have made the offer either. As for why SexyFur did, and thought the risk
was worth taking, this may or may not come out in somebody's memoirs. I shan't
speculate.
Nor will I gloss over the facts here. The history of literature records damn
few examples of writers getting a fraction as lucky as this. The offer was made,
the risk taken. Did it pay off, do y'think?
Oh yah, you could say that. Ferdamnsure I'm a fur writer now. Six years and
almost a million words later, I'm also a helluva lot better at writing. Christ, has it
ever been satisfying labour.
And as Monitor Studios checks their balance sheet, for absolute sure they
have reason for satisfaction too. Insofar as a helluva lot of subscribers have read,
and enjoyed, these stories. Can I put something in here that'll make a
<Ka-ching!> sound FX?
No? Imagine that both Monitor Studios and I just murmured it in stereo and
leave it at that.
A more remarkable six years, I don't think I've had in my life. Considering
what's been accomplished. And considering how it might not have happened at
all.
So a business glitch has put an end to it? Well, and so it has. Doesn't
diminish what's been done, in the slightest. You will note that there are many
kinds of business glitches where nobody gets out with their tails intact. Almost
didn't, but we did, and that's all that matters.
In business, you are allowed to shrug, sort it out, then walk away from what
might have been a perfectly profitable relationship. Then go looking for better.
Sometimes everybody even shakes paws. Advisable, actually; you might be doing
business again sometime.
For that reason alone, metaphors that compare business to war should be
thoroughly clubbed into the ground until just the tail's sticking up. This whole
situation, an excellent case in point.
FB.
Mar 12/2013
=============================
PS: One loose thread to snip.
In case I forget, a bucket o' steaming tasty gratitude must also be poured
over Furplanet. And an explanation given for their removing Don't Go Near The
Sorceress from their inventory.
Sounds funny to put it that way. But good God, they printed my first
*book!* And under circumstances that could be considered nearly as lucky as
SexyFur's offer. But they did print it (plus a big tip 'o the hat to Scappo),
somewhat to the astonishment of a small well-armed cat.
Then the contract came through on April 11, 2011, and it was real. I'm a
published author now. Sonofabitch. That ISBN number doesn't lie.
(I promptly signed and gave away my writer's copy to my mother as
birthday present, who promptly flipped. Considering how furrily porny Sorceress
is, this says something about my mother, I think.)
Fast forward to now, and a few words about contracts, and contract law.
What Furplanet offered, as contract, was both well-drafted and complete.
Good job on some tiger's part. And as a contract alone the thing worked just fine
and made us all some money.
Not a lot--this is furlit we're talking about--but then again, first book. Can't
be expected to set the world of furry on fire. So to speak.
So here's the thing. Contracts that work just fine can and usually do
continue to work just fine. If it's done right the contract may specify some
reasons why and how it can or should be terminated. Not a concern with the
Furplanet contract.
But no contract exists in a vacuum, or ever can. Whether or not a contract
can continue to operate does not always depend just on the internals of the
thing.
Outside factors can and will have an influence. Sometimes up to the point
where the contract *must* be terminated. Something big has changed, and the
terms of the contract don't take it into account.
Well, something big has changed, all right. Sorceress was one of the stories
on SexyFur. As in, Monitor Studios felt it held digital rights to the thing (but doesn't
now). But Furplanet is also a rightsholder, in the sense that that contract granted
*distribution* rights.
When the contract for Sorceress was cut in April 2011, it appeared that all
the rights were settled. Arguably they were (just not quite correctly).
Now the rights situation has changed. And for a while it looked like there
was the potential for some very serious legal action.
From Furplanet's point of view, all of this requires that the contract be
terminated. Has to be. Continuing with it could bring up liability that didn't exist
before. At the very least, the change in the rights status of Sorceress renders the
original contract problematic.
And contract law backs Furplanet up here, without any question from me. Of
all the reasons for one party to cancel, the emergence of unexpected liability--no
matter how fuzzy--is one of the more legitimate causes.
Ergo Sorceress is now out of print, and now FurPlanet's business has gotten
a little less risky. Bueno, IMHO. A certain cat and two wolves can now breathe
easier.
The bonus? This frees me up to add two new chapters to Sorceress, maybe
generate new art, and publish a second edition either as e-book or on paper.
First edition was the rev posted to SexyFur; got edited down. Second
edition, no limits. Do you wanna call this a win or shall I?
=============================================================================
<<< PAGE 1 OF 2
Date posted: Mar 13/2103
© 2013 Fred Brown
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............................................................................................................................................
❱❱❱❱ NOTA BENE: This copy is in a clearer, better-readable font, and can only be read
on DARK screens. The Standard text copy that's readable on cyan screens is here:
REPORTING ON A WIN-WIN RE. RECENT EVENTS (Enhanced text)
............................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................
|
| Page Links: ·1· ·2·
|
==========================================================================
Is this for real? I mean Genuinely Real? I write almost a million words of
furry fiction, and now there's a stick of bloody *dynamite* jammed into Monitor
Studios balance sheet?
Assets that aren't assets. Assets that have to be adjusted and revalued. Six
years worth of transactions that have to be rolled back and sorted out. Then
reentered properly. Oh jeeze...
I'm not an accountant and I don't play one on TV. But as I said, I saw
instantly that yes, this is unequivocally real. It's also arcane as utter bat-shit, and
I'm not willing to bet that everyone's onside here. It's a tough sell.
Looked at from a cold business point of view, however, this has to get
cleared out by any tigers, I mean, means necessary. No choice.
At the least, if this situation had not been discovered I might have just kept
writing for Monitor Studios. And the problem would have piled up higher and
higher, likely to the point where Monitor Studios might take real damage.
The numbers involved now are good for digging a moderate-sized crater.
Another few years, and the risk would be all the bigger.
Arguably, this whole situation is not so much win-win as it is
horseshoe-up-the-rump lucky [that we now know about it]. In the future, what if
Monitor Studios had decided to *do* something with these digital-rights-that-
ain't-really? To make some money, that is.
That's when all this could have come unglued. There likely would be third
parties involved, who would be putting their money down thinking that these
digital rights are legit. When they're not.
The fur would fly. As would the tigers. Guaranteed. And from everything I
know about law, I'd almost certainly get sucked in too.
You knew, Mr. Brown, that these digital rights were not as they appeared?
Since you state that that's not what you sold? And you didn't do anything about
this?
Hmmm. We should sue you too.
Not only am I potentially out $25,000, this situation could expose me to
liability. I'm not making this up, folks.
I'm not *that* good.
(You know what I'm going say: But now it's not going to happen.)
PART #3:
All the legal and the accounting bushwa isn't really that intimidating. I'm
well up to speed on both, and was set to do the bulk of the legal work myself.
Cheap in $$$, expensive in time. So what?
What did spook me was looking at all this from the angle of marketing. This
is another skill-set, and a strong one. It may show. A lot of that's been poured
into my FA main page and into the FA Writers Directory.
But this situation? Um.
Ummm...
Tricky.
Marketing is a True Black Art, with enough magic and wizardry involved to
make Macbeth's three witches whistle, aye caramba. The task is generally to
understand, predict, and influence the behaviour and emotions and thinking of
very large numbers of people. There's a whiff of Machiavelli in the mix too (no
shit).
Then maybe those people buy stuff. Or some of them do. Or not at all. Or
maybe everybody does something completely different (in the Python sense of
the term, as in, completely weird). Dammit, we sacrificed the goat on the
boardroom table properly, I tell you.
How I picked up a taste for marketing, and some ability, is another story.
But there was no doubt in my mind that this situation would generate impacts on
a potentially very large number of people, furry and not.
More to the point, what will be the response to these impacts? What will
people, furry and not, *do* when the fecal matter intersects the rotating
multi-speed ventilation device? Note that marketing is ultimately concerned with
what actions people take, and not so much with what they think or feel.
Dear holy Jesus perched on the can. Could this even attract the attention of
<slither-hiss!> the media? :- )
I recall sitting down to try and map some of this out, using what I know, and
speculating in a somewhat informed way. Only to be reduced to helpless giggles
within the hour.
Ridiculous! Silly! You Fool You! A Merlin of marketing couldn't come up with
anything coherent here. Or at least nothing any better than some rough ballpark
guesses, with zero predictive power. Field too large takes on new meaning.
Informed speculation is not a substitute for data or robust models. There's
some data available regarding Monitor Studios. Study of FA, and other places,
can cast a clouded lens on matters furry. Knowledge of the dynamics of the
Internet is also helpful, albeit even cloudier. And ya gotta read the Furry Survey,
ya just gotta; brilliant.
(Aside: Furry is significantly an Internet thing. One guessestimate suggested
there are around 9-13 million furs in the world. As in, people who will self-identify
as furs in either a mild or a passionate way. Folks who just like anthro stuff, even
more of them out there. And I wish I could remember where I read that 'cause I
can't. Any help?)
Bottom line: I've got other things I can waste my time on. I'll give up if you
will. To try and figure out how people will react can't be done with any useful
certainty, given the tools and information available.
Monitor Studios is better at marketing than me, it's likely they've studied
this too, and are giggling as hard as me. Comedy is where you find it, y'know?
All that is certain is this: There will be a number of phases of impacts, and
the spread will follow certain roughly known patterns. They will hit both Monitor
Studios and me. They will probably take about two to three years for the ripples
to die down. And there are no upsides or positive benefits, for anybody involved,
regardless of what falls out of the fersherlugginer lawsuit.
Oh, and the ears and tails on a helluva lot of furs, all around the world, will
just <Poing!> *straight* through the ceiling at all this. Of the apartment above
them. No question.
Or, to deploy a metaphor, it is one thing to call down the lightning. Shamans
and mages have been doing it for donkey's years.
It is another thing entirely to be there when the lightning *hits.*
This may explain the present dire shortage of shamans and mages in the
world today. Not a theory that's easy to test, I'll grant, but feel free to try.
Not only is life too short, I feel no pressing need to be shortened. The hard
way.
(All together now, and with some harmony: But now it's not going to
happen.)
In Conclusion:
I keep saying, 'But now it's not going to happen.' This may be taken as a
clue regarding the question that was asked waaaay back at the start.
Which was, in what way do the words win-win apply to any of this?
Very accurately, IMHO.
Since at the end of the day, none of us are staring down the gun barrel of a
*loss-loss*.
Beyond doubt, there could've been any number of outcomes to this
situation. Go ahead and speculate if you want to scare your fur white. What Ifs
are always so much fun. They make such a pleasing <Splat!> sound when you
throw them at the wall.
But before you hurl, ask yourself: Were there any possible outcomes to this
that would *not* generate a loss? Any at all?
Nope. Think it through.
There's no way to make a profit here, no way that one or all parties involved
can come out ahead. That too I had figured out in a picosecond. I'd be willing to
bet Monitor Studios came to the same conclusion.
Military folks run across this kind of problem a lot. All of your possible
options are bad ones. They stink to high heaven. They will all result in damage or
even disaster. But the option of doing nothing is just as bad.
The only way out? Choose the action that has the best chance of success,
but does the least damage. The fact that this philosophy applies to business
almost as well as it does to war could be considered a tell.
That's precisely what happened: Simplest action, least damage, best
solution. With a click of the mouse, Monitor Studios has relinquished rights to my
work. They now need to vacuum their balance sheet a little, but not as much as
could have been needed. My work is off of SexyFur, and no more will be going on
it, so poof goes that income stream. We've both taken a loss here.
But look at what's been resolved. I'm now the sole rightsholder to my work.
Ergo those six novels can now be printed without giving a publisher cardiac
arrythmia. That's a win.
Monitor Studios now has a correct set of books, or will after it makes
adjustments. But that can be done a lot easier now, and at their leisure. As
opposed to having a judgement burning a hole in their desktop that would force
it. That's a win.
Monitor Studios has also cleared the possible chaos that could/would
inevitably bring the roof down if those erroneous rights were ever used. Does
making your business a little less risky qualify as a win? Big-time ayuh.
Notice also that we no longer need to go through an expensive, tangled,
multi-year lawsuit, with all the huge risks involved in that. Even worse, I'm in
Canada. Monitor Studios is in North Carolina. Oh joy, legal action that crosses
international boundaries. And more joy, the look on the judge's face. This is all
about... 'furries,' did I hear you correctly? :- )
The whole point of any lawsuit is to settle something that absolutely,
positively, *must* get settled, and hang the risks. Which are substantial even if
you're suing your neighbour for their dog piddling in the roses. There are no
'sure-thing' lawsuits; this one would've been a bitch. Any lawyer who says you
have a sure-thing of a suit, permish granted to hit him or her on the bonce until
they smarten up. Or stop moving. At your pleasure.
Huuuge win on this count. Anybody who thinks otherwise, please, consult
your doctor. Somebody going after your kidneys may have missed and gotten
your brain.
Most crucially (to me, anyway), both Monitor Studios and I avoid the
potentially catastrophic impacts that would come as the entire world of furry
turns our way to watch the fight.
I mean, c'mon. Law is a bloodsport. The Coliseum can't hold a dinky candle
to even the smallest courtroom. All bailiffs know how to get the stains out of the
carpet, the walls, ceiling, light fixtures, etc.
The losses that could have occurred, if things had gone ahead, cannot be
known. But they'd be high, for everybody. And let's keep in mind that there are a
lot of other people involved here. It's not just my income stream at stake.
Now, instead of a mushroom cloud's worth of bad PR, we only have to deal
with a small firecracker's worth. Mega-win.
And if anybody hasn't noticed, this whole essay is specifically designed and
written to snuff that firecracker out. The potential negative fallout [from this
situation not-happening] is much easier to map. I see no reason to just let it sit
around and irradiate people.
That's part of why this essay tops out over 6K words. It has to go into depth
(and it had better be readable and entertaining too). Without this, all a large
number of people know is there's been a split between me and Monitor Studios.
The circumstances are unclear. No further data is available. Nicht so gut, as the
drama mill gnaws this over.
Merlin can take a coffee break. I know how to figure how this will run; easy
money. And I know what to say about it all to initiate the right kind of spin. That
is, to leave people looking at all this in terms of the positives, not the negatives.
So smooooth, the persuasion. Marketing, ta da. No goats were harmed in the
construction of this spell. :- )
Of course, not everybody's buying it, and why should you? There's no reason
why my attitude towards all this should be yours. Those who want to see this
situation in a negative light will not be persuaded by any amount of
small-kitten-doing-backflips. Careful with the <Slash-Aieegh!!>... knife.
Except it's critically important that my attitude be made plain. And public. Or
at least as public as posting a story on FA can be (which isn't much). Ideally a
proper response of this type should be multi-dimensional and multi-channel, and
operating over an extended timeframe. Skywriting and billboards optional. But
shouldn't be ruled out.
Nope: One post to FA is all I get. It'll have to do. And mostly, it will.
A damned serious [business] situation blew up more or less out of nowhere
(as they tend to do). It can't be pinned down to anybody's fault, or to anybody's
decisions, right or wrong or otherwise. It's not a terribly unique situation as these
things go. It still would've taken conniptions of legal trouble to sort out.
Then it did get sorted out, at a stroke, and with a remarkable lack of
conniptions of any kind. Or any serious losses.
How much of a win-win is *'dat?*
But wait, there's more. Back at the start, I made it sound like a mundane
thing. Got asked, did I wanna write for SexyFur? Hokay, sure. Then started
scribbling.
Sonofabitch, is that ever a bogus way to put it. Way past time to correct
that.
If I live to be a thousand, I sincerely doubt that a greater opportunity will
ever fall into my lap. The gods are only so generous.
Out of the blue, a *totally* unknown writer drops a msg into the inbox. And
asks if he can write about Champagne, SexyFur's flagship character. And asks for
info about her.
The fellow freely admits it, he's not furry in any way. Hasn't written even a
single fur story. Not even published. But is highly up to speed on science fiction.
Would *you* offer this dude a shot at writing for SexyFur?
Knowing full well that crappy stories drive away subscribers? Knowing also
that really good fur stories are not that easy to find (or are cheap)? And knowing
most important that the stories on SF must be as excellent as the art?
Well, good thing you're not running SexyFur, is all I'll say. But then I
wouldn't have made the offer either. As for why SexyFur did, and thought the risk
was worth taking, this may or may not come out in somebody's memoirs. I shan't
speculate.
Nor will I gloss over the facts here. The history of literature records damn
few examples of writers getting a fraction as lucky as this. The offer was made,
the risk taken. Did it pay off, do y'think?
Oh yah, you could say that. Ferdamnsure I'm a fur writer now. Six years and
almost a million words later, I'm also a helluva lot better at writing. Christ, has it
ever been satisfying labour.
And as Monitor Studios checks their balance sheet, for absolute sure they
have reason for satisfaction too. Insofar as a helluva lot of subscribers have read,
and enjoyed, these stories. Can I put something in here that'll make a
<Ka-ching!> sound FX?
No? Imagine that both Monitor Studios and I just murmured it in stereo and
leave it at that.
A more remarkable six years, I don't think I've had in my life. Considering
what's been accomplished. And considering how it might not have happened at
all.
So a business glitch has put an end to it? Well, and so it has. Doesn't
diminish what's been done, in the slightest. You will note that there are many
kinds of business glitches where nobody gets out with their tails intact. Almost
didn't, but we did, and that's all that matters.
In business, you are allowed to shrug, sort it out, then walk away from what
might have been a perfectly profitable relationship. Then go looking for better.
Sometimes everybody even shakes paws. Advisable, actually; you might be doing
business again sometime.
For that reason alone, metaphors that compare business to war should be
thoroughly clubbed into the ground until just the tail's sticking up. This whole
situation, an excellent case in point.
FB.
Mar 12/2013
=============================
PS: One loose thread to snip.
In case I forget, a bucket o' steaming tasty gratitude must also be poured
over Furplanet. And an explanation given for their removing Don't Go Near The
Sorceress from their inventory.
Sounds funny to put it that way. But good God, they printed my first
*book!* And under circumstances that could be considered nearly as lucky as
SexyFur's offer. But they did print it (plus a big tip 'o the hat to Scappo),
somewhat to the astonishment of a small well-armed cat.
Then the contract came through on April 11, 2011, and it was real. I'm a
published author now. Sonofabitch. That ISBN number doesn't lie.
(I promptly signed and gave away my writer's copy to my mother as
birthday present, who promptly flipped. Considering how furrily porny Sorceress
is, this says something about my mother, I think.)
Fast forward to now, and a few words about contracts, and contract law.
What Furplanet offered, as contract, was both well-drafted and complete.
Good job on some tiger's part. And as a contract alone the thing worked just fine
and made us all some money.
Not a lot--this is furlit we're talking about--but then again, first book. Can't
be expected to set the world of furry on fire. So to speak.
So here's the thing. Contracts that work just fine can and usually do
continue to work just fine. If it's done right the contract may specify some
reasons why and how it can or should be terminated. Not a concern with the
Furplanet contract.
But no contract exists in a vacuum, or ever can. Whether or not a contract
can continue to operate does not always depend just on the internals of the
thing.
Outside factors can and will have an influence. Sometimes up to the point
where the contract *must* be terminated. Something big has changed, and the
terms of the contract don't take it into account.
Well, something big has changed, all right. Sorceress was one of the stories
on SexyFur. As in, Monitor Studios felt it held digital rights to the thing (but doesn't
now). But Furplanet is also a rightsholder, in the sense that that contract granted
*distribution* rights.
When the contract for Sorceress was cut in April 2011, it appeared that all
the rights were settled. Arguably they were (just not quite correctly).
Now the rights situation has changed. And for a while it looked like there
was the potential for some very serious legal action.
From Furplanet's point of view, all of this requires that the contract be
terminated. Has to be. Continuing with it could bring up liability that didn't exist
before. At the very least, the change in the rights status of Sorceress renders the
original contract problematic.
And contract law backs Furplanet up here, without any question from me. Of
all the reasons for one party to cancel, the emergence of unexpected liability--no
matter how fuzzy--is one of the more legitimate causes.
Ergo Sorceress is now out of print, and now FurPlanet's business has gotten
a little less risky. Bueno, IMHO. A certain cat and two wolves can now breathe
easier.
The bonus? This frees me up to add two new chapters to Sorceress, maybe
generate new art, and publish a second edition either as e-book or on paper.
First edition was the rev posted to SexyFur; got edited down. Second
edition, no limits. Do you wanna call this a win or shall I?
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