Should Authors Take Their Publishing Complaints Public?

Dark fantasy writer Michael Cisco broke radio silence on his blog last month to complain about his experiences with Prime Books , an independent publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction, starting with the fact that he hasn’t gotten any royalties from his last novel, The Traitor . "Eagle-eyed vigilance in following the [ Amazon.com sales rank," he writes, "especially following selection by [Jeff] VanderMeer for the top 10 fantasy books [of 2007], and a glowing review from Nick Mamatas , gives me reason to believe at least 500 books have been sold just at that venue." "I am very sorry that we have, in Michael Cisco’s eyes, failed him," Prime executive editor Sean Wallace emailed when I contacted him about Cisco’s allegations. "And he makes one point that I will concede: We want to improve our ongoing communications with our authors. I hope Michael will allow us to do so in his case. What I must dispute is that Michael has been che...