Well, that's interesting
Over the last year or two I had the feeling that my publisher was getting into some kind of financial trouble. They seemed disorganized and distracted, sort of grasping at straws, unable to get things going. Today I got a form letter from an unknown legal firm announcing that they've gone into bankruptcy. The letter says they will try to keep running as before, but judging from their overall performance I'm not so sure.

Oh well. This is what I've been planning for. I went through lots of hard work and lean times to reach the point where I don't need to worry about this income source. I knew that sooner or later the income would fade out; either the company would go down or the stuff would stop selling. Publishing has become a tricky business to put it mildly!

This explains a couple of mysteries. (1) The item they needed to have via UPS on Friday was a revised contract on an old product. I didn't see why it was needed, now I do. The revision puts the payments from that product into a category that they can escape paying next year, if I read the bankruptcy stuff correctly. (2) Back in March when I deposited this year's annual check (which was much smaller than usual), the bank immediately saw the check as suspicious and put the deposit on hold, requiring me to show more documents before putting it through. ("We're trying to protect you.") I was highly pissed because similar annual checks from the same source had been accepted without problems for at least 10 years. The bank wouldn't give a straight answer for the sudden blacklisting, but now it becomes clear. Makes me feel a bit better about the bank ... they were in fact trying to protect my account, not trying to hassle me.

= = = = =

Update 9/16/13: Now the publisher has sent a letter indicating that the very small check in March was only a partial, and they might be sending another check later to finish the year's royalties. Though the secrecy and dribbling of information is annoying, I'm still happy to be in aquifer mode. The potential extra now feels like a bonus.
  ¶ 3:57 PM