She spelled “cheque” wrong.

Actually, when you tweet you have 2 shorten each word @ get point across. So spelling not exactly priority on Twitter.

I really don’t think her books are worth that kind of advance, no wonder they went bankrupt

Too bad you feel that way anonymous. I really don’t think, and if you had half a brain, that my advance made them bankrupt. Use your head. And it’s not just me. There are a lot of other writers who have been affected. So if you don’t want to have sympathy for me, that’s fine. At least have some for others.

Rebecca: KP was closed and its parent company, Fenn, went into bankruptcy protection. I believe you are supposed to apply to Fenn as a creditor and wait in line like everyone else. Lambasting a defunct publisher on Twitter will get you nowhere – kinda like yelling at ghosts.

Rebecca: quite a few hardworking people lost their jobs and were sent packing with nothing. Rather than whining about how this has affected you–true, it is what you are best at–perhaps you might actually put down the mirror and try putting yourself in someone else’s (nondesigner) shoes. This isn’t about you.

“Check” isn’t exactly wrong; it’s just the American way of spelling “cheque.”

Really? When you do work for someone, do you not expect to get paid? And, yes, many, many were affect. One who I spoke to just today told me she would be out of a job because of them, after working for YEARS, with NO severance.

And yes, speaking up DID get me something AMAZING. I’m grateful and humbled.

PS. I’m in bare feet.

I think the thing that has bothered so many people is that the publisher and distributor have been silent. Harold Fenn has disappeared. Jordan Fenn works for M&S. No one is talking. A little would go a long way, and yes, everyone – former staff, authors, agents – deserves some kind of answer about what they can expect. No one was handled well here.

Edit, I really don’t think, and if you had half a brain, that Rebecca is tweeting from America.

Nathan,

Making fun of Rebecca Eckler isn’t that hard, is it? You must have really laboured to come up with the Zola idea, moving to what happened in Parliament last week, and then invoking contemporary pain (chuckles) in a place where people are dying. Rebecca Eckler, be shamed!
I know a lot of male writers in Toronto don’t like Eckler’s gig (columnist, novelist) and schtick -hey, you don’t like Blatchford too?- and I have to say I don’t like either… either. Her responses to your post do go some way to earn your lighthearted scorn. But the really interesting thing to me is how Quill and Quire is lampooning an unpaid writer who does more on her Twitter account than complain about Stephen Harper. How feeble, this Twitter protest of your own! Maybe you might “tweet” next time about the gripes all writers have about their own publishers (I know, yours is awesome) or about their lack of audience (you have no such lack?) or, maybe, the lack of journalism at an institution meant, maybe, to talk to Eckler and find out what she’s upset about before cueing derision. My protest is this: you took a writer and laughed about them not getting paid. I suppose this protest has as much weight as the poets suffering under your reign as general reviews editor.

You know, you’re right, Shane. The present incarnation of Q + Q has been HORRIBLE to poets. And poets, of all people, could really use the leg up. How about a more than occasional (and for a refreshing change of pace, qualified) review of a non-name, or even – gasp – a first book?

I think it’s shameful that KP has gotten away with not saying anything public about the demise of the company. It just disappeared with barely a whimper in mid-January, when the news that its editor-in-chief and a production staffer had been let go before Christmas. Then, in mid-February, Jordan Fenn took a job at another house, while his house was still, as far as anyone knew, functional but in limbo. Writers – unpaid or paid up with books in the warehouse – have a right to be pissed off. Why isn’t Q&Q covering this story??

Potential Q&Q cover story for August/September: ‘The Derisible Duo: Jordan Fenn and BeccEcks.’

When Stoddart went under a decade ago they stiffed me for 10 grand. Hey, jack! Where’s my effin’ money?!! Just kidding, I’ve moved on.