Spanish Translation Dispute
1. THE SPANISH EDITION DISPUTE BETWEEN KIM AND THE PUBLISHER:
Kim’s messaged me in July of 2021 that her lawyer was advising her that she can sue Ken for the fact that he printed a Spanish translation of the book without giving us galleys to review first. ( I would link this to the relevent letter to Ken included in the PDFs sent yesterday). The translation contains some small number of typos. However, I believe that this obligation to review galleys only pertains, per our contract, to new editions. And I believe I saw a text message to us where we agreed that this would not be a new edition, just a translation. According to Ken, this is the dispute that they intend to sue him for to get free remainders, claiming that these few typos has caused her “grave reputational harm”. Only about 70 copies of this translation were sold before Ken pulled it from Amazon where it had been printed on demand. Notably, I have a message from Kim saying I should not tell Ken about the typos so he won’t fix them, and they can then have grounds for the suit. I had no interest in this suit myself but did not intervene as I was trying to stay out of their disputes. Ken is aware of this.
See section 3 of this letter from Kim’s lawyer to the publisher:
Do you know anything about this?
Message from Kimberly King, Do you know anything about this?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 7:34 PM.
Do you know anything about this?
- Message from Kimberly King, Attachment: Image, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 7:37 PM.
Attachments
- Message from Kimberly King, Attachment: Image, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 7:37 PM.
Attachments
- Message from Kimberly King, Why Ken wouldn’t tell me about this… and plan a big book launch… is BEYOND me., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 7:48 PM.Why Ken wouldn’t tell me about this… and plan a big book launch… is BEYOND me.
- Message from you, Oh Geez🙄 no I knew nothing about this. What a terrible shame. So weird. So my question is… Does he own the rights to this … do you know?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 7:54 PM.Oh Geez no I knew nothing about this. What a terrible shame. So weird. So my question is… Does he own the rights to this … do you know?
- Message from Kimberly King, I just emailed the lawyer. We have been back and forth negotiating for 8 weeks. So- for him to do this during negotiation is shady., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:06 PM.
no I knew nothing about this. What a terrible shame. So weird. So my question is… Does he own the rights to this … do you know?I can’t tell what edition it is.
- Message from Kimberly King, I will hear from her tomorrow. We were at a good point with negotiations. We are each allowed 750 books at a dollar a book. To sell on our own. We are both allowed to drop ship via Boulden. We are excused from the clause about rights to our next works. And he agreed to pay me 500 for marketing. He offered for me to buy the Spanish edition for 28,000. I said No ! To that. He paid for that translation a while ago., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:08 PM.
- Message from Kimberly King, I guess he didn’t need you to re-design it?!?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:09 PM.I guess he didn’t need you to re-design it?!?
- Message from you, Uh huh. Apparently., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:10 PM.
- Message from you, Do you want to order the book, or I can., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:11 PM.Do you want to order the book, or I can.
- Message from Kimberly King, So I though he had to get our approval for new editions… this is another new edition. And the words were professionally translated. But- there were issues with the illustrations I thought ? What the heck?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:14 PM.
- Message from Kimberly King, A friend of mine just ordered it., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:15 PM.
- Message from Kimberly King, You should order one too to get a look at it. If it doesn’t represent your illustrations the way you want… we may need to stop the presses., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:15 PM.You should order one too to get a look at it. If it doesn’t represent your illustrations the way you want… we may need to stop the presses.
- Message from Kimberly King, Attachment: Image, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:16 PM.
Attachments
- Message from you, I ordered it and can start reading it in the kindle edition it says . So taking a look., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:26 PM.I ordered it and can start reading it in the kindle edition it says . So taking a look.
- Message from you, It has the new table of contents, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:28 PM.It has the new table of contents
- Message from you, We have no new contract for this, right ? But did we have some sort of agreement?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:29 PM.
- Message from you, Can I call you now?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:29 PM.
- Message from you, I as m glad you are steady.☺️, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:30 PM.I as m glad you are steady.
- Message from you, I am, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:30 PM.I am
- Message from you, It’s ok if you are busy. I can understand., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:32 PM.It’s ok if you are busy. I can understand.
- Message from you, It looks like the Kindle edition cover is in the wrong color mode. So it looks garish. But the interior color is ok. But I can’t preview but a few pages in Kindle., Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:35 PM.It looks like the Kindle edition cover is in the wrong color mode. So it looks garish. But the interior color is ok. But I can’t preview but a few pages in Kindle.
- Message from Kimberly King, I’m up, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:41 PM.
- Message from Kimberly King, The cell phone is service is not great, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:41 PM.The cell phone is service is not great
- Message from you, I don’t recall issues with illustration… But I also thought we discovered that a new edition required a new contract. I am just not clear if we had made some agreement with him to get a few..$500 each? For the Spanish.? Maybe an email agreement might hold?, Wednesday, July 14 2021, 8:42 PM.
