Edited to add: Thank you all for the information you sent in. Please see SFWA’s report regarding Night Shade Books probationary review.

Dear SFWA members,

Last year, the SFWA board of directors voted to put Night Shade Books on probation for a period of one year. That probationary period is scheduled to end on July 8th and we are completing our evaluation of their progress in meeting the benchmarks that SFWA set for them.

Those benchmarks are:

1. That it fulfills its contractual and financial obligations to the authors it has already published, including full and accurate accounting of royalties per contract, with payment of any royalties outstanding;

2. That it examine its catalogue to ensure it is no longer offering fiction in formats for which it has no rights, and makes whole those authors whose rights it has violated;

3. That it institutes procedures and hires sufficient staff to ensure accurate record keeping for contracts and payments, both for previously published and future authors;

4. That there are no instances of contractual violations on the part of Night Shade Books against authors signed to publishing deals after the start of the probationary period.

Please contact me with any information that you feel the Board should consider during this discussion. My email is vp@sfwa.org. Any conversations will remain confidential.

Yours,
Mary

—
Mary Robinette Kowal
Vice President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
http://sfwa.org