Help Peter S. Beagle

[filkertom]

Part Two of Writer Activism Day.

Even if you don't think you know the works of Peter S. Beagle, you absolutely know of two. He wrote the screenplay for Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings, Part 1. And if you don't think that has some heft behind it, that was the movie that got Peter Jackson to read the frickin' books in the first place, and the rest is cinematic history.

Mr. Beagle was paid five thousand dollars for his script. That's all. No royalties, no nothin'.

You also might've seen a little classic known as The Last Unicorn. Adapted by Mr. Beagle from his book, voice cast from hell, beautiful Rankin-Bass animation, fan-frickin'-tastic piece of work. It's sold hundreds of thousands of copies on DVD.

For which Mr. Beagle has not been paid at all. No royalties, no nothin'.

Now, it's true that he's a soft-spoken, gentlemanly Good Guy. And it's also true that there are those who would happily stomp on Good Guys if it affords them profit.

That's where we come in.

For more information, and ways that you can help, visit Conlan Press. And thanks.

Comments

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Ah, good. This is getting posted by someone with the following to help DO something about this.

I posted about it after Dragon*con, but sadly, my readership carries a bit less sway than yours.

Thank you. ^ v ^

[braider.livejournal.com]

So, I'm guessing that Peter mentioned this himself, and that the site's legitimate?

[trektone.livejournal.com]

I or one of us who'll be at Consonance can ask him since he's a guest this year. Or if I see him before then -- he's local -- I can check, too.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Extremely legitimate. Run by his business manager, Connor Cochran, who I met along with Mr. Beagle at CapriCon.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Well, there we are! :)

[spydielives.livejournal.com]

The Last Unicorn was, and still is, one of my absolute favorite books. My father gave me my copy when I was young, for my birthday. It is one of the few things I still have from when I was a girl.

I am off to see what I can do.

[brianh]

As a side note to the Beagle stuff, he's been hired to write quests for the MMORPG Horizons. Horizons itself needs some serious work in other areas to be a contending MMORPG, and I don't know if they've gotten his work into the game yet, but if you're interested in his other endeavours, I'm sure they might have some information there, too. And, yeah, I met him with the Conlan people at GenConSoCal. He's a great guy.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

So much for the claim by studios that they must sue file-trading fans "to protect the artist" they respresent. Ever hear Sean Connery rants on movie studios and why he demands accounting records in his contracts?

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Last time this came up on LJ, back in the late summer, I went to Conlan Press (having first asked, and had answered, braider's question) and ordered a book. I'm looking forward to getting it at some point. :)

Not that that has any bearing on the injustices done to Mr Beagle, for which no actual remedy suggests itself. I have ventured to suggest in the past that creative people sometimes get a raw deal in this world, and been roundly condemned (or so it seemed to me at the time) for hinting that loafing around scribbling or doodling or fiddling with a musical instrument might be almost as important and worthy of recompense as digging ditches or manufacturing cars or trading in armaments. It seems the good people at Rankin-Bass, or whoever, also disagree with me.

I shall hie me back to Conlan Press and see what's happening there...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

They're still making them. Maybe it would help if I ordered something they've actually got...

[janeg.livejournal.com]

For those who haven't yet clicked through, signing up for the e-mail action list at Conlan takes seconds - DO IT.

FYI, there was a wonderful new short story from Peter Beagle in the October/November issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. The editor there clearly loves Beagle - talks about crying when finally receiving something new from him! Buy back copies if you missed it. Maybe someone knows someone who can get F&SF to help in the fight for royalties.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Maybe it would help if I ordered something they've actually got

That's a bit of a frustration for me too. Let me guess, you ordered the massively expensive "let the profit go to poor Peter" audio copy of Last Unicorn with extra-special printing of the sequel short story? And all you've gotten so far is an email saying that something hinked in the process and there's no hint of when you're going to actually get the order? And you couldn't even find a bloody copy of F&SF so you haven't even read the story you paid three figures for an advance copy of?

While what is happening to Beagle is a shame and a sin and if there was any way I could help rattle loose what he's due, I'd be happy to do so. But I'm not terribly impressed by Conlan Press's part of his defense or his marketing.

[batyatoon]

!!!

*hurries over*

[connorfc.livejournal.com]

But I'm not terribly impressed by Conlan Press's part of his defense or his marketing.

We're doing the best we can, under difficult circumstances. When the vendor responsible for manufacturing the product tries to up the price by $19,000 at the last minute, there's not much to be done for it but to fire the offender, find a different vendor, and start over with them.

I apologize for the delays, but they were not of our own making, and I hope to satisfy you soon.

As for whether or not you should be impressed, that's your call. But if you knew the full nature and extent of Peter's problems, you might be more kindly disposed towards us. I've been working on helping Peter for more than four years now, investing literally thousands of hours of my time without compensation, and the job is still far from finished.

It isn't an extreme statement to say that without what I and certain other Friends Of Beagle have done, today he would be (at least) homeless, or (quite possibly) dead. That's how deep a pit he was in when we met back in 2001.


-- Connor

[connorfc.livejournal.com]

Gordon van Gelder at F&SF magqazine is indeed a fine man. He bought and published Peter's "Quarry" back in 2004, "Two Hearts" last fall, and sometime in the next few months he'll be publishing Peter's new story "El Regalo" (which is both a very neat story in its own right and the beginning of an upcoming YA novel titled MY STUPID BROTHER MARVYN THE WITCH).

SPECIAL NOTE TO PEOPLE WAITING FOR "TWO HEARTS," BUT WHO MISSED THE ISSUE OF F&SF THAT IT RAN IN: It will also be appearing shortly in FANTASY: THE BEST OF 2005, edited by Jonathan Strahan, and this July it will be in Peter's new story collection THE LINE BETWEEN, from Tachyon Publications. Both mentioned books are advance-orderable from Amazon.

-- Connor Cochran

[neadods.livejournal.com]

But if you knew the full nature and extent of Peter's problems, you might be more kindly disposed towards us.

I don't really want to fill up Tom's LJ with customer service complaints, but I do want to answer the comment above.

I am kindly disposed towards Peter Beagle; I love his work and I want to help. I want to see him get his due, and I'd like to see his rights advanced enough to make not just the animated but the proposed live-action Last Unicorn movie profitable to him.

But I also see that as being a separate issue from being a customer of Conlan Press at this point. I understand that vendors can go wonky, but the fact remains that the only thing I have bought from the press is on indefinate backorder, and one of the perks to me - an advance chance to read "Two Hearts" - has been invalidated by the delay. This is, to say the least, frustrating.

The only reason I haven't cancelled the order is because I do want to make sure that Mr. Beagle gets the benefit of it.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

A thing: I e-mailed Connor and mentioned the complaints in this thread. So I kinda opened myself up for it, and that was intentional, to begin the dialogue. May I suggest that more specific aspects of anyone's problem be discussed in private e-mail with connor@conlanpress.com (mailto:connor@conlanpress.com)? Thanks.

[connorfc.livejournal.com]

But I also see that as being a separate issue from being a customer of Conlan Press at this point.

Not really, because Conlan Press was set up as part of the "Save Peter" effort, and is run by the same unpaid group of people who are fighting every day to get him his proper due, find him new work, keep a roof over his head and food on his table, put together the money to pay his mother's medical bills, etc. (All while maintaining separate full-time employment and taking care of their own families. Everyone on this project is effectively working three jobs.) Because of this interconnection, problems and issues in one area have an automatic and unavoidable effect on the other. It makes for very long hours and a hell of a lot of stress.

This is, to say the least, frustrating.

Not nearly so frustrating for you as for those of us on this end. For whatever that matters.

The only reason I haven't cancelled the order is because I do want to make sure that Mr. Beagle gets the benefit of it.

Customers have had a wide range of reactions to the manufacturing problems we encountered. The vast majority, I'm happy to say, have been positive and supportive. They understand that we are working our asses off, for nothing, out of love and support for Peter. They know that they are going to get great value for their investment and are cheering us on as we solve each problem. A very few have asked for their money back, which we quickly refunded.

From the tone of your comments, I think you would be happier if you weren't a customer. Certainly there are other ways you can help Peter -- see http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp for suggestions -- that would be less unsatisfying for you and require no patience at all. So please send your name and email address to me at connor@conlanpress.com. I will cancel out your order and refund your money immediately.

-- Connor Cochran

[connorfc.livejournal.com]

I don't at all mind discussing things in public, but this is your house, so I'll abide by your preferences. I look forward to chatting via email with anyone who wants to write. Or call, for that matter -- I can be reached most times at 925-260-2725.

-- Connor Cochran

[connorfc.livejournal.com]

Your refund request has been received and is in process. If the address we have on file for you is accurate, it will go out immediately.

In your first posting you said "if there was any way I could help rattle loose what he's due, I'd be happy to do so." There are indeed several critical action items that you can apply yourself to, right this minute, chief among them letter-writing and spreading the word. I hope you will do so. Peter needs all the help he can get.

Meanwhile, there are two other things you said in your posting that I must correct you on:

1) You say you paid "three figures" for the audiobook and TWO HEARTS. You did not. You paid only $47.87.

2) You referred to our offering as "massively expensive." That's frankly ridiculous. For your $47.87 you were buying 8.5 hours (8 disks!) of spoken-word audio, original music, and interview, plus an full-color booklet with additional liner notes, photography, and art; and in addition you were getting an illustrated, personally-signed, 64-page collector's hardcover edition of a story which -- as far as we currently know -- may not ever have another separate book printing. By contrast, consider that the list prices of Peter's other commercially available CD audiobooks (A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, GIANT BONES, and TAMSIN) are $64, $64, and $72 respectively, even though they come with no fancy packaging or extras at all. And further consider that any other specialty press out there would have charged $30-40 just for TWO HEARTS alone, in the same format and limited numbers that we are publishing.

We may be "expensive" by your personal standards, but we're not even charging half the total price that any other company would set for equivalent material. I think you need to take a look at what audiobooks typically cost and recalibrate. I will absolutely take the heat for the delays we've experienced, because choosing the wrong vendors was my mistake. But implying that we're gouging people when we absolutely aren't is rather unfair of you.

Sincerely,

Connor Cochran