Many of you may be aware that considerable problems have revolved about this press in the last year!
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| Title: | Many of you may be aware that considerable problems have revolved about this press in the last year! (this is a sentence from the essay, and the title used here on Fanlore) |
| Creator: | Kathy Keegan (who is also Jane of Australia) |
| Date(s): | October 1991 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Many of you may be aware that considerable problems have revolved about this press in the last year! is a October 1991 essay by Kathy Keegan.
It was printed at the end of Perfect Gentlemen.
Some Topics Discussed
- the constant pressures Nut Hatch Press has regarding staying financially afloat
- Kandi Clarke and Betty Ann Brown, two American fans who agented and otherwise assisted Nut Hatch Press in sales and distribution in the United States
- Clarke's personal issues, and the subsequent loss of a lot of money and boxes of zines
- the essay/open letter is very supportive of Kandi Clarke, something that is later retracted in 2000, see Nut Hatch-Entropy is under some financial duress. and The Nut Hatch Fundraiser
From the Essay
Many of you may be aware that considerable problems have revolved about this press in the last year! Words of explanation are overdue. We would also like to take the opportunity to apologise for the difficulties, delays and other obstacles, and to try to put right errors which have sadly been made!
To begin: early in ’91, our US agent, Kandi Clarke, entered a phase of personal turmoil and trauma, the kind of upheaval no one goes through unscathed, and which no one could envy. To Kandi, we extend our sympathy, of course. Also, she moved right across the USA from MA and CA, and the change of address caused delays...and Kandi has moved yet again, to a new address in California! If you’ve only just caught up with the last change, note the current one: [address redacted]. And also, an early warning, Kandi will probably be moving yet again in ’92. These address changes alone have made it difficult to keep a zine agency running.
Then, as you probably heard, mail went missing. Not just ‘mail,’ but three items which caused total chaos. Between us and Kandi there vanished a box of 43 back issues; the master sheets for printing two new zines; and (perhaps worst of all) the back-orders list, on which Kandi listed the zines we were supposed to ship to her, as ordered by yourselves. Without that list, we had no idea what to send...in fact, we had no idea any zines had been sold at all.
You can see by now where the delays came in. Yes, we post everything by insured mail, but it can take six months to get the insurance money from the PO. When you’re out of pocket to the tune of $1500, you can’t simply print and pack more zines, because the bank balance is so low, you get the bends.
Some months ago we were delighted to welcome Betty Ann Brown to the press, and many of you will have made her acquaintance by now. Betty Ann has been agenting for us with great success. Perhaps you met her at Zebra Con, where she had a selection of our titles for sale, and was taking orders for titles not-quite-available at the con.
With much pleasure, we assure you, there are no problems with the supply of zines via Betty Ann (who is not moving house, and whose personal life has not been under-going the tsunamis of strife and pressure experienced by Kandi). If you would like to collect Nut Hatch zines, but don’t wish to place an order outside of the USA. then contact Betty Ann Brown. (The distribution difficulties we’ve experienced with Kandi may take a little longer to work out, due to geography, finances, logistics and personal turmoil; in the short term, we’re sure Kandi could use a break, while Betty Ann is both very capable, and at this time happy to distribute for us. So —!)
However, understanding the reasons behind the problems is not going to cure the troubles...and this is where we want to do everything in our power to smooth troubled waters. Some of you have been waiting along time for zincs ordered. As you see above, your books were casualties of the PO, accounted for by three key pieces of mail: a carton, a packet and a list. Other subscribers fell afoul of a hiccup in paperwork at Kandi's end, and have received the wrong zine: please don’t worry here, this is fixable. Lastly, some of you have written to Kandi and not received replies....
If you sent cheques to Kandi and never received a response, assume these are missing in the post: get your bank to stop the cheques, since they’re probably missing anyway. Contact Betty Ann to order, since Kandi may take some time to get settled again. But what of subscribers who wanted ‘Zine A’ and in fact got ‘Zine B’-? Well, let us help! Write direct to us in Australia. We will mail you, airmail, the zinc you in fact ordered; when you have received it, forward the zine-received-in-error to Betty Ann, in CT. She will re-sell it (hopefully!), and reimburse us at that time. That’s two out of three problems solved, so, lastly: if you have ordered zines and not received them yet, please write direct to us in Australia. Tell us exactly what you ordered: send no money to us, not a buck. We will ship your order from here, by air; if it’s several zines, we’ll pick up the tab for insurance. When we know what was ordered, a n d we’ve sent those books -well, Kandi is holding that money for us! We’ll bill her, she reimburses us. (We’ll be out the postage and insurance, but what the hell: it’s the least we can do). NOTE: a crate of copies of CMH 1,2,3 and 8, A Throw of the Dice, Fantazine 1,3, Hunting Companions 2, is in the mail in October. If your never-received order is for one of these, it’s already on its way from us to Kandi, there’s no need for us to double-ship direct to you. If your order is not for one of the above, then we’re not (yet) aware your order was placed, so obviously haven’t shipped yet: assume we have a hiccup, and write to us, please.