Nut Hatch-Entropy is under some financial duress.
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| Title: | Nut Hatch-Entropy is under some financial duress. (this is a sentence from the essay, and the title used here on Fanlore) |
| Creator: | Jane of Australia (JJ) and her brother, Mike Adamson |
| Date(s): | September 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | online here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Nut Hatch-Entropy is under some financial duress.... is a 2000 essay by Jane of Australia (JJ) and her brother, Mike Adamson.
The essay was one of the editorials for "Discovered on a Website," a part of the Nut Hatch empire.
Some Topics Discussed
- This 2000 essay references a 1991 incident in which a great deal of money was lost in a transaction with Kandi Clarke, something that at the time was blamed on difficulties with the postal service; see Many of you may be aware that considerable problems have revolved about this press in the last year! for more. This 2000 essay retracts that explanation and instead accuses Clarke of theft as well as blaming other difficulties on Bill Hupe. See The Nut Hatch Fundraiser.
- The press received a cease and desist letter.
- It addresses financial worries and and difficulty leveraging sales.
From the Essay
Behind the scenes it's been ... interesting. This is code for "chaos." Things don't appear to be working themselves out at this moment in the unfolding of the universe, so we're falling back on ingenuity and creativity.
The short version (this being the editorial!) is that Nut Hatch-Entropy is under some financial duress. CRASHDIVE was an unexpected success, but FLIGHTPATH #7 and THE XENIAD #1 were an inexplicable circulation disaster. Add to this the fact that Nut Hatch sales stopped dead in their tracks in July ... the book binding punch has died a noble but none-the-less irretrievable death ... while the "press debt" just won't go away ... and there's cause for concern bordering on mild hysteria here.
Those of you who have followed Nut Hatch and Entropy for over a decade know that Bill Hupe, Peg Kennedy and Kandi Clarke robbed us of upwards of $9000 in the early '90s. This huge "trade deficit" was financed, and re-re-refinanced by a group of friends who come together to save something good — the press!
One by one, outside commitments have caused the group to dwindle to, essentially, two people, of whom one (JJ) is holding the press debt.
Well ... if you've followed her personal history in the last few years, you'll know that JJ can actually no longer carry it. There's a good deal of trouble behind the scenes here, and ... as we began, it's creativity and ingenuity to the rescue!!
For the full story, read The Nut Hatch Fundraiser!! ... and before you begin, let us assure you, we are NOT asking for favors or donations. We're offering tip-top fannish merchandise, albeit with a stated, and accounted, "profit margin." It is simply time that the fannish press paid back its debts. In this situation, "profit" is difficult to see, but insofar as there's a wedge of funding on top of manufacture costs, we're playing it "straight down the middle" and making you privy to the necessity for this. Sheesh.
It would have been wonderful if we'd never had to do this, but Nut Hatch has almost faded to nothing, leaving $2000's worth of stock in the hands of Betty Ann Brown, who, with the best will in world, can't wave a magic wand and sell it ... plus $2000's worth of stock on the shelf here at head office ... plus debts to the tune of about $3000, currently being covered by JJ, who is the one left "holding the baby."
Help!!!! Tune in right here for a peek at the solution to this dilemma! Some wonderful fannish merchandise is coming along.
Fandom exists on the tacitly-approved use of professional copyrights: how can it be anything else?? It went through the courts 10 or 15 years ago, and copyright holders essentially agreed to turn a blind eye so long as fandom was a non-profit enterprise.
So imagine our surprise when we were contacted out of the blue by a firm of lawyers with instruction to "modify our content."
Mike, as editor of Entropy Express, was contacted by the New York attorneys representing the widow of the late Don Pendleton, creator of the bestselling "Mack Bolan" series of adventure novels. FLIGHTPATH #7 featured a story by Sara Lansing (The Siam Sanction), which crossed Gerry Anderson's UFO with Mack Bolan. Probably a web search had brought to the attention of the attorneys the flyer for FLIGHTPATH #7, and they detected what they deemed the unauthorized use of the Bolan copyright!
They were entirely within their rights, in terms of their brief to protect Mrs. Pendleton's livelihood, to police the use of the copyright, and while they were by no means unfriendly, they were quite resolute that the story must be withdrawn immediately.
As editor of Entropy Express, Mike was most happy to accommodate them, and wrote instantly with an explanation of the position of the fannish editor, with regard to the legal deliberations many years ago, and stressed that no violation of copyright was intended, and most certainly no profit accrued. It was also explained that, for the most part, today in the TV and movie community, fandom is viewed not as violation of copyright but as free promotion and popularization of a patented product.
The attorneys were happy with the immediate withdrawal of the story and the matter was left at that. Of course, this left Mike as editor with the task of finding a replacement story to be built into future copies of FLIGHTPATH #7, and which may be issued in chapbook form to anyone who missed it previously.
It's a great tragedy that Sara's story can no longer be seen. We felt it was one of the most ambitious and imaginitive [sic] stories ever to appear in FLIGHTPATH. Meanwhile, Sara has voiced the possibility that Bolan may easily be replaced within the narrative, with minimal re-writing, with John Rambo instead! It remains the crossover piece of the issue, and sidesteps the problem.
So, as you can see, it hasn't been all beer and skittles here at the madhouse ... you wondered why we called it Nut Hatch??? Seriously, the stresses involved with running the fannish press are escalating, and the COSTS involved are getting out of all proportion.
Are you aware that DOAW itself — just the website — costs $500 per year ...! While zine sales are swinging along, it's no problem. But when zine sales quit for months on end, it's, uh, quite a problem.
So, it's time for an ingenous [sic] solution to this problem, and on that note, we would like to pass you directly to The Fund Raiser!!