04/04/2025
Just lost a great book-translation project for which I was absolutely the best choice, and I lost it for one of those reasons that, in 2025, you would think had died like the dinosaurs.
The publisher, Sasquatch Books in Bend, Oregon, was recently acquired by , also of Bend, which mostly publishes games, playing cards, and “gift products,” whatever that means.
I originally had a contract with Sasquatch that accepted my terms: I would not relinquish copyright to the English translation but would license it to them for 15 or 20 years, which is standard. I signed; Sasquatch did not.
Meanwhile, Blue Star Press got involved and canceled that contract, after which they refused categorically to negotiate over the copyright issue.
By the way, how I found out I was fired is that I was mistakenly CCed on an internal Sasquatch email that said they were not hiring me. No one from either press has contacted me personally.
It’s a good time to revisit the subject of Copyright Rustling and to welcome into the fold Sasquatch Press and Blue Star Press as publishers who insist your translation is “work for hire” (it is not; every translators’ organization in the world recognizes the moral right of the translator to be considered the author of the translation) and will hold you hostage over that detail. Read my essay: https://provenwrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ricketts-w-copyright-rustling-in-english-language-translation2.pdf.
There can be no contract where equal negotiating power does not exist on both sides. The publisher that says “take it or leave it,“ is unethical and dishonest. Periodt.
Whoever got this job: I hope selling out your colleagues and your industry was worth it.
Blue Star Press, by the way, describes itself as “A visionary independent publisher based in Bend, OR” whose “team of industry outsiders … loves to think creatively, push boundaries, and reimagine what’s possible.”
I call bu****it.
