Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Like, I'm So Sure

Publishers pay writers advances to help cover expenses and feed families until their books come out and (we hope) the big trucks full of money back up to both our doors. Having passed a contractual milestone on Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow, I happily received such a check from my publisher Abrams yesterday (none of your business, that's how much).

The reason I'm writing about it and may need to frame the stub is the little note in the "Voucher Comments" field describing what the check is for.

It reads: "WHATEVER."

I'm not sure I like their attitude.
.

9 comments:

ronnie said...

This reminds me of the time a family member told me that an Ebay payment had turned up on her PayPal account billed to "Califoria Jew". She said, "PayPal won't think that I labeled that person by his religion, will they?" I said, "No, no - it'll be his business billing name, I guess... It's automatic, you don't name the seller. I guess that's just how he identifies himself in his billing. Proud of his identity, maybe."

Later when my family member's credit card bill arrived (PayPal bills your credit card), the charge was listed under the company's full billing name, which was apparently too long for PayPal: California Jewelry.

Sherwood Harrington said...

It's not made out to "Dude" is it?

Sandra said...

HAHAHA

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

In the days before ATM machines I had an account where I needed to say a secret word to withdraw money.
I picked "paint."
The tellers sometimes looked at me strangely when asking for my password. Turns out they only stored the first four letters. To them, my word was "pain."

Brian Fies said...

Funny, everybody! Thanks dudes!

shrinking indigo said...

I came to the party a little late, but HEE, nonetheless!

Mike said...

Could have been worse. Imagine being the author of "Void: A Journey Through Interstellar Space."

Kidsis said...

Haaaaahahahah!

patricia said...

I wouldn't care, as long as 'WHATEVER' covered my mortgage and then some...