When a very rich but ethically challenged publisher simply refused to pay me, and said “Sue me if you don’t like it”, (as I learned he had done to other creators) I sued him and his company. I won on all counts. I won on appeal. I won again on the points they challenged on. But— https://twitter.com/julietemckenna/status/1329462334100807680

I was only able to afford to sue him because I had become a NYT bestselling author. His legal tactic was to “paper” me: his legal team filed pointless motions that my team had to respond to, costing me money. (His lawyers were covered by his insurance, I was paying for mine. )

I won the case (and the appeal judgement codified points of copyright law in creators’ favour, such that young lawyers come up to me and tell me they studied Gaiman Vs McFarlane at Law School). It cost an unbelievable amount of money, time and stress, and at the end...

I donated all the money I got from the case to charities. If the publisher had stuck to his agreements it wouldn’t have been necessary. AND Most writers don’t have my resources, which is why we need @sfwa and @Soc_of_Authors etc, to remind publishers to uphold agreements.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.