Update On Triskelion

In the almost two years I've been blogging, I've written about Triskelion Publishing more than one time. The e-publisher opened its doors in 2004 and, in April 2006, I reported here that it had been granted RWA "recognized publisher" status. Most recently, see my posts here and here for posts about the e-publisher's closing of its doors.

Triskelion's home base is in Arizona and, a little over ten days ago, the Arizona Republic did an article on the company's bankruptcy-in-progress.

The newspaper reported:

Triskelion's bankruptcy trustee, Brian Mullen, said unpaid expenses incurred while making the jump from e-book to paperback publisher hit the company hard. Around April, authors' paychecks either bounced or failed to arrive.

There's a meeting of Triskelion's creditors scheduled for September 4. The entire bankruptcy process may take all of 2008 to settle.

In the meantime, Triskelion's authors are caught up in what the Republic describes as "limbo." The copyrights to the manuscripts placed with Triskelion are a part of the e-publisher's assets. Trustee Mullen may choose to sell those book rights to pay off Triskelion's largest creditors.

The Republic interviewed Dr. Erik Menkhus of Arizona State University College of Law and quoted him as saying, "The experience of Triskelion authors serves as an important lesson for all authors, artists, freelancer writers and inventors when it comes to protecting their intellectual property . . . 'It is really critical to have a look at the financial situation of who you are giving the rights to,' he said."

Trustee Mullen encourages all of the Triskelion authors to attend that meeting of creditors next week.

Credit to Publishers Lunch for pointing me toward the article in the Arizona Republic.