Three years ago, I received a contract from QuikLink Interactive to write a revision of the old 2300AD RPG. 2320AD was to be based on QLI's Traveller D20 Rules, and update the timeline a bit to add something new to the proceedings. It was largely finished two years ago, then underwent another year of revision/rewriting. During that time, the publisher was experiencing personal trouble, and the deadline kept getting pushed back. Then, for the next year, things just sort of... languished. I was finally paid in September of last year. Then the publisher dropped of the face of the Earth. He briefly resurfaced in May, but then vanished again.
The upshot now is, I've been paid, so I no longer have any rights to the material I wrote, nor the maps I made. However, the book has yet to be published, and it now looks like it never will. Which sucks. The money is all well and good, but seeing it in print is a large part of the reason I did it. It may have been better for me to have not been paid, and thus been able to self-publish the thing myself.
I'm hoping for the best, but things do not look promising. On the one hand, I've been paid, so the only way the publisher can recoup that money is to publish the book. On the other hand, he's dropped off the face ofthe planet. I haven't heard from him since September 2005, when I got paid. On the gripping hand, given the situation, even if he does publish the book, it might not be in a format that I would like (PDF rather then print, little or no illustrations, that sort of thing).
I've tried to approach both the publisher and the holder of the IP for 2300AD to see if we could make arrangements for me to bring it forward, but I have not received any responses.
The best that I may be able to do is produce a vanity copy for myself. Yay.
