Right there, you hit one of the biggest reasons why I quit writing. Before I quit, I got so tired of publishers who thought nothing of paying themselves on time, but had no problems with waiting six months to a year to pay on a contract that specifically stated "payment within 30 days of receipt of contract." Truth be told, I suspect this sort of shell game is the only thing that keeps the publishing industry afloat: I see chain bookstores that pay their bills whenever they damn well feel like it, indie bookstores that need regular threats of physical violence to get them to pay their bills, distributors who take money from publishers for advertising in order to pay the ones threatening to cut them off, and publications too busy trying to get the editor's college buddies on the payroll to pay the contributors. Oh, but it's okay to stiff the writers: if any complain, they can always be jettisoned for others that will do anything to get published.

This is why I'm watching very closely for what happens if Borders has to declare bankruptcy after this Christmas season. If Borders's suppliers start demanding payment up front before delivery (as what happened with Crown Books before it went under), I have a bad feeling that the resultant shooting-Peter-to-pay-Paul game might take out about half of the big publishers in the business, as well as about three-quarters of the booksellers in the US. I'm honestly wondering if this isn't a bad thing.