When the former cofounders of Foundry Literary + Media parted ways in September to launch their own literary agencies, the partners said that thousands of existing contracts would still be handled by Foundry. It appears that payments to some authors with contracts residing at Foundry have been stalled.
According to multiple sources, a number of authors have either not been paid royalties owed, or have had checks for those royalties bounce. Sources also indicated that some former agents of the firm may also be owed money.
The Authors Guild has reached out on behalf of some of the injured parties and sources said that the problem appears to involve issues with an account that receives publisher payments and then pays them to authors.
Yfat Reiss Gendell, cofounder of Foundry, indicated in a statement Foundry is moving to a resolution. "The partners of Foundry previously announced intention to move on to different companies and to transition Foundry to a service company for all existing contracts. The company and its service providers are working through this transition now, and all involved expect matters and all payments to be settled completely,” Gendell said in a statement.
Gendell then added that the firm is "communicating with our clients and their domestic agents first.”
Foundry's other cofounder Peter McGuigan said in a statement: "Upon the advice of counsel, I do not confirm the allegations and respectfully deny further comment at this time."
Sources close to the firm said it is now working with a third-party service provider to make payments more quickly and prevent future delays. Those same sources said they expected any outstanding payments should be made by the end of next week.
