Chapter 71: Thirty-Five Per Cent Held
My advance instalment was safe; thirty-five per cent of every royalty pound beyond it was not.
On Thursday morning, North Quay seated me beside the working scanning table in its returns-processing area.
The sealed boxes moving past contained other publishers' autumn titles, not Saltmere or any book I controlled.
Every copy received a condition code before it entered the return ledger.
Clean books, damaged books and books sent outside their permitted window produced different costs.
The physical process made a sensible, evidence-based reserve look less offensive than it had on paper.
The percentage in my schedule still made no sense.
North Quay proposed holding 35 per cent after my advance had been recouped.
Only royalties otherwise calculated and payable after that recoupment point would enter the temporary reserve.
My agreed advance instalment remained due in full, without deduction, on its existing contractual date.
The finance manager confirmed that fact twice and marked the instalment line OUTSIDE RESERVE.
I asked for the original channel assumptions behind the 35 per cent template.
They combined broad national accounts, uncapped overseas exposure and standard freight recovery.
Saltmere's authorised route did not match that mixture.
Its Irish intention carried a contractual return ceiling and distributor-paid return freight.
The twelve replacement shops had separately evidenced commitments rather than one concentrated chain order.
The regional allocation followed paid demand instead of publicity reach.
North Quay's own model placed the weighted risk line at 28 per cent.
That 28 per cent line was not a promised result, guarantee or request for zero protection.
It was the highest supported estimate before applying individual channel weighting and later quarterly actuals.
Another returned carton arrived at the scanning table.
The operator rejected two copies from the saleable-return category because their covers were creased.
Actual condition changed the publisher's recovery, which was precisely why releases needed evidence.
A flat 35 per cent assumed uncertainty without crediting the limits already negotiated.
I placed the Irish capped trial, regional commitments and 28 per cent model beside the schedule.
Then I refused to sign the financial appendix.
My redline did not delete a reserve against returns.
It required channel weighting and quarterly release against verified actual returns.
I added one sentence above the signature field in capital letters.
NO RESERVE MAY REDUCE OR DELAY ANY AGREED ADVANCE INSTALMENT.
The finance manager accepted the boundary and disputed only the reserve percentage.
He logged my refusal as a live contract issue rather than an advance-payment dispute.
My solicitor stored the original appendix, underlying supporting model and complete signed redline in her controlled file.
North Quay's finance archive received the same version and timestamp.
Neither file suggested that my advance amount or payment date had changed.
The risk concerned cash payable only after the advance had been earned back.
I could accept the template and preserve Friday's signing comfort.
Or I could force a number the actual channels could explain.
I chose the second and watched another box enter the returns ledger.
The books inside it had once looked like revenue too.
Refusing 35 per cent did not make Saltmere immune from the same journey.
It made the contract distinguish real preparation from indefinite withholding.
At 16:12, the returns supervisor wrote the recalculation inputs on the whiteboard.
Irish capped exposure, independent-shop concentration, regional freight and quarterly release each received a line.
The finance team booked the recalculation for Friday at 09:00.
My unsigned appendix remained in the room under dual version control.
The supervisor added a second time beneath the meeting slot: 17:00 CONTRACT DEADLINE.
If I missed it, the authorised UK run would remain but Ireland would move one publishing season.
My advance instalment would still arrive in full on the agreed date.
The part at risk was the capped 900-copy Irish window I had spent weeks negotiating.