Green Ronin Crowdfunding Legal Defense Fund In Fight Against Diamond Distrubutors

Green Ronin Publishing has set up a crowdfunding campaign to help cover legal fees fighting to get back their inventory from Diamond Comic Distributors in what it describes as "a dire financial threat to our company, not just today, but well into the future".

Diamond, which filed for Bankruptcy in January, still holds the stock of Green Ronin and over one hundred other companies in its warehouse, and has asked the court for ownership of that inventory so that it can liquidate it and pay its creditors. The distributor, while being mainly comic-book focused, also serves as distributor for some toy and TTRPG companies, including Green Ronin, Paizo, Goodman Games, and Roll For Combat.

The GoFundMe had raised $17K at the time of writing, with over 200 donations.

Paizo Publishing, also affected, has announced that its upcoming releases will not be available at major bookstores or at Amazon because the company has stopped shipping products to Diamond. This includes 12 August releases and 10 September releases, such as Starfinder Player Core, Starfinder GM Core, Pathfinder Battlecry, and more.

The court has scheduled a hearing on July 21 to hear objections from the affected vendors.

My name is Nicole Lindroos, co-owner of Green Ronin Publishing. Diamond Comic Distributors' recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy has impacted over 100 independent publishers, including Green Ronin, putting us in a very precarious position. Diamond is attempting to use a legal technicality to claim ownership of millions of dollars worth of consigned inventory, which amounts to several hundreds of thousands of dollars for Green Ronin Publishing alone. This is stock that we still own and have not been paid for.

This is a dire financial threat to our company, not just today, but well into the future. We must secure legal representation immediately before the deadline to do so passes.

While there is no "good" time for someone to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of your property to sell for the benefit of their biggest creditors, it is especially challenging given that Gen Con is weeks away. Gen Con is not just a convention for us, it's our most important annual event for connecting with TTRPG enthusiasts, our business partners, and our community, and this year is no exception. We're launching new products and have already committed significant funds to cover everything from booth space, travel (flights, rooms), and most critically, the production of new books and merchandise specifically for the show floor.

Diamond’s bankruptcy and this legal action also mean that Green Ronin has lost its book trade distributor. We are looking for a new partner, but that will take some time. Book trade sales of literary licenses, currently The Fifth Season and The Expanse, are a key part of our strategies for those games. This is especially bad timing for The Fifth Season RPG because we recently received final approvals from N.K. Jemisin and the game is ready to go to print.

We simply don't have the cash on hand to do all of this, pay for an attorney, or participate in any collective legal actions with other publishers in our same position.

The banks are stopping at nothing to wring every last dollar out of Diamond - including taking several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Green Ronin product to sell in order to pay Diamond’s debts - but they can't do that, and we've got a legal agreement that says as much. Now, we just need to secure a law firm to represent us in the courts.

The funds raised through this campaign will be used directly to cover the escalating legal fees associated with fighting Diamond's claim in bankruptcy court. This includes attorney retainers, court filing fees, and the costs of pursuing every possible avenue to recover our inventory and protect Green Ronin's assets.

 

[chuckdee]

I think we all ought to look at the services we take for granted and consider paying a bit more for quality. Without being pushy, I’d suggest to others here that if they really appreciate this place, they should consider subscribing too. (Or else it eventually must turn into a Reddit cesspool.)

So much this. I know that I'm fortunate, so I don't expect people to take this to the extent that I do, but anything that I find useful, I give at least a minimal amount to- whatever I think it's worth and can justify in my discretionary budget. Because if you don't, then one day you might find it gone... too many things have disappeared because of this reason.

 

[humble minion]

Tangentially related, it appears that Girl Genius is also running a gofundme to keep the lights on, quoting the Diamond bankruptcy as one reason (not necessarily the most significant- they talk about unrelated legal issues and flood damage to stock as major issues). They don’t seem to have material being claimed by Diamond, just that they no longer have a distributor and so can’t get stuff into shops.

 

[Umbran]

Tangentially related, it appears that Girl Genius is also running a gofundme to keep the lights on, quoting the Diamond bankruptcy as one reason (not necessarily the most significant- they talk about unrelated legal issues and flood damage to stock as major issues). They don’t seem to have material being claimed by Diamond, just that they no longer have a distributor and so can’t get stuff into shops.

The Foglios once donated a handsome prize to a charity auction my wife was running at a local sci-fi convention. They helped us raise thousands of dollars for breast cancer research, probably the most successful charity event in the history of that convention.

So, yeah, they get to ask for help.

 

[chuckdee]

The Foglios once donated a handsome prize to a charity auction my wife was running at a local sci-fi convention. They helped us raise thousands of dollars for breast cancer research, probably the most successful charity event in the history of that convention.

So, yeah, they get to ask for help.

I agree... but I also say that anyone gets to ask. If you don't ask, you don't get. And you find out a lot by asking. And it needs to be more normalized rather than the I can do it all by myself mentality. Now, the asker needs to show that they're not just asking for a handout, but traversing that middle ground between the two shouldn't be such a far-fetched thing IMO.

 

[doctorhook]

Honestly, depending on which Reddit you are in, I find Reddit a lot less of a cesspool then ENworld in certain fields. I do know of the cesspools of which you speak, but you can avoid those if you want. It's also the reason why I spent less time on ENworld these days often taking breaks for months. I would argue that ENworld isn't the same place it was 20 years ago, nor am I the same person I was 20 years ago, things and people change...

I hear what you’re saying, and yes there are some gems over on Reddit. But without good, stable moderation over the long term, it’s all transient. Nothing good over there lasts, because once people discover how good it is, it starts to erode. Here at ENWorld we’ve got solid moderation keeping this place stable much longer than it would stay by accident

 

[dbolack]

But, if you need it, there shouldn't be a problem with asking for, or giving, help.

A non-trivial portion of the population struggles to understand the concept of doing things without a profit motive. When there isn't one, they try to find one, or insist that there should be one and anything else is dishonest or immoral.

 

[Umbran]

A non-trivial portion of the population struggles to understand the concept of doing things without a profit motive. When there isn't one, they try to find one, or insist that there should be one and anything else is dishonest or immoral.

And, in my own observation, there's a persistent idea that folks need to "deserve" help to get it, and goodness help us if anyone who doesn't "deserve" it gets a red cent.

That's why I put up that bit about the Foglios. They don't need justification to ask, but I could perhaps forestall someone else scoffing at it by volunteering that personal tidbit.