OKLAHOMA CITY – Aaron Brackett, 4 Warn Storm Team meteorologist, worked hard on his children’s book “Walter the Weather Worrier.”
“Kids can kind of read it, you know laugh at him and his character,” said Brackett. “One of the things I was really looking forward to was getting this book out there by severe weather season.”
Tate Publishing was set to release his book towards the end of January.
That won’t be happening now as the company is closing.
“I’m in shock because you know I’ve heard stories from other folks. I’ve heard things. But the dealings that I’ve had with Tate have been just fine,” said Brackett.
Mitch McGill, an author in Kentucky, is in the same boat.
“I’ve had two books out with Tate Publishing so far and they were working on my third book,” said McGill. “It’s a ridiculous amount of betrayal actually. We had all relied heavily on Tate.”
“This is our life’s work. We love our authors. We are not going to abandon them. We’re doing everything we can do,” said Richard Tate, founder and Chairman of the Board of Tate Publishing.
Tate says while they represent around 39,000 authors, this closing mainly affects the few hundred that have books not yet published.
And he says they will be working to place them with other publishers.
“I give you my word. We love our authors. We’re going to do everything we possibly can to find them a good home,” said Tate.
Tate says the family did their best to keep the business going but they simply could not survive the downturn in the economy.
“Family has not been paid in a long long … this is not a matter that we’ve screwed our employees. That’s not the case at all,” said Tate.
Tate Publishing has sent e-mails to all of their authors informing them of their options and what they need to do next.
McGill says many authors are still not satisfied and are contemplating a class action lawsuit.
Tate was in a Canadian County courtroom Friday morning concerning a lawsuit Xerox has against the company.
Xerox claims Tate Publishing owes them more than a million dollars.
Pre-trial in that case was set for June.