Young also took issue with Windblown and Hachette over other matters, including a “return reserve” (which he claimed deprived him of more than $4 million in profits), a 10% distribution fee and a lack of profit share from sales generated by Hachette.Īs Young’s action worked its way through state court, Windblown Media countersued him for $5 million in federal court. Young alleged that Windblown and Hachette got “more and more creative” in determining his royalties, including an attempt to exclude nearly 40% of sales by designating them “high discount sales,” such as those earned from book clubs or giveaway programs. On May 14, 2008, Windblown Media and Hachette entered into a separate agreement, by which Young, Jacobsen and Cummings would each receive one-sixth of net profits, with Hachette taking the rest. Young was to receive a 50-cent royalty per paperback and $1 for every hardcover copy of “The Shack,” along with a third of the net profits. It wasn’t until Hachette came around that Windblown Media and Young even put their publishing agreement in writing. The suit alleges he is owed about $8 million in lost royalties through December 2008 and that “all of Windblown’s rights, including the right to publish the work and to receive any form of consideration for distribution of the work, terminated.” 20, Young filed suit in Ventura County State Court against Jacobsen and Cummings, Windblown Media and Hachette. Hachette, meanwhile, just wants to know to whom it owes money - and how much.

In the two years since, “The Shack” has become a 12-million-copy-selling phenomenon and the biggest Christian publishing sensation in decades.īut unlike Cinderella - at least in the Disney version - there’s no happy ending in sight for Young, or for the two men, Jacobsen and Cummings, he once called friends and business partners.įor nearly eight months, the trio have been mired in a series of lawsuits, accusations flying over improper accounting practices, millions of dollars in missing royalties, contract breaches and copyright disputes. In May 2008, the publishing conglomerate - one of the largest in the country - cut a deal with Windblown Media to market and distribute the book. 1 on the New York Times’ trade paperback bestseller list. The novel sold a million copies for them in the first year, eventually ending up at No. Finally, pastors Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings discovered the book and created a start-up, Windblown Media, to publish it. “The Shack,” William Paul Young’s novel about a man rediscovering lost faith after the murder of his 5-year-old daughter, started out as a manuscript no one would touch.

The shack book author