Australian mummy blogger Constance Hall is being sued by her former editor over unpaid royalties.
Hall, who penned her first book Like a Queen last year, is being sued by Perth journalist and former business partner Kristen Watts, who claims she is owed at least 30 per cent of the book’s net profits.
The book sold a staggering 150,000 copies last year, making Hall the highest-selling author in the country in 2016 despite the fact she did not have a book distributor and every single copy was sold online.
According to Perth Now, a writ lodged in the Supreme Court on Friday details Ms Watts’ claims, arguing Hall broke the terms of the contract they signed prior to the book’s publishing.
The paper reports Ms Watts’ lawyers say that the journalist was shut out of the company they have equal shares in – Like a Queen Pty Ltd – which was established as a means of distributing the book. It’s also claimed she was denied access to financial records and therefore cannot conclusively know how much she is owed.
In announcing the arrival of the book in August last year, Hall penned a thank you to her editor on Facebook.
“I have to say a massive thanks to my dear friend Kris Watts who has facilitated my publishing (basically published) this book for me. She is the brains, the experience and the instincts and the day she came into my life has turned out to be the best twist of fate I’ve had,” she wrote.
Writing on Facebook on Sunday morning, Hall vehemently denied Watts’ claims, saying she was looking forward to the truth coming out.
“The media has gone and written a very interesting story about me today…. it’s almost laughable how much utter bullsh*t is in these claims. A day will come really soon where I can publicly say what really happened and it is very opposite to everything written here. Until then just know that yesterday I refused to speak to the media giving them only one side of the story to publish,” she wrote.
“There was once a day where claims like this against me would have freaked me out and I would have folded. But not anymore. I fight for what is right now, I stand up for myself and I’ll be defending myself vigorously in court.
“Thanks for all the support. At least they used a good pic.”
Top Comments
"making [Constance] Hall the highest-selling author in the country in 2016".
You can't be serious?
I would love to know where those statistics came from.
Disappointing isn't it.
It struck me as odd too, so I had a google.
Can't find anything to support that claim. Tried "top selling Australian author/top selling Australian book/most popular Australian title" and didn't see her listed in even Top 50 lists.
Not sure where they got their info on that one from.
Best she be careful this time and avoid inciting her followers to retaliate with online abuse, lest she get hit with an harassment charge too.