The author of “The End of Food” claims that Barricade Press in Larchmont has fabricated the number of his books sold and underpaid his royalties.
Dual U.S. and Canadian citizen Thomas F. Pawlick, of Marlbank, Ontario is demanding a full accounting of the sales of his book, in a complaint filed Sept. 30 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Pawlick says he has repeatedly demanded payments “but Barricade still has not paid him the full amount of royalties that he is owed.”
Lyle Stuart,who had a reputation for publishing controversial titles such as “The Anarchist Cookbook,” founded Barricade Books in 1989.
Stuart died in 2006 and his wife Carole became publisher. In 2018 she sold Barricade and a backlist of about 100 titles, to Jonathan Bernstein, who renamed it as Barricade Press.
Barricade handles mostly non-fiction genres including true crime, Mafia titles, memoirs and guides such as “Selling Your Book: A Step by Step Guide for Authors to Promote and sell Your Book.”
Pawlick struck a deal with Barricade in 2005 to print, publish and sell his book in the United States and Canada. He was to be paid 10% to 12% royalties for the hard cover edition and 6% to 7.5%  for paperbacks. Barricade agreed to submit sales reports and royalty checks every six months.
In 2006, weeks before Stuart died, “The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply and What You Can About It” was published.
But from 2006 to 2021, according to the complaint, no sales reports were submitted for nine of the 32 semi-annual periods.
Reports that were submitted had discrepancies that are so glaring and inconsistent that the only “rational explanation,” the complaint states, “is that they are fabricated.”
Some reports, for instance, allegedly show negative sales and some show declining total lifetime sales.
A company that handled Canadian sales reported 24,000 copies had been sold as of January 2020, according to the complaint, while Barricade reported 2,439 in cumulative sales.
It is not possible that the book sold ten times better in Canada than in the United States, the complaint states, considering the difference in market size between the two nations.
Pawlick says that royalty payments ceased for two years after Barricade was sold in 2018, and that Bernstein has not replied to emails, phone calls and demand letters.
He accuses Barricade of breach of contract and is demanding an accounting and royalties for all copies sold of “The End of Food.”
New York attorneys Tom Paskowitz and Melissa Verne represent Pawlick.
