Griefcom's looking for two skeptical, unfazeable, thick-skinned, and slightly-dyspeptic volunteers to fill a pair of open seats.

After six years of service, the unrelenting Dafydd ab Hugh has retired as our point man for Short Fiction. He handled four or five cases a year on average; a case can consume as few as five hours, or (in extreme situations) as many as several hundred (spread out over several years, of course). If you're fearless, with good email and telephone skills, and truly believe that the world would be a better place if magazine publishers honored their contracts to the letter, this might just be the job for you.

On August 15, John Barnes will succeed me as Chairwhatever of Griefcom, which means someone must replace him as head of our Work Made For Hire division. Two or three cases a year, but they tend to be complex, so they don't resolve quickly, especially since you often wind up squaring off against a lawyer paid by the hour who's not averse to running up his client's bill. (On the other hand, you will derive a small sense of satisfaction from knowing that every time the lawyer replies to you, your real adversary's legal bill has just jumped another couple of hundred bucks.) Same skill set required as above. Willingness and desire to fight some of the largest corporations in America is a plus.

And I'd like to thank Lee Martindale for taking over our Mediations department, because I'm not sure I could write a help-wanted ad for that job...

Kevin O'Donnell

Posted July 21, 2005