After the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) came out swinging on Wednesday, with its president saying that it would not allow authors publishing with Random House's e-only science fiction imprint Hydra to use that achievement as a credential for membership, the publisher has responded.
PW's Genreville blog ran a post about the SFWA's decision, but Random House said the organization never gave it the opportunity to address the issue at hand, namely royalty rates and overall contract terms. (The SFWA said the main reason for its decision is that Hydra "fails to pay authors an advance against royalties, as SFWA requires, and has contract terms that are onerous and unconscionable."

In a letter to the SFWA, Random House's digital publishing director Allison Dobson said that while it respects the organization's stance "we strongly disagree with it, and wish you had contacted us before you published your posts." The letter went on to say that Hydra "offers a different--but potentially lucrative--publishing model for authors: a profit share," and that "as with every business partnership, there are specific costs associated with bringing a book successfully to market, and we state them very straightforwardly and transparently in our author agreements."

More including the Random House letter