Troublesome contributor

[Hegemony]

I am editing a volume on a theme, let's say American Basketweaving. So there are chapters on Colonial Basketweaving, Southern Basketweaving, Western Basketweaving, New England Basketweaving, etc.

The contributor who's supposed to write the Colonial Basketweaving chapter is driving me crazy.

The chapter is supposed to have a bibliography of sources cited and an annotated list of suggested further readings, but Contributor has failed to supply either of these. The rest of the volume is all done and the publisher is bugging me on a weekly basis because we are now past the deadline. I do not have the expertise to compile the list of suggested further readings, much less to compile the bibliography of sources cited, which involves a number of unpublished sources.

Okay, a lot of academics miss deadlines — but this contributor is sending me reams of abusive email, telling me why he thinks the idea of suggested further readings is stupid, why he shouldn't have to supply footnotes, why my tone in asking him was all wrong, how he missed out on an early promotion because of the politicking at his university, how he is always expected to do unnecessary things and be on unnecessary committees, why my requests in particular are petty and contemptible, how I am just like his dean who is biased, and on and on.

I had heard nothing but good about this guy on the grapevine. Maybe he is Not Well.  Maybe he is drunk.  Maybe he is an entitled guy trying to bully his way into a free pass because he can't be bothered with the details that the little people deal with.  Maybe I will slug him next time I see him if I don't watch myself.

Regardless, I need this darn stuff, and the whole project has ground to a halt because of it, and the editor at the press is still managing to be polite but is increasingly frantic. Commissioning a new chapter would take a long time, the press refuses to drop the chapter, and the deadline has already been drastically postponed once because of a contributor who developed an incapacitating health problem. Meanwhile every time I receive a screed from this contributor I have to talk myself down from doing permanent damage to my cool.

Anybody handled a situation like this?  Or can imagine doing so?  Thoughts?

[fast_and_bulbous]

Reams of abusive emails? It's time to cut bait. What does the editor of the press expect you to do? Let them call the whole thing off; there must be a contingency for this sort of thing.

[spork]

Call whatever contact you've been dealing with at the publisher. Explain the situation. Ask for advice.

[Kron3007]

I would probably agree with him, flatter him, but say the press has demanded these ridiculous things and he would be doing you a huge favor if he would put it together.

It would hurt my soul, but it sounds like you need him to finish it and I suspect this would be the most effective approach with this type.

[pedanticromantic]

Can you not just make a list of recommended readings based on whatever he's cited in the chapter?

[Parasaurolophus]

If he's being that difficult, then yeah, probably the publisher needs to step in, or can offer some suggestions.

I'd be pretty tempted to drop him and his chapter entirely. If that's not an option, then you could probably farm out the work to a grad student--one of his, or someone else you've identified as a likely candidate. In that case, you might be able to threaten hin with mere co-authorship if he can't get his ducks lined up properly. But given what you describe, it doesn't spund like doing this will have the desired result. I think you might just have to explain it all to the publisher.

Relatedly, my partner just did some editorial work for a volume spearheded by a fancy person and in honour of a fancier person's work. The sheer sloppiness she had to deal with was astounding, especially at the level of citations. One chapter didn't even have any citations (but it clearly should have!), and it had already been printed in a well-respected journal.

[bibliothecula]

Drop them. Have someone else write the chapter. Give them 6 weeks. It's not worth dealing with the problem child.

[Hegemony]

I think if it were easy to find contributors in arcane fields who would agree to write chapters in six weeks, and then would actually do so, a whole lot of things would be easier.

[fast_and_bulbous]

I would probably agree with him, flatter him, but say the press has demanded these ridiculous things and he would be doing you a huge favor if he would put it together.

It would hurt my soul, but it sounds like you need him to finish it and I suspect this would be the most effective approach with this type.

Mere words cannot express how much I disagree with this approach!

Assholes like that need to be dealt head-on. Give him/her a hard deadline and kick them off if they don't make it. Kissing their ego-swollen ass is exactly what they want and exactly what will make you secretly hate yourself.

[Kron3007]

I would probably agree with him, flatter him, but say the press has demanded these ridiculous things and he would be doing you a huge favor if he would put it together.

It would hurt my soul, but it sounds like you need him to finish it and I suspect this would be the most effective approach with this type.

Mere words cannot express how much I disagree with this approach!

Assholes like that need to be dealt head-on. Give him/her a hard deadline and kick them off if they don't make it. Kissing their ego-swollen ass is exactly what they want and exactly what will make you secretly hate yourself.

If the book is important and requires this chapter to be complete, as it sounds, I would do what I thought would get it done quickest.  It sounds like there are a lot of other authors involved in this to be published and it is almost done, so it is their responsibility to make it work.. I don't see how dropping this author, which would lead to months in delay, or telling them off, which could have the same result, helps. Being agreeable is the most likely way I see to get them to finish it up and conclude the book.  Following this, I would not work with them again and move on.

If the book, or the chapter, is not that important then telling the where to go would be fine.

[mamselle]

As to why the game playing is going on (so you can get to yes faster):

Could this person have some new, "secret" source they don't want made known yet (say, a deposit of scholars' notes that are relatively unknown) because they plan to publish more on them, and don't want to be scooped by their own chapter?

Or could they have made it up from whole cloth and don't HAVE any resources or additional reading suggestions because said don't exist?

If the former, a workaround might be possible.

If the latter, well, you'd have to drop it, yes?

So just drop it.

M.

[fast_and_bulbous]

To be clear, I don't think the ass-kissing would work in the first place. Plus, it's just another form of dishonest manipulation.

I'd treat it more as if they were incapacitated. Say, with a brain-eating amoeba or something.

I never take crap like that from anyone, ever, and somehow I have managed to do pretty well. One abusive email (as opposed to a ream of them) and it's goodbye.

[Kron3007]

To be clear, I don't think the ass-kissing would work in the first place. Plus, it's just another form of dishonest manipulation.

I'd treat it more as if they were incapacitated. Say, with a brain-eating amoeba or something.

I never take crap like that from anyone, ever, and somehow I have managed to do pretty well. One abusive email (as opposed to a ream of them) and it's goodbye.

It might not work, but I feel it has the highest odds.  Your approach 100% leads to further delay.  This is not just a one on one collaboration, there are many people involved so it working out for you or not is not the only consideration.

Personally, I have never been in this type of situation and if I were perhaps my emotions would make me act differently, but the main objective is to get the job done.  It also depends on the nature of the "abusive" emails, I would definitely have my limits.

[youllneverwalkalone]

In my experience with edited collection, there are always chapters in the initial list that did not see the light because the author don't deliver, although admittedly it is strange that this happens after they have gone through the trouble of actually writing the chapter.

Unless for some reason dropping the problem author is not an option I'd go with bibilothecula's advice to give them a clear deadline to deliver what they must or be cut. I would definitely advice against resorting to flattery or go out of my way to accomodate them. The best way to deal with troublesome people is precisely to stand your ground and be professional.

[fleabite]

I think I would supply the annotated list myself, if the chapter simply can't be omitted without tanking the project. If I had no background in the field, I would do it this way: 1) Look at the other authors' annotated lists and count the number of books and articles in the shortest one. Your list for this chapter doesn't have to be any longer and could even be a shade shorter. 2) Perform a Jstor search using keywords related to what you think is the most important content in the chapter. If you need ten journal articles, for example, choose ten among the first fifty results that seem most interesting/important based on title and journal. 3) Go to the abstract for each of the ten. Use the abstract to write a one-sentence annotation that summarizes the content. It doesn't matter if the other contributors have written longer annotations; in a collection of this sort, everyone will work slightly differently. 4) Do a similar keyword search using the online catalogue of a major academic library and pick out ten (or however many you need) of the most relevant looking books. 5) Look up each one on Amazon and write a one-sentence annotation based on the editorial reviews (Choice, Library Journal, etc.). If any of the books is a really poor choice, you should be able to tell from the reviews and weed it out. No, you shouldn't have to go through this, but I expect you could get it done in a couple of hours and cross it off the list.

The bibliography of sources is of course more difficult. Could you set up a time to speak with him and ask him to give you enough info over the phone that you could generate the full references yourself? Even if he remembered a book title here and a couple of authors there, and the name of a couple of archives, you would have at least a minimal bibliography. The other option, decided in coordination with the editor, would be to publish the article with the annotated list only (without a bibliography).

If none of these options are acceptable, and the editor plans to cancel the book because of the lack of the chapter, I would be inclined to broadcast an urgent call for a replacement with a four-week hard deadline. An early career scholar who needs a publication might be willing to drop everything and turn something out.

Tough situation. Good luck.