I first began working with Drew Nederpelt in 2005 when he recruited me to write a book on evolution and intelligent design. I signed a contract for this one which did not include an advance. The book received acclaim but came out much later than it was supposed to - a number of people who had pre-ordered it on Amazon eventually got refunds because Amazon could not figure out when it was actually going to be released. The book finally came out in 2007 and quickly sold out, and has remained sold out because Nederpelt could not manage to produce more copies for some reason. He also asked me to spend a good deal of time contacting various colleges in arrangement for a speaking tour that never developed and was never mentioned again.
Before the book was released I signed another contract with Nederpelt for a second book on the Evangelical movement. I flew down to Dallas from Austin to meet him and sign the contract while he was in town for something else. This contract provided for a $2,000 advance which I never received; although I signed the contract and gave it to him and went about writing the book, he thereafter stopped responding to my e-mails as he had decided that he didnt want to publish it after all. Meanwhile I spent a great deal of time researching and writing the book, sending him chapters, and otherwise doing what I had been asked to do under the contract. Later I met with him in New York and he explained that he had decided it wouldnt have been profitable.
In 2008, he asked me to write a third book. I didnt take him seriously until he brought me in to the office and gave me a check for $1,000, promising another $1,000 upon acceptance of the manuscript and yet another upon publication. I eventually received the second $1,000 about four or five months after turning in the manuscript. As noted on the Amazon page for this book, it was supposed to come out in May. Then he told me it would come out in August. It is now late October and I have not heard from him since early June despite having sent him a dozen e-mails asking him to fill me in on whats going on. We have no contract on this book, but rather an oral agreement supplemented with written understandings that he has since violated by failing to proceed in accordance with his promises.