Anyone else out there having problems getting contracted book payments out of Dorling Kindersley (Penguin) publishing?

They've been late every step of the way, but their final advance payment is now overdue by 4 months. They've indicated that tardiness is business as usual. Is it? Or is it just my bad luck?

Helpless in Los Angeles.

Wow, four months late is... really late. Although I can top this with five months late payment once, from a film company. Are you dealing with them direct or via an agent? And have you asked them why it's late? which department do you deal with- finance? presumably your contract states that they have to pay you within a certain time frame. if not, remember this for the future- I now charge people who are out of time 10% of the amount they owe me for late payment, then another month goes by and it doubles. They pay up.

Well, for starters you should claim for interest lost at 3.5% over the three months.

Also, non-payment can, should you decide you don't want to deal with penguin again, just take them to court and force the money out of them...

<Added>

what I just said makes little sense, but I trust you have the nonce to figure it out...

Thanks for the sympathy. A novelist friend calls publishing "the most constipated buisiness on Earth." Think she's got a point...

FYI, the publisher is my direct contact and the one who personally put terms in writing. And yet the buck doesn't even stop there... Rather, it does, actually.