Reminder: For a complete accounting of Dorchester Publishing’s ongoing malfeasance, as well as a timeline of events and links to other sources, click here.
On Dorchester Publishing’s masthead, Tim DeYoung was listed as Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, but anyone with insider knowledge of the company knows that he was much more than that. DeYoung was Dorchester, and that was never more true than in the wake of last summer’s events. A summary of DeYoung’s job description can be found on his LinkedIn profile, and while that list is considerable in size and scope, it’s merely a fraction of what he was responsible for. It cannot be stressed enough that regardless of his title, DeYoung was the key decision maker for the company. About the only thing DeYoung didn’t always seem capable of doing was responding to requests from authors and vendors regarding late payments or demands for reversion of rights.
Now comes word that DeYoung’s almost seventeen-year relationship with Dorchester is at an end. Today, one of the many writers whom Dorchester has not paid sent an email to DeYoung regarding unpaid royalties and received the following automated response (I have deleted the author’s name and email address at their request):
From: Tim DeYoung <tdeyoung@dorchesterpub.com>
Date: December 22, 2011 4:17:34 PM EST
To: Deleted To Protect Author’s Privacy
Subject: Automatic reply: Unpaid Royalties
Hello,This is the e-mail of Tim DeYoung who is no longer at Dorchester Publishing.For any questions or inquiries, please contact either Chris Keeslar (ckeeslar@dorchesterpub.com) or Kelley Allen (kallen@dorchesterpub.com).Thank you.
DeYoung’s LinkedIn page also confirms his departure from the company, as did two insiders, one of whom told me on condition of anonymity: “Things are worse than ever. Imagine coming to work and not knowing from month to month whether the doors will still be open.”
Last summer, Dorchester CEO Bob Anthony told Publisher’s Weekly that they were committed to solving the problems, resolving the concerns of the authors involved in the boycott, and treating all authors fairly, including paying them back royalties. Unfortunately, this simply has not happened. While some authors and vendors have indeed received partial or token payments, there are still a vast number who have not received anything. Worse, many authors who have sought legal reversion of their rights report the requests have been ignored or outright refused. And DeYoung’s departure indicates to me that this won’t change. If anything, it’s going to get worse. Tim DeYoung was a man who gave almost seventeen years of his life to Dorchester. He was well respected by his employees and his authors (including myself). He chose to remain at Dorchester and serve the company well after many of those former employees and authors got screwed. The fact that his loyalty to Dorchester now seems to have run out indicates to me that the sinking ship may be about to submerge beneath the waves.
Merry Christmas…
Holy crap, that is huge news. That really sucks for everyone who hasn’t been paid, though.
Yup, I heard this through the grapevine a few days ago…my jaw dropped…I liked Tim. I kept waiting for an announcement but haven’t seen one yet.
Yeah, I talked to Tim about a month ago a couple nights after this happened. Tim’s departure could very well mean the death knell of Dorchester’s attempted trade paperback line – the lack of that line’s initial success this year is likely the reason he was let go. The trade line was his baby.
I visited the Dorchester offices a couple weeks ago. They’re hoping to find a way to continue the trade paperback line in a way that will actually bring in revenue instead of bleed it… but the verdict’s still out. They are also in the midst of preparing to move to a new, smaller location. Less staff, less overhead. It’s the age of the e-book, indeed.
I’m a paramedic, so I don’t even know what royalty payments are. We get paid for work we do and we often end up working and NOT getting paid. (Like the person I helped on the plane ride out while off-duty and expecting no payment.) Which I’m certainly NOT complaining about, I’m just saying I didn’t choose my work b/c of the salary.
When you decide you’re going to spend the rest of your life being a paramedic, you don’t do that with an eye toward making lots and lots of money. Unless you go into the big leagues and take an interest in Emergency Medical System Management. Yes, that IS a mouthful, but what you basically do in management is to STOP working in patient care and write all the rules for the people who still DO treat patients, and I don’t want to do that no matter how much money they tempt me with to do it for them. I have to work with patients; otherwise, I don’t believe I’m a true medic.
I’ve never really understood royalties, especially not its technical definition. I can only assume the word came from the original meaning and that it’s probably similar to how royalty is treated. No judgment, just my guess of what it is without looking up the word first.
Whatever royalty payments are, I don’t get them. I get a salary and paid vacations, and that’s like getting paid for not working too, but that’s what I get.
And I’ve never read an e-book. If they’re going to get rid of books in favor of e-books I just don’t know WHAT I’ll do. But I can tell you one thing I WON’T do. Strap something to my arm that looks like a watch with a video screen instead of a clock face on it and watch gd television while I’m driving, creating an accident that involved more than 17 people being injured.
That’s just stupid IMO and my view is shaped from all the dead, dying or injured people I treat b/c people can’t even take 5 minutes away from watching a show to keep their eyes on the road.
Besides that, I like holding a book in my hands and reading it, not an entire video screen.