For a complete timeline of the Dorchester saga, click here.
A number of troubling reports are surfacing just one month after Dorchester closed its community Blog, was officially disqualified by the SFWA, and told Publisher’s Lunch (via company representative Hannah Wolfson) that the recent news I (and others) reported was nothing more than “propaganda” and that things were “business as usual”.
Author John Skipp stated yesterday in an update to Kickstarter supporters: “one potential piece of bad news is that Dorchester Publications has apparently gone under for good. So we may be unable to get all the copies of SPORE we need.”
Then when a second author, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported that she’d been told Dorchester had “locked the doors and turned off the lights” but were “still selling books”, I asked via Twitter, if anyone else had heard these rumors. Former Dorchester Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing Tim DeYoung responded with, quote: “Office is closed and remaining people are working from home.”
Meanwhile, Grace Wen confirmed that the company doesn’t have any editorial staff for their magazine line, either. As with the book publishing arm, employees from marketing and other departments are now doubling as editors.
One year ago, Dorchester CEO Robert Anthony stated that the company would do right by authors and resolve the disputes. At that time, I listed six author disputes (a sampling of dozens more). To the best of my knowledge, none of them have been fully resolved. Here is a sampling of more recent disputes from the last month:
Author Deborah Macgillivray reports: “One of the saddest casualties of this mess is the sister of Dawn Thompson. Dawn did over dozen books with Dorchester. The rights were refused returned, as were mine, and a lot authors. Before Dawn’s death, she turned the rights to her books over to her sister, Diane. Diane is disabled, living at the poverty line (which Dorchester is aware of). Last August she got a notice that one (just one) of Dawn’s books had earned $4300 and a check would follow. A check never followed. This is the same thing that happened before. Chris sent a notice that $10,003 would be forwarded to her and that never came either… I won’t mention the dozens of foreign rights sales… To date, over 4 years, not one dime of that has made it to Diane.”
On Facebook, author Bryan Smith reports: “I have never received a sales statement for Depraved. That’s the one book I’ve never received a (royalty) statement for and all the anecdotal evidence available suggests it’s far and away my most popular book. Coincidence? Hmm…”
An author who wishes to remain anonymous verifies to me that she has now sent two rights revision requests, after Dorchester continues to violate their contract with her. It has been a year since the first request was sent, and she has still not received a definitive response. Meanwhile, the company continues to sell copies of her books digitally, for which she has not received restitution.
Author Deb Stover says “Count me among the authors who has one book still allegedly ‘in print’ with Dorchester.”
I have confirmation from two separate authors that they have now chosen to begin legal proceedings against Dorchester. Both authors wish to remain anonymous, and were advised by counsel to say no more, although one did confirm to me that “the paperwork is on its way to them (Dorchester) as we speak.”
Oh, and remember when Dorchester sold digital copies of my books AFTER the rights had reverted back to me, and they assured Publisher’s Weekly that they were, quote: “…committed to solving the problem with Keene and treating all authors fairly. Dorchester will pass along all money to Keene on e-books that were sold after rights reverted.” Yeah, well, I haven’t seen a dime. Or a statement. And I know copies were sold. I have receipts confirming such, as well as documentation from booksellers.
I must take issue with Dorchester’s claim that this is all simply “propaganda” but it does indeed seem to be “business as usual” for them.
Am I allowed to say “What a bunch of arseholes”?
If I am……..what a bunch of arseholes!
The second a publisher violates the contract, you should self-publish your book and violently undercut them on price and then begin notifying anyone selling the other version they are in violation of copyright.
I made that threat to a Spanish publisher that hadn’t paid me in two years, and I got a check in a week.
What are they going to do? Sue you? That would be a great chance to get them in court, but it sounds like they couldn’t afford lawyers.
Instead of waiting for a response, take action. Because they are never going to respond. And while you wait, they win, because they are making money off your work.
Looks like Scott beat me to the punch. If they’re in breach of contract, then consider your rights automatically reverted back. Sell your own versions instead of standing around while the digital revolution passes you by.
I really wish that all the lawyers that are interested in protecting the RIAA and MPAA intellectual properties would look at this. Because the way I see it, this is worse than a dude downloading some terrible cam copy of a movie with subtitles shot in a crowded theatre in China. This is straight up theft and theft with intent to make profit and not pay the agreed upon, by legal contract, payments to the creator of the materials. Dorchester may not have many assets left, but I believe that what they do have should be liquidated and the debt they owe you guys should be settled. And those responsible for paying you should be brought up on charges.
This is just ridiculous. Come on Dorchester, go out with some dignity.
That totally sucks. I hope all the authors unite and take these bastards to court. Just saying…
In my little neck of the woods, Dorchester had a big reach. Since the paperbacks have gone away, so went away most of the Walmart paperback display. It was HUGE. Dorchester problems meant big empty racks, and soon after, consolidation. Instead of 6 good sized rows of mass market paperback books, now there is 1.5 rows — and out of that, about half is Tradepaperback/Hardback. Mass Market paperbacks make up about 1/3rd of one of the old rows — most of those are 2-3 rows of duplicate best sellers.
Used to, those books hit the stores about the time my Dorchester Book Club hit my mail box. No more book club, no more books in the store.
Dorchester had good, quality books with good, quality authors and they really screwed up a good thing. Somebody, somewhere HAD to know they were screwing the authors and were running the company into the ground. You don’t just wake up to this.
Thank goodness for the internet.
“. . . employees from marketing and other departments are now doubling as editors.”
Yeah, this sounds like a good plan.
Not.
Hi Brian,
Just to ad to this, I recieved a strange package in the mail today from Dorchester. It wasn’t ticking so I opened it to find two copies of my Valley Of The Scarecrow novel and a typed note saying they were cleaning out the office and thought I’d like these copies that were sitting around.
Weird, but it makes more sense now that I know they are likely cleaning the office out for good.
Gord
Stuff like this should carry some serious jail time plus money back with interest to the authors. Its grossly criminal and easily proven…
I have some Dorchester books. About 99.9% are copies of Dick Laymon’s stuff. Ed Lee’s Infernal trilogy and Slither, plus Wrath James Whites 2 books from them. If I find copies from other Presses (Deadite for instance) I get replacements. I did a speech for a High Impact Professional Speaking class where I talked about the boycott under the guise of a Fan Fiction writers association president. I even passed around one of your Deadite releases.
I am furious about this. No author should be treated like this and I am ashamed to think that I used to think the Leisure Horror brand was where the good stuff was. Now I know different.
I was slated to sign with Don D’Auria at Dorchester for quite some time. I was asked to fly to Toronto to attend Festival of Fear- ummed and ahhhed about it for ages, and decided against it. Next I heard Don was fired. I was left in uncertain limbo for a couple of months, terrified that my book would slip through the cracks.
After trying multiple times to get in contact with anyone at Dorchester I finally got a reply. “Things are still going ahead — good times!” So I stayed, knowing that very soon that contract would be coming my way. It never came. I waited four months without an email being replied to.
In the meantime (this had been going on for over a year) I’d written my second manuscript and on a whim, sent it o Samhain Publishing, where Don now worked as head editor on their new Horror line. He replied to me the same day, inquired about my first book, read them back to back, and bought both within 24 hours.
I tried to leave Dorchester (even though I hadn’t signed anything) and although they were understanding, they really stressed how much they wanted me to stay. The same day, out of curiosity, I googled myself and saw that Dorchester was already selling pre-sales on my book –and narry a contract in sight. It was the final red flag and I suddenly stopped feeling so guilty about walking.
Bottom line(s) — 1. Big, ugly, bitter bullet dodged. 2. Don’s a great guy. 3. It makes me furious to think that hard-working authors are still going about unpaid.
Dorchester is still selling books. I let Gord know that just this week copies of Valley of the Scarecrow were on shelves in B&N. It just really sucks that no one BUT Dorchester will see the money.
Nothing but prison and complete financial ruin for every executive involved would even begin to make some sort of resolution to this situation. Appalling.
I’m sure that there will still be many people on Shicklines defending the company, just in case some sort of miracle occurs and the co
company could suddenly publish their latest Bigfoot vs Giant Mango opus…
dt
I’m definitely with Scott on his point. Might as well make money on those books before they can — especially since you can undercut them on price by a country mile.
It makes me glad I’m a mere Paramedic. At least our salaries are set out from the beginning, and you don’t have to negotiate with a bunch of assholes and then not get what you deserved in the first place.
I thought my friend was exaggerating when he said it would probably get worse before it got better. He has an MBA in Business Administration.
I had to let him read all the Dorchester entries b/c, frankly, I have no mind for understand these things and I wanted him to help me understand it.
Hopefully his other prediction will come true too. He thought they were burying themselves in terms of ever being a credible, profiting business again.
I mean who’d want to use them after hearing all this about them?
Well–last week I contacted several major media outlets about the fraud at Dorchester. I hope people who know even more about it than I–also contact the NY Times, 60 Minutes, etc. I only know about how I’ve been shafted at True Story (owed only a meager $1005.00.) My next steps, possibly, AG, FBI, Dept. of Labor. Whatever it takes to shut them down totally. Over at the True Writers loop–the “ediitor” is still communicating and soliciting stories from us. So convincingly that I ALMOST thouught all was well. I’ve asked all over the web and at the national media outlets (that have not yet responded) why the heck is this not national news? Including all the Dorchester Media magazine subscribers and writers in both divisions–over a quarter of a million people are affected. Is it not outright fraud to keep soliciting magazine stories? AGAIN I ask–why the hell is this not national news? Forget the writers for a second–I’ve read too many recent stories and posts from the old grannies and their kids in the Heartland who are wondering why they got shafted with their magazine subscriptions. Sure–I care about us writers. But I was attempting to get the media to see this is affecting more people than us. No luck so far. Who has media contacts?
My lawyer and I recently moved forward with legal action against Dorchester. I’ll post what I can, when I can.
Ronald
Former Dorchester author here.
Been chatting about this amongst ourselves (me and the other romance authors) and apparently Dorchester posted a message earlier today on their Facebook page.
They closed their office because…
drum roll…
they are moving into their new digs on Park Avenue!
Wow! The gall. Good to know my friends lost their royalties to pay for a nice new office.
What a crock and a half.
Here’s the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dorchester-Publishing/54055219115?sk=wall
Former Dorchester author here too.
In December when my agent was trying to get royalty statements on books we’d received the rights back on (for tax purposes), we were told that it might take longer than normal because they were moving offices. I didn’t realize it took 3+ months to move an office.
I still have not received the needed royalty statements even after repeated requests and doubt I ever will. I am thankful I got my rights back, but angry at how long it took. And I feel awful for the authors who deserved to get their rights back and were denied.
In the 90s I sold Leisure a few originals plus some reprints. I liked working with Don. I made decent royalties on novels considered too strange by my usual hardcover publishers. I had a decent relationship but sales fell way off on one of the titles and they put me on hold for another submission. I didn’t wait. I surprised myself by selling it to a hardcover house. Years later Random House reverted rights on my westerns so I sold two to Leisure as reprints. They owe me serious-to-me royalty money which I’ll never see. But what grinds on my mind is that they’ll keep the rights. I’ve had two publishers ask me for the books as a series but Leisure has the first two. I like Scott Nicholson’s idea of self-publishing them and destroying their value to Leisure. I feel sorry for all the people put out of work. They did after all publish some very good novels over the years, yours included, Brian. I hope Don’s doing all right. I was sorry to see Leisure go because they really were the little guy. I just wish they would have been honorable enough to kick all the rights back to the authors.
Yeah–and according to Dorchester’s Facebook page the new phones aren’t up yet. If they’ve been planning a move for 3 months–dontcha think they would have phones waiting for them? I find it odd that the Facebook post came a few hours after I asked one of the Dorchester employees on a writing loop she frequents, about Tim DeYoung’s Twitter and if they were working at home. For goodness sake’s–is there anyone close to NYC who can just go see what’s going on? I’m burning with curiousity and anger. I’ll be watching this train wreck to see if they really are at Park Avenue. Wait–they did not specify NY. Perhaps they meant Park Avenue in a Monopoly game. Or perhaps Park Avenue in Bumfunk, Kansas. Toto–we truly are not in Kansas anymore–we are in an alternate reality of Dorchesterland.
Dear gang –
Like Gord, I got a little package of office copies (actually marked “Office copy” in pencil inside). “We thought you might like these,” said the note, which was unsigned, but had the words “Dorchester Staff” typed at the bottom.
So maybe their new office on Park Ave. is somebody’s apartment. In which case, somebody’s still got nice digs, cuz Park Ave. ain’t cheap.
I’m putting in a request for more SPORE this week. I’ll letcha know if I get ‘em!
Yer pal,
Skipp
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I’m SO thankful that Dorchester never bought my sweet historical Western romance, although Chris was interested, and at one conference told me he had it sitting on the corner of his desk. My agent never heard from him, even after repeated attempts.
Now I’ve self-published that book and the next two in the series, and have sold over 60,000 ebooks in ten months. What a close call.
It’s definitely wrong what Dorchester is doing. I hope all of the authors get their money and rights. I agree, with one of the comments, about considering Dorchester as in breach of contract and self-publishing your book. I’d consult with a literary attorney first, though. Don’t wait, because then you lose more money from potential sales.
I just found out Dorchester has been selling Kindle versions of my novel “House of the Rising Sun,” for which they have NO RIGHT. I sold the book to them last year but KEPT THE KINDLE RIGHTS. I’ll be happy to join an author class action suit, but I don’t think we’d get much — unless they were/are insured.
Debra,
Is that the book you promoted over on the Book Boost with me?
Which book is that? I want to pick up a copy from you!
Nice to see a happy story in all this mess.
–Kerri
Dorchester was auctioned off yesterday. I don’t know if it was just the Magazine Division, or if it included books, as well. All I know is, they owe me in excess of $20,000.00
“The second a publisher violates the contract, you should self-publish your book and violently undercut them on price and then begin notifying anyone selling the other version they are in violation of copyright.”
I’m not sure this is practically possible. If you sold the self-published version on Amazon, which you kind of have to if you want to make any $$, what happens when Dorchester calls Amazon and claims they still own the rights? Amazon isn’t going to fight the legal battle for you – they’ll just pull your version.
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Cinnamon, Amazon rarely pull books. Also, they prefer to deal direct with self-published authors than publishers anyway. It will probably work, as it’s easier for an author to prove they own the copyright than a publisher. After all, the books have your name on them.
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