For a complete accounting and timeline of Dorchester Publishing’s malfeasance, as well as links to other sources, click here.
Update #3: A spokesperson for Amazon states, “The metadata error was not in any way related to the announcement this week that Amazon Publishing has acquired certain Dorchester titles. No metadata changes were made prior to or in anticipation of this announcement.” Amazon is working on correcting the metadata errors now.
As previously reported, Amazon made a bid to purchase Dorchester’s assets. Today, it was announced that Amazon has indeed acquired the publication contracts of over 1,000 Dorchester titles, including romance, horror, western, and more. What is not being reported yet is which titles were part of the deal. As I and others have previously reported, Dorchester was including books for which they did not own the rights to as part of their intellectual property and assets while seeking a buyer. Could it be possible that either due to a mistake in due-diligence on the part of Amazon or continued malfeasance on Dorchester’s part, some of those titles were included in today’s deal?
Hmmmmmm…… what do we have here?
*This is the Kindle listing for Dead Sea. Originally published by Dorchester, the rights for Dead Sea reverted back to me in late 2010 along with the rights to all of my other Dorchester titles.
*Last year, Deadite Press republished Dead Sea in both paperback and Kindle.
*The Kindle listing stated Deadite Press as the publisher until a few months ago, when Amazon and Dorchester first entered into talks, after which the Kindle listing for Dead Sea was changed to show Leisure – a division of Dorchester — as the publisher.
*The same was done for ALL of my former Dorchester titles: Urban Gothic, Castaways, Darkness on the Edge of Town, etc.
*Deadite Press did not make this erroneous change. I did not make this erroneous change. Someone at Amazon made it.
*Deadite Press sent several requests to Amazon to correct the error, but got no response. My requests to do the same were met with similar silence.
Now let me be clear — Deadite are still being paid monthly by Amazon, so at least the checks are going to the right place. But the timing and synchronicity are certainly odd, as is Amazon’s apparent inability to correct this error (in the past, I’ve had nothing but prompt, courteous customer service when dealing with Amazon). So perhaps I can be forgiven for wondering just which titles Dorchester sold to Amazon, and how many of those titles were ones that Dorchester did not legally have the right to sell?
Long-time readers know I’m not one of these anti-Amazon wingnuts. I’ve always been very supportive of the company, and they have always been very supportive of me. It should be noted that representatives from Amazon have indeed been reaching out to authors. I know of several who have been contacted, including some from our particular genre. So Amazon are indeed making an effort to fix things. It should also be noted that Amazon’s PR department reached out to me, as well, when this deal was first announced. But despite all of that… well, you can see it there for yourself on the link. Used to say Deadite Press. Now changed to Dorchester (Leisure). Very strange.
Let’s see what happens next…
Never make your living as a writer, kids. Stay in school. Become a nurse or an HVAC technician or a truck driver.
UPDATE #1: Apparently, mine aren’t the only books showing this change. The Kindle edition of Survivor by J.F. Gonzalez, which was published by Deadite Press, is now also showing Dorchester as the publisher, despite the fact that those rights were legally reverted to the author last year.
This sort of thing makes me grateful for my IT career…
Certainly curious. I’ll stay tuned to see what develops in the future, as I imagine some of the lack of details could have been due to sealed negotiations. So now that it’s a done deal, I’m curious to see exactly what was done.
Hmm, odd. Maybe there was something we didn’t know, and they figured it was easier to clean it up afterward?
Keep us posted!
This whole situation has been nothing but a real- life horror story. I feel for ya, man.
Can’t your lawyer demand to see only those titles that have only your name on’em?
Never mind, you probably already tried that plus law men are expensive to boot!
I hope Amazon comes to their senses and notifies you soon to set things right.
Best of luck, we’ll be watching,
Chuck
This took me back to a year ago when Dorchester sold the rights to my book they had zero rights with in the first place so it could be an audio book. I found out by looking on Amazon. We killed it before it went any further, but after reading this, I had to jump back to Amazon to make sure nothing odd came about recently. So far, so good. Man, what a mess this has been.
For what it’s worth, Barnes and Noble still lists the publisher as Deadite.
Hopefully it’s just an administrative or computer error, Brian, that will be cleared up very quickly. A headache for you and Deadite in the meantime, for sure…
Survivor link shows Deadite Press as publisher.
Thanks for keeping us posted. We want to make educated purchases to support our favorite writers, not crooked, deadbeat publishers. As it is, if it says DP . . . they won’t get my money. So, please keep us up to date.
Piglips: No, as of 12:45pm EST it is still showing Dorchester: http://www.amazon.com/Survivor-ebook/dp/B006ICIZ2O/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346414905&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=Survivor+JF+Gonzalez
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says Deadite now. did you receive any non-verbal notifications when your rights reverted back?
It looks like Dead Se is now back to being listed as published by Deadite. From what I saw, it looks like everything else is still saying Leisure. Weird.
Also, I just noticed that the title for the kindle edition of Urban Gothic is “Urban Gothic (Dirk & Steele)” WTF is Dirk & Steele?
The listing for DEAD SEA may have been fixed, but currently (about 2:00 am EST) URBAN GOTHIC, A GATHERING OF CROWS, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, GOUL, and CASTAWAYS have Leisure listed as the publisher.
Err … I mean GHOUL, of course.
Yeah, I’m told it will be 48 hours before they are all fixed, but it’s in the process.
Dear Brian and gang –
For the record, all four of the books that Amazon picked up from me on Friday — THE LONG LAST CALL, JAKE’S WAKE, SPORE, and (hopefully) THE BRIDGE — are still listed as Leisure Books on Amazon. I know the Amazon team was working its ass off, right up to the last minute, before the deal went through.
I also know that when Amazon first approached me, they mentioned only THE LONG LAST CALL and JAKE. We had to mention the other two titles, and then they’d go, “Found ‘em!”
I’m also guessing that whatever was left of Dorchester, organizationally, had to be a disaster area. So I bet some archeology will be in order, and some missed details will be uncovered.
So if you’re not sure where all your shit landed, it definitely behooves you to investigate, as has our Mr. Keene. Dorchester is done. Time to sort through the wreckage.
As for me, I’m looking forward to seeing how Amazon Publishing works from the inside. If they’re keeping the covers, or investing in redesign. If they’re buying new titles, or just building a mammoth backlist. If being published by Amazon results in sales advantages ON Amazon, and/or disadvantages elsewhere.
Mostly, though — for all the people who would not buy my books from Leisure, for very good reasons — I hope you will now feel free to read my nice books in good conscience!
Yer pal,
Skipp
P.S. — As I understand it, in the case of former Dorchester titles that Amazon did NOT buy, the rights revert automatically back to the author. So whether you went with Amazon or not, you’re free as of now, if you weren’t already.
That, in itself, seems like a very good thing.
It says deadite now. (9/1/2012
For the love of sanity, are the problems caused by Dorchester in their way not the ultimate zombie tale? They simply will not die.
I would consider it unlikely that Dorchester attempted to sell any titles to which they did not have the rights. Amazon contacted authors and if we chose to sign on with them, we had to sign the contract agreeing to the terms of their offer by a deadline; it was also made clear that if Amazon successfully closed this deal, that any titles that were not placed under contract voluntarily with Amazon would see their rights revert to the authors.
I had my agent check it out thoroughly when I got the offer from Amazon. They offered to pay me outstanding royalties owed, and to publish my works under far more favorable terms than Dorchester’s, through Thomas & Mercer. Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t see how Dorchester could have sold rights they didn’t own, particularly since Amazon required authors to sign on with them voluntarily to be part of the deal or guaranteed their rights would be returned to them if they opted out of the deal.
Sandra: Then you need to read back through the Blog entries here and elsewhere, as well as Publisher’s Weekly, and other media outlets. Dorchester have been selling the rights to works they don’t own for the last two and a half years. That’s what 50% of this entire saga has been about. Audio, foreign, film, digital, etc.
And furthermore, it’s pretty clear above that Amazon was engaged in no wrongdoing. Indeed, Amazon has been the hero in this sordid affair.
Well, it looks like Amazon has fixed all the Keene titles – they are back to Deadite Press. Class act Amazon! Glad that is one less headache for you Brian.