Brian Keene's Blog, page 204

Friday Frenzy (with more Dorchester stuff)

So, yesterday we did this. Then I walked away from the internet long enough to spend some time with my loved ones, watch a movie, and read. When I logged back in this morning, I had over 500 emails, texts, voice mails, Tweets, and FB postings waiting for me. Obviously, it might take me a while to get back to you. Tomorrow, I'm helping Mary pack up her apartment. Sunday, I intend to write, because I haven't had a chance to do that since the boycott started. On Monday, I intend to play Matchbox cars with my three-year old son, whoop my twenty-year old son's ass at Magic: The Gathering, and write some more. It would be impossible to link to all the various Blogs and discussions regarding Dorchester, but here are a few things I thought deserved special attention:

1. Jim PI (private investigator to the mid-list stars) has started a Boycott Dorchester Facebook page. He asks folks to post links to their Blog entries and news articles there.

2. Brett Savory of Chizine says "Dorchester still owes us nearly $3,000 in advertising fees! They keep fobbing us off and spinning excuses to delay payment."

3. Author Vicki Steifel confirms "Dorchester has done exactly the same thing to me – no royalties… no statements… and illegally publishing my books in On-Demaned and eBook format."

4. Author Sandra Ruttan says "When I received my last royalty statement," (from Dorchester) "there were no recorded Ebook sales, although my books are available for Kindle and through other major Ebook outlets. Being curious about sales, I'd actually occasionally popped on, noted sales rankings, compared them to my other book… Long story short is, I know there were Ebook sales sold. But they haven't been credited to my books."

5. Jana DeLeon says "I had the EXACT same problem with Dorchester last year, and here's how I solved it – publically out them for stealing because that's exactly what this is."

6. In relation to Jana's comment, Smart Bitches revealed last year that Dorchester was doing this to romance authors.

7. A dear friend of mine, who is one of the stalwart veterans of this genre and who was getting screwed by publishers when I was still reading his stuff in high school detention, said some things to me yesterday that really rang true. I'm protecting his identity, but these two excerpts are so valid and important that I'm considering getting them tattooed on me. "As a holding action, Dorchester's hide-the-salami ploy is admirable: Treat the authors like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and feed them a lot of shit), because every day – every minute – rights issues remain unresolved, unclear, or fogbound in bureaucratic if-come doublespeak, the company can rake a few more Paypal pennies for digital editions they probably don't own…" and "People who blithely suggest that some-people-should-sue-other-people with no regard to bank or sanity have little idea of how soul-destroying Lawsuit Land can be, whether you're in the right or not. It requires that you port your creative energy toward the battle, and before you know it, ALL of your waking time is swallowed. You go to sleep thinking about it. You wake up thinking about it. And in the end, if you prevail through the miles of mind-numbing paper, you're faced against an enemy who will just throw up their hands and admit, Okay, we give. We're broke. 'Bye! Check your history. Pinnacle Books. After them, Zebra. To my certain knowledge the BEST that was achieved in those ignominious flameouts was reversion of rights – no bonuses, pending payments or grand prizes."

8. We got lots of press, most notably from Galleycat and Publisher's Weekly. Thanks to them (and to Smart Bitches, as well, who I linked to above).

9. Lots of messages from lawyers and attorneys and people who know lawyers and attorneys. On that front, I'm gonna choose to stay quiet… for now. But I would point out to those calling for a class action lawsuit that such an undertaking might be difficult, given that the authors, as a collective, are at different points. For example, Bryan Smith and I were lucky enough to get our rights back. J.F. Gonzalez, Craig Spector, Mary SanGiovanni, Wrath James White, and dozens of others have not been so lucky. Some people have been paid. Others haven't. Some people have gotten royalty statements. Some haven't. Some have gotten what they consider to be incorrect royalty statements. Some can't get any sort of response at all. Some just want the reversion of their rights. Some want paid. See what I mean? It's a cluster-fuck. But I do like the suggestions regarding the Attorney General…

10. Kelli Owen, who blew Maelstrom readers away with her debut novel Six Days, announced pre-orders for her new novella yesterday. That got lost amidst everything else, so I'm pointing it out here. To reserve your copy or read more about it, CLICK HERE. Kelli is, in my opinion, one of the best of this new, up-coming generation of horror writers who make me feel old (along with Nate Southard, and I'm hearing good things about Lee Thompson, whose work I intend to check out soon).

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Published on March 25, 2011 16:42

List of Professionals Endorsing the Dorchester Boycott

Last week, in a series of emails, myself and several other Dorchester-Leisure authors floated the idea of calling for a boycott of the company due to the reasons detailed here. Yesterday, four of us took the chance. We asked our readers and peers to join the cause. We weren't sure who, if anyone, would respond. Twenty-four hours later, in addition to the thousands of fans and readers who have pledged to join the boycott, what follows is a list of professionals in the field — from across all spectrum of genres — who have also pledged their support. There are also a number of professionals who have pledged their support behind the scenes, but can't add their name to the public list for various reasons. In short, thanks. And that thanks isn't just from me. It's from every author who has been screwed over by this company. Today, we are not horror writers or fans. We are not western writers or fans. We are not romance writers or fans. We are, as Robert Swartwood said yesterday, a community.

Note: This list is NOT complete. Every time we update, we get a dozen more names. If you do not see your name here, please be patient.

AUTHORS, ARTISTS, EDITORS & AGENTS

Brian Keene

J.F. Gonzalez

Bryan Smith

Craig Spector

F. Paul Wilson

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Ed Gorman

Laird Barron

Dwayne Swierczynski

Norman Partridge

James A. Moore

Mary SanGiovanni

Moria Rogers

Robert Swartwood

Tom Piccirilli

Cullen Bunn

Sephera Giron

Tim Waggoner

Michael Laimo

Chet Williamson

Nick Mamatas

Paul G. Tremblay

John McIlveen

Monica J. O'Rourke

Wrath James White

Nick Kaufmann

JL Bourne

Rain Graves

Carlton Mellick III

Russell Dickerson

Nate Southard

Jason Pinter

Kelli Owen

Scott Nicholson

Maura McHugh

Matthew Dow Smith

Carolyn Haines

Pia Veleno

Ronald Kelly

Gregory Lamberson

Brett McBean

Maurice Broaddus

Ariel Tachna

Robert Canipe

Victoria Blisse

John Palisano

Myrrym Davies

Bob Ford

Kevin Lucia

Thomas Erb

Bob Freeman

Lee Thompson

Mike Oliveri

Norman Prentiss

Harry Shannon

Chad Savage

Tony Faville

Jake Bible

Keith Minnion

Don A. Martinez

Jon F. Merz

James Melzer

Drew Williams

Livia Llewellyn

William Gagliani

Gene O'Neill

Chap O'Keefe

Lisa Christie

S.V. Rowle

Vicki Stiefel

Dustin LaValley

William H. Pugmire

Jason M. Tucker

MontiLee Stormer

Tracy Carbone

David North-Martino

John Urbancik

Michelle Lee

Steve Wedel

James Robert Smith

C.J. Ellison

M. Stephen Lukac

Steven Shrewsbury

Nicholas La Salla

Cynthia Griffin

S.J. Resiner

Angeline Hawkes

R. Thomas Riley

Cameron Pierce

Sandra Ruttan

Michael Knost

J.L. Benet

Stephen Mark Rainey

DC Juris

Steve Lowe

Christopher Fulbright

Jana DeLeon

Jeff Burk

Lee Rush

William Carl

Richard Wright

Robert J. Conley

Stephen Roberts

Lee Thomas

Patrick Rahall

Lesley Conner

Mike Hawthorne

Courtney Sheets

Jennifer Caress

Matt R. Jones

BOOKSELLERS & PUBLISHERS

Dark Delicacies

TTA Press

Deadite Press

Chizine Publications

Shroud Magazine

Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine

Dark Discoveries Magazine

Alvaro Fuentes (Dolmen)

Bloodletting Press

Mircea Pricajan

Cutting Block Press

Terradan Works

Shadowfire Press

Belfire Press

Hollywood Vampires

Fenham Publishing

REVIEWERS

Survival Weekly

Horror Drive-In

Erotic Romance

The Mighty Blowhole

Paperback Horror

The Crow's Caw

October Country

Renegade Scribe

Loves Books and More

Bookhound's Den

Undead Rat

Limecello

Horror News

Snark Infested Waters

Written Backwards

Mike Cane

The Naughty Bits

Lincoln Crisler

Genre Reviews

Angel Graham

Indie Horror

Wag the Fox

The Horror Review

Retro Slashers

Grade Z Horror

Horror Talk

ORGANIZATIONS

The World Horror Convention

Bamfer Productions

Scares That Care

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Published on March 25, 2011 15:52

BOYCOTT DORCHESTER (with updates at bottom)

Over the last year there has been a lot of shenanigans involving my former publisher Dorchester (Leisure). For those who want the full history, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Starting in late 2009, Dorchester – Leisure began making late payments to some of their authors. Indeed, some authors report never having received payments at all, nor royalty statements verifying what, if any, monies were owed. This continued throughout much of 2010. In mid-2010, with these payment issues still unresolved, Dorchester announced that they were switching to an all-digital format. Then they announced that those digital books would be accompanied by trade paperbacks. Due to the ongoing payment issues, many professional writer's organizations such as the SFWA and RWA placed Dorchester on probationary status. During a late-August conference call with their creditors (for which I was present and for which I have a transcript of, just in case Dorchester wishes to dispute what follows), they revealed that: The company saw a 60% decrease in book orders in mid-2009; payroll was down from 1 million to $600,000; the company had no cash flow, but also had no bank debt; the company owed six million dollars to various creditors, including $700,000 to active authors and $400,000 to inactive authors; ebooks accounted for 10% of their profit; their trade paperback plan was currently on hold; they didn't think the sale of the company was possible; and that as of August 9th (2010), they considered themselves "in bankruptcy but are not actually filing for bankruptcy". Vendors and authors who were owed money for books or services from August 8th forward took precedence in being paid. All others would have to wait.

I was one of those authors. I had not been paid since late-2009. My marriage had fallen apart, my bills were piling up, and more than half of my annual income was perpetually "coming soon". I decided to take a gamble. I negotiated a deal with Dorchester that allowed for: 1. The immediate reversion of all of my print rights, and 2. The reversion of all of my digital rights as of 11:59pm 12/31/10. In exchange for this, I absolved Dorchester of any further financial debts they owed me. In other words, I said, "Forget about the rest of the money you owe me. Just give me my rights back." It was a risky gamble, and I sought the council of some of the biggest veteran authors in the genre, but it was a gamble that ultimately paid off, because it allowed me to place my back list with a more solvent publisher. We signed the deal. Dorchester went their way. I went mine. And that should have been the end of the story.

Except that it wasn't, because since then, Dorchester has repeatedly violated that agreement. Since January of this year, unauthorized digital editions of my work have been sold via Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Sony. These digital editions were not made available for sale until well after the rights had reverted back to me. Dorchester's response, in each case, has been to blame someone else and assure me that "they are looking into it" and that I would be "financially compensated" and that "it wouldn't happen again". Except that I haven't been financially compensated and it keeps happening again. In the most recent case (iBooks), Dorchester blamed their vendor, Libre Digital, but provided no documentation verifying this. An employee at Apple cast doubt on this explanation. In the case of Kindle, they blamed Amazon.com. Again, an employee at Amazon cast doubt on this. The ebooks were sold under the Dorchester brand. They were sold even though Dorchester does not have the rights to them. And it is Dorchester, rather than their vendors or booksellers, who are ultimately responsible. I have been patient. I have been understanding. The first time, I allowed that it could indeed be a mistake. Four times later? It is no longer a "mistake". It is theft, or at the very least, staggering incompetence. And as of this writing, I have not seen financial restitution for these unauthorized sales, nor have I received a valid explanation of how they occurred, nor have I heard what steps the company will take to prevent it from happening again.

I am not the only author who this has happened to. Nor is this the only problem. I am told that some authors are still awaiting payments and royalty statements. (One author told me this morning that they have not received a royalty statement or check since April of 2009, yet their books are still being sold). I'm told that some authors' requests for the reversion of their rights are being outright ignored. And I'm told that yesterday, with many authors' books about to go out of print (which would then allow the rights to revert back to the authors) Dorchester has announced their intent to bring many of those books out as ebooks, thus seizing the rights, rather than allowing those rights to revert back to the authors — authors who, quite understandably, have concerns about this, given the company's current state of affairs.

Recently, Dorchester's customers began taking them to task on their Facebook page. These customers weren't associated with any particular group or entity. There were members of the Hard Case Crime, Romance, and Horror Book Clubs, fans of horror writers, romance writers, and western writers. They complained about the unauthorized ebook sales, the unannounced changes to the book clubs, the continued non-payment of authors, the lack of promised trade paperbacks, and other concerns. Dorchester deleted these posts from their wall, and issued a statement denying any wrongdoing. When their customers responded, Dorchester deleted those posts as well. Then Dorchester emailed me. They asked me to "make a post" stating that this wasn't their fault and that they are "trying to rectify the situation" because "people have been trolling the Dorchester Facebook page and posting angry notes." That they view their customers' legitimate concerns as "trolling" is quite telling.

Earlier today, I asked you to read this Blog entry by author and editor Robert Swartwood. A few minutes ago, someone asked me why we (the authors) didn't just seek legal means. Well, I can't speak for any of the other authors involved, but I'll tell you why I haven't — because I'm broke. I'm broke because Dorchester didn't pay me what was owed, and then I gambled to get my rights back, and then they continued to fuck me. And yes, I've got a nice new deal with Deadite and Ghoul starts filming next month, but I won't see checks from either of those until a few months from now, and until then, I can barely pay the rent and eat anything more than Ramen noodles, let alone hire an attorney.

So I'm asking you to boycott Dorchester Publishing and Leisure Books. I said above that I can't speak for my fellow authors, but I can tell you that many of them are in the same situation — or worse. If they could get their rights back, they could do as I have done and sign with a new publisher, or they could follow the trail blazed by Joe Konrath and Scott Nicholson, and self-publish their work. In either case, they could begin to make a living again.

In short, we need your help. If you care about horror fiction, and more importantly, if you care about the people who write horror fiction for a living, and if you disagree with this publisher's methods, history, and "mistakes", then please consider withholding your financial support of Dorchester Publishing and Leisure Books. Boycott them.

*If you follow them on Twitter, please unfollow them.

*If you like them on Facebook, please unlike them.

*If you receive their marketing emails, please remove yourself from their list.

*If you belong to one of their book clubs, please consider canceling your membership.

*If you are considering publishing with them, please reconsider.

*Most importantly, please don't buy their books, regardless of whether it's on their website, in the $1.99 dump bin at Wal-Mart, or available on the Kindle. If you aren't sure how to identify a Dorchester book, check the spine. It should say Leisure Fiction or Dorchester Publishing. If you aren't sure how to identify a Dorchester ebook, here is an example: If you scroll down, you'll see that this Kindle edition of J.F. Gonzalez's Shapeshifter lists "Leisure Books" as the publisher (later today, J.F. will also be asking his readers to boycott Dorchester editions of his work, and he gave me permission to use this Kindle edition as an example).

If you are a Leisure author with a grievance against the company, please consider sharing it with the public. If you are an author with another publisher, and wish to show your solidarity, please join us. Please consider adding your voice to our call for a boycott. And after you have done so, let me know so I can add you to the roster below.

And now, I'm turning it over to you…

CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF PROFESSIONALS WHO SUPPORT THE BOYCOTT

Update #1: During a 2pm conference call today with Dorchester's creditor steering committee, several literary agents confirmed that my situation is not unique, and that a number of their client-author's books have been released digitally by Dorchester even though Dorchester did not own the rights. To quote one: "We tell them to suppress it, and they do for a few weeks, and then it's back up again."

Update #2: Dorchester has disallowed posts to their FB page.

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Published on March 24, 2011 14:53

BOYCOTT DORCHESTER

Over the last year there has been a lot of shenanigans involving my former publisher Dorchester (Leisure). For those who want the full history, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Starting in late 2009, Dorchester – Leisure began making late payments to some of their authors. Indeed, some authors report never having received payments at all, nor royalty statements verifying what, if any, monies were owed. This continued throughout much of 2010. In mid-2010, with these payment issues still unresolved, Dorchester announced that they were switching to an all-digital format. Then they announced that those digital books would be accompanied by trade paperbacks. Due to the ongoing payment issues, many professional writer's organizations such as the SFWA and RWA placed Dorchester on probationary status. During a late-August conference call with their creditors (for which I was present and for which I have a transcript of, just in case Dorchester wishes to dispute what follows), they revealed that: The company saw a 60% decrease in book orders in mid-2009; payroll was down from 1 million to $600,000; the company had no cash flow, but also had no bank debt; the company owed six million dollars to various creditors, including $700,000 to active authors and $400,000 to inactive authors; ebooks accounted for 10% of their profit; their trade paperback plan was currently on hold; they didn't think the sale of the company was possible; and that as of August 9th (2010), they considered themselves "in bankruptcy but are not actually filing for bankruptcy". Vendors and authors who were owed money for books or services from August 9th forward took precedence in being paid. All others would have to wait.

I was one of those authors. I had not been paid since late-2009. My marriage had fallen apart, my bills were piling up, and more than half of my annual income was perpetually "coming soon". I decided to take a gamble. I negotiated a deal with Dorchester that allowed for: 1. The immediate reversion of all of my print rights, and 2. The reversion of all of my digital rights as of 11:59pm 12/31/10. In exchange for this, I absolved Dorchester of any further financial debts they owed me. In other words, I said, "Forget about the rest of the money you owe me. Just give me my rights back." It was a risky gamble, and I sought the council of some of the biggest veteran authors in the genre, but it was a gamble that ultimately paid off, because it allowed me to place my back list with a more solvent publisher. And that should have been the end of the story.