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).
