Yesterday novelist Brian Keene detailed his long struggle with Dorchester Publishing, calling on readers and writers to boycott the publisher. More than 100 authors have already signed on to his campaign.
Last year the Mystery Writers of America de-listed the publisher, writing: “We have been hearing an unusually high number of reports from our members of unpaid advances and withheld royalties on their Dorchester books.” The publisher switched to an eBook and print-on-demand model in August, and a number of authors have complained about payment and rights problems. Keene has added the graphic embedded above to his Twitter feed.
Here’s an excerpt from Keene’s boycott essay: “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 f*** 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.”