The latest battle began when horror writer Brian Keene outed Dorchester for selling ebook copies of books they no longer owned the rights to. Keep in mind that romance author Jana DeLeon reported the same thing back in the Fall when she went public on the popular Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog. It resulted in the company quickly taking action after ignoring numerous communications from Jana and her agent. Unfortunately, it appears that versions of Jana's books are now appearing via mobile phone apps.
Fed up with the company's shenanigans, Brian Keene called for readers to boycott. The movement gained traction on Twitter under the hastash #BoycottDorchester and prompted someone to create a Facebook page. Since Brian's blog post last week, dozens of authors have joined in the boycott, along with hundreds of fans.
The saga continues, with Dorchester Publishing maintaining that they are going to do right by their authors, but it remains to be seen.
If you are up for some interesting reading, check out this comprehensive timeline of all that has happened with the company over the past few years.
As a Dorchester author, I can only hope the company will step up to the plate and fulfill that promise to do right by their authors. Some of the stories I've heard from fellow writers are more horrifying than any of the fabulous stories found in Dorchester's once popular Horror line.
6 comments:
Publishing gets crazier. It wouldn't seem that it could.
I'm a Dorchester author. Despite the their vows and promises, I don't expect to see one nickel for the three books I wrote for them.
Farrah, I have to admit that as a Dorchester author myself I've been following this latest development with bated breath over the last week or so. The more I find out, the more horrified I am.
Between the depressing state of the industry and Dorch's shenanigans, not to mention the fact that I'm seeing my blood, sweat and tears being sold all over the net by pirates who obviously don't think they have reason to fear repercussions from publicly stealing and selling my work, I don't know how I manage to continue writing at all.
Sometimes I swear I got off at the wrong planet.
I "liked" the Facebook page you recommended and will boycott Dorchester as long as you think it's a good idea.
My fear is that the boycott could eventually hurt Dorchester authors. If we don't buy Dorchester books, then when Dorchester makes good—I guess I should say IF Dorchester makes good—authors will not receive royalties for the books that people would have otherwise bought. Am I taking too naive a view here?
As a Dorchester author, I cringe at the thought of a boycott, because to me, that hurts my bottom line. NOw having said that, considering their horrible track record, I have no bottom line.
You see my dilemma?
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