Thursday, 24 March 2011

Writers furious at Dorchester/Leisure Publishing

Horror author Brian Keene is asking for support in boycotting Dorchester publishing who, he claims, have treated their authors in a deplorable fashion.

"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”." Brian writes on his own website HERE.

Brian continues: "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."

Anyone who is interested in this dreadful situation should also read the blog post by author Robert Swartwood HERE 

The Archive thanks Chap O'Keefe for bringing this to our attention.

RELATED: Dorchester Publishing have tonight posted this statement on their Facebook page -
A number of allegations have been made recently on this page by customers who mistakenly believe Dorchester is knowingly selling rights to titles they do not own. We applaud your decision to exercise your power as consumers and directly support the authors you know and love. We maintain that all mistakes, whether ours or third parties...

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