A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

Numerous authors and agents have accused Dorchester Publishing of withholding or delaying royalty payments to authors, and of publishing unauthorized ebook editions.

At Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, authors claim they have not been paid in years. An extensive comments thread is worth a read.

Langtry’s rights were also returned from Dorchester, and her digital books are still for sale at Amazon and other digital vendors. But Langtry finds herself in an even more uncomfortable situation: after her rights were reverted, her book Guns Will Keep Us Together was offered as a free digital download for Kindle.

Chris, an executive from Dorchester, makes an appearance. I love it when that happens.

Regarding the free e-book giveaways: those programs were put in place by the marketing department long before the reversion requests came in, and I believed the authors were notified before reversion that they couldn’t be taken down without damaging ongoing relationships. The programs were intended to spark interest in the individual authors, interest that we hoped would spur those authors on to greater fame and ultimately fortune.

(Not that it’s the same guy or anything, but I had flashbacks to when another dude named Chris made the mistake of popping in to a comments thread here. Good times.)

An author or two pipes in:

I am a Dorchester author. I am among those who have been questioning things for quite some time. I am among those who are owed royalty statements and answers regarding compensation and contracts. Chris has been my editor from the beginning of my relationship with Dorchester, and I feel compelled to say that he is certainly not a “douche” as someone so eloquently described.

And while you’re soaking all that in, the Mystery Writers of America has delisted Dorchester from their Approved Publishers List.

The complete memo after the fold:

Dear MWA Member:

The National Board of Mystery Writers of America voted unanimously on October 6, 2010 to remove Dorchester Publishing from our list of Approved Publishers, effective immediately, primarily because the company no longer meets two of our key criteria.

First, the initial print run by the publisher for a book-length work of fiction or nonfiction must be at least 500 copies and must be widely available in brick-and-mortar stores (not “special order” titles). In other words, print-on-demand publishers and Internet-only publishers do not qualify.

Second, the publisher must not wrongfully withhold or delay royalty payments to authors. We have been hearing an unusually high number of reports from our members of unpaid advances and withheld royalties on their Dorchester books.

Dorchester titles will no longer be eligible for Edgar® Award consideration nor will its authors be eligible for Active Status membership for any books published after October 6, 2010. The board made it clear to Dorchester that it is welcome to re-apply once these problems have been cleared up.

This e-bulletin is being sent on behalf of MWA’s National Board of Directors.

This Very Bad Publisher tale comes to you courtesy a hat tip from Jeremy Avery.

As the economy circles the drain, expect more marginal publishers to become…well, more marginal.

And my advice: dude, if you can’t pay your bills, fess up, close up shop, let those authors move on. Seriously, if you can’t make it work, you can’t make it work. Give the authors a chance to make a living somewhere else.

Pass the Popcorn Game.