Something is very rotten in the state of Dorchester.
Both Jane Litte and I have been pretty frank about our hesitation to recommend or buy books from Dorchester since it is relatively well-known that some authors haven’t been paid royalties for years. I know Dorchester’s decision to go digital-first has meant some very tricky and pain in the ass changes for authors, particularly when they were anticipating and planning for a print release that was rescheduled at the last moment for a digital release sometime in the nebulous future.
But I thought the Dorchester drama was, for the most part, over – until I received an email in my inbox from author Jana DeLeon.
DeLeon received the rights to her work from Dorchester on 15 September 2010. She even sent me a PDF of the rights reversion in case I doubted her story. She hasn’t been paid, nor has she received royalty statements in months, but now she has a bigger problem.
Over a month later, her digital books are still on sale pretty much everywhere. (Please note: links to books on sale ahoy. I’m going to do something horrible and ask you NOT to buy them. Please. Do not buy them. I have no faith that DeLeon or any Dorchester author I link to would ever see a dime.)
Her books, including “Showdown in Mudbug,” are online at Amazon.com, and there’s a paper copy available, too. Barnes & Noble also has her books for sale for the Nook, and independent retailer All Romance also has them listed for sale.
Why? Short answer: Dorchester, despite being contacted by DeLeon and her agent, Kristin Nelson, hasn’t stopped their digital distributor from selling them.
On 9/20/10 my agent sent the first request to Tim DeLong that they take down the ebooks that had reverted. He replied that they would take them down when they did the next data update to the retailers. That did not happen….
On 9/23/10 my agent informed me she had asked Tim for a date when they would do the update and removal but had as yet received no response.
On 10/1/10 my agent sent an email to Tim Delong and Chris Keeslar, demanding that they take down the books that had reverted and she clearly spelled out that they had no rights to sell what they did not own. Chris responded on 10/4/10 with apologies claiming her email went into his spam folder and he’d just received it. He agreed that the issue needed to be looked into right away.
As of today, 10/14/10, we have still heard nothing and the books are still for sale.
I sent DMCA notices to the appropriate departments at both b&n.com and amazon.com, per the instructions on their website. I have received no communication from either site or their legal department. I included a copy of my reversion rights contract with the DMCA notice. My agent has contacted Dorchester every week since the rights reverted and asked them to remove the listings. I have not contacted them directly as my agent handled all the reversion contract negotiations with her attorney.
Today is 20 October 2010 – and DeLeon’s books are still on sale.
But wait, there’s more – DeLeon put me in touch with Leslie Langtry, another Dorchester author.
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:
[They] offered it free for three weeks, despite my agent’s repeated attempts to get it taken down. GUNS debuted as the #2 free download for a while and stayed in the top ten for about a week and a half. It remained in the top twenty another few days and finished at #57. During that time, I was getting 10-12 friend requests on Facebook and my other books were all in the top 1,000 paid kindle downloads. GUNS debuted in the top ten on the Paid kindle bestseller list and stayed in the top 50 for a while. All of my books are still being sold by Dorchester on Amazon, and now I’m getting 15-20 friend requests a day from readers.
The problem with this is that fans are asking where they can find my books since Dorchester isn’t selling hard copies now. I hate to recommend them to Kindle when I know all the money is going to Dorchester, but I hate the idea of losing a budding audience. It is very frustrating.
I’ve had my rights since mid-September and to this day, Dorchester is still selling my books and profiting from them. I truly believe I won’t even see a royalty check from this. My agent, Kristin Nelson, has repeatedly asked Tim DeYoung and Chris Keesler to “cease and desist” since the ink was dry on the agreement. They have either given excuses or refused to answer.I don’t know what to tell my readers. If I tell them not to buy my books, I could alienate a new audience. If I tell them to buy them, Dorchester gets all the money.
This is theft, plain and simple.
Now, I asked a few digital folks what they’d do. One suggestion I received was that the author continue to pester Amazon and BN with weekly email messages. It doesn’t seem that Dorchester will be that responsive. I also know from my own experience that small bookstores like All Romance are pretty responsive so if you contact them directly about a rights dispute, you would likely see those books removed. However, if Dorchester isn’t answering, and Amazon and BN aren’t either, you might also try contacting Ingram and Overdrive, the two major digital book distributors, directly. If the book is for sale at any retailer, it’s probably coming through either or both of them.
ETA: I’m informed that not every retailer uses Ingram and Overdrive, though some do. Some buy direct from the publisher. Either way, it seems that the best option is to make as much noise as possible, in as many places as possible.
I am not at all an expert in the backstage mechanics of digital sales, but I should think a month is more than enough time to have this corrected and the books removed from on-sale positions.
For any author, this is a ridiculously sticky situation and I don’t envy your position.
From my perspective, I would say to any reader looking for a new book to read:
Don’t. Buy. Dorchester.
Disclaimer: Yes, I’m biased.
FWIW, I still don’t have my rights back on anything, and I’m obviously also pissed at how the whole Dorchester thing has panned out. However, I can tell you that Chris has tried to do right by his authors (the ones he edited and the ones who were unceremoniously dumped on him when Don and Leah were let go). But not everything is in his power.
Throwing Chris and Tim (it’s DeYoung, BTW) to the wolves in public may feel good to some of you. Really, that’s a shame for everybody. These are real people with real lives. They might be on the front lines of this mess, but that doesn’t make them responsible for all company decisions or deserving of having their names torched on the Internet.
All that said, I wish everybody the best. May those who want or need new publishers and editors find them soon.
xo Liz Maverick
Chris:
Does this oversight mean that you will be paying these authors for Kindle versions of their books purchased after their rights reverted back to them? I bought three of Ms. DeLeon’s books (Kindle version) at their regular prices in late September. I’d feel better if I knew she would receive royalties on these sales. It’s not the money; it’s the principle.
Dude. I don’t see myself as a champion of the weak or disenfranchised. I would need a much better cape for that type of activity. That said, why should I have contacted you? Other people have, and didn’t get a response. My entry seems to have created a response. Consider this entry my contact.
I have never, nor will I now, say that I’m a journalist. I’m a blogger. It’s not my favorite word, but in the words of Jon Wertheim, “Bloggers are essentially writers who are able to do their job, unencumbered by editors or pants.” My job was to discuss from the perspective of a reader what I think of this information. My thoughts remain the same: I think this blows out loud.
Liz – since you’re engaged to him, yes you’re biased. And if business had been handled properly, I wouldn’t have been forced to take the steps I did.
Actually, Liz, the first person on this post to give names other than “Dorchester” was Chris himself. No one attacked either one of them personally before he posted.
I just thought that was important to note.
I am absolutely appalled by Dorchester’s behavior. I am so sorry that you have to go through this. I can only imagine how frustrated and irate I would be. I’ll help “make as much noise as possible!”
Hmmm, and I thought Dara Joy was batsh*! crazy with all her protests and legal wranglings with Dorchester years ago. Talk about a career that screeched to a halt. Looks like she was more of a bellweather, certainly seems proven right about not receiving proper accounting statements for her sales.
And if other authors have not received royalties for years – where’s the money? It is sounding more and more like the Bernie Madoff of publishing.
Sandra Hill announced that Avon has purchased her entire Viking backlist from Dorchester. She said Avon will be reissuing them with new covers. I don’t know about the digital rights. Her newsletter said she is going to rewrite one where a popular couple got killed and there will be new scenes in others. There are some popular authors who have backlists with DP, Christine Feehan comes to mind. I wonder if Avon would be interested in any other authors from DP.
I got 2 Avon books for my Love Spell bookclub selections this month, same pricing arrangement as before. I wonder who got the royalties.
The response from Chris seems in character with what I know of him. He always seemed to be interested in the authors and readers at RT. However his answer implys Dorchester was never contacted by these authors, and according to this post and comments requests to cease and desist were sent multiple times by a slew of different representatives. So that’s a LOT of overlooked emails and letters and phone calls. How many people are left to staff Dorchester? Two? pfft.
In other news, I have a wicked sore throat and am about to go curl up with a cuppa tea and a LIBRARY book. I know for sure somebody got paid for it at some point! lol Happy Reading!
My attitude is not altruistic. It’s a matter of recognizing what I can control and what I can’t and not letting what I can’t rule my life. I can’t change what’s happened and for readers not to buy books to punish Dorchester won’t make me happier about the situation. It’ll only mean I’ve truly lost 8 titles that meant a lot to me if no one ever reads them.
BTW, I’m not biased, not related or engaged to anyone at Dorchester. I was stunned and heartbroken when my editor there was let go, but I do believe Chris Keeslar is in a very difficult situation as the sole remaining editor. Many things are beyond his ability to control. Editors can’t cut a check.
I don’t know who is ultimately to blame for the whole debacle. All of publishing is in a state of flux right now. I don’t think there’s a publishing professional out there who wouldn’t like to turn back the clock to before the Andersen implosion.
Do I wish things were different? Of course. I also hope for better days for everyone involved.
Emily – who said this was ruining my life. This is BUSINESS and I’m handling it in the only way left to me. Apparently, I DO have some level of control as it worked, and you and every other Dorchester author who gets their rights reverted will likely benefit. I’d also like to point out that NOWHERE have I complained about money. That is SO not the issue. It is the principle of the matter. I could care less about money that I will never see. I agreed to write the final book in my series knowing full well I’d never see a single dime in royalties for any of the series. I DO care about my readers, and this entire exercise had nothing to do with money.
As a former CFO, I also know and recognize that if you are a figurehead for an organization, then you are called to answer for all their practices. I can’t even count the number of depositions or court cases I have attended. That is part of the job. I am not blaming any one individual, rather, a corporate policy of ignore then deny. Everyone with a bit of common sense can see that clearly.
And no other publishers that I am aware of are having these problems. I write for Harlequin and they are the height of professional. I LOVE writing for them.
Ultimately – the point was made. Things have been rectified, and God willing, no other authors will have to do this to get what they’re due.
I’m not an attorney but I an a professional writer who has been dealing with a publisher’s willful unwillingness to pay what he owes.
As far as what good it would do to sue—there’s is a very good chance that the actions of Dorchester’s executives amount to fraud, in which case a lawsuit could “pierce the corporate veil” and therefor be personally liable for damages.
Also, if they have any assets those can be seized and sold or distributed. And if Amazon, B&N< et al have been complicit in the copyright theft, they can be included in the suit (deep pockets).
Last, a court judgment could put you higher on the list of creditors in case of a bankruptcy (you’d also have the option of challenging the action in bankruptcy court, which may not require a lawyer.
Not pursuing available legal options is just unilateral surrender.
Dorchester Publication has shocked me with this behavior. A once-respected publisher stands now as nothing more than a common thief. To continue to publish work they no longer have the rights to, stealing the hard work of authors, and to use those funds to try and save a company that is clearly going under is reprehensible. I want to know where the law is that protects authors from this sort of back alley behavior.
No, the laws don’t need to be changed because there is already a civil remedy in place. It sucks, definitely, but that would be like saying all bankruptcy laws need to be changed because authors got sucked in to a terrible situation at Triskelion.
Actually, some of us at Triskelion were trying to do just that. Or rather, the attorneys we hired said that since this was the first time in the modern era that a significant publisher went bankrupt, there was an argument that was worth pursuing.
The bankruptcy clause in any author contract is useless. It’s signed under state law. Bankruptcy is a federal matter, and so the bankruptcy courts can ignore the author contracts, if they wish. And they will wish. Our contracts were frozen by the courts, and they can even backdate the reversions of rights, if they wish. Although when an author has received her rights, resold and had a new book come out, I do wonder about that one.
The bankruptcy people counted the author contracts as assets. Our argument was that without the goodwill of the author, the contracts are worth nothing, and therefore not assets. An author can put a disclaimer on her website, she can refuse to promote the book, she can produce a deal breaker book (Georgette Heyer did that, back in the day). She can fail to send in her edits, or any of the other things required in the contract, thus putting herself in breach.
A publisher can produce a book, can distribute it, but the value of the book is significantly reduced, and can prove a loss maker if the returns are high.
If the author contracts aren’t valued as assets, the bankruptcy courts can’t hold them to ransom.
As it happened, Siren bought all the contracts at auction and immediately reverted the rights to the authors. For which I will be eternally grateful.
But it does mean that particular argument about the value of contracts has never been tested in the courts, and no decision was made.
I’m one of those who downloaded Leslie’s ebook as a Kindle freebie a few weeks ago and now feel vaguely guilty about it.
But I can’t believe…I’m just stunned by the publisher’s post here. Especially the implication that Sarah is the one who has acted with some impropriety here!?!? Makes me think of those local news features where someone is scammed silly by a company whose personnel keep ignoring calls and complaints until the local news reporter shows up with a camera and then it’s all “Oh goodness gracious…really? But of course we’ll make it right!” Arrgghhh!!!
Authors who have lost out on what’s rightfully yours—I wish you the very best!
I agree with Manny. Dorchester may be broke but Amazon, B&N and Ingram aren’t. Sue EVERYONE and let the chips fall where they may.
Peggy, please do not feel even vaguely guilty! And I was surprised at Chris’ response to Sarah. I felt that it was defensive and unnecessary.
Lynne, I felt horrible for Triskelion authors. I have a friend who was caught up in that mess. Very honorable of Siren! It’s actions like that that reminds us that most publishers do the right thing.
Chris from Dorchester is a total douche. Let’s have Dorchester withhold his paycheck for a few months then maybe he’ll have some credibility.
Since the rights have reverted back to the authors, and they have the documentation to back it up, why don’t they go ahead and put them up for sale at less than the publisher’s asking price. That would solve the e-book problem. They could also arrange a print POD through CreateSpace. They could entice readers through BONUS content, maybe an original novella or a couple of short stories.
So if you buy a movie on DVD and burn a back-up copy, the FBI can break down your door, fine you $250K, and send you to prison for 5 years. But if your publisher continues to sell your books with no right to them, you have to sue them or they get away with it? WTF is up with that?
I realize that when a company is in bankruptcy there are bound to be things that “fall through the cracks,” but a cease-and-desist order isn’t something that you fail to implement and, when this is pointed out to you, just decide it can wait until the 15th of the next month. Instead of spending his time composing a response (as a comment on a blog, for crissakes!), I think it would have behooved Chris from Dorchester to spend that time figuring out how to appropriately respond to a cease-and-desist order.
Chris should read the entire Cassie Edwards archive to grasp the power of the on-line Bitchery.
I just want to say a final thank you to Sarah, The Smart Bitch site and all of you who have posted on our behalf. You don’t know how much it means to us to have the support of the reading and writing community.
I also want to make sure that everyone understands this is not personal. I do not and have never had a personal problem with any Dorchester employee. In fact, my experience on the editorial end of things (with editor Leah Hultenschmidt) was fantastic and she was a pleasure to work with. But business is business. It may seem tacky to some for an author to take this line, but it was the only way I thought I’d get a response as all others fell on deaf ears. Essentially, my inventory was being stolen and sold. It’s simply a shame that the law does not provide for a criminal offense for the theft of intellectual property. Then these “oversights” would be so critical, they probably wouldn’t happen.
I’ll leave everyone with two thoughts on the publishing industry that I’ve picked up from those far smarter than me:
A backlist is an author’s retirement plan.
Treat it like a hobby, you’ll make hobby money. Treat it like a business, you’ll make business money.
This is scary because I always figured them to be a reputable and fair publisher. But after reading this I don’t know…
As somebody who has in the past wandered through the murky territory between blogging and journalism, I don’t have any problems with the way Sarah treated this issue. (I probably would have checked in with Dorchester if I were still at GalleyCat and writing about this situation, and of course I can see where Chris (who is NOT a douche, and really we can do better than that, people) is coming from, but Sarah’s frame—these former Dorchester authors have a major complaint, and their publisher sure seems to not be doing right by them—is perfectly reasonable given the information she had available. (Especially if you’re willing to consider a blog post as an invitation to discussion, rather than a definitive statement.)
Jana,
I’m so sorry this happened to you and the other authors who found themselves in this unimaginable situation. The dream coming true certainly shouldn’t end up like this. I echo everything you’ve said about Harlequin and its highly professional staff. I’ll look forward to checking out your Intrigues as well as your earlier books when they once again belong to you. Good luck to you and all the authors fighting for what belongs to them.
Marie
I have several friends who are having the EXACT same problem. It sucks the white wonger outloud (as my mom likes to say; yes, she’s a wonderfully crude broad *grin*).
Wonder. WONDER. Though “wonger” is certainly lewder, LOL!
Wow, Chris. I’d always had a serious amount of respect for you. No longer. GET YOUR SHIT IN ORDER. PAY the people you owe. STOP SELLING STUFF YOU HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT SELL!!!
How fucking hard is that? If Amazon can take down a whole publisher in the blink of an eye (and we know they can) NO ONE believes that you can’t get this done as you are LEGALLY obligated to do.
I trust Jana’s integrity completely, and was ready to stop purchasing from Dorchester. After I read Chris’s post, I was more determined than ever. There is no excuse for not taking the time to be sure that you are in compliance with the law; the restructuring MIGHT excuse the royalty delays (I said MIGHT), but not the copyright violations.
Until i hear from Jana, et all, that the issues have been resolved with Amazon and B&N, they won’t get any of my business, either. I think it’s time to hold them accountable, as well.
I’ll pass this information on to everyone I can!
This makes me heartsick! I discovered Jana DeLeon’s books a few months ago and glommed them on my Kindle. This is a sickening and horrible crime and the victims have limited or no real recourse. I hope Dorchester suffers what they deserve for this, and I can categorically state that I will be avoiding purchasing ANYTHING with their name on it! Thank you for posting this.
The acronym DP really caught my eye on this post, I guess because it seems so appropriate. It appears their authors are getting screwed at both ends…
(Oh, and my verification word is head84. Could it get any better?)
There is another option to selling reverted titles directly online—which is certainly a good option. Reselling terminated and reverted books to other publishers. I’m doing that for my clients and I would imagine other agents are as well. There are a number of issues that haven’t been brought up like the differences between older and newer Dorchester contracts or what they are legally allowed to do in each case. Or what fair payment for e-book sales should actually be. Or what our attorneys have advised us to do. This isn’t the place to get into all these details. And none of that allows Dorchester to sell reverted books as has been mentioned or books under contracts that never granted e-rights which has not been mentioned. And for the record, we have not failed to receive royalties for years, although payments were often late for some time. This year since May is a different story as Dorchester fell further into difficulties and stopped sending statements. I am glad all of this is being discussed publicly but attacking Chris personally is hardly helpful or appropriate.
It occurred to me that I might mention that a client was a plaintiff in a class action suit against Leisure in which I participated and some of you authors might remember the clauses in their contracts requiring the release of specified reserves as a result of winning this suit for over a million dollars. I’ve been involved in other successful class action suits. If it were a reasonable thing to do in this situation, it would be happening. It isn’t. If the reorganization succeeds, they might be in a position to pay royalties on the recent sales. Maybe that is a long shot and in the meantime agents do have to protect their clients to the extent possible.
I completely understand that there are difficulties involved with taking down a file spread across the internet—especially when you have little control over the people who need to be doing the taking down, and you have a thousand other things on your plate.
That being said, an appropriate way to deal with this—and one that doesn’t expose a company that is teetering on the edge to massive copyright liability—would have been to grant the reversion of rights, effective a few months in the future, so as to make sure that you weren’t, say, giving away thousands of electronic copies of a file when you didn’t have the rights to do so, and to inform the authors of the reason for the delay when the reversion was granted.
There are enough authors and books reported at stake here that this stupidity, with statutory damages, could cost millions, and the explanation here really doesn’t explain why on earth Dorchester would be that dumb.
I do feel for Chris, who essentially has to parrot the company line at a point when the company line appears to have been drawn in swiftly melting butter. That can’t be easy.
This is disgusting behavior on the part of Dorchester. Pay the authors what belongs to them!
This is a sticky situation and although it seems action is being taken, it turns my stomach to think of something like this happening to ANYONE. As an author and as a person, I know what this feels like. Not this scope or magnitude, but the gut-wrenching, heart-clawing feeling is still the same at the end of the day,
Hang in there authors, please, and don’t get discouraged. Crap like this is painful and lesser individuals would have already crumbled under the harrowing stress. I would hate to think of anyone, much less some of the talented individuals mentioned, giving up on their writing after something like this.
IMO, people who are engaged to people don’t need to be taking sides. Just makes everyone involved on that “side” look like a jackass.
I guarantee you, if this Chris hadn’t been paid for his work and no one was listening to him for weeks and months, he’d be raising as big a stink as this if not bigger. Makes a big difference when it’s YOUR money, doesn’t it?
One damn things for sure, as a reader, I won’t be buying from publishers who can’t even bother to listen to or even friggin’ pay their authors. Not to mention, someone who tries to admonish the writer they haven’t paid for wanting to be friggin’ paid (I wish the blogger had come to me first for a comment – REALLY? I bet the author wishes you had PAID her first before she had to raise a stink. Ever think about that one?).
Seriously, I’m in an entirely different field, but I cannot friggin’ stand when people are screwed out of their money and then the corporate wankers act all offended when someone calls them out on their BS.
Wow, this situation makes me so mad.
Shame on you Dorchester and also amazon and all the other places that still sell the books.
It’s clear that it’s all about money and that they couldn’t care less about the authors. Makes me wonder if I should find another place to buy my books.
Word for the day is Copyright Infringement. Since Dorchester doesn’t own the rights to these books, every copy is an infringement of copyright, and Amazon is also liable. (If you remember the retroactive removal of 1984 from Kindles some time ago, that was the result of messed up copyright issues.)
This is a nice and clean case. Send a formal (registered) letter to Amazon, requesting that they remove these items, with a copy of your reversion statement, and stating that if they do not do so, they are violating copyright, and willfully so. Watch them scramble to remove the infringing product from their shelves.
FYI, the liability PER COPY is up to $150,000 if the copyright is registered. If you have not yet registered your copyright, I highly recommend that you do so ASAP. It’s cheap and easy via the copyright office: copyright.gov
I would offer to assist (why yes, I am an intellectual property attorney) but I cannot help with contacting Amazon. But if you want an informal review of a letter, let me know.
HI 🙂
I will never buy a Dorchester book again.
And really, aren’t we all smart enough to see the post from Dorchester for what it is?
Double-speak damage control not worth the time it took to read it.
Seriously.
And some people I respect (Ron Hogan) defend it.
Blah.
When the author copies are made available I will BUY them, thus redressing (in a very small part) the injustice done to the authors. I think everyone who commented here in support of author rights should do the same.
All the best,
RKCharron
I’m only a reader and customer, but I sent an email to Amazon about this outrage telling them how they are harming themselves in the writing community. It’s only one raindrop, but enough can make a flood. So sorry for the authors who are losing out.
Holy cow! How did a seemingly logical discussion turn into personal mud slinging?
First of all, I sympathize with all those Dorchester authors who are suffering, but please note that not all of us have been left hanging. Yes, Avon bought my backlist but when I requested the rights back to three of my novellas they granted them, in record time. And like Natasha Kern said, not all authors have been unpaid for years. Did I receive everything I should? Probably not. Am I still owed money? Probably. But I hate seeing people make blanket statements about all Dorchester authors.
Second, it’s not Tim DeLong, it’s Tim DeYoung.
Third, Chris Keesler is not the villain in this mess. Just because he is visible should not make him the target.
Chris doesn’t need me to defend him, but he is a good
man caught in an untenable situation, imo. It is not
Chris who is withholding paychecks.
Fourth, I hate to see any publishing company fold, and Dorchester did a lot of good for a lot of authors over the years. They built careers. Gave some superstars a
start when no one else would buy their books. They
had better distribution for midlist authors than any
other publisher. And their cover art for the most part
was outstanding. (even my infamous finger cover)
Fifth, I don’t blame anyone for going public with their personal gripes against Dorchester, and obviously a lot of people are affected. I do sympathize. Their biggest sin, imo, is not having a spokesman for the company out there who can honestly speak about what is happening behind the scenes. My husband is in sales (a stock broker) and he always says the worst thing a person can do is avoid giving people bad news. Customers much prefer honesty over avoidance.
I’m sure I will be flamed for this, but honestly, folks, mudslinging accomplishes nothing.
Sandra Hill