From the site of author Brian Keene, Dorchester / Leisure publishing is screwing its authors. Hard.
I can only relate that we only read Keene’s point of view, plus his re-tellings from several authors. Even at that, it does appear as if the publisher is making money off of works that they have no rights to, and at the expense of the publishers.
Not cool.
I effectively work for free. Doing so is a matter of love. Hopefully, this is also a matter of practice and preparation for bigger things. The thing is, I’m also doing so willingly. The only people who actually make money off of this are my web host and the company who provides my domain name. Technically, I am even paying to do this.
Like my favorite writer, I have very little time to read anything that is not research. This is not a matter of emulation as much as necessity: I was once appalled to hear him deprived of such a pleasure. There are bookshelves in almost every room in my house and almost all of them are over-flowing with novels, gaming, esoteric guides to the occult and jargon-riddled technical manuals. A boycott from me would mean nothing. I still feel a need to lend my voice to Keene and the other authors involved. They deserve what they are working for.
My best wishes to all of the authors at Dorchester, and perhaps even to the publisher themselves. This is a terrible situation for all involved. Hopefully, they will all pull their affairs in order quickly, and in a manner which helps everyone. Dorchester may no longer have the business or trust of their current authors, but I hope this means more opportunity for everyone involved to start anew.
Finally, I hope the authors do get paid what they are owed.
