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Dorchester Publishing / Leisure Books

Bubastes

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Whoa, that IS news. Any word on what Dorchester plans to do with its magazine publishing arm?
 

Kweei

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Wow. I had heard they were having problems, but oy. I hope the writers and everyone involved end up okay.
 

agentpaper

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Holy cow! I knew there was some kerfluffle with the RWA that had something to do with Dorchester not honoring contracts, but I didn't realize it was THIS bad. I agree with the OP. I hope the authors agents neg. favorable rights reversions.
 

Shara

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Interesting that Dorchester have decided to go the e-book route. I have just found this thread and was about to post my own experience.

I sent them SUFFER THE CHILDREN in early-2007, I believe it was. 12 months later, when I hadn't heard anything, I phoned them. They were very polite, and explained they had the manuscript, but it was still sitting on the editor's desk.

I went away and continued to submit elsewhere.

Another 12 months later (early-2009, this would have been), I phoned again, got an answerphone, and left a message explaining who I was and that I was chasing my manscript, which they'd had for two years. I got an email from them shortly after, very apologetic, to say the manuscript was still on the editor's desk and they were very sorry for the long delay.

But then I submitted the novel to Lyrical, and got offered the e-book contract. So the next contact I had with Dorchester was to let them know the book was being published elsewhere and could they please take it off their submissions list. I got a message back acknowledging this, and offering congratulations.

So my experience was everyone was very polite and accommodating, but the response time is pretty abysmal. But it's interesting they are taking the e-book route. I wonder how many other smaller publishers are going to go this way?

Shara
 

JL_Benet

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Dear Authors & Agents,

Given the many changes in the publishing industry over the last several years, Dorchester has made the decision to more tightly focus its distribution models so that we may fully capitalize on the most profitable emerging technologies.

Starting with September titles, we will be moving from mass-market to trade paperback format. This will delay new releases roughly 6-8 months, but it will also open many new and more efficient sales channels.

And we’re pleased to say all titles will be available in ebook format as originally scheduled. The substantial growth we’ve seen in the digital market in such a short period—combined with the decline of the mass-market business—convinced us that we needed to fully focus our resources in this segment sooner rather than later.

Inventory for backlist titles is currently in the process of transition to a new warehouse from which all reorders will continue to be fulfilled.

Dorchester has always been known as a company ahead of the curve and willing to take risks. As bookstores are allocating the bulk of their capital to the digital business, it only makes sense that we do the same. Everyone keeps hearing that the industry has to change if it’s going to survive. We’re excited to be at the forefront of that change and will continue to keep you posted on further developments.
http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/15805
 

CaoPaux

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Ah, so it's not going ebook-only, it's dropping print runs for POD. That's ... not going to solve their problems.
 

Soccer Mom

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Oops--I'm behind the times and started a new thread without checking to see if there was an old one.

My bad!

Please feel free to delete!

Duplicate thread? *cough* What duplicate?


This makes me sad for their authors, especially the ones with books due in September who are being contacted to "renegotiate" their contracts.
 

veinglory

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Looks to me like they are retrenching due to loss of sales and revenue, and trying to put a positive spin on it.
 

brainstorm77

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Ok this may be a stupid question but I will ask it anyway. How will moving from mass market to trade paperbacks help?
 

Gillhoughly

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Trade sizes can be traded back to the publisher for credit (rather than stripped covers and books in the trash/recycle) and are cheaper to print in small numbers. Some offer a higher royalty because they sell for a higher price.

To make a profit on MM, you have to print and sell thousands at their lower price and lower royalty.

Or so a small press publisher explained to me when I asked why he didn't go for MMPB.
 

victoriastrauss

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Probably not coincidentally, I heard this week from a Dorchester author who has had extreme trouble receiving royalty payments, and was told the company simply couldn't afford to write royalty checks just now.

-Victoria
 

AnneMarble

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This news really sucks for me as a reader. Most of my recent purchases have been Dorchester -- both paperbacks and e-books. I got on a horror kick lately, and they are one of the few publishers with a regular mass market program in horror. They were also there for me when I was into buying Westerns for a little while.

I hope they can sustain the e-book thing and that they can keep up the subscription thingie. They were discounting their e-books last month (on B&N, Amazon, etc.), so maybe that was to get some attention. I'll keep buying their authors as long as I can.

Meanwhile, I hope the writers can find new homes with other publishers. (I'm sure that selling e-books through Leisure won't be a huge moneymaker. Let's hope I'm wrong.)

ETA:
And there were some fall Leisure horror releases I was really looking forward to! :(
 

Jodie_writes_what?

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When I saw this it instantly reminded me of the big hooha about Ebooks costing more to create than print as touted by some NY publishers. I believe at one time they produced a graph chart, which of course must make it true. /end rant.

*ahem*

I think this is their effort to try and save their business, but the question I wonder is - are they going to adopt the epub model (eg Royalty rates and non-advance) or stick to the boilerplate contract?

My hope is that is works out for all involved.
 

Filigree

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This will certainly keep me from submitting anything to Dorchester. I had been
considering them. And now I don't how I feel about buying Dorchester books.
Their authors need every sale they can get. But if they're not paying their authors, there's a good chance this will all go down the drain anyway.

Filigree
 

Saskatoonistan

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It seems to me like 2010 will be remembered as the publishing industry apocalypse year - just the vibe I'm getting ... it seems like every week there's some huge announcement in PW or The Bookseller.

I feel bad about the Dorchester situation. An author friend of mine has her debut novel out with them this summer - thankfully the rest of her series has been placed with another publisher.