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Dandelion Books, LLC

Sir Scammedalot

Re: A greeting, some venting, and a question...

Thanks, Victoria. Unfortunately, I agree with everything you said. Also, unfortunately, I have little choice but to retain Team Doubleclick because others have shown little or no interest in my writings. I don't know if the queries for the books I've written do not properly sell the ideas (and I've tweaked them several times), if the ideas are unmarketable, or if I'm just not a very good writer. But you can't help but lose some confidence after receiving the number of rejections I've gotten. Team Doubleclick is the only reputable agency which believed in me, so I plan to see it through with them with the book that is agented ("Don't go Bettin' the Wrong Horse"). The followup book I'm still trying to peddle.

Now that I mention it, I just received an e-mail from Carol Adler of Dandelion Publishing asking me to send them the entire manuscript of the followup book ("Green Asylum"), just moments after my sending an e-mail query. A little strange, to me. Know anything about Dandelion?

Thanks for your input,
Sir S.
 

arainsb123

Re: A greeting, some venting, and a question...

www.dandelionbooks.net/

Is this the site? Their contract sets off some huge warning bells. For example:

11) AUTHOR’s Discounts. Within the first thirty (30) days of publication, AUTHOR shall have the one-time right to purchase one hundred (100) copies of each of the Titles included in the WORK at a forty percent (40%) discount off list price. Such purchase must be pre-paid and comprise a single transaction shipped to a single address. Thereafter, AUTHOR shall have the right to purchase more copies of each of the Titles included in the WORK at a discount: for single orders up to twenty (20) of each of the Titles in the WORK, a discount of twenty percent (20%) off list price. For single orders of twenty-one (21) to ninety-nine (99) copies, a discount of thirty percent (30%) off list price. For single orders of one hundred (100) or more copies, a discount of thirty-five percent (35%) off list price. AUTHOR shall pre-pay in full for any such purchases. PUBLISHER shall not pay royalties on any copies of the WORK purchased by the AUTHOR.

One-time discount on massive quantities of books, eh? Eerily reminiscent of PublishAmerica.

Plus, they pay a flat rate royalty of $1.25 per book instead of a percentage.

And then there's THIS!
2) Licenses. In consideration of the payments later specified in Clause 12 below, AUTHOR hereby grants to PUBLISHER the sole right and exclusive license to produce, publish and license the WORK or any abridgement or substantial part thereof, in all languages, for the legal term of copyright, throughout the world.

And lower down ... OMG! They want FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS from any outhor wishing to cancel the contract. $50,000! That's OBSCENE! This is a vanity press that relies on author sales and the hope of a cancellation fee. If you never cancel, they can publish your work for the duration of the copyright. That's your lifetime plus 70 years.

These guys are worse than PA. Do not sign with them!

The hideous contract can be read at www.dandelionbooks.net/contract.html.
 

vstrauss

Re: A greeting, some venting, and a question...

"Settling" for an agent who can't sell your work because you haven't had success with established agents is a terrible waste of time. You're better off doing as Rissey suggests, and approaching smaller publishers on your own.

The Dandelion contract (www.dandelionbooks.net/contract.html ) is a stinker. A few examples:

- It's not such a big deal for a publisher to claim rights "for the duration of copyright"--this is standard publishing contract boilerplate--but such a grant of rights has to be balanced by a clause detailing how and when works will go out of print and rights revert to the author. There's no such clause in this contract. Sign it, and your work is gone till the publisher feels like letting it go.

- Check out Clause 8, Adjustments, where the author is subject to all kinds of charges for making changes at various points in the editing and design process.

- The publisher wants a variety of subsidiary rights, even though there's no evidence it is able to sell them, including the right to any methods of text distribution yet to be invented. Pretty sweeping.

- The royalties clause provides for a flat rate (not an ideal form of royalty) on all printed and electronic copies. Payments for the sale or license of the subsidiary rights listed in the previous clause are "to be negotiated". This isn't ideal; it's better to know going in what kind of income split you can expect for subrights.

- The $50,000 clause is worth quoting in full, for its boggle factor: In the event that AUTHOR wishes to terminate this Agreement without cause, termination will be effective upon the date of receiving a written, signed letter from the AUTHOR by registered mail addressed to the PUBLISHER, with a cashier's check or merchant card payment payable to Dandelion Enterprises, Inc. for the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars and 0/00 ($50,000.00).

- The option clause gives the publisher the right of first refusal on not one, not two, but all the author's books for five years after publication of the first book.

- The publishing agreement may be assigned by the publisher at will to any company majority-owned by the owner of Dandelion.

This isn't a contract I'd advise any writer to sign in its present form.

- Victoria
 

Risseybug

Re: A greeting, some venting, and a question...

Darn it! I had a big post all written up about this, and when I went to submit, my puter ate it.

I'm with Victoria, this thing reeks. Every book for five years?? No way, no day. The contract is a dud.
 

Sir Scammedalot

Re: A greeting, some venting, and a question...

You guys are absolutely right. I have no law expertise--thank God there are some people posting on this board who do. It's back to the drawing board. All we (I) can do is keep plugging away. Thanks a bunch to all of you...Sir S.
 

ProandCon

Dandelion Publishers

I thought PublishAmerica was vicious in their dealings with authors until I read this thread.

Dandelion Publishing should have a Beware thread under it's own name and pinned at the top with the name flashing to garner attention.

I wonder how many writers they have trapped with their $50,000 contract buyout.
 

HapiSofi

Re: A greeting, some venting, and a question...

Victoria, the Dandelion contract sounded to me like a "bail out now" proposition on the basis of the author-copies paragraph alone. The contract gives the author a one-time opportunity to buy 100 copies of his book at a 40% discount. Thereafter, the discount will be much less generous.

That provision is only meaningful if the author won't have another way to buy copies at a 40% discount once that one-time opportunity has been used up; but the only way the book can be unavailable at those rates is if booksellers aren't getting a standard 40% discount.

Either the contract doesn't anticipate bookseller discounts, and thus doesn't anticipate retail sales, or it sells the author copies of his own book at half the discount rate they'd give any bookseller who walked in the front door. Both make me nervous. And, as you say, there's wrong stuff all over the rest of the contract.

ProandCon, PA is more vicious. These guys are too greedy up front. That'll tip off the mark. PA's a much more sophisticated design, and I'm sure they do far more business than Dandelion.
 

CaoPaux

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Anyone have contact with these folks recently? Site hasn't been updated in a while, and although there's one book on Amazon attributed to them for '13, it's a Kindle version of one from '08 and, if the "look inside" is to be believed, it's an upload of an ARC.