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Dorchester Publishing drops Mass Market Paperback Model for Ebook/POD Model

lenny nero

lenny nero

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Dorchester Drops Mass Market Publishing for E-Book/POD Model
by Jim Milliot
Aug 06, 2010

Mass market romance publisher Dorchester Publishing has dropped its traditional print publishing business in favor of an e-book/print-on-demand model effective with its September titles that are “shipping” now. President John Prebich said after retail sales fell by 25% in 2009, the company knew that 2010 “would be a defining year,” but rather than show improvement, “sales have been worse.” While returns are down, the company has had a difficult time getting its titles into stores as shelf space for mass market has been reduced, Prebich explained. Dorchester recently let its field sales force of seven go, although Tim DeYoung remains with the company as v-p of sales and marketing. The editorial team remains intact, although Prebich said the number of titles released monthly will likely be reduced from over 30 to 25. He said the schedule for 2011 is set and Dorchester has books in the pipeline through June 2012.

Dorchester will continue to do print copies for its book club business and has signed a deal with Ingram Publisher Service for IPS to do print-on-demand copies for selected titles. According to Prebich, some e-books that are doing well in the digital marketplace will be released as trade paperbacks with IPS fulfilling orders; the company, however, will not do any more mass market paperbacks for retail distribution.

Prebich said Dorchester’s e-book business has had “remarkable growth” which he expects to double again in the next year. Still, digital sales accounted for only 12% of total revenue prior to the company making the transition to the e-book/pod model. Prebich conceded that Dorchester will have lower revenues, but he expects margins to improve. He said the company is working out a new royalty rate with authors that he expects to announce next week. Editors are talking to authors now about the changes. “We hope they’ll stay,” Prebich said. Dorchester’s e-books are available at most major vendors and compatible with most platforms at an average price of $6.99. Trade paperbacks will be priced in the $12 to $15 range.

On his decision to drop the mass market format Prebich explained: “These are like pioneer times in publishing. We felt like we needed to take some chances and make a bold move."
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Their Leisure Horror line is the last big mass market paperback publishers of horror(Laymon, Lee, Keene, Ketchum) left and this does affect their horror division as well as the romance.

Gord Rollo, a horror author whom they publish said this on another board:

Hi Folks,

I've spoken with Don D'Auria(Leisure Horror head honcho) a few times today and my guess as to why we're not getting more answers is simply becuase they aren't sure yet. There are still lots of things that need sorted out, like author royalty rates and production schedules, so it will still be a while before things are smoothed out.

And this definitely isn't just the romance line. I'm unfortunately the first horror author affected by this. Starting with September, there are no more mass market papebacks so my VALLEY OF THE SCARECROW is not shipping in the next few weeks as I'd hoped. It will be available as an ebook in September, but that's it. There will be a trade paperback version released in 2011 sometime but Don said they still are working on a publishing schedule. I have no idea about prices or distribution or anything like that. All I know is this is a sad day for publishing in my opinion. I personally hate ebooks but understand they are here to stay. Maybe this new approach will be wildly successful for Leisure and I truly hope it is, but we'll all have to wait and see.

Gord
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What this is, is the end of the big (and small) publishing firms. Very soon, all published novels will be published using only freeware. Literary agents, publishers, will all be out-of-business, and there will be no more slush piles, or hopeful submissions, or wannabe-authors, as every writer will be able to publish whatever and whenever they fancy.

No more begging for an agent or a publisher - it's a budding writer's dream.

On the otherhand, many e-books will be pirated and the writers won't make any money (most don't at the moment). Many won't bother to write - after all, why go through all that trouble of writing a book (I have a writer friend - trust me, it's very hard work) if you will get nothing from it (no money, no recognition)?
 
Unless publishers can prove that they provide a valuable service. I think everyone who's ever read (or tried to market) a self-published book can agree that they do.
 
Gabrielle Ray said:
What this is, is the end of the big (and small) publishing firms. Very soon, all published novels will be published using only freeware. Literary agents, publishers, will all be out-of-business, and there will be no more slush piles, or hopeful submissions, or wannabe-authors, as every writer will be able to publish whatever and whenever they fancy.
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As an author, that is great but as the reader I can tell you that such a scenario will be a nightmare. I don't even want to think about sifting through all the pieces of broken glass for the one diamond.



Gabrielle Ray said:
No more begging for an agent or a publisher - it's a budding writer's dream.
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Publishers provide a valuable service that a budding writer cannot possibly successfully perform themselves: promotion.



Gabrielle Ray said:
On the otherhand, many e-books will be pirated and the writers won't make any money (most don't at the moment). Many won't bother to write - after all, why go through all that trouble of writing a book (I have a writer friend - trust me, it's very hard work) if you will get nothing from it (no money, no recognition)?
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If your product is good, people will buy. If it's not, then only friends and relatives will buy.
 
More bad news out of Dorchester/Leisure horror. Brian Keene, one of their big horror authors, has posted on his blog about the layoff of Don D'Auria and that he thinks the future of the company doesn't look too bright.

Brian Keene
 
I don't own an eReader and I am holding out till there is an affordable one (Under 200.00) that has a full color screen. It sucks about Dorchester dropping their MMPB and going strictly digital. I was really looking forward to a lot of the re-releases over the coming years of the 1980's Splatterpunk writers. Guess I will have to rely upon ABEbooks to fill my library now.
 
If you're talking about "Lucifer's Lottery" from what I understand it is just an expanded version of "The Senary" which is a novella that was printed in the anthology book "Infernally Yours" which was published by Necro Publishing. It is an awesome collection and is illustrated by GAK. I am sure you can find some copies on the web. I actually own a copy of this book and all the stories in it are amazing.
 
Thanks, I'll hafta hunt a copy down. I think Ketchum had one coming out at the end of the year too that I wanted. I'll miss Simon Clark's stuff too.
 
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