Like many folks in the genre fiction business, I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently to hear what announcement former Leisure (Dorchester) author Brian Keene was making today.

While there are more details posted and a direct call to boycott, it’s a now familiar story for those who have gorged at the flowing fiction trough that was Leisure Books, and kept their eyes and ears to the pipeline. Personally, I have probably one of the smallest collections of their titles – somewhere around 45 – but I stopped buying quite a long time ago. Why?

First and foremost, they weren’t paying some of my favorite authors. Collectively, we kept buying the books, but those authors weren’t seeing the royalties. Apparently only some authors weren’t being paid, others possibly received payments or just haven’t said anything outright.

Next, they fired Don D’Auria. Probably one of the nicest people I’d encountered in my brief agenting days, and certainly the nicest editor.

Then the too-late announcement that they would no longer be publishing in mass market paperback, but instead were switching to ebook and trade formats. Oh wait, they’ve decided to put a hold on plans for trades. Doesn’t sound like we, the paying public, were supposed to know that.

Still – hit a micro-pub where it hurts, why don’t they? For those of us who once dreamed of being Dorchester (in the golden days) who have our own small companies, if we’re not strictly ebooks, we’re trade paperback and ebooks. Now they’re playing in our garden.

And in possibly the blindest move yet, they’ve continued to publish titles for which rights were reverted to the authors!

One of our own is among those numbers. Wrath James White (Vicious Romantic – Needfire Poetry), author of the Leisure titles Succulent Prey and The Resurrectionist, made his own statement today: Words of Wrath.

Cover artist and Belfire author (Descendant) Bob Freeman also joins the fray: Occult Detective.

When these three men speak, I listen. Don’t be shocked.

Of course, there are a lot of other voices joining the crowd, more authors joining the crowd at the gate. It’s hard to watch the mortar crumble around the bricks that once were walls around Dorchester Publishing. Really though, has it been the Dorchester of memory, since even before D’Auria’s departure?

As owner of Belfire Press and the imprints Needfire Poetry and The New Bedlam Project, I urge our authors to take caution and consider all options if they’ve been brokering a deal with Dorchester/Leisure. Consider Brian Keene, Wrath James White, and others’ experiences before signing on that line.

I also respectfully request that you join the boycott of Dorchester Publishing.