In July of 2010 Science Fiction Writers of America, responding to member complaints against Night Shade Books, put the publisher on probation. At that time John Scalzi, the organization’s president, wrote the following:

This week, we became aware of three recent instances of Night Shade Books acting against the contractual and legal interest of authors, specifically by not reporting royalties when contractually specified or reporting them inaccurately and/or distributing books in a medium for which it had not legally secured rights. (Details here)

Since that time Night Shade has made an earnest effort to get back into the graces of SFWA and its members and today was rewarded with full restoration of its former good standing.  The text of SFWA’s announcement follows:

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Dear SFWA members:

As many of you are aware, on July 8, 2010 the SFWA board of directors voted unanimously to place Night Shade Books on probation for a period of one year, following concerns about contractual issues with their authors.

SFWA asked Night Shade to meet a series of benchmarks as a measure of a good faith effort to return to a solid standing. After a review of Night Shade Books and after requesting information from our members about the publisher’s activities during the period of probation, based upon the information currently available, the board believes that Night Shade has met the following conditions for it to remain on the qualifying list after its probation period:

* a. That it examined its catalogue to ensure it is no longer offering fiction in formats for which it has no rights, and makes whole those authors whose rights it has violated;
* b. That it instituted procedures and hired sufficient staff to ensure accurate record keeping for contracts and payments, both for previously published and future authors;
* c. That there are no instances of contractual violations on the part of Night Shade Books against authors signed to publishing deals after the start of the probationary period.
* d. Night Shade Books fulfills its contractual and financial obligations to the authors it has already published, including full and accurate accounting of royalties per contract, with payment of any royalties outstanding.

Therefore, the term of probation for Night Shade is lifted. Fiction contracted during that term is acceptable for qualification for SFWA membership. It may remain on the list so long as it continues to fulfill its contractual obligations to its authors and meets SFWA’s qualifying market standards. SFWA remains interested in the health of Night Shade books and will act at any time to deal with a member complaint against Night Shade.

We look forward to working with them and are glad that SFWA is able to retain Night Shade Books as a SFWA qualifying market.

One year ago the Science Fiction Writers of America placed Night Shade Books on probation, citing a variety of concerns about the publisher’s practices. Since then Night Shade has made earnest efforts to address the issues, and SFWA has been monitoring them. Today an officer of the organization issued a statement that restoration of the publisher’s approved status is near at hand.

The following statement was issued by Mary Robinette Kowal, Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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Dear Members,

Last year, the SFWA board of directors voted to place Night Shade Books on probation for a period of one year. Night Shade Books responded by agreeing to work with SFWA to address the issues that our members had with their business. During the past year, Night Shade Books has been cooperative and open with their communication to SFWA and the Board appreciates their efforts.

After a review of Night Shade Books and after requesting information from our members about the publisher’s activities during the period of probation, based on the information currently available, the board believes that Night Shade Books has met the following conditions for it to remain on the qualifying list after its probation period:

a. That it examined its catalogue to ensure it is no longer offering fiction in formats for which it has no rights, and makes whole those authors whose rights it has violated;

b. That it instituted procedures and hired sufficient staff to ensure accurate record keeping for contracts and payments, both for previously published and future authors;

c. That there are no instances of contractual violations on the part of Night Shade Books against authors signed to publishing deals after the start of the probationary period.

The remaining benchmark that the SFWA board of directors set for Night Shade Books requires more data to assess. The board asked that Night Shade Books fulfills its contractual and financial obligations to the authors it has already published, including full and accurate accounting of royalties per contract, with payment of any royalties outstanding.

The reports from our members indicate that Night Shade made great strides toward meeting that goal during the past year. However, through no fault of Night Shade Books, the initial probationary period ended before the publishing industry’s July royalty statements are due. This made it difficult to determine without doubt if Night Shade Books has met their commitments. The Board of Directors of SFWA discussed this with Night Shade and decided to grant the publisher an extension on their probationary period to give them time to send the July royalty statements.

The extension shall be until the statements have been sent to authors or for three months (October 8, 2011), whichever comes sooner. Until that time, Night Shade remains on probation.

After the term of probation for Night Shade is lifted, fiction contracted during that term will be viewed as acceptable for qualification for SFWA membership. As with the initial probationary period, no fiction contracted and paid for (by initial advance payment) before the term of probation will be affected by Night Shade’s probationary status.

During the probationary extension, and depending on member participation, SFWA will remain in contact with those members who have outstanding Night Shade contracts. If you have any questions, new information, or concerns, please contact me at vp@sfwa.org or by phone at 503-308-1127.

Through this entire process, Night Shade Books has been open and communicative with SFWA, responding swiftly to any concerns that were brought to their attention. We look forward to their continued cooperation and hope to see them restored to full qualifying status in the future.

Sincerely yours,

Mary Robinette Kowal
Vice President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

After Dorchester Publishing came close to the rocks a few months ago the Mystery Writers of America delisted it from its roster of markets approved for submission by MWA members. That also meant that Dorchester titles would no longer be eligible for Edgar® Award consideration nor would its authors be eligible for Active Status membership for any books published after October 6, 2010. The board made it clear to Dorchester that it is welcome to re-apply once these problems have been cleared up.

The company’s CEO left and things were looking fairly bleak. However, the new CEO, Robert Anthony, has been working hard and visibly to rehabilitate the company and its reputation. (See New Dorchester CEO Vows Strong Comeback)

That’s the background for this memo from the head of another writers organization. John Scalzi, President of the Science Fiction Writers of America, circulated a memo to its members informing them that SFWA has put Dorchester on probation for a year, placing the publisher on its list of qualified markets for members of the organization. However, “fiction published by Dorchester may not be used to apply for membership until after the probation is completed.”

We’re not aware that Mystery Writers of America has modified its position on Dorchester.

Here’s is the complete release from SFWA Scalzi:

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Dear SFWA members:

As many of you are aware, over the last year, Dorchester Publishing Co, inc, which publishes books by several SFWA members, has been undergoing a number of changes to its business and in how it publishes its authors. The board of SFWA has been following the developments as they’ve occurred, and had asked members with Dorchester contracts to make us aware of if there were any improprieties involving payment or regarding their rights.

In the course of this inquiry, we became aware of several instances in which Dorchester acted against the contractual and legal interest of authors, specifically by not paying royalties when contractually specified, or distributing books in a medium for which it had not legally secured rights.

Dorchester does not dispute these events, and when it became aware of our inquiry, it contacted SFWA to offer us information and background to help answer our questions.

We feel this cooperation has been a positive first step by Dorchester and we look forward to its continuing efforts to rebuild their brand and their business, and to do well by our members and other writers with whom it works. That said, we cannot overlook the troubles the company has had, which have adversely affected our members.

Thus, by vote of the board, Dorchester Publishing is on probation as a qualified Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America market for a period of one year, December 10, 2010 – December 10, 2011.

In this case, “probation” means that although Dorchester would remain on our official list of qualified SFWA markets, during the term of probation, fiction published by Dorchester may not be used to apply for membership until after the probation is completed.

If Dorchester successfully completes its one-year probation, fiction contracted during that term will be viewed as acceptable for qualification for SFWA membership. If it does not SFWA will remove it from the list of approved markets.

Fiction contracted and paid for (by initial advance payment) before the term of probation will not be affected by Dorchester’s probationary status.

After a conversation between the Board of Directors and Dorchester, SFWA asked Dorchester to meet a series of benchmarks as a measure of a good faith effort to return to a solid standing. During the period of probation, SFWA expects the following from Dorchester in order for it to remain on the qualifying list after its probation period:

1. That it fulfills its contractual and financial obligations to the authors it has already published, including full and accurate accounting of royalties per contract, with scheduled payment of any royalties outstanding;
2. That it examine its catalog to ensure it is no longer offering fiction in formats for which it has not contracted rights, and makes whole those authors whose rights it has violated;
3. That there are no instances of contractual violations on the part of Dorchester against authors signed to publishing deals after the start of the probationary period;
4. That Dorchester assist those authors wishing to revert rights, consistent with the company’s existing policies regarding rights reversion.

During the probationary period, and depending on member participation, SFWA will be in contact with its members known to have outstanding Dorchester contracts to assure Dorchester is fulfilling its contractual obligations to them, or is actively and affirmatively working to correct previous violations. If you have any concerns during this time, please let the board know by emailing dorchester@sfwa.org or by emailing me directly (president@sfwa.org). Confidentiality is assured for any member who requests it.

While SFWA may act at any time to deal with a member complaint against Dorchester, at or near the six month mark of the probationary period it will perform a formal review of Dorchester’s progress on tasks above, with the results to be provided to the members of SFWA via our normal means of member communication.

Dorchester has pledged to work with SFWA during this probationary period. Dorchester Senior Editor Chris Keeslar has informed us that his company is “working to clean up every mistake that has been made, and we categorically affirm our desire to meet the criteria SFWA lists.”

This pledge from Dorchester to improve its practices and to work with SFWA for the benefit of our members strongly encourages us that writers, our members among them, will soon once again find Dorchester a congenial market for their work.

We look forward to working with them to make it so, and are hopeful that in a year’s time we will be able to retain Dorchester as a SFWA qualifying market.

Yours,
John Scalzi
President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

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NOTE: In my original posting I mixed MWA and SFWA up, and I thank SFWA’s Vice President Mary Robinette Kowal for straightening me out. I apologize for my confusion.

Russell Davis, President of Science Fiction Writers of America, has issued the following statement on the ever-widening controversy surrounding Harlequin Enterprises’ launch of a self-publication website. Here’s the essence:

“Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner.”

Full statement below.

We haven’t heard from the Western Writers of America…yet.
Richard Curtis
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SFWA Statement on Harlequin’s self-publishing imprint

November, 2009, Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. announced the launch of a new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, for aspiring romance authors. Under normal circumstances, the addition of a new imprint by a major house would be cause for celebration in the professional writing community. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances. Harlequin Horizons is a joint venture with Author Solutions, and it is a vanity/subsidy press that relies upon payments and income from aspiring writers to earn profit, rather than sales of books to actual readers.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) finds it extremely disappointing that Harlequin has chosen to launch an imprint whose sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers. According to their website, “Now with Harlequin Horizons, more writers have the opportunity to enter the market, hone their skills and achieve the goals that burn in their hearts.”

SFWA calls on Harlequin to openly acknowledge that Harlequin Horizon titles will not be distributed to brick-and-mortar bookstores, thus ensuring that the titles will not be breaking into the real fiction market. SFWA also asks that Harlequin acknowledge that the imprint does not represent a genuine opportunity for aspiring authors to hone their skills, as no editor will be vetting or working on the manuscripts. Further, SFWA believes that work published with Harlequin Horizons may injure writing careers by associating authors’ names with small sales levels reflected by the imprint’s lack of distribution, as well as its emphasis upon income received from writers and not readers. SFWA supports the fundamental principle that writers should be paid for their work, and even those who aspire to professional status and payment ought not to be charged for the privilege of having those aspirations.

Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner.

Already the world’s largest romance publisher, Harlequin should know better than anyone else in the industry the importance of treating authors professionally and with the respect due the craft; Harlequin should have the internal fortitude to resist the lure of easy money taken from aspiring authors who want only to see their work professionally published and may be tempted to believe that this is a legitimate avenue towards those goals.

SFWA does not believe that changing the name of the imprint, or in some other way attempting to disguise the relationship to Harlequin, changes the intention, and calls on Harlequin to do the right thing by immediately discontinuing this imprint and returning to doing business as an advance and royalty paying publisher.

For the Board of Directors,
Russell Davis
President
SFWA, Inc.